The Creditor Is My Husband? - Chapter 51

“Well then, let’s hurry too.”

Now that the protagonists of the wedding have arrived.

Bushin looked up at the cloudless sky and muttered to himself with a quiet smile.

* * *

“Our young lady, you look so beautiful and lovely.”

The nanny’s eyes welled up with tears as she looked at Giselle in her wedding dress. It wasn’t just empty words; her appearance was truly fresh and elegant.

The pure white dress, lace embroidered with flowers and leaves, white orange blossoms adorning her pink hair, and matching pure white pearl earrings.

And even the diamond pendant necklace that Lucas had personally prepared.

She was the very epitome of a beautiful bride.

So it was only natural for the nanny to be moved. But Giselle made an awkward expression at the nanny’s praise and blushed shyly.

At any other time, she would have playfully responded to the nanny’s words.

Noticing this difference, the nanny wiped away her tears and continued with a playful smile.

“No, I should call you Madam now, not young lady. Our Madam, how can you be so beautiful?”

“Oh, nanny. Don’t tease me. What Madam… That title is still too early.”

Giselle shook her head, embarrassed by the nanny’s playful words. The nanny then opened her eyes wide and retorted.

“It’s not too early. As soon as the wedding ceremony is over, you’ll immediately become ‘Madam’. I noticed earlier that all the employees here were calling you future Madam, Madam, and so on.”

“……”

Giselle closed her mouth tightly, unable to find words to respond to the nanny’s statement. Come to think of it, as soon as she returned with Lucas, didn’t the butler and head maid anxiously call out, “Madam! Please come this way!”

She hadn’t paid attention to it while changing into her dress and getting ready again, but that’s right, the way they addressed her had changed.

Unlike her previous visit to this mansion.

‘…Once the wedding is over, I’ll really become the mistress of this place.’

She suddenly realized this fact and swallowed hard. As Giselle tensed up nervously, she heard the nanny’s voice again.

“I don’t know when you grew up like this. In my memory, you were just a tiny, really small and young little miss.”

The nanny playfully gestured near her waist. Giselle looked at where the nanny’s hand touched and couldn’t help but laugh.

That’s right.

She was such a tiny little one.

Small and young, barely reaching the nanny’s waist.

The child who couldn’t even remember the face of her birth mother who died right after giving birth to her was always intimidated.

Her father never gave her a kind glance or a warm word, and her stepmother always spoke with a sharp tone and poured out criticism.

Her half-brother, not much younger than her, far from treating her as an older sister, often ignored her.

She was the child who could only cry, clutching the nanny’s skirt and shaking her shoulders.

…But what about herself now?

Despite her parents’ strong opposition, she submitted an application to the academy, took the exam proudly, and was accepted with top honors.

Even at the academy, she overcame the disadvantage of being the only female student and graduated safely.

From admission to graduation, she never once lost the top position.

‘After that, I entered a company that everyone wanted to join, and I diligently paid off my father’s debts.’

Of course, there were many times when she felt suffocated because her father’s new debts accumulated faster than she could pay them off.

‘But I lived doing my best. Now I don’t cry clutching the nanny’s skirt anymore.’

Giselle looked down at her neatly folded hands. Because she was wearing white lace gloves, the callus on the side of her index finger wasn’t visible.

But just because it’s not visible on the outside doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

If she were to take off her gloves right now, she would see the calloused finger.

It was unlike a noble lady.

But to her, it was a proud achievement.

The callus on her finger was proof that she had lived diligently, doing her best until now. It was evidence that she had endured and overcome difficulties.

‘…So I can do well in the future too.’

Her green gaze, which had been wavering anxiously for a moment, settled calmly once again.

Because it’s her first time, she might be clumsy and unfamiliar, but in the end, she’ll be able to do well.

Just as she has done so far.

And now, she’s not alone either.

Giselle suddenly thought of Lucas and blushed slightly. She resisted the urge to fan herself with her hand, then looked back at the nanny.

The nanny was looking at her with a fond gaze and smiled. It was the expression of a mother watching her daughter who had suddenly grown up and was getting married.

‘If you hadn’t died and were still alive, if we had been a normal mother and daughter…’

…Would you be smiling kindly like the nanny now?

Instead of being unable to say even a word of congratulations from the cold grave.

Giselle, recalling her birth mother’s grave she had visited in the morning, suddenly spoke to the nanny.

“Nanny, you should sit in the very front row at my wedding.”

“What? Oh my, young lady. Don’t say such things. How could I possibly…”

The front row seats at a wedding are reserved for parents. So her nanny was shocked to hear Giselle’s words.

“But to me, you’re as good as a ‘mother’, Nanny.”

The mother who gave birth to her died, and the father who provided half of her blood turned his back on her and neglected her.

She had never been in a mother-daughter relationship for even a moment with her stepmother, who shared not a drop of blood with her.

So for her, the closest thing to a ‘mother’ was the nanny who had raised her and stayed by her side all this time.

Sensing this feeling, the nanny’s eyes moistened and her wrinkled lips trembled. But the nanny immediately waved her hands and continued to decline.

“No, my lady. It’s more than enough that you said that. But that’s not possible. If the Baron and Baroness were to hear…”

The nanny was about to continue speaking when she suddenly closed her mouth and looked around. Even though she knew it was just the two of them, Giselle and herself, she lowered her voice only after confirming once again that no one else was there.

“Still, it was really good that you went to… visit her, my lady.”

“……”

“The Madam, …the deceased Madam, must have been very happy.”

The nanny’s voice trembled. But Giselle couldn’t respond to those words and just awkwardly raised the corners of her mouth.

Just then, there was a sound of knocking, and immediately the door opened. A tall man stepped inside.

It was Lucas in a tuxedo.

“Oh my, President!”

The nanny, who had been dabbing at her tears, unable to compose her emotions, stepped back in surprise.

Giselle let out a sigh of relief at not having to continue the conversation about her birth mother, then looked at him.

She felt strange seeing the man groomed without a single hair out of place.

It wasn’t as if he usually dressed sloppily, but seeing him in a tuxedo made her heart flutter for some reason.

She quickly lowered her eyes, afraid that Lucas might notice her state.

At that moment, the sound of his footsteps gradually grew closer as Lucas, who had been standing at the door, approached Giselle.

“Um… you’re here?”

Giselle awkwardly raised her head again, unable to ignore the approaching footsteps in front of her. However, for some reason, she didn’t hear the expected response.

“…Lucas?”

She looked at him with a puzzled expression instead of awkwardness. Lucas gazed at Giselle with a peculiar look, then cleared his throat softly when their eyes met.

Almost like someone shy meeting a stranger for the first time.

No, perhaps it would be better to say…

Like someone feeling awkward after discovering an unfamiliar side to a person they thought they knew well.

Just as she had felt when seeing him in a tuxedo.

Giselle, feeling embarrassed, fiddled with the hem of her dress and spoke awkwardly.

“Do I look strange? But when we went for the final fitting together, you didn’t say anything…”

“No, you don’t look strange. It suits you very well, actually.”

Lucas hurriedly answered as her voice trailed off, losing confidence. Then, as if feeling obligated to say something more, he stroked his chin and added a comment.

“Compared to when I saw you then… yes, you’re much more beautiful.”

Lucas’s voice seemed to catch slightly in the middle. But Giselle, her face flushing at the compliment of being called ‘beautiful,’ didn’t notice his change.

“Shall we go out now?”

He asked her after clearing his throat with a light cough. As Giselle nodded in response to Lucas’s words, several employees, including the head maid, entered.

The head maid approached with the veil held in both hands and curtsied.

“I will place the veil on you now.”

The off-white veil was for the bride. Giselle looked at it quietly with trembling eyes, then nodded slightly.

As soon as she gave her permission, the head maid and another maid approached and placed the veil on her head. Giselle unconsciously closed her eyes, then slowly opened them.

Through the thin off-white veil, she saw the man reaching out his hand towards her.

Ordinarily, she should have been holding her father’s hand, not Lucas’s, to enter the wedding hall. So the person standing here now should have been her father. If it weren’t for what Lucas had said before the wedding.