Alex’s cold rebuke made my whole body tremble. Escape by my own power was impossible in this situation.

I couldn’t predict how Alex would react if I moved.

My gaze naturally turned toward the staircase below. Several servants were watching me. I pleaded with my eyes.

Save me, please.

When my eyes met with a certain woman, my face burned hot.

Ilina.

I felt humiliated. So embarrassed I wanted to die. She was probably one of the people who would be delighted by this situation.

But why?

Ilina, meeting my eyes, didn’t smile. Nor did she glare at me.

With a somewhat frightened expression, she seemed to freeze when our eyes met, then suddenly ran outside.

But before I could figure out why, my husband pushed me into his bedroom and the door closed.

❀❀❀

After the bedroom door closed, Alex finally put me down from his shoulder.

A throbbing pain rushed through me. He had gripped me so tightly that my wrist was red. For a moment, I thought it might bruise, but that was the least of my concerns.

Now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

Alex was undressing. He tore off his shirt and was about to remove his pants, which left me frozen in place.

“What are you doing?”

At my question, Alex’s lips curved as if my inquiry was naive. Still smiling, he approached me and spoke:

“No matter how I think about it, your audacity to even mention divorce…”

Alex, now close enough to touch, placed his arm against the wall behind me and murmured in a low voice.

His hot breath accompanied his languid voice.

“…seems to be because we don’t have a child.”

My body stiffened. A child?

Just the two of us in a bedroom. Alex starting to undress. And a child…

“You can’t possibly.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He replied with a sly smirk, curling the corner of his mouth.

“Are you… are you insane? Get away from me.”

Before anger, fear washed over me. My voice of resistance trembled.

But my husband, seemingly unaffected by my words, slowly closed the distance between us. Soon, his long, rough fingers brushed against my cheek.

A shiver ran down my spine. I stepped back.

But what met my back was only the unyielding wall. There was nowhere left to run.

Looking at me, my husband slowly curved his lips.

“Levedi…”

Calling my name as slowly as his smile, his hand caressing my cheek moved down to my neck and continued lower, eventually attempting to remove the dress I was wearing.

“No, stop.”

Don’t come closer, stay away.

The thought of being forcibly violated made my teeth chatter. This situation was too frightening and horrible.

As my clothes were about to be removed, my body reacted before my mind, as if touched by an insect.

“Aah!”

My hands instinctively pushed my husband away. Perhaps he had been tense, because he stumbled back, and the hands that had been groping me disappeared.

My mind cleared. This was my chance.

Bending my body to escape from my husband, I ran desperately toward the window. The door was too close to him.

Reaching the window, I flung it open and shouted:

“If you touch my body again, I’ll jump!”

I meant it. Death would be better than being forced.

That’s when he snickered.

“That’s why I took in that girl.”

But what came out was something I never expected.

“Because you find even my touch disgusting.”

“……”

“You said you didn’t want to have my child either.”

That girl, meaning…

“What are you saying? Surely not.”

Suddenly, chills ran through my entire body. I seemed to know who he was referring to.

Was he saying he brought in Ilina to provoke my jealousy?

“Why wouldn’t I?”

His eyes crinkled into a smile, clearly affirming it.

“I didn’t expect you to go so far as to mention divorce, but you’re quite something. How did you endure without going crazy?”

“Don’t… don’t come any closer. Stay away.”

Alex’s eyes were half-crazed. His sinister, gleaming pupils pursued me relentlessly. His beautiful face—brown hair, blue eyes, considered quite handsome—felt no different from a demon’s visage to me.

Having approached me, he cupped my cheek and whispered slowly:

“Have my child. Then everything will be resolved. Back to how we were, good times. Hmm?”

His hands wrapped around my waist. Before I could jump, I was bound by him. I squeezed my eyes shut. In this situation with no apparent solution, tears rolled down my cheeks.

It seemed to be the end.

“Were there ever good times between you two?”

Until a sharp yet somehow familiar voice penetrated my ears.

Could it be?

“……”

“Perhaps you should carefully consider whether you alone were having a good time.”

“…Father?”

As soon as I called out, my eyes met with a man’s.

It was Father. Undoubtedly my father.

If I wasn’t hallucinating, my father, Count Ophelia, was standing at the doorway.

I had sent him a letter a month ago and received no reply, but to think he would come in person…

Seeing his face brought indescribable emotions, both welcoming and overwhelming. I felt I might burst into tears from relief at the thought of going home.

“What? Father?”

At my words, Alex turned around, and his expression froze.

“F-father-in-law. Why are you here…”

Just as Alex’s attitude noticeably became more respectful, looking at Father with a bewildered expression:

“Ugh!”

Father’s leg shot forward.

Then Alex sat on the floor, clutching between his legs with both hands.

“Why am I here? I came after receiving a letter, and to my surprise, there was a r*pist in the house!”

I straightened my disheveled clothes and looked around.

And at that moment.

Through the half-open door, I met eyes with a woman leaning her body diagonally.

My husband’s mistress, Ilina.

“……!”

She was standing far beyond the doorway, observing the entire situation.

“Ugh, r*pist, you said?”

Alex’s pain-filled voice reached me. Turning my head, I saw Alex glaring at Father with a grimace.

“What?”

When Father asked in disbelief at Alex’s question, Alex replied with a bitter smile:

“Even if you’re my father-in-law, interfering in matters between a husband and wife seems to cross a line… Aaaagh!”

But his bravado didn’t last long.

Alex’s scream echoed throughout the room again. If the previous one was closer to an exaggerated cry, this one felt real.

Alex began rolling on the floor, screaming and clutching his precious part. Even just watching made me feel the pain, so I turned away.

I saw Father lowering his raised leg with a rough sigh. Meeting my eyes, Father looked me up and down once, then opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry. Not recognizing such trash earlier and letting you live together for three, no, almost four years now…”

His genuinely apologetic tone made my heart heavy. I shook my head.

“No, Father. Even to me, he seemed like a truly good person before marriage.”

At my words, Father nodded.

“Yes. Human affairs are truly unpredictable. To think he could deceive us so perfectly.”

Father’s gaze, speaking as if lamenting, turned toward Alex, who was still lying on the floor, groaning in pain.

But soon he turned his head to look at me, extending his hand in invitation.

“Let’s go. Stay too long in filth, and your body will rot too.”

The warm, comforting touch enveloping my hand gradually calmed my racing heart. Perhaps this too was a kind of magic.

The reality that had frightened me until just moments ago, including Alex, no longer scared me at all.

“Yes, Father.”

For the first time in a long while, feeling a somewhat unfamiliar sense of security, I walked out through the open door.

❀❀❀

Several knights escorted us as we left the room. They were all familiar—knights of the Ophelia County.

While being escorted out, something caught my eye. At the far end of the corridor, a woman’s silhouette was walking hurriedly, as if fleeing.

Though blurry from the distance, the woman with aqua-colored hair and a slender figure was…

‘…Ilina?’

It was her. It had to be.

Come to think of it, I had been wondering since earlier. Why was she here?

As I pondered this question, a scene flashed through my mind: Ilina hurriedly leaving the mansion after seeing me being dragged away by Alex.

‘Could it be?’

With this speculation, I unconsciously stopped walking. Father, who had been holding my hand and walking beside me, looked at me strangely when I suddenly halted.

“What’s wrong?”

Glancing briefly at Father, I extended my hand forward. Pointing at the retreating Ilina, I carefully began:

“Did that woman bring you here, Father?”

As soon as I asked, Father’s face brightened. With wide eyes, he nodded and replied:

“Oh, how did you know? That child guided me here. I had arrived at the mansion but didn’t know where to go and was at a loss.”

“……”

“She came to me saying you were in danger and urgently gestured for me to follow.”

“……!”

“It was incredibly fortunate. If I had been even a little late, my precious daughter might have lost her life because of that b*stard.”

Father frowned as if still angry just thinking about it.

Indeed, it was incredibly fortunate, as Father said. But before I could fully feel relief, something bothered me.

Ilina brought Father?

Before my question could be resolved:

“By the way, is your divorce from Alex completely settled? Didn’t you mention in your letter that you had obtained divorce papers?”

I turned my head at Father’s voice. He was looking at me with a puzzled expression.

“No. I sent the letter to you just in case.”

At my words, Father let out a groan.

“Sending the letter was a good move, but… this has become complicated.”

“……”

“If there’s no agreement, we’ll have to go through mediation or litigation.”

Grumbling, Father led the way outside the mansion. His back looked somewhat bitter, yet deep relief welled up in my chest.

I had been sitting on pins and needles all this time. In this Floredo mansion, not a single person was completely on my side. Just meeting someone fully on my side lifted a weight from my shoulders.

❀❀❀

After having me wait in the carriage first, Father ordered his knights to bring all my belongings.

Since the luggage was already somewhat packed, Sherry, who had gone into the mansion, returned in less than ten minutes.

With the carriage’s departure imminent, why did I feel an inexplicable anxiety rather than the expected excitement of going home?

Conflicted by this baseless anxiety, I finally got out of the carriage.

“Father, just a moment. I left something in the mansion.”

“You left something?”

“Yes. It’s an important item… I’ll be right back.”

I was about to turn around after saying this to Father, who was looking at me with a bewildered gaze.

“Wait. Take a knight with you. Who knows what might happen.”

“Ah.”

“Take him along.”

“…Thank you, Father.”

I must have been unconsciously tense at the thought of what might be happening inside.

To think I couldn’t even make such a common-sense judgment.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Miss.”

As I turned and walked, Father’s knight followed behind me.

❀❀❀

The fourth floor, Ilina’s quarters.

True to my ominous premonition, as soon as we reached the bedroom door, a scream rang out.

“Aaaah!”

A woman’s piercing scream. A familiar voice. The knight escorting me looked startled.

‘Could it be?’

The moment my foreboding became reality.

Without further delay, I flung open the door.

What met my eyes was a woman covered in blood. Though in a ruined state, she was still recognizable.

The owner of the scream was none other than Ilina.

Her head was stained with blood, and her entire body was covered with cuts and swollen marks, from who knows where or how she was beaten.

In front of her stood Alex, his face red with rage.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“……”

At my words, silence fell over the chaotic room. But only briefly, before Alex looked at me with an inexplicable sneer and began:

“After all your pretensions of nobility, you abandon your dog once the hunt is over. I don’t understand what makes you so righteous.”

In that moment, I realized. Ilina had been caught by Alex while bringing my father to rescue me. And now she was being punished for it.

As this dawned on me, my eyes met Ilina’s.

Was it my imagination that I saw in her gaze what I must have looked like earlier? Unwilling to let Ilina see me being dragged away by Alex.

“……”

“If you’re fortunate enough to have a good father, you should just leave. This girl needs to pay for her sins.”

“The madam has nothing to do with this. I acted independently, on my own.”

A suppressed voice was heard. The one uttering what sounded almost like a groan was none other than Ilina.

As she spoke, her once-beautiful lips were completely split.

How brutally must he have beaten her?

While shuddering at Alex’s cruelty, my confusion snowballed.

By saying she acted independently…

She was essentially admitting that she was the one who brought Father to punish Alex.

“…Why did you do such a thing?”

At my question, Ilina glanced briefly at Alex before turning her gaze toward me, seeming about to say something but then shaking her head.

“…Go.”

But how could I leave? As a human being, that was the least I couldn’t do. If I left now, who knew what Alex might do to Ilina?

Morally, I couldn’t leave Ilina with Alex like this.

“Get up.”

I extended my hand toward Ilina. Simultaneously, a voice filled with k*lling intent was heard.

“What are you plotting!”

The next moment, Alex strode toward me. I bent down to meet Ilina’s eyes. I whispered softly so only the bewildered Ilina could hear:

“If not now, there won’t be another chance.”

Ilina’s pupils trembled for a moment. Yet she still couldn’t grasp my outstretched hand. I had no choice.

I snatched Ilina’s hand. Meeting the eyes of the startled, trembling woman, I whispered again:

“I’ll count to three. When I reach three, I’ll strike Alex, and that’s when you run.”

Ilina looked up at me with puzzled eyes. But now…

“What do you think you’re doing, I asked!”

There was no time to waste.

After a short deep breath, I immediately began:

“One.”

The presence rapidly approaching as I counted. There was no time to delay counting the next two numbers.

“Two, three!”

As soon as I shouted, Ilina rose from her place. Almost simultaneously, I twisted my body and kicked between Alex’s legs.

“What are you doing… Ugh!”

How fortunate I was wearing shoes with pointed fronts.

Following his scream, there was a thud as Alex collapsed to the floor. I shouted over my shoulder:

“Run!”

❀❀❀

I could have left Alex to the knight, but there was a reason I kicked him myself.

If they, rather than I, had used violence against Alex, this would escalate into an issue between families, and the knight’s safety might be compromised.

Besides, it would be better if his lower parts were rendered useless.

‘I kicked him three times, so at least one should have hit the mark.’

With such thoughts, I walked down from the fourth-floor room under the knight’s escort.

Fortunately, we escaped safely and reached the waiting carriage on the first floor.

“Miss!”

Sherry was there too. She approached me and looked at me with eyes brimming with tears, about to overflow, and said…