Callios took a step back, looking cold and unfriendly. Startled, Rosie grabbed his coat, unable to stop herself.

She had seen exactly what he had done to the rude man he had dragged away. If he turned that same ruthless hand towards her attendants…

A dizzying fear overwhelmed her, and she blurted out.

“If I had said anything!”

Callios slowly turned back, his coat still caught in her trembling grip. Rosie’s voice wavered as she forced the words out.

“If I had told you… everything you wanted would have disappeared long ago.”

A hollow laugh escaped her—fleeting, brittle. Then a cold, bitter smile touched her lips.

“Don’t you remember? You said you wanted a good family.”

Callios, puzzled at first, suddenly looked as if he’d been struck. It seemed the memory had come back to him.

“That was…”

“You told me yourself. That night.”

Seeing him looking flustered, Rosie was reminded of that heated night in vivid detail.

The creaking bed had finally fallen silent. Overcome by the molten heat, which had left her body feeling boneless, Callios braced himself on his arms and pressed his forehead to hers. Even his ragged breaths were hot.

After the violent rush had passed and he was holding her trembling form, he asked her:

“What do you want?”

He had been so indifferent for so long that she sometimes felt like a ghost in her own home, yet now he was almost unbearably passionate. His behaviour, both in and out of bed, was so different that it confused her.

And yet, she had liked it. In that moment, at least, it felt as if she were truly being loved. All her minor grievances faded and Rosie innocently and sincerely asked him again.

“And you?”

“…….”

“I want to give you something too.”

He frowned slightly as if he had heard something unexpected, and then fell into a long silence. Did this man truly have nothing he wanted?

His eyes filled with a thoughtful, earnest look as he stared at her. She didn’t know how much time had passed before he finally leaned down and whispered in her ear.

“A good family.”

He asked for it as though it were an impossible task, hesitating and lingering over each word.

As though embarrassed to have let it slip, a momentary sense of awkwardness crossed Callios’s perfectly sculpted features before disappearing.

He moved again, as though eager to erase the vulnerability he had just revealed. Despite being breathless and feeling dizzy from the wine she’d had before they met, Rosie remembered that moment with perfect clarity.

She remembered what Callios — her husband — truly desired. It was the one thing that Rosie Benedict had finally found that could connect the two of them.

She had wanted to cherish that wish.

A good family.

She pressed her face into his solid chest and made a quiet vow.

Little did she know that this earnest vow would lead her to h*ll.

“So that’s why I kept my mouth shut. Even now, when we’re about to separate…!”

Rosie swallowed back the emotion swelling in her throat.

To preserve the household he desired, she had given everything — every last part of herself.

A perfect secret.

If keeping that one thing hidden meant that his wish would remain unbroken, then a little pain hadn’t mattered.

She had loved him.

Without knowing what form that love might take when it came back to her — if it ever did — she had been unbearably foolish.

Her eyes drifted to the guards stationed at the entrance to the brothel district.

The same men who had been gambling earlier were now hurriedly clearing their table, heads bowed, ever since Callios had cast a single glare in their direction.

His influence needed no explanation.

The name Callios Benedict carried that kind of weight.

Even if she stepped out of the family, its prestige would not so much as tremble.

“Everything will be fine as long as I quietly step away.”

The words slipped from Rosie’s lips without hesitation — thoughts she had kept hidden for so long.

Whenever Callios returned from his expeditions, she forced herself to smile.

She never let him see the limp in her step or the bruises and marks left behind.

She straightened her posture, lifted her chin and hid everything.

She played the role of a contented wife who kept a peaceful home.

She wanted to cry, yet she smiled.

As if nothing had happened.

All to maintain the image of the ‘good family’ he longed for.

She fought a lonely war that no one cared to acknowledge.

She believed it was her duty.

Enduring it all was simply what she had to do.

Rosie swallowed the ache born of her own past blindness, and of all the suffering it had allowed.

She curled her fingers into her palm, letting the pain from her nails bring her back to reality.

Her face became calm and numb as she finally spoke.

“They’ll remain the family you want even if I leave.”

Those people who acted as his family in his presence, grovelling if necessary and playing their parts effortlessly.

He didn’t need to know how miserable she had been. It was the last dignity she could offer as his former wife. It was her final consideration for the man she had once loved.

But Callios was strange.

He strode forward with the expression of someone who had swallowed poison.

“To think you were trying to grant me that stupid wish—”

‘Stupid wish?’

The words struck sharply and Rosie almost snapped back, but then she froze.

Callios steadied his breathing, as if holding back an emotional surge.

There it was again.

That look.

That frantic, suffocating look that screamed that he was losing his mind.

“You kept your mouth shut while my mother took everything good from you?”

Rosie flinched and turned her gaze away.

“…I wondered what you thought you knew. So that was it. Yes. That’s what happened.”

A thick vein bulged beneath the taut line of Callios’s jaw as though he were barely holding himself together. He rubbed his throat, feeling baffled and frustrated.

“A good family? What good is that supposed to do?”

“…….”

“You think any of that means anything without you?”

Rosie still refused to look at him.

“Nothing changes just because I’m gone. Maybe it’ll disrupt the perfect family you want for a while, but you can always bring someone else in—”

“That’s what you call talking?”

Callios’s voice finally rose, cutting through her words. But Rosie only nodded, her expression impassive. With her heart sealed tight again, she couldn’t feel anything. She just wanted it all to end.

“I’m tired. Even the word family… I’m sick of it.”

She wanted nothing more to do with that pretty, suffocating cage.

“So what I want now, Callios—”

Her voice was unwavering.

“—is a divorce.”

It felt as if an impenetrable wall had been erected between them.

A wall that she had built.

Callios sensed it and let out a short, hollow breath. He dropped his hand from his throat.

Cold sweat slicked his palms as he clenched his fists so tightly that they ached. Frustration, helplessness and anger churned beneath his skin.

After repeating this gesture several times, he finally spoke, his expression unreadable.

“I understand what you want.”

“…….”

“I’ll honor the promise. We’ll proceed as planned.”

For a man like him, a spoken word was law.

Rosie nodded calmly.

“All right.”

Callios stared at her for a long time before turning his back on her. A white banner bearing a green serpent fluttered from a tall wooden pole, indicating that they were in the brothel district of Islan.

“I’ve still got things to do here. Go back. And from now on, stay away from this place.”

He didn’t turn around until Rosie and her attendants had boarded the carriage. Then he spun around and strode back into the brothel district.

The long shadow cast by the pillar obscured his entire face.

***

The next morning, Rosie was due to visit the dressmaker with Jenny. For some reason, getting out of bed felt unbearably exhausting, but she forced herself to get up.

There was no time.

“We’ve arrived, my lady.”

The familiar voice of the coachman rang out. As Rosie stepped down with the footman’s help, her legs suddenly gave way. She steadied herself quickly before Jenny could notice, but she was still startled inside.

‘Why does my head hurt so much?’

A piercing, throbbing pain gripped the space behind her eyes, as if someone were digging into her brain with a knife. Perhaps it was the emotional strain of confronting Callios.

But if that were all, she shouldn’t feel this weak.

From the tips of her fingers, a faint stiffness began to creep upwards.

Then a chilling thought flashed through Rosie’s mind.

Her lips pulled weakly into a crooked line.

‘It’s starting already, isn’t it.’

The onset of her hereditary illness.

‘There should still be time. Why is this happening…?’

It didn’t make sense. In her previous life, she had at least two more months.

There were still so many things left to do.

Not yet.

‘Please… not yet.’

Fear surged up her spine, cold and merciless, but Rosie forced it down with calm discipline.

‘It could just be a headache. Nothing more.’

She exhaled softly.

When she glanced over, she saw that Jenny was walking with an unusually dark expression. Now that she thought about it, Jenny had seemed strange ever since they left the carriage.

“What’s wrong? You don’t look well.”

Maybe the brothel district had frightened her.

It was a rough place, after all.

Jenny, ever the life and soul of the party, bit her lip, then spoke cautiously, as if confessing something forbidden.

“Sometimes, when I look at the Duke… this place—”

She struck her own chest with her clenched fist, as if trying to force the feeling out.

“It gets so suffocating. And I….I start resenting him. Why am I like this, my lady?”

She must obey her master, yet she harbors such thoughts about him. Jenny looked ready to cry. She was convinced that she was unworthy of serving the duchy.

“I just… I just want you to leave that place as soon as possible. Let’s leave together, my lady. Let’s go somewhere fun and live happily.”

In the future Jenny imagined, Rosie likely wouldn’t be there, but Rosie still smiled faintly and soothed her.

“When I leave, we’ll eat lots of delicious food. And we won’t scrimp on money. All right? I’ll make sure you have plenty.”

Jenny pouted.

“You can just eat with me. Why do you talk like someone who’s… who’s about to die? Oh no—my wicked mouth!”

She turned pale and slapped her lips in horror at what she had said.

Rosie tried to calm her down, but a ringing chime cut through the air.

Ding—ding—

The sound came from one of the large jewelry shops that lined the street.

Rosie looked up when she heard it.

A refined noblewoman stepped out of the shop.

“…Mother?”