“I forgot. I already heard from Elkas last time. Married couples don’t keep secrets from each other, you know.”

“El…kas?”

Caroline, seemingly quite surprised that she called her husband by his first name, squinted and asked meaningfully.

“Really? Then that’s good—you must know why those two meet so often.”

“…!”

Regrettably, the hastily made excuse ended with the previous answer.

“Evelyn, don’t think I’m strange for saying this. But the Duke—isn’t he regretting it now and having second thoughts?”

Evelyn’s eyes widened with force.

“What thoughts?”

“You know what I mean. The Duke’s first marriage proposal wasn’t for you—it was for Lady Sheila.”

She could guess what Caroline was trying to say. She wanted to crush her spirit by repeating those same words she’d said several times before the marriage.

But strangely, those words she hadn’t even listened to before marriage now felt like they were stabbing into her chest.

Still, what allowed her to control herself by saying it was fine was the fact that Sheila was already married and even had a child.

However, the words that followed dragged out the low self-esteem Evelyn had kept hidden deep in her heart.

“I heard Lady Sheila might get divorced.”

She couldn’t remember well what conversation followed after that. Her mind creaked like a rusted sword.

After Caroline left, Evelyn, who had been staring blankly out the window, couldn’t stand it anymore and jumped up.

‘Let’s go ask him.’

Right away, Evelyn grabbed a basket of refreshments she’d asked the kitchen maids to prepare. 

Thinking Elkas would find it strange if she suddenly showed up, she secretly called for a coachman with this plausible excuse she’d created.

She made various excuses to send away the maids who tried to follow her on errands, so she had to hurry if she wanted to leave before they returned. 

She’d secretly ditched the guards too, but since she had to take a carriage, the coachman was an exception.

“You know this is a secret, right? Even if the butler asks later, you have to insist nothing like this happened.”

“Of course, my lady.”

When she gave him a few gold coins and winked, the quick-witted coachman put his finger to his lips and gestured not to worry. His eyes looked like he was watching a cute wife preparing a surprise gift for her husband.

As she boarded the carriage, she could see dark clouds gathering beyond the distant horizon.

Is it going to rain?

The gloomy weather felt bleak, like it was heralding the arrival of something huge.

* * *

They arrived at the imperial palace quickly. When they arrived, the surroundings were so dark it seemed like night had already fallen. Hurrying to return before the rain, Evelyn asked a passing attendant and entered the building where Elkas’s office was located.

Perhaps because of the bad weather, the corridor was quiet. With no palace servants coming and going, Evelyn looked around while slowly searching for Elkas’s office.

“I’ll surprise him.”

She wanted to see his eyes grow wide like a deer’s in surprise. It would be cute if he blushed to the tips of his ears in embarrassment.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, she thought as she walked, when the door at the end of the corridor opened heavily and the Duke walked out with a familiar face.

‘Huh. Why is Sister here?’

Evelyn quickly hid behind a large sculpture and held her breath.

‘Wait, why am I hiding?’

Not understanding why she’d reflexively hidden in her surprise, Evelyn held her breath, caught in conflict over whether she should go out now or not.

Then Evelyn’s eyes belatedly caught sight of Sheila’s unusually disheveled clothing.

In particular, the knot at the front of her chest appeared hastily tied, as if it had just been undone and retied. 

Turning her eyes to Elkas, Evelyn swallowed hard. The front of his pants looked similarly loose, as though they had been adjusted in a rush.

Through several intimate encounters, Evelyn knew. His normally heavy member was smallest after *jaculation.

No way.

In that moment, a scene she absolutely didn’t want to imagine flashed through her mind. Evelyn’s complexion gradually turned pale as the circumstances increasingly fit together.

The two of them were smiling broadly, seemingly finding something so amusing. Unable to watch anymore, Evelyn squeezed her eyes shut.

Until her sister’s joyful laughter no longer rang out.

When she shuffled out of the building on weakened legs, raindrops were finally falling from the sky that had been threatening. The sky, completely covered with dark clouds, had grown so dark that the sun was no longer visible.

Every time she stepped on the wet, soggy ground, muddy water splashed onto her pure white shoes. The sight seemed to tell her she was wearing unsuitable shoes, draining her energy further.

“My lady, that basket.”

“Ah…”

The waiting coachman ran over in surprise, asking if she hadn’t given the basket to the Duke, and took it from her. She’d forgotten about it, not even feeling the weight in her hands.

“It seems you didn’t see the master.”

“Yeah. When I went, no one was there.”

Evelyn’s shoulders drooped.

“Oh my, you came all this way in this bad weather and must have just missed each other.”

The coachman clicked his tongue sympathetically, opened the carriage door, and prepared to depart.

“Where shall I take you?”

Where?

That question awakened Evelyn’s dazed mind. She should say to go home, but strangely her lips stuck together and no words came out.

Is that really her home?

The servants whose attitudes had strangely changed.

The husband who hadn’t sought her out lately.

Did the noticeably decreased frequency of early returns also mean his feelings had cooled?

No.

Perhaps feelings that could cool never existed in the first place. Only then did Evelyn think she understood what the maids had been whispering about.

The maids who had served him long enough for Elkas to personally bring them from his estate would have already noticed.

That the master truly loved another woman, and perhaps before long, another woman might take the place she currently occupied.

But she had nowhere to go right now. Her parents wouldn’t accept her. She had no friends to show this pathetic state to. Thinking that far, Evelyn laughed emptily.

In the end, Evelyn answered by nodding her head.

* * *

Returning to the ducal estate with a troubled heart, Evelyn immediately burrowed into bed. 

It was because the anxiety curled up in her heart, which she hadn’t even known existed, blazed up in this moment.

“My lady, the master says he has urgent business today and will return tomorrow.”

“…Mm.”

At Penny’s report, Evelyn made a sullen sound from inside the blanket without showing her face.

“What will you do about dinner?”

“…I’ll tell you when I want to eat.”

What would be the point of eating alone? 

In truth, she wanted to skip it since she couldn’t accept anything inside, but she answered vaguely knowing they’d oppose it, saying that absolutely wouldn’t do. 

She felt a moment of hesitation, but Penny left the room without any particular questions.

Finally left alone, Evelyn tried to sleep inside the blanket she’d made into a hiding place, but strangely, instead of the drowsiness that had been visiting her at all hours lately, her eyes grew increasingly bright.

‘What is this? It’s not even a marriage where we loved each other.’

‘Why do I feel this way?’

Even closing her eyes didn’t dispel the unsettled feeling. The same scene that unfolded in her mind over and over, without needing to dwell on it, tormented her.

Frustratingly, she had no choice but to agree with Caroline’s words. Seeing Elkas and Sheila standing side by side, they looked like a pair of perfect creations drawn by God.

They matched that well and were that dazzling.

In contrast, when she and Elkas stood side by side, they couldn’t be more mismatched.

A scene suddenly flashed through Evelyn’s mind—when they visited the Windelsons, she had seen the two of them together near the secluded annex. 

At the time, she had brushed it off without much thought. But now, as she recalled it, their flustered expressions upon seeing her were unmistakably the reaction of people caught in the middle of a secret conversation.

Evelyn had to finally acknowledge, seeing the two of them smiling brightly, that like her friend said, Elkas still harbored feelings for Sheila.

In truth, Evelyn’s heart had harbored the anxiety that perhaps he’d married her out of necessity since Sheila had already married.

He’d loved her unrequitedly for so long—even if they didn’t greatly resemble each other, might the fact that they shared blood have made Elkas propose to her? 

Perhaps that’s why, even while married and sleeping skin-to-skin with him, such thoughts would occasionally surge up.

Who is he thinking of right now?

“Hah…”

A sigh flowed between her lips.

She had no complaints about married life. He was surprisingly affectionate and kind, and often smiled in front of her. Really, like a happy person.

She herself had no complaints, but there was no guarantee he truly felt the same. This could be seen in their increasingly distant marital relations.

‘Why, when we came from the same womb, couldn’t I resemble even half of Sister?’

Though she didn’t want to waver, the inferiority complex that had once taken root hadn’t evaporated in an instant. Living in the shadow of not even being able to follow in her sister’s footsteps made her chest feel stuffy, as her life proved.

‘What does Elkas think when he looks at Sheila?’

‘Does he feel that even though we’re sisters, we’re completely different?’

Once immersed in thought, her mind continued in an endless chain.

‘No matter how different we may be, I can’t help but feel that I, as her sister, have become a mere substitute for her.’

When her thoughts reached that point, Evelyn kicked off the blanket, feeling like she would suffocate, and took a deep breath.

It was strange.

Even when growing up constantly compared to her sister, she’d never felt this pathetic about herself. She’d thought that if she was lacking, she just needed to work harder.

But the fact that the person Elkas loved was her sister hit much harder than she’d imagined. 

Like the feelings that had slowly inflated during the time they’d spent together since coming here were falling into a dust pit.

If Sister’s married life had been fine, perhaps she could have just lived comfortably like this.

No. Even standing beside a man who held another woman in his heart, she would feel this way for life. Just feeling these emotions toward her own sister made her insides churn.

From the moment his plan to marry Sheila fell through, she wanted to ask if his intention in choosing her as a backup plan was really just that, yet she was afraid to hear the answer.

In reality, her necessity to him also approached without much meaning.

There were plenty of women who could replace her empty seat. There would be many women who could understand his special condition too. Anyone other than herself could help him with that.

Then, wasn’t he regretting this marriage?

Perhaps even now he harbored the wish for her to disappear.

As the inferiority complex she’d buried deep inside floated up, her mood rapidly sank.

Being in this place that had been endlessly peaceful suddenly became suffocatingly uncomfortable.

<From now on, Miss Evelyn is my wife.>