Chapter 3 …

Although Father didn’t say the rest of his words aloud, I think I know what he was going to say now.

‘That he doesn’t seem to love me.’

Vanessa slowly nodded.

“I know.”

“……And you, knowing that, stayed out all night just because I said I opposed your marriage?”

“I told you. Once I went out, I realized how terribly difficult it was……”

Father wore an expression that seemed to say, How could you know what hardship is from just one day? But Vanessa had, in a sense, run away from home for more than fifteen years before returning.

She had already regretted countless times whether things might have been different if she had simply talked to her father a little more.

If only she had asked him why he had opposed the marriage. If only she had talked openly with someone who was still alive and could have explained everything to her. Even when there had still been a chance to turn things back.

Even when, immediately after the wedding, she had been confined to their so-called newlywed home in the western region, far from the imperial capital where the Sharose residence stood, she had hesitated because she lacked the courage to return to her father.

‘We’re married now, so why do you keep calling Carlisle “that bastard”? He isn’t so worthless that he deserves to be treated that way by you, Father!’

Especially because, back then, she had just had a huge argument with her father after he spoke badly about Carlisle.

‘I don’t know who gave me this opportunity……’

She couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

She couldn’t repeat the events she had experienced in her previous life.

The Marquessate of Leonard had crippled her and taken everything from the ducal family.

In this life, she would make sure they didn’t get so much as a single thread of what they wanted.

No. Even that would be an endlessly merciful punishment for them.

Even if she simply prevented them from taking away everything she had lost, wouldn’t that leave things no different from how they were now?

Yes.

This time, she would take everything they had.

Moreover, Vanessa knew exactly how the Marquessate of Leonard had accumulated its wealth and power.

She had watched everything from right beside them.

So although bringing them down would be difficult, it wasn’t impossible.

‘I don’t care if it was God or even the Devil. As long as I can sever this cursed fate with that bastard, Carlisle Leonard, with my own hands.’

At the very least, this much should make returning in time worthwhile.

Vanessa smiled more deeply at her father and gave a small nod.

“Since you came all the way to find me, I should at least show my face.”

Carlisle Leonard.

The eldest son of the Marquessate of Leonard and Vanessa’s husband in her previous life.

‘Carlisle, what do you like most about me?’

She remembered it being one day shortly before their wedding.

At the time, the question had briefly become fashionable among the nobles of high society.

Some answered their appearance, others their personality.

Some liked their hands, while others liked their feet.

Vanessa had memorized everyone’s proudly given answers and waited expectantly for his.

‘Sharose.’

Carlisle Leonard answered as though he hadn’t even needed to think about it.

No, he hadn’t hesitated.

‘I like you because you’re a Sharose.’

At the time, Vanessa foolishly thought he meant that he liked her simply for being herself, rather than for her eyes, appearance, figure, slender ankles, long fingers, or any other physical feature.

But that wasn’t what he meant.

He really did like her because she was a Sharose.

She only realized much later that the person he truly loved wasn’t Vanessa.

It was the Sharose family.

He had deliberately approached her because she was the only child of one of the Empire’s ducal families.

He had done it to gain power.

And foolishly, she hadn’t realized the truth until she was nearly at death’s door.

Fortunately, she had been given another chance.

Now it was time to repay him.

‘The fact that you targeted my family could, in a way, mean that you never wanted your own family in the first place.’

Carlisle Leonard.

I wonder what expression you’ll make when you realize that you can’t obtain the Sharose family and must live your life as the heir to the Marquessate of Leonard instead.

Your mother might actually be pleased.

Perhaps even more pleased than she would be with you, who was still being called the Young Marquess despite being in a position to inherit, all because she stubbornly clung to the title of Marchioness.

A woman who wanted money that would never run dry would probably find a wealthy commoner daughter-in-law much easier to control than a noble daughter-in-law whose rank was higher than hers, even if that noblewoman brought plenty of money with her.

When you obtained your title and declared that it was finally time to enter business, then deliberately placed that woman beside you for all to see—

‘Mother, with Vanessa here, how could you suggest another woman? I’m worried that I might unknowingly violate imperial law.’

Even while pretending to be a good son who couldn’t oppose his mother, he had watched Vanessa’s reaction.

But he had undoubtedly been pleased.

Whether he would still be pleased now was another question.

‘Do I really have to hear that my husband is walking around outside arm in arm with another woman? Considering the businesses and the mines you took from the Sharose Duchy, shouldn’t you at least treat me better? If you love that woman so much, then divorce—!’

It had been their first wedding anniversary.

The amount of the Sharose Duchy’s wealth that had been squandered through several failed businesses was impossible to count.

And that wasn’t all.

The knights’ order Carlisle had established under the Sharose Duchy’s name was constantly damaging the family’s reputation.

Despite all that, Vanessa had finally been unable to stand by and watch Carlisle grow close to a merchant’s daughter, so she had confronted him.

Before she could even finish speaking, the sound of shoe heels came from outside the room, as though someone were about to burst in.

Smack!

Before Vanessa could even identify the person, a thunderous crack rang through the room.

‘You! How dare you speak to your husband, who is as precious as the heavens, like that? You know perfectly well what marriage means under imperial law, yet you dare mention divorce? After ruining my son’s marriage, did you think you could live comfortably?’

Vanessa blankly covered her cheek, which had been struck by the barrage of venomous words.

‘Just because you have some money, you think you can say anything to your husband! Carlisle! Is she always treated this disrespectfully when I’m not around? What is so extraordinary about a wife helping her husband’s business that she has to—!’

‘Please calm down, Mother. Vanessa must have made a mistake. Vanessa. I’ll pretend I never heard you mention divorce, so apologize.’

That day, Vanessa heard something inside her heart snap.

From then on, she began to regret marrying him.

But regret changed nothing.

Everything had already been ruined beyond the point of no return.

‘It’s your birthday. I’m sorry we spent our first anniversary like that. As for my wife…… no, I’ve told Mother not to come to the estate anymore. And it wasn’t because I had any other feelings for that woman. You know that. She was someone Mother introduced to me for business, and I couldn’t exactly refuse her, so all I did was have a meal with her a few times.’

Six months later, even Carlisle’s belated excuses, offered as an apology, failed to move her heart.

‘You said you wanted to visit the Fideul Resort, remember? It’s rose season, so how about we go on a date for the first time in a while? I’d like you to wear the shoes I bought you.’

Foolishly, those words seemed to soften her heart a little.

Because he still remembered the place she had casually mentioned at the beginning of their marriage.

Perhaps because she had foolishly thought that maybe he had loved her from the beginning and still loved her.

Was that why what happened next occurred?

‘Carlisle! If you’re going somewhere, shouldn’t you tell me? Ardellian has been waiting for you for two hours already……!’

Or perhaps it was her own fault for climbing the stairs on a beautiful day while wearing the high heels Carlisle had given her, deliberately tuning out her mother-in-law’s nagging as she once again brought up the merchant’s daughter.

‘You……! How dare you rudely leave while an elder is speaking to you!’

Tap.

It had been almost like an accident.

No.

The hand that had brushed against her and then pulled away had belonged to Carlisle.

Perhaps it had been intentional.

He had always found it difficult to defy his mother.

Carlisle, who had been walking up the stairs ahead of her, suddenly turned around.

And Vanessa fell from the stairs because of the momentum.

But even though he saw her falling, he didn’t catch her.

Neither Carlisle nor the Marchioness of Leonard.

Even Carlisle merely watched the hand Vanessa had desperately reached out as she fell.

‘Vanessa—!’

Crack!

The horrific sound of her leg breaking rang out.

Only then did Carlisle scream.

He hadn’t even opened his mouth when she was falling.

‘Call a physician right now! Hurry!’

From that day onward, she became a crippled wife.

‘I should never have married you off to that family.’

That was how Vanessa’s reunion with her father came about after she had practically severed ties with him following her marriage to Carlisle Leonard.

Her father hadn’t contacted her even when his daughter had handed over nearly all of the family’s wealth to some worthless man.

He hadn’t contacted her when she was mocked for ruining every business she touched, while her father, unlike her, had never even laid a hand on business and was ridiculed as the Sharose Duke not because he refused to do business, but because he was incapable of doing it.

Yet that day, for the first time, her father shed tears when he saw his daughter’s crippled leg.

But Vanessa couldn’t bring herself to return to her father.

She had not only gone against his wishes and married Carlisle, but had nearly allowed the entire family fortune to be taken from her.

She couldn’t simply go back to him now with nothing but her own body.

So even if she couldn’t recover everything, she wanted to reclaim at least some of it, and that was why she remained at the Marquessate’s estate.

If only she had known that even that would end with her being falsely accused of having an affair with Ian Ruscliffe after nothing more than a single conversation with him—

If only she had known that she would be divorced without receiving even a single penny, and would even lose her title.

‘I would have at least tried to do something before I died.’