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Episode 2: Betrayal (1)
Cecilia Fanning.
In imperial high society, she was famous for her dramatic life.
First, she lost her parents, Count and Countess Fanning, before she turned five.
Afterwards, the orphaned Cecilia, having no other relatives, was entrusted to the home of her father’s friend, Viscount Osborn, according to her late father’s will.
Just as people began to pity her, upon becoming an adult, she shocked everyone once again by marrying Evan March, a commoner.
People couldn’t understand her choice, but Cecilia didn’t care.
In Evan, an orphan without any family, Cecilia felt a deep kinship.
Her childhood friend, Rosena Osborn, who had grown up with her like a sister, also actively supported their marriage.
Thus, the fact that Evan had no title was not a problem for her at all.
But two years ago, everything changed.
‘What? Evan is… the lost son of Duke Hayes?’
‘Yes. Those cuff links Evan had are the proof. They’re something my son Gilbert gave to that boy’s mother.’
At the Hayes ducal estate, where she had been summoned abruptly, it was revealed that Evan was in fact the only son of the then-Duke, Gilbert.
The ducal family disclosed that Evan’s mother had been a maid of the household, presenting a birth certificate bearing her signature.
Furthermore, the keepsake from his mother that Evan had cherished was also confirmed to be Gilbert’s possession.
The Dowager Duchess Elise immediately had Evan registered into the family, and when Gilbert Hayes passed away, Evan became the Duke overnight.
Naturally, Cecilia also ascended to the position of Duchess.
From a Count’s daughter to an orphan, to the wife of a commoner businessman, and now a Duchess.
People thought she must be perfectly happy now.
But that was a complete misconception.
“Evan, it’s already this late. Shall we go to the bedroom together—”
“Cecilia, please. I told you not to disturb me.”
After becoming the Duchess, Cecilia spent exceedingly lonely days under her husband’s cold neglect.
Evan, who had been busy with his business, became even more sensitive after becoming the Duke, and their time as a couple almost vanished.
Cecilia mustered the courage with difficulty to visit his study, but Evan, as always, didn’t hide his annoyed expression.
“But… you heard what the doctor said. Today is that important day…”
On any other day, she would have backed down, sensing his mood, but today she couldn’t.
It had already been five years since she married Evan, but there was still no news of a child.
Cecilia was growing anxious.
Especially Evan’s grandmother, Elise, who openly demanded a child, tormenting Cecilia at every turn.
‘I tell you every time. What do you think will happen if that sly Reiner Hayes steals the dukedom while things stay like this?’
Elise terribly disliked Reiner, her husband’s illegitimate child.
The anxiety that he might take the title was directed entirely at Cecilia.
‘It’s also a great failing as a wife to not properly support your husband.’
‘I… I’m sorry…’
Every time she heard Elise reproaches, Cecilia felt suffocated.
The day recommended by the doctor, whom she had painstakingly sought out with a desperate heart for them to be intimate, was today.
But Evan’s reaction was icy.
“The doctor said what? Why should I do that?”
Feeling hurt by his attitude, as if it were someone else’s affair, Cecilia held it in and spoke softly again.
“Why? Grandmother is also waiting for a child…”
“Ha, that again? Aren’t you tired of it?”
Evan sighed and pointedly tapped the pile of documents on his desk. Seeing that, Cecilia felt intimidated.
“If you have eyes, look. I have a mountain of work to do even now.”
“You’re that busy?”
“Ugh, what would you know even if I told you? It’s obvious you never learned properly while living off the Rosie’s house.”
At his sarcastic remark, Cecilia bowed her head.
She had resolved that today, she must bring him to their marital bedroom.
But standing before him, she felt herself shrinking endlessly.
“If you understand, go take care of Rosena or something. You turn your back on a friend struggling to raise a child alone, and all you care about is having your own? Do you really want to live that selfishly?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
Cecilia’s face flushed hot at Evan’s words.
As he said, Rosena was raising a child alone after giving birth.
Rosena had originally been engaged to the eldest son of a prestigious noble family related to the Emperor.
But when it was revealed he was a fraud impersonating nobility, her life crumbled to pieces.
The child in her womb was already too far along, so Rosena ultimately had to endure childbirth and childcare without a husband.
Thinking of such a friend, wanting a child of her own, she felt truly selfish, just as Evan said.
“I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll go now…”
“Yes, please just don’t come to the study. Seeing your face makes my headache feel worse.”
“…Okay.”
Cecilia fled Evan’s study as if being chased.
Pretending not to hear Evan grumbling behind her back, she moved her feet.
“Sigh…”
So today is passing by like this too, in the end.
With her shoulders slumped, Cecilia trudged unsteadily toward the bedroom.
Does Evan not want a child?
Somehow, it seemed like she was the only one anxious, and it made her sad.
Of course, there was pressure from those around her, but more than anything, she wanted to hold a child who resembled Evan in her arms.
If only Evan understood that feeling even a little.
If only he had given her one warm word, ‘I know how you feel,’ she wouldn’t have felt this lonely.
…No, he must just still be very busy.
Cecilia wiped her tears with the back of her hand and comforted herself.
Evan still loved her.
He was just tired, just momentarily irritable.
Cecilia repeated it like a mantra.
But, unbeknownst to her, irreversible misfortune had already taken a giant step closer.
A few days later, late at night.
“It can’t be…”
Cecilia stood frozen before Evan’s study, covering her mouth.
“huh, Evan…”
“Haha, good? Huh? Say something. I like you so much better than interfere.”
Evan was passionately showering kisses on the woman lying on his desk.
None of his daytime dignity remained; only the figure of a man steeped in desire like a beast was visible.
Scattered clothes were strewn about carelessly.
The fact that he was holding another woman, while consistently rejecting intimacy with Cecilia, was enough to drive her mad.
But when she identified the woman in her husband’s embrace, Cecilia felt as if she had been slapped hard across the face.
“Ah, good, huh, it feels so good I could die.”
Rosena Osborn, the friend who had grown up with her like a sister since childhood, was in her husband’s arms, letting out seductive moans.
She often stayed at the ducal residence with her son, Jeremy.
‘Evan seems cold? Ah, no way. interfere, aren’t you being a bit too bothersome? You can be a little oblivious, you know.’
‘Is that so…?’
‘Yes. Evan is human too, he might get tired if you interfere too much. Men hate that the most.’
Hadn’t she even answered with a nonchalant expression today when Cecilia confided her worries?
But the shock didn’t end there.
“Should I have another child for you? How about a daughter this time?”
“That would be perfect. Jeremy takes after me, so a daughter should take after you, Rosy.”
Evan laughed contentedly and kissed Rosena’s nape.
Cecilia almost collapsed to the floor on the spot.
Jeremy is… Evan’s son?
The strength left Cecilia’s legs.
Though not related by blood, she had cherished Rosena’s child Jeremy like a beloved nephew.
Jeremy too had followed her around, smiling brightly.
That sunny child who used to run into her arms… was her husband’s son?
“Ah…”
Staggering, Cecilia fell backward, and a thud echoed.
Instantly, the movements of Evan and Rosena, who had been so disgracefully devouring each other, stopped.
Only then did the two of them notice Cecilia, slumped on the floor through the crack in the open door.
“Ce-Cecilia?”
“Whoa!”
Evan, who had been covering Rosena with his body, sprang up from his place in surprise.
Then, fumbling to pick up his trousers to put them on, he fell hard on his backside.
“Ugh!”
“Evan! Are you okay?”
Even seeing Evan groaning on the floor, Rosena could neither move forward nor back.
Barely clothed, she just crouched on the desk, using her arms to barely cover herself.
Before this ridiculous yet miserable spectacle, Cecilia couldn’t utter a word.
Holding onto the door frame, she barely managed to stand up on trembling legs.
“H-how… how could you two…”
Cecilia forced the words out with a shaking voice.
Her heart felt wrenched, as if she might vomit blood any moment.
“How could you do this to me?”
