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Chapter 09
The corners of Kaiden’s eyes, still wet, trembled once again. But this time, Chloe did not hand him a tissue. His words were too absurd.
“I’m telling you, I have no intention of marrying you. What makes you so certain about this?”
“You’ll need me too.”
Wiping off the remaining water, Kaiden leaned lazily against the sofa backrest. His confident attitude was irritating.
“Just because I’d accompany you to Melvin and Du’s wedding? That’s it?”
“That aside, I’m a pretty decent husband candidate.”
“……”
“Someone like me standing next to you would be enough to shut up your ex-husband, your younger sister, and anyone who looks down on you. And it would also make it easier for you to get that geology professor position.”
His smug expression was infuriating. Yet, what he said was true.
He was the son of the famous Verder Duke family. And Kaiden was a strikingly handsome man whose presence naturally drew attention. Any unmarried woman unaware of his true nature would surely covet a place by his side. But not Chloe.
“Do you think I’m crazy enough to get married twice?”
Marriage was madness. Remarriage was even worse. At least for Chloe, that was how it felt.
Six years of love had ended meaninglessly before marriage even meant anything. Could something this casually begun possibly last?
She could not risk something like this just to show off in front of Du and Melvin.
“I’ve had one divorce already. That’s enough. I have no intention of going through it twice.”
“The famous actress of Roem has been married six times.”
“But I’m not a famous actress.”
“Then let’s make a promise. You won’t end up divorced again.”
“……”
“As long as we respect each other’s needs, there won’t be any reason to raise our voices. Think of it as a typical arranged marriage.”
“You really do talk a lot.”
Chloe shot Kaiden a glare and stood up.
She hated men like him—full of empty bravado. Just like Du.
“I’m sorry about your situation, but I have no intention of getting involved in your affairs. Find someone else.”
“I can’t do it unless it’s you.”
“……”
“I need a new mana stone.”
She understood what he meant. Yet the sudden shift in tone made her heart almost skip.
“This is exactly why I hate men who only talk.”
“I’m not changing my mind. So I’d appreciate it if you didn’t come looking for me again.”
“Then Chloe can come find me. If you want to meet me, tell the owner of this café—”
“That’s not going to happen.”
Chloe cut him off decisively and left the place.
There was no way she would ever go looking for Kaiden Verder.
However, as the saying goes, nothing in life ever went according to Chloe’s wishes.
* * *
“Alright, that concludes today’s discussion. Next week, we’ll read Cesare Nicole’s What Is Humanity? and hold a discussion on it.”
“Thank you for your guidance.”
After three long hours of a literary discussion meeting, it finally ended. Chloe packed her bag while thinking about the nearest bookstore.
Someone tapped her arm just as she was about to stand.
“Lady Garrett, is it true?”
“What is?”
“That you’re dating Kaiden Verder?”
“……”
“There are quite a few people who saw you walking arm in arm with a man on Berington Street. They say that man was Kaiden Verder.”
I knew this would happen.
Chloe looked at the middle-aged noblewoman with sparkling eyes and replied,
“That’s not true. I don’t even have time to date—I barely have time for my thesis.”
“Oh, come on. You’re lying.”
This time, the speaker was Sara Lumis, a frivolous young lady. Her nickname was “the Dove,” because she carried gossip through high society like a messenger bird.
“I heard from someone that the two of you were walking while holding hands.”
“Then it must be true.”
“Exactly. Lady Lumis’s information has never been wrong.”
Murmurs spread through the group as everyone surrounded Chloe. She was the topic, yet she could not speak.
‘Should I just deny it outright?’
But there were too many witnesses. Worse, they even knew she had been at the Cent Hotel for the past three days.
‘Should I say we just met briefly and parted ways?’
Three days was far too short to be considered a relationship. People would surely say she, already a divorced woman, had lost her sense again.
Or that her ex-husband still had influence over her.
‘This is the worst.’
Normally she would have stayed for dinner with them, but today she had used her family as an excuse and fled.
But at home, real “trouble” was waiting.
“Unnie!”
“Melvin?”
It was Melvin—the biggest headache of all—who had come to visit her.
“What are you doing here? Without even notifying me.”
“Do I need permission to come home?”
Melvin’s casual tone made Ena, standing beside Chloe, frown deeply. She had no intention of welcoming Melvin warmly.
“So this is your home now? Instead of going to your fiancé’s house?”
Melvin was already living with Du under the pretext of bridal training, so she should have been at the Dunkan estate, not the Garrett estate.
“Maybe because the wedding is soon, I wanted to see family. It’s natural to feel sentimental before marriage.”
Ridiculous excuse.
Ena scoffed, looking at Melvin’s overly bright smile.
“Family,” she said, yet Melvin only clung to Clara, completely ignoring Chloe and Ena.
“Unnie, you’ve already been married before, so you must understand, right? The feelings of a bride before her wedding!”
She smiled sweetly while delivering a venomous jab. Ena clenched her fist.
“I’ll talk to Mom for a bit. Let’s all have dinner together later.”
“…Fine.”
Melvin went upstairs with their mother without a second glance.
“That, that shameless girl—!”
“Mother.”
Chloe grabbed Ena’s hand before she could explode.
“Why do you think she came all the way here after disappearing all this time? To shake you up, of course. What’s so impressive about marrying your sister’s ex-husband!”
“She’ll hear you upstairs.”
“Let her hear it!”
After fuming for a while, Ena suddenly grabbed Chloe’s shoulders.
“Hm?”
Her face, moments ago full of rage, now wore an odd smile.
“You can take that leftover trash you discarded.”
Chloe soon understood the meaning of that smirk.
“Even if Du Duncan is decent, he can’t compare to a Verder son. It’s ridiculous for her to show off in front of you, who has Kaiden Verder.”
“Mom.”
“If your younger sister is marrying your ex-husband, doesn’t he say anything? He should be saying something like, let’s ruin the wedding spectacularly.”
“Please don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing between us.”
“You’re just being cautious because you’ve been hurt once. But you don’t need to be like that in front of your mother.”
Unfortunately, Chloe’s weak denial did not reach Ena at all. In her eyes, Chloe simply seemed like a cautious daughter with a fragile romance.
“Kaiden Verder is coming to the wedding too, right? Make sure to tell him. Tell him your mother is looking forward to meeting him.”
Ena’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Chloe let out a long, exhausted sigh.
