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Chapter : 1
“W-Why are you acting like this all of a sudden? You weren’t this kind of person…!”
“This kind of person?”
Rachel laughed.
“What kind of person is that supposed to be? A woman who pretends not to know her husband is cheating on her? A woman begging for love from a man who has never once looked at her as a woman his entire life?”
“Rachel…”
Theodore, the husband who had been having an affair with a woman nine years younger than him for over seven years, looked utterly devastated.
Good.
The woman he believed would forgive him no matter what he did, the woman he believed would love him unconditionally forever, was now staring down at him with cold eyes.
“I don’t need anything else. Divorce me.”
Rachel casually threw the documents she had been holding. The papers fluttered through the air, grazing Theodore’s cheek before falling to the floor.
With trembling hands, Theodore picked up the divorce papers and looked through them.
“Divorce…? I can’t do that…”
“I knew you’d say that. The papers are just a formality, so feel free to tear them up. I’ve already petitioned the Noble Council for a marriage annulment review. Charges include tax evasion, slush fund creation, and damaging the honor of the Count’s family. Do you understand what that means?”
There was no answer.
Rachel removed the ring from her left ring finger and tossed it at Theodore, explaining it again in the simplest possible terms.
“Whether you want it or not, our marriage is over.”
There are two kinds of people in this world.
Pushovers, and people who are not pushovers.
Unfortunately, Rachel Elrosa was the former.
“My lady, wouldn’t you like to try some skincare treatments? I heard the oil sold at the new general store makes your skin wonderfully smooth. If you’d like, I can bring you some as a gift next time!”
Those were the first words Jane, her husband’s mistress, spoke when she visited Rachel’s home.
Kind-hearted Rachel excitedly went to find her husband Theodore afterward.
“Jane is such a sweet and polite young lady. Could I invite her over again sometime?”
“Of course.”
Theodore smiled softly.
Theodore loved going out, yet whenever Jane visited, he always remained at the estate.
Rachel had been happy.
Even though it was a political marriage, she truly loved her handsome and gentle husband.
But Theodore did not love Rachel.
He had married her only for money and title.
From the very beginning, he had loved only Jane.
Theodore was the eldest son of the Elrosa County family, and his mother, Berengella, was a rigid and conservative woman. He knew she would never accept Jane, a commoner.
Their obligatory marital relationship ended after the birth of their son, Graham. In recent years, Theodore had not even held Rachel’s hand once.
Oblivious Rachel merely assumed her husband was busy and tired.
As time passed, Theodore and Jane’s affair became increasingly bold.
Eventually, when Graham turned five years old, Rachel witnessed the two of them naked together.
It had been a rare day when she planned to travel alone with Graham. Theodore claimed he was too busy with work to accompany them. Since they would be away, Rachel had also given the butler Carl and the servants time off.
From early morning, nothing went right. Cups shattered, sudden rain poured down, and even the carriage wheel broke for no reason. Then, shortly after departure, Graham suddenly became ill.
Rachel bought medicine from a nearby pharmacy, but he did not improve, forcing them to hurry back home.
Believing no one was at the estate, Rachel spent the late hours alone caring for Graham.
Only around dawn, after his fever finally broke, did she manage to breathe a sigh of relief. Thinking she should at least change clothes, she returned to her bedroom.
That was when she heard them.
“I love you, Jane.”
“I-I love you too!”
On the very bed where Rachel slept every night, Theodore and Jane were entangled together completely naked.
Everything had aligned perfectly, as if prepared in advance, and for the first time Rachel learned of her husband’s affair.
It happened eight years after Theodore and Jane began dating, and seven years after Theodore married Rachel.
“Theo… were you and Jane really that kind of relationship?”
“That kind of relationship? What are you talking about?”
“I-I saw everything! The two of you were… doing that…!”
“Aren’t you mistaken because you were exhausted from taking care of Graham?”
Theodore denied it.
Rachel felt like she was going insane.
The betrayal of the first man she had ever loved—the man she firmly believed loved her back—was unbearably painful.
All Rachel could do was believe Theodore when he insisted it was not true and accept him again.
She desperately wished what she had seen had only been an illusion.
And even if it had been real, she hoped his relationship with Jane had ended there.
It was a foolish hope.
The scent of women’s perfume still clung to Theodore. There were also suspicious holes in the family finances.
Unable to endure it any longer, Rachel finally confronted him.
“I love you, Theo.”
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“Even if ours was a political marriage, I love you. What about you?”
“Me?”
“Do you love me?”
Sadly, Theodore shook his head.
“You’re a good wife. Frugal and kind. You manage the estate and gave birth to a son who will inherit the title. But… I don’t love you. Political marriages are usually like this.”
On the night Rachel discovered the affair, Theodore had whispered “I love you” to Jane.
Yet when Rachel thought back carefully, she realized he had never once said those words to her after their marriage.
Rachel hired someone to investigate Theodore.
Outside the estate, in places that were not even particularly secluded, Theodore and Jane openly acted like lovers.
Apparently, there was no one who didn’t know they were together.
When Rachel asked the investigator how many times the word “love” had come out of their mouths, he replied there had been too many to count.
It was hopeless.
Rachel came to believe her life no longer had meaning, and she hanged herself in Theodore’s bedroom.
It happened the year Graham turned six.
Graham suffered a tremendous shock.
He grew up alone in a vast mansion where neither his mother nor father truly existed for him. He shut the world out. He stopped believing in love.
Eventually, he became a cold and ruthless killer.
Fortunately, Graham later met Lady Dolorosa.
She was warm, persistent, courageous, and upright. Unable to ignore the deeply wounded Graham, she embraced him wholeheartedly.
Her sincere love melted Graham’s frozen heart, and eventually the two became lovers and lived happily ever after.
That was the plot of the novel What Is Love.
Within the story, Rachel’s role was so minor that readers barely even pitied her.
She was simply an excessively kind and fragile woman who could not withstand heartbreak and made a tragic choice. A mother who left Graham with trauma. Nothing more, nothing less.
And now she had reincarnated into that woman’s body.
Her luck truly was terrible.
Before reincarnating, Rachel herself had been closer to Graham’s position.
Her father had cheated, and his mistress tormented her weak mother. She had grown up watching all of it unfold.
She had hated men like that to death, yet of all things, she reincarnated as the wife of a shameless cheater who resembled her father!
It would have been better if she had reincarnated before the marriage so she could break off the engagement with the damn adulterer.
But it was already too late.
Graham had already been born.
And Theodore was currently in the passionate stage of his romance with Jane.
Worse still, tomorrow was the very first day Theodore would bring Jane to the estate.
Well, nothing could be done about that now.
The only option was to make him pay for tainting the sacred bonds of love and marriage while deceiving his wife.
Fortunately, Theodore and Jane underestimated Rachel and carelessly left evidence of their affair everywhere. Preparing for divorce would not be difficult.
However, just as the novel described, the Elrosa County family’s finances were in terrible condition. Even if she divorced now, it would be difficult to properly divide the assets or receive child support.
Rachel had no desire to help Theodore, but before divorcing him, she needed to inspect the estate’s finances first.
“Other people reincarnate and live luxurious lives. Why am I the one suffering like this?”
Late at night, while she was pondering how to deal with her cheating husband—
“Mommy, I need to pee.”
The large door creaked open, and four-year-old Graham walked in. He tightly hugged a soft teddy bear in his arms. The sudden bright light made him squint and rub his eyes with the back of his hand.
This adorable child would later lose his mother and grow into a cruel, vicious killer?
It was impossible to believe.
Rachel quickly stood and took his hand.
“Alright, let’s go. Where’s Marsha?”
“I think she went to sleep. I can’t find her.”
Marsha, Graham’s elderly nanny, was lazy.
She always told Rachel that Graham was difficult to handle and had a terrible temperament.
Rachel had foolishly believed her and thought Marsha worked extremely hard. She even paid her more than double her salary each time.
But after reincarnating into this world, Rachel realized Graham was actually a gentle and sweet child, while Marsha frequently disappeared without properly caring for him.
Rachel planned to observe her for a few more days, gather evidence, and throw her out of the estate.
“Mommy?”
“Ah, sorry. I was distracted for a moment. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.”
“Mhm. It’s scary, so sing for me.”
“Alright, alright.”
Rachel hummed softly while waiting for Graham to finish.
After the sound of handwashing stopped, Graham toddled out of the bathroom.
“I peed and washed my hands really well.”
“Really? Good job, Graham.”
When she praised him, the child grinned happily, his cheeks turning red.
So cute.
Holding his hand, Rachel guided him back to his room and tucked him into bed.
Marsha must have disappeared right after playtime without cleaning anything. The room was a complete mess of toys.
Clicking her tongue quietly so Graham wouldn’t hear, Rachel cleared the bed.
“Mommy, could you come closer for a second? I want to tell you a secret.”
“A secret? What is it?”
Rachel leaned closer, bringing her ear near Graham’s face.
The child suddenly gave her cheek a loud kiss.
“I actually love you very, very much, Mommy.”
Smiling, Rachel whispered back into his ear.
“How did you know? Mommy actually loves Graham very, very much too.”
“Then we’re the same.”
“We are.”
After patting Graham’s head gently, Rachel left the room.
There was one thing just as important as the divorce.
Rachel had absolutely no intention of hanging herself like in the original story, traumatizing Graham, or turning him into a killer.
But that also meant the heroine, Dolorosa, would have no reason to pity Graham.
There was a high possibility the two would never end up together.
That absolutely could not happen.
Graham and Dolorosa suited each other so well.
Looking at Graham’s closed bedroom door, Rachel muttered to herself.
“Don’t worry, Graham. No matter what happens, Mommy will make sure you and Dolorosa end up together.”
Morning came, and Theodore brought his mistress Jane to the estate.
Pretending innocence, Jane greeted her with a bright smile.
“Hello, Countess Rachel. My name is Jane.”
“Rachel, she’s the woman who helped me pick out your gift at the general store last time. She may not have a title, but she comes from a respectable middle-class family. When I talked about you, she said you sounded like such a wonderful person that she wanted to meet you, so I invited her over. That’s alright, isn’t it?”
Theodore had never bought Rachel any gift from a general store.
Apparently, he had mistaken a present meant for Jane as one for his wife.
Looking at her foolish husband, Rachel smiled brightly as well.
“Of course it’s alright. Welcome, Jane. It’s lovely to meet you.”
