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Chapter 4.
The First Counterattack
Wendy stared at Cecilia with wide eyes, then burst into a giggle.
“Oh, my dear Miss. You must be incredibly nervous?”
Wendy nodded as if she understood.
But Cecilia was genuinely flustered.
She cleared her throat and asked again.
“T-then how old am I now?”
“Pardon? You’re twenty-two, Miss!”
“T-twenty-two?”
She had been twenty-seven before she died.
Cecilia quickly searched Wendy’s expression.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of play or jest on her face.
The wedding with Evan, Wendy, her age…
The more she pieced it together, the clearer one fact became.
“Good heavens…”
Cecilia murmured blankly.
Without a doubt, she had returned to five years ago.
And right before her wedding to Evan, no less.
Should I just run away now?
Cecilia seriously considered it.
If she stayed, wouldn’t she just repeat that miserable life?
Besides, the horrific pain was still vivid.
It felt as though this were her last chance to flee.
…No.
But Cecilia soon shook her head.
If I run now, I’ll be the only one branded a madwoman.
There could hardly be a more sensational scandal than a new bride fleeing her own wedding.
The truly wicked ones were someone else, and it was far too unfair for her alone to be pointed at.
“Cecilia. You said you love me. Then can’t you love my child, too?”
“Is dying at your friend’s hands your way of following your parents?”
The words she had heard from Evan and Rosena just before her death were etched into her heart.
On top of the humiliation she had suffered, there was the truth behind her parents’ deaths…
Knowing all of this, she couldn’t simply slink away alone like a coward.
If I’m going to be covered in mud anyway, I’ll drag Evan and Rosena into it with me.
Yes, she couldn’t back down like this.
She would pay them back in kind.
Cecilia gripped her bouquet tightly in her lace-gloved hands.
A great many guests had gathered at the grand wedding hall.
Though he was of common birth, Evan was a promising young businessman.
Since he had taken great pains to manage his reputation, the guest list was quite sizable.
Haah…
Just before the entrance, behind the doors, Cecilia exhaled deeply.
Soon the music announcing the bride’s entrance rang out, and the doors opened.
Countless gazes turned at once toward the aisle.
Taking those gazes in with her whole body, Cecilia stepped forward slowly.
Her heart began to beat faster and faster.
Stay calm. I can’t waver now.
Suppressing the urge to run out right then, Cecilia put on a composed expression.
Just then, a familiar face entered her field of vision.
…Rosena.
She was clapping, smiling brightly as always.
Beside her sat Viscount Osborn and his wife.
Cecilia’s face almost twisted in an instant.
She wanted to scream right there on the spot.
That they were murderers.
But Cecilia gritted her teeth and held it in.
She reminded herself that she still had no evidence and tried to calm her heart.
Unaware of her feelings, Rosena met Cecilia’s eyes and mouthed silently.
Con-grat-u-la-tions.
Even this was exactly the same as five years ago.
Haah…
In the past, she too had nodded and answered Rosena’s congratulations.
Foolishly, without knowing that her husband’s child was in that belly.
How laughable I must have looked, grinning so innocently.
Cecilia turned her gaze away with a cold expression.
Rosena’s flustered hand froze, but Cecilia had already passed her by.
Evan was waiting at the end of the aisle.
He took Cecilia’s hand with a rapturous expression.
“Leah, today you’re the most beautiful woman in the world.”
He whispered shyly in her ear.
The old Cecilia would have been endlessly thrilled by this.
But now she knew it was all an act.
“…”
“Leah?”
When Cecilia gave no reply, Evan looked puzzled.
But soon the priest officiating the ceremony stepped forward, and Evan naturally turned his gaze away.
In the solemn atmosphere, the sacred marriage vows proceeded.
“Evan March, do you take Cecilia Fanning as your wife, and vow to love and cherish her for life?”
“Yes! I do!”
Evan answered as if he’d been waiting for it.
The priest’s gaze turned to Cecilia.
“Cecilia Fanning, do you take Evan March as your husband, and vow to love and cherish him for life?”
“…”
But there was no answer from Cecilia.
At the lengthening silence, Evan turned to her in confusion, and the guests began to murmur.
“Lady Cecilia?”
The priest called her again.
Only then did Cecilia slowly open her mouth.
“I…”
Everyone held their breath, awaiting the new bride’s answer.
“I will not go through with this marriage.”
But the shocking answer, so unlike what they expected, froze the hall in an instant.
Evan’s face twisted in bewilderment.
Cecilia, however, was smiling quietly.
She called out so that everyone could hear her clearly.
“Because Lady Rosena is carrying Evan March’s child.”
At Cecilia’s unflinching exposé, the wedding hall went quiet as if doused in cold water.
Even the priest was speechless and could only stare at her blankly.
“N-no, that’s not true!”
Just then, a horrified voice rang out from the guest seats.
Rosena sprang to her feet, her face pale.
“Leah! What are you saying all of a sudden? How could you say something so insulting?”
“Y-yes! Even as a joke, this is going too far! Rosie isn’t even married yet!”
Rosena, her eyes welling with tears, played the wronged victim, and Evan, who had been merely opening and closing his mouth, joined in.
The guests looked back and forth between the three of them in confusion.
They had only come to celebrate a wedding and had been dragged into a scandal of passion, leaving them all dumbfounded.
Evan grabbed Cecilia’s arm and tried to turn her toward him.
“Cecilia, a joke is one thing, but—”
Thwack!
But at that moment, Cecilia kicked Evan’s shin with all her might.
Evan, who had been raising his voice and spraying spit, tumbled straight to the floor.
Startled screams erupted from guests all around.
“Aaagh! What do you think you’re doing!”
Evan clutched his leg, rolling around on the floor and screaming.
Cecilia looked down at him coldly.
“You trash.”
She spat out the words, then looked around her.
The hall was in chaos.
Evan was rolling on the floor, making a great show of his pain, and the murmuring of the guests grew louder.
“It’s not true! I’m not pregnant! I swear it before heaven!”
And Rosena was desperately denying the pregnancy.
It was a frantic attempt to wriggle out of it somehow.
You won’t get out of it that easily.
Cecilia smiled composedly and spoke loudly, enunciating each word.
“Then shall we confirm it right here, right now? If we call a skilled midwife or physician to examine you, we’ll know soon enough.”
“L-Leah…”
“What do you think? Surely it makes for a far better spectacle than a boring wedding.”
Rosena’s face turned white.
Her body had indeed begun to change since the pregnancy.
If she were examined, the pregnancy would be exposed in no time.
No, in the first place, Cecilia’s single remark had already laid everything bare for all to see.
I was going to hide the pregnancy and find a match as quickly as possible…!
The guests eyed Rosena with suspicion.
Once they left this wedding hall, news of her pregnancy would surely spread throughout society.
Rosena was trapped, unable to move forward or back.
Cecilia smiled in triumph as she watched Rosena tremble.
“Move.”
Cecilia stepped over Evan, who was still lying there, and walked out with her head held high.
She had no more reason to stay.
“C-Cecilia! Stop right there!”
Evan cried out frantically behind her, but Cecilia didn’t look back.
Her mind held only one thought: to quickly throw off this shackle of a wedding dress.
A red-brick apartment building in the city.
It was where Cecilia and Evan’s newlywed home would have been.
But having stormed out of the wedding hall, she had come here alone.
“I never thought I’d see this house again.”
Cecilia murmured quietly.
This place, too, was exactly as she remembered it from her past life.
The placement of the furniture, the color of the curtains, even the faint dusty smell unique to the old wooden floor.
“Phew…”
After a brief look around, Cecilia immediately began packing her things.
There wasn’t much to take.
Most of what was in this house had been bought by Evan, who had swaggered about it.
But it was only a cheap shared residence with shabby furniture, so she felt no attachment.
But there’s something I absolutely have to take.
Cecilia opened a small drawer in the vanity and rummaged inside.
Then she pulled out a small box that caught on her fingertips.
