IGBD 02

Chapter 2

The man who had painted her past life in misery.

The moment he appeared before her eyes, Sereret lost all reason. She grabbed the neck of the vase holding red roses and charged at Yuan.

All she could think of was killing the man who had killed her. She wanted him to taste the same despair and agony she had suffered.

“Die!”

Crying and screaming, Sereret was completely out of her mind. Did he even know how wretched it was to breathe her last while hearing the sneers of her husband’s mistress?

Sereret raised the vase upside down. The roses inside fell to the floor with a dull thud, scratching her wrist as they slid out.

Water splashed, soaking the sleeves of her nightgown, but Sereret didn’t care.

A scratch from rose thorns or a soaked nightgown—how trivial compared to being poisoned by her husband.

“Die, Yuan Frectuster!”

She slammed the vase down toward Yuan’s head. The vase shattered into pieces, scattering like powdered glass across the floor.

Blood trickled down from Yuan’s forehead. His once flawless face was now smeared in red in an instant.

“Lady Inoheter.”

Yuan’s cold ash-gray eyes fixed on her. A flicker of anger passed across his otherwise expressionless face.

“Young lady!”

Hannah, who had seen Sereret swinging the vase from the doorway, dropped the washbasin she was carrying and rushed forward.

“I hate you, Yuan. No curse in this world could ever be enough for you.”

Sereret spat her hatred at him.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing.”

Even as blood dripped from the gash on his forehead, Yuan did not lose that loathsome aristocratic composure of House Frectuster.

Even the way he dabbed the blood away with his handkerchief looked elegant, as though being struck by his fiancée and bleeding was of no consequence.

The sight only fanned Sereret’s fury. Surely that was the same expression he wore when he handed Lydia the poisoned cup. Sereret’s hands shook as she gripped the jagged shard of the vase.

“Young lady, please hand that over.”

Hannah, face pale, reached her hand out to Sereret.

“Don’t come closer, Hannah. Do you know what that man did to me? He killed me. He poisoned me!”

Sereret sobbed and swung the broken vase wildly.

“M-My lady…”

Terrified, Hannah could not bring herself to intervene and only wrung her hands. To her, her mistress had become an entirely different person overnight.

Just yesterday, Sereret had been brimming with excitement, thrilled at the thought of going to the capital with the Duke.

She had blushed shyly, wondering what clothes His Grace would like. And now this. Hannah was utterly at a loss.

“Was it a dream, perhaps?”

Yuan, discarding his bloodied handkerchief to the floor, approached Sereret.

“Don’t come closer!”

She screamed the words like a banshee.

“My lady, please. This isn’t right. Please, I beg you.”

Hannah was nearly breathless, desperate as she faced her mistress’s strange behavior.

“Don’t come closer, I said!”

Sereret swung again, but her wrist was caught easily by Yuan. With effortless strength, he disarmed her.

“Let go! Let me go!”

She struggled to free her hand from his grasp, but in the chaos her foot came down on a shard of glass.

Too frenzied to notice the cut, she only thrashed harder, trying to break free.

Then Yuan suddenly lifted her off the ground. Trapped in his arms, Sereret kicked and screamed.

“I curse you, Yuan! Every moment I spent with you was hell!”

In her past life, Sereret had loved Yuan. He had been a cold husband, but still—he was her husband, the man who had chosen her.

So she had given him all her heart, treasured him with all her being. And in return, she received only the bitterest betrayal.

“If you meant to kill me, you should have handed me the cup yourself. Did you really have to mock my final moments like that?”

You’ll never know what it was like, closing my eyes with Lydia standing there, watching. That humiliation—you’ll never know.

Overcome with rage, Sereret clung to Yuan’s collar as he set her down on the bed.

She raged and raved like a madwoman, until Yuan grabbed both her wrists and pinned them to the bed. He leaned his weight over her legs to keep her still, staring down at her.

“It feels like I’m the one being mocked here, Lady Inoheter.”

Those indifferent eyes, devoid of emotion. Seeing them again, Sereret’s grief burst forth.

That was always how he looked at her. Never with affection, but as though she were just another piece of furniture.

“I didn’t want to die. Not when I had my child….”

Tears rolled from her blue eyes, glistening like sapphires in the light.

Yuan’s brows twitched. For the first time, his gray eyes wavered, filled with puzzlement.

“I hate you. You’re vile. Revolting. Disgusting.”

Even shedding tears before him felt like a waste. Choking down her sobs, Sereret spat directly in his face.

“My lady!”

Hannah’s horrified scream pierced the room. Yuan straightened slowly, wiping his face with the back of his hand, calm as ever.

“Your Grace, please, I beg you. My lady has been feverish since last night—she isn’t in her right mind.”

Hannah fell to her knees before Yuan, pressing her forehead to the floor, trembling all over.

At that moment, Baron Inoheter entered with the butler’s support, his face aghast.

“What on earth is going on here!”

His gaze swept across the wrecked room, over Yuan’s bloodied forehead, then to Hannah prostrated on the floor.

Finally, his eyes landed on Sereret, collapsed in tears upon the bed. He could not make sense of it, his expression wavering.

“Father.”

The moment their eyes met, Sereret ran desperately to him. Since her marriage, she hadn’t seen his face once—only exchanged letters, her longing building like a mountain.

Throwing herself into his arms, she cried, “Father, I missed you. I missed you so, so much.”

“Sereret?”

Baron Inoheter, bewildered, patted her back as his eyes darted between Yuan and Hannah.

Yuan stared with his usual cold expression, while Hannah bowed low, close to tears.

“Father, I’m going to break off the engagement.”

Pulling away, Sereret declared firmly.

She could not live that life again. The wedding had not happened yet—she could still change everything.

“What?”

Her father’s brows furrowed.

“I will not marry that wretched man.”

She turned to face Yuan.

Their gazes clashed in the air. Yuan’s lips curved in a faint, mocking smirk.

“Let’s take this conversation downstairs. Lady Inoheter appears to be in need of medical attention.”

He glanced down at her injured foot as he spoke.

“Father, I want to annul the engagement. Please, grant me this. I beg you.”

Sereret clung desperately to her father. She could not bear to repeat that torment again.

Please, don’t make me relive that pain, Father. Her eyes shone with desperate pleading.

“Let’s go.”

Yuan, his gaze dry and dismissive, addressed the Baron.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Troubled, Baron Inoheter gently pried his daughter off and allowed the butler to guide him out with Yuan.

“Father, don’t listen to a word he says! He poisoned me! He hid my child from me, humiliated me with his mistress!”

“Oh, Sereret…”

Her frantic words made the Baron clutch his head, seeing only a daughter raving like a madwoman.

“My lady.”

Hannah stomped her feet, flustered by Sereret’s continued outbursts.

“You don’t believe me either? Hannah, you don’t believe me?”

Sereret looked between them both. Their expressions—seeing her as nothing but deranged—made her falter.

Of course. None of it had happened yet. To them, she sounded like a lunatic.

At best, they’d think she was feverish.

“Let’s go.”

Yuan spoke again, his face unreadable, as though suggesting a rational discussion.

Sereret latched onto that look with hope. Surely now, he would suggest breaking the engagement with a fiancée gone mad.

Yes. Let them all think she was insane—it only worked to her advantage.

“We’ll talk later, Sereret.”

Baron Inoheter, with the butler’s support, left the room with Yuan.

“My lady, why on earth did you do that!”

The moment they were gone, Hannah scolded her in exasperation.

“Isn’t it wonderful, Hannah? I don’t have to live that hell again.”

Sereret, relief plain on her face, walked back toward the bed.

“Ah.”

Pain shot through her foot.

She hadn’t even noticed the injury earlier in her frenzy. Now it throbbed sharply.

“You’re hurt! Let me take a look.”

Hannah helped her sit and knelt at her feet. Examining the sole of her foot, she found a shallow cut from glass. Thankfully, it wasn’t deep.

“I’m sorry, Hannah.”

Sereret’s voice softened as she looked at the maid who had begged on her knees to save her. Gratitude and guilt welled in her chest.

As Hannah tended to her, Sereret recalled her previous life.

Back then, the Duke’s servants had favored Lydia far more than her, as if Lydia were the true mistress of the house.

One day, when the taste of her tea suddenly changed, Sereret asked the maid about it. The girl had replied coolly:

“Lady Elliot said that blend was too bitter, so the head maid switched it.”

And that was that—her favorite tea was gone, erased with a single word from Lydia.

No matter how much she asked the head maid to bring back her tea, nothing changed.

How bitter and lonely it had been, to have even food and drink tailored to another’s taste.

With a faint, wistful smile, Sereret looked down at Hannah’s worried face.

“We should treat this quickly. Please stay still.”

Hannah hurried out, returning soon with ointment and bandages. She cleaned the blood, applied ointment, and wrapped the wound.

Then, noticing the scratches on Sereret’s wrist from the rose thorns, Hannah sighed.

“Your arm is injured too.”

“So it is.”

“If His Grace demands an explanation about breaking the engagement, just say you had a fever and weren’t in your right mind.”

Hannah carefully applied ointment to her wrist as she spoke, her voice full of worry.

“Hannah, what I want is to break the engagement. If he says it’s over, I’ll be so happy I’ll dance naked in joy.”

“My lady, that’s improper!”

Hannah widened her eyes in shock.

Sereret only chuckled at her reaction.

At that moment, Yuan’s unwelcome voice drifted from the doorway.

“It would certainly be amusing to see, but that will not happen, Lady Inoheter.”