Chapter 37
“…… Divorce?”
Richard repeated the word back to Elisha, and his eyes that had been friendly just a moment earlier had become cold.
Elisha slightly faltered when she saw his chilly gaze but quickly regained her composure and continued speaking.
“We were going to divorce after 8 years of marriage anyway.”
“…… .”
“Back then, I promised to leave the dukedom after 8 years.”
“……Is it that bastard?”
Richard spat out words that she had not expected.
Elisha didn’t know who ‘that bastard’ was, so she tilted her head to look up at him with bewildered eyes.
“Ansel Arden. Don’t tell me you’re trying to remarry with that bastard.”
In Richard’s eyes, there seemed to be malice and murder frozen in their depths.
At the unexpected mention of Ansel’s name, Elisha was puzzled.
‘Why is he bringing up Ansel’s name here?’
There was no doubt that he was severely misunderstanding something.
Before this situation got any worse, Elisha quickly tried to fix the misunderstandings.
“Ansel is just a friend to me. The reason I’m asking for a divorce is because of the promise from 8 years earlie-”
“I don’t remember that promise.”
Richard cut off Elisha’s sentence.
To be honest, he remembered the promise from 8 years earlier very clearly.
There was no way that he couldn’t remember.
It was precisely because he remembered that promise, he had won the war quickly and returned back to the dukedom while ignoring the Emperor’s wishes.
It was because he was worried that when Elisha became an adult, she would just divorce and leave him.
Thankfully, Elisha had stayed beside him without a complaint, and Richard was relieved by this.
He thought that she had forgotten about the promise and that she had a change of heart about staying in Rubelin.
That was until Elisha brought up divorce just a little while earlier.
‘…… I was too complacent.’
He already suspected that she didn’t have any feelings for him when she called what happened ‘that night’ an accident.
But suspecting it and actually hearing those words were extremely different.
The moment the word ‘divorce’ had left her mouth, his heart had stopped.
Because it meant that Elisha didn’t want to stay by his side anymore. Because it meant that she didn’t have anything close to romantic feelings for him.
He was turned away before he was even able to confess his feelings. He had no intention of letting her go yet.
Richard spoke to her in a low voice that sounded like he was growling at her.
“So, I don’t want the divorce.”
“Richar-”
“No, I really can’t.”
At Richard’s unexpected reaction, Elisha stared up at him with surprised eyes.
Richard cupped Elisha’s cheeks in his hands and tilted her head to match her eyes with his.
“You are my wife and the mistress of Rubelin. And it will continue to be this way.”
The hands that were holding Elisha’s cheeks were warm and soft, but he seemed to exude a certain coldness that she had never felt before. He was so calmly persistent with his words at that moment, that it was almost scary.
As if he was trying to tie her down with his eyes.
Elisha found that she was unable to say anything to Richard. She was only able to gape at him.
Richard saw the fear in Elisha’s eyes and swept away the hair from his forehead with a sigh. He hadn’t meant to scare her.
His fierce eyes softened a bit.
“…… It’s pretty late. Go and sleep for today.”
Richard walked Elisha to her room to drop her off.
Elisha was dazed as she was pulled along by Richard to her room, but before he could close her door and walk away, Elisha called out to him.
“Richard.”
“Sleep well.”
But he closed the door before Elisha could say anything more. It almost felt like he was trying to trap her inside her room.
As if he was scared that she was going to run away.
It was like he was running away because he was scared that she might run away.
“…… .”
Elisha blankly stared at the closed door.
‘Why is he so mad?’
She didn’t expect him to divorce her cheerfully, but she didn’t think that he would refuse the idea of divorce so much.
‘I just picked an option that would make everyone happy…… .’
Elisha looked at the closed door and then looked down at her stomach a few times and then placed her hand over her stomach as if she was caressing it.
It would be too troublesome if she said anything more for today.
The next day, it was close to lunchtime when Elisha finally woke up.
“Madam, are you feeling better today?”
Anne, who had been waiting for Elisha to wake up, came over to Elisha and asked about her health.
“I’m fine.”
Actually, she had a splitting headache, but she lied that she was okay.
It wasn’t like the headache would disappear if she said the truth, and she would only worry Anne by telling her.
“Should I bring you your meal?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Elisha lied down again and waited for Anne to bring her meal. Because she hadn’t eaten anything, she was more nauseous than usual.
Before long, Anne returned with Elisha’s food.
A biscuit that had been baked with only a light sprinkle of salt and without any additional scents or seasonings, a ginger tea that was good for relieving morning sickness, soft bread, and fresh salad was placed on her bed table.
“And I brought this just in case you are able to eat this.”
Anne went over to a nearby table and brought over a bowl of cream of mushroom soup.
“Urk… … .”
But contrary to Anne’s hopes, Elisha started to feel extremely nauseous as soon as she smelled the soup. Even though the soup had been one of her favorites in the past.
When she saw Elisha’s reaction, Anne quickly cleared away the soup.
When she finally calmed down, Elisha took a sip of her ginger tea and picked up her bread.
But as soon as she picked up the bread, the overwhelming scent of butter started to overstimulate her sense of smell.
“Ugh……!”
“M- Madam!”
Anne got up in a hurry and quickly brought over a nearby bucket. She had prepared it just in case Elisha’s morning sickness got particularly bad.
Elisha emptied out her stomach’s contents after only a few bites of food. Her insides felt bitter and irritated because of everything that was coming up, and the process of vomiting was so painful that she couldn’t help but shed a few tears.
She had tried to eat some food for nutrition, but she really couldn’t eat anymore.
In the end, she was only able to eat a few bites of the biscuit. Because she hadn’t eaten anything else, her body shook from a lack of strength.
Elisha laid down in bed with a splitting headache and a weak body.
‘But I have something to do today……’
She had wanted to read more books about the family’s power and go on a long walk in the garden, but because she had no strength in her body, she couldn’t do anything.
She was in pain because of her headache and she felt nauseous even when she was just lying down.
Anne was unable to stay calm as she saw how sick Elisha was.
“Madam, you’re going to be the death of me…… .”
“…… It’s fine. After all, nobody has ever died from morning sickness.”
“Should I go to that doctor from before and get some medicine for morning sickness?”
Elisha didn’t even have the strength to say anything, so she just nodded her head.
She didn’t expect that the medicine would actually help her morning sickness, but at this point, she was willing to try almost anything.
Anne got up from her seat to go get the medicine for Elisha.
At that moment, somebody knocked on the door.
“Elisha.”
It was Richard’s voice.
Elisha heard his voice and was surprised.
‘Doesn’t he have work today?’
After she had come to the dukedom, she found that normally at this point in time, Richard would have already left for work. But today, for some reason, he had come to find her.
A puzzled Elisha lifted her strengthless body.
She couldn’t show him how sick she actually was. Anne quickly went over to Elisha and walked her over to the front of the door.
Elisha quickly fixed her wrinkled clothes and messy hair and tried to look the most natural as she possibly could before she opened the door.
The unmistakably handsome man waited for her in front of the door.
“Is anything the matter?”
“I just wanted to ask if you wanted to eat lunch with me if you haven’t already.”
“Oh…… . I’m sorry. I woke up pretty late today, so I just finished breakfast.”
Richard looked at Elisha with worried eyes.
Elisha realized that Richard was checking over her condition with his eyes.
Recently, she had been pretty sick when he was around, and he had always been worried for her.
Elisha forced a wary smile to her face and hid the pain from him. Richard looked at Elisha for a moment and then made another proposal.
“Then how about we go visit the suburbs together after lunch. It’s probably uncomfortable to stay inside for so long.”
Richard had firmly made up his mind to spend time with her on a date today. To make up for what had happened last night.
But Anne, who had been listening to the conversation, only narrowed her eyes.
‘Madam is suffering and can’t even eat because of a certain somebody……!’
Anne couldn’t believe that he wanted to go out with someone who didn’t even have the strength to walk.
Of course, Anne knew that Richard hadn’t made that proposal knowing Elisha’s condition.
But she didn’t like how Richard didn’t even know that Elisha was pregnant, along with a medley of other things.
However, as if Elisha was having a hard time declining Richard two times, Elisha accepted the second proposal.
“Okay, sure.”
“I’ll come to get you after lunch.”
“Yep. Have a good lunch.”
Richard turned around to make his way back.
At that moment, he looked back, past Elisha’s shoulders, and glanced inside her room.
On the table, there was a steaming bowl of soup, as if it hadn’t been eaten.
When he saw the bowl of uneaten soup, Richard narrowed his eyes.