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Chapter 27
‘I want the Duke to always be happy.’
Who knew that such a woman would abandon him so easily…?
“Excuse me, master.”
The servant who approached him carefully opened his mouth.
“Did you see him?”
Kyle mumbled softly as if to himself.
“He looks pretty much like Rosalind. Therefore…”
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He was tired, perhaps because he drank too much. Kyle thought carefully as he pressed his thumb and the tips of his index fingers to his eyelids.
If he isn’t his child… Wouldn’t it be fine if she left?
He burst out laughing at the sudden thought.
Crazy, he was finally crazy…
Even while he was pitying himself, Rosalind’s face kept coming to mind. When he closed his eyes, she was so bright, yet also hazy as if, on the one hand, he could never reach.
“I need to find out. Is there any part that resembles me?”
He seemed a bit similar to him.
Kyle wondered if it was his child by judging the age by his size and behavior, though Rosalind’s eyes were so serious that she said she had been with another man, and he wasn’t sure.
After Kyle ordered the servant to investigate Leo, he reached out and accepted the documents he had previously ordered.
“Is this the document?”
Kyle raised his pen with an expressionless face and signed it. In fact, he was intoxicated, so the content did not catch his eye. Nonetheless, it didn’t matter because the details were not important documents, anyway.
Rosalind watched the servants come and go with a puzzled look. The servants who entered the room were carrying expensive furniture as big as their bodies, and the maids were diligently moving with small, shiny things.
Knowing that the destination of those sincere steps was outside, Rosalind asked Helen.
“…What is all this?”
Helen hesitated at the sight of Rosalind asking to explain something, then slowly opened her mouth.
“…I decided to put up for sale items in the house at the auction. Things are still not resolved…”
“Why? You said it before. It’s almost resolved.”
Although she didn’t mention it directly, it was quite predictable that it had something to do with her father’s embezzlement. However, she remembered being told back then that they should pay a fine.
With a puzzled expression on her face, Rosalind stared at her mother silently.
“It worked out by paying huge fines. But, I didn’t have that much money, so I decided to borrow money from someone I knew and sell it to pay it off. I have to pay the fine right now, but it doesn’t work…”
After her father spit out all the unfairly acquired profits during the intense investigation, their living conditions were not as good as before, so she did not have enough money to pay a huge fine.
Helen was completely uninterested in outside affairs, so she had no idea what her husband was doing or how it got to this point. First of all, borrowing money from a suitable place and paying the fine was the only option she had.
“Borrowed money…? From whom?”
She glanced at Helen with a look that she couldn’t believe. She lowered her head, saying she had nothing to say.
“Well, that’s it… I happen to know someone…”
As she hesitated and barely opened her mouth, an innocent voice crept between the two of them.
“Mom!”
Rosalind smiled brightly and stretched her arms towards her son. Leo, who was holding the maid’s hand, rushed to his mother’s arms and hugged her.
After that, he asked with a bright sun shining brightly in his eyes.
“What is a fine?”
Leo was mature for his age and was very talkative. He was also taller than his age, so people thought he was older than his actual age.
At his sudden question, Rosalind smiled awkwardly and turned her back.
“Um, well, shall we play search and play with mom later?”
“Yes! Great.”
The search game was a game to find the hiding Leo, and it was his favorite game. So, there was a lot of excitement in his voice as he nodded in response.
“Wait a minute. I’ll finish talking with Grandmother.”
After calming Leo once, Rosalind continued the conversation.
As she listened to this and that, she asked how much the debt was. After a few murmurs, Helen slowly opened her mouth.
“About 300,000 gold.”
For that fairly large sum, Rosalind covered her mouth without realizing it.
“I’m going to try to get a high price at auction for now.”
Her mother responded in a weak voice, and Rosalind took a deep breath.
Haa. She didn’t know what to do, and she was at a loss. Even though she knew it wasn’t her fault, she had been away from home for a long time, and a sense of self-blame came over her that it might have been her fault.
At the very least, how she wished she could have stayed by her mother’s side when things like this happened. To her mother, who had gathered the courage to take her side, she felt heartbroken as if she had not done anything right.
Her father’s embezzlement, investigation, and misdemeanor… Rosalind couldn’t figure out where the hell was going wrong. The collapse of the strong family was much faster than expected.
She then took a deep breath and watched the servants carrying the luggage.
Leo asked again.
“What about the search game?”
She struggled, but her body did not move willingly because of her stuffy heart. She just replied, “Wait a minute.”
Even her mother, who was sitting next to her, left, and Leo, who had been sitting next to her, left with the maid and servants to play after moving their belongings.
“…Young madam, you have a visitor.”
“Visitor?”
Rosalind looked at the maid, puzzled.
‘Who was going to come to see me? No way…’
And, the moment she doubted, the voice of the maid continued.
“Duke Spencer is here.”
“Tell him no.”
“…He is already in front of the room.”
“What? Who let him in?”
Hearing that, she asked, frowning her brows as if absurd.
“The Elder Madam…”
Ha. Rosalind let out a long sigh, and she opened her mouth again.
“I’m sorry, but tell him to go back…”
Before she could utter her words, Kyle entered with the sound of the door opening with a bang. She kept a cold expression on her face, even though she was surprised to see her husband coming to see her again.
Rosalind gave orders to the maid in a voice that was not agitated in the slightest. Her words were aimed towards the maid, but by all accounts, she was speaking to Kyle.
“Take the Duke outside.”
“Rosalind, long time no see.”
He bent over to meet Leo’s eyes, who was in her arms. There was a soft smile on the tip of his rolled-up mouth.
“Hi. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the little gentlemen. Didn’t we see each other that time? What’s your name, Young Master?”
“It’s Leo.”
Seeing her husband tenderly speaking to him, Rosalind hastily pulled Leo into her arms and hugged him deeper.
“Stuffy,” Leo squealed as she clasped him tightly, though she only held the child in her arms with a stronger hand.
“Don’t talk to Leo.”
It was like an animal that protects its young from wild beasts, and it was a face full of desperation and nervousness.
“Who is the father of the child?”
Suddenly, Kyle asked Rosalind. Without a word, she called the maid and left her with Leo.
“Take Leo to another room for a while…”
“Why do you care so much about the child? Like someone who doesn’t want to show it to me.”
Rosalind paused for a moment as if stabbed by the word, what nonsense, and she sent Leo out.
There was a bluntness in his smirking voice as though it was a really unreasonable thing. In the past, she would not have been able to pretend so skillfully and her days as a mother made her a little brazen and a lot stronger.
Kyle took the maid’s hand and looked at Leo as she left, then shifted his gaze back to Rosalind.
“I’ve come all the way here, can’t I get a cup of tea?”
“Yes. As you can see, I’m not in a position to entertain anything right now. The situation is so bad that we have to sell all of our teacups as well as expensive items.”
“Well. It’s okay if you don’t put it in a teacup.”
A calm voice rang out as if a little bitter.
“I have nothing to offer you, be it a teacup or tea. So, please go.”
“The Marchioness has given me permission to be in this room.”
As he responds quickly, Rosalind swallows her breath briefly, without a word.
The voice of her mother, who said, “He is the father of the child,” came to mind, and it was immediately possible to guess why her mother had brought Kyle into this room.
It was very embarrassing to see her husband. It reminded her of the foolishly innocent self of the past, it reminded her of the feelings of that time, and she had to worry that maybe he might be interested in her son…
“Then, let me go.”
As she stood up from her seat, Rosalind could hear a knock on the door outside. The door then opened, and the maid served tea on a tray.
Rosalind’s face frowned in wonder and amazement.
“Why is the tea suddenly…”
“The Elder Madam…”
Her mother again. Rosalind closed her eyes as if confused by the maid’s voice, which trailed off her words. She took a deep breath, covering her face with her palms.
With her eyes closed, Kyle’s voice echoed in her ear.
A calm and mournful voice rang in her ears.
“…What are you doing when I am not around? I thought of you every day. You’ve definitely left me, and I know that better than anyone… Strangely, you never let me go. My wife, who had held me tight, left me now.”
“I don’t know what you mean. I’ve never held the Duke before.”
“You came out of my dreams, you came out even if I drank alcohol, you came out even if I didn’t drink, and you came out of my very little daily life.”
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Those words sounded like he had not forgotten her the whole time.
“Rosalind, I will never forget you.”
At his words, she slowly opened her eyes and gazed at Kyle.
“…No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t forget you.”
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