Chapter 258
Nova, who had been held in Mathilde’s arms, also clutched her cheeks in terror.
“Mama…! Nova’s mama…!”
Mama had just woken up, and now she had fallen asleep again. Nova hadn’t even said hello yet. If Mama fell asleep again now, how long would she have to wait this time?
“…Waaah!”
“L-Lady Nova!”
Nova, who had waited with remarkable patience for a three-year-old, now burst into sorrowful tears. Clearly, that man couldn’t be her ‘Papa’. If he were her Papa, he wouldn’t have let Mama fall asleep again.
Even the claim that he saved Mama when she fell into the lake must’ve been a lie.
“Bring Mama baaack, Mamaaa…!”
As the child wailed calling out for Freesia, and Izar sat dumbfounded, holding his unconscious wife, what should’ve been a reunion for the three became chaos in an instant.
***
Fortunately, Freesia regained consciousness a few hours after fainting by the underground lake.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the ceiling of the bedroom. Seeing something familiar upon waking brought unexpected relief.
As soon as her mind cleared, Freesia raised her still-weak body and looked up at Mathilde.
“Mathilde… Nova—”
“Mama!”
The moment Nova heard her mother calling for her, she jumped down from the maid’s arms like a shot.
“Nova…”
Freesia held the child’s face and choked up.
When she had first awakened, the child had been nowhere in sight. And judging by her swollen, tear-stained cheeks, she had cried hard earlier.
“My beloved Nova. When did you grow so much?”
“Hehe…”
“Come here. Let Mama hold you.”
“Mamaaa…”
Freesia gathered the giggling child into her arms.
The last time she saw Nova, she had only just started to babble. But now she was toddling around like a little doll.
‘You’ve grown so much in the blink of an eye…’
Time that had passed without her knowing weighed heavily on her heart, casting deep shadows beneath her pale lashes.
Though she was her mother, she hadn’t been by her side every day. And whatever had happened to Nova while she slept, she could only learn about it through someone else’s words.
Even so, perhaps out of instinct, Nova clung to her, eyes sparkling brightly.
“Mama, Nova listened to everything you said.”
“Really? You got along well with Uncle and Mathilde?”
“Yup!”
Having completely forgotten about the times she bawled and troubled the two adults, Nova answered her mother’s question with a radiant smile.
Truthfully, even if Nova had been a handful, Freesia saw her daughter as nothing less than perfect.
Unlike her own childhood, Nova had been raised in love, a radiant child untouched by life’s hardships.
Perhaps that one year she had returned to Izar was for this very moment, to see Nova again.
‘If I had accepted death thinking that, it would’ve been perfect…’
But life seemed determined not to give Freesia any such easy ending.
Still holding Nova tightly in both arms, she turned a piercing glare at the man who had just stepped through the door.
Seeing Izar in the bright light… he looked—inescapably familiar, even with the passage of time.
‘He’s become just like that man now.’
When she had first returned to his side three years ago, he had been consumed with fire for his family’s honor. But now, Izar had become the man from those final days, cold-spoken, eyes unreadable, sunken into darkness.
Just thinking of the man she had spent her last days with made her nerves bristle with fear.
“Why… did you come here?”
“……”
“Izar.”
When Freesia asked, holding Nova even tighter, Izar couldn’t hold back and furrowed his brow. He had longed desperately for her to awaken, and the first thing she said to him was rejection.
〈I didn’t want this!〉
Izar clenched his fist so tightly his nails dug into his palm. Their time together was far too limited. There was no way he could leave it like this.
“Is it so strange… that I came here to find my wife and daughter?”
“……”
“I—have been searching for you. How…”
As Izar spoke, breath quickening with emotion, Freesia, staring at him, turned her gaze away.
She had heard stories that the duke had gone mad searching for her and Nova. That after her funeral, he had shattered her empty coffin with a sword.
When Mathilde told her that, chills had run down her spine.
〈He… did something like that?〉
〈Yes, Your Highness. It’s said the whole capital was talking about it at the time.〉
〈……〉
She had hoped—yes, that the man would cry at her funeral.
But she had imagined a quiet, composed sorrow.
That Izar had completely lost his reason and rampaged like that, it was hard to believe. Especially a man who had always valued the honor of his house, to act that way in front of the Emperor and all the nobles of the capital.
When she heard that, she had felt a strange flutter in her chest. But now, such feelings were meaningless.
“…Even for our daughter, yes. I can understand that. It’s entirely possible you would search for her.”
Freesia stroked Nova’s now-silent back and whispered.
“But Izar. The bond between us ended the day I left.”
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