For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 175

Magnus swallowed hard as he looked at his father’s face.

During his years at the Academy, his father’s condition had clearly worsened. The last time he’d visited during break, the stony marks hadn’t crept past his father’s collar—but now…

At this rate, by the end of the year…

There was a real chance the head of the Napier family would be replaced soon. The thought left Magnus feeling faint.

This curse, which slowly turned the body to stone, had first appeared in their family centuries ago.

The Napiers had always struggled with infertility, but even the rare children who were born grew up frail. And if they managed to survive infancy, somewhere around their coming-of-age, the first signs of petrification would begin to appear on their bodies.

If only it was something simple, like an oozing wound or a scar.

But instead, their skin would slowly harden and turn gray, pocked with tiny holes like porous rock—an unsettling sight.

What an absurd fate for a family so devoted to art…

“My son, I don’t have much time left.”

His father said, lips moving with difficulty. For now, he could still speak, but in a few months, even that might be impossible.

“Most girls your age have already made their debut in society.”

“…”

“So if there’s anyone you care for, you should pursue her before it’s too late.”

“And you want me to end up like Mother, don’t you?”

His father fell silent at that, and it wasn’t just because his body was hardening. Magnus knew better.

Publicly, Magnus was known as the only son of the Napier family. But he’d once had siblings. They’d all died, one after another, from the same wretched curse. And his graceful mother—she’d been too delicate to withstand it all.

Instead of celebrating Magnus, the sole survivor, she’d been consumed by the dread of what the future might bring.

“I survived, but what did it change for her?”

“….”

“She spent her whole life worrying I’d fall sick and die just like the others, and it broke her.”

His biting reply left his father silent.

Hands clasped behind his back, Magnus stared down at the floor.

Will he snap back at me, accuse me of wanting the family line to end?

Normally, he would have dutifully accepted any wishes of his proud, noble father. So why did this conversation bother him so much?

The answer was clear.

It’s because I brought up Eugenie Norton.

All those years at the Academy, Magnus had been constantly irritated by her. She couldn’t even manage to tie her own necktie properly, always wearing those daisy-print socks in violation of the dress code… Eugenie Norton was the very embodiment of everything he found grating and unrefined. She stood for everything he wasn’t.

And yet, she was always on his mind.

Why did Carter Livingston’s provocations, whenever they involved Norton, get under his skin so badly?

“So what then, Magnus? Are you refusing to start a family at all?”

“….”

“Even if you do find someone, would you really never tell her how you feel?”

Magnus’ mouth tightened at the mournful question.

Confess my feelings to someone I care about?

He and Eugenie Norton had bickered for years—never mind all that.

“You married Mother, but all it brought her was misery in the end, didn’t it?”

“Magnus…”

“And please, don’t tell me that if someone truly loves me, she’ll accept me as I am.”

He stared at his father’s face—half ruined by the curse.

He did love and respect his family. But even so, seeing his father like this filled him with a deep, almost instinctive revulsion. He knew it wasn’t an admirable feeling, but it was honest.

If I were her, I couldn’t do it. How could I live with someone like me, and not feel tricked or cheated in the end?

“Magnus, my boy. Perhaps things will turn out differently for you—”

“I’m sure a lot of people have already hoped for that, far longer than I have.”

He glanced around the gallery at the portraits of his ancestors.

In the old days, when people died young, it was easy enough to cover up family secrets with money. Short lifespans made such things easier to hide. And memories didn’t last as long, either.