Please Forget Me - Chapter 300

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

“If you were truly precious, he never should have brought you to a place like this.”

“Rupert says this is a noble cause…”

“But it wasn’t what you wanted, was it?”

“……”

You didn’t deny it. In the end, I couldn’t stop myself from asking.

“Why didn’t you become a doctor?”

Your eyes widened as you looked at me.

“How did you know I wanted to be a doctor? Did Rupert tell you?”

I said nothing.

“I don’t know what Rupert told you, but… it’s not that I chose not to become one. I wasn’t allowed to.”

I had assumed she’d failed to get into medical school. But that wasn’t it. It was Rupert’s mother who opposed it.

A Marchioness having a profession, especially something as ‘vulgar’ as a commoner’s occupation, was absolutely unacceptable. Already humiliated by accepting you as a daughter-in-law, she used this as leverage to pressure Rupert into breaking off the engagement.

To appease her, your family ultimately decided not to send you to medical school.

And Rupert? He stood by and did nothing, as though it had nothing to do with him.

“He should have told me this when he proposed. ‘If my mother objects, you won’t be going to medical school.’”

Of course you felt betrayed. You took three long swallows of liquor in a row, then let your disappointment show.

“When he proposed in those letters, he said it wouldn’t matter if the adults opposed it, that he’d do anything to make sure I could become a doctor…. A liar.”

Then why did he take you from me?

I felt betrayed too. If he was going to take you while pretending to be me, then he should at least have kept the promises I made. But if Rupert had possessed even that much conscience, he wouldn’t have stolen you from me in the first place.

I began to hate myself again. I had let you go under the excuse that it was for your sake. But if your life with Rupert turned out to be even more unfortunate, then I had made the worst mistake of all.

“You may not know this, but when I was young, I fell in love while exchanging letters with him.”

“……”

“I really loved that pure, passionate boy. I was so tired of men soaked in arrogance and vanity. I thought the man I’d dreamed of had finally appeared.”

“……”

“But that wasn’t it. Men will tell any lie if it helps them seduce a woman. I was just too young to know.”

Realizing that even my sincerity had been sullied and turned into a lie by Rupert nearly drove me mad. The conflict I had buried deep inside resurfaced and began tormenting me again.

Was deceiving you truly the right thing to do?

Because of that bastard Rupert, I had become an accomplice in betraying you. I couldn’t bear the guilt.

“Miss Loveridge, did you accept Rupert’s proposal because you wanted to become a Marchioness?”

“No. I accepted because I loved him. Hard as it may be to believe, I would have said yes even if he weren’t a Marquis.”

You must have heard countless rumors accusing you of seducing Rupert for his title. The way you bristled and immediately denied it said as much.

“Then I don’t understand why you still intend to marry him.”

“What do you mean?”

“The man you loved was the boy you exchanged letters with.”

I fought with everything I had not to say that was me.

“The man you loved has changed. Your dream has been trampled. So why are you still here? Is this truly the life you wanted?”

Dana, it’s not too late. Break off the engagement. Live the life you wanted.

That was what I truly wished to say.

But if I’d said it outright, you might have bristled, or suspected my intentions.

‘Come to me. I’m the real one.’

If I’d said that, you would never have come back to me again.

So I tried to convey my meaning indirectly. But even that seemed to shock you. Perhaps you had never once considered such a possibility.

You strike me as someone who accepts what is given. Even knowing Rupert was different from the man in the letters, you accepted him. When I said I was your husband, you accepted that too.

“……”

You looked as though you’d been struck across the head. For a long while, you said nothing, staring into a dark corner of the empty lot, lost in thought.

Watching your expression shift again and again, I waited anxiously, as though awaiting a verdict, silently praying.

‘Dana, please, choose for yourself.’