Please Forget Me - Chapter 332

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

“Her wedding night hasn’t even been consummated. That foolish girl refused, claiming it wasn’t time to have a child yet. Honestly….”

I already knew that.

“How could a woman so shamelessly give her body away! Have you truly lost your mind?”

A few days earlier, Grandmother had screamed at me, apparently after hearing from the Marquis that I’d slept with another man.

“You’ve done wrong, so beg him until your hands wear raw to take you back. And get him drunk if you have to, seize any chance to get his seed. Once the wife produces an heir, what can the Marquis do then? Hm?”

So who, exactly, is no different from a country woman?

I tried to ignore her from beginning to end, but her shrill nagging crossed the line, and I snapped back despite myself.

“He slept around just as shamelessly, so we’re even. Why should I beg when he won’t?”

“…What?”

“You expect me to beg a man who cheated with a tavern w***e in an enemy country just because I wouldn’t sleep with him? Sorry, but I don’t want to catch a disease and end up infertile.”

Grandmother nearly fainted. Naturally, not because of the grandson-in-law who’d cheated with a barmaid, but because of me. And her shock didn’t end there.

“What? You refused the wedding night?”

It seemed she’d assumed I’d merely avoided intimacy in general. When she heard from the Marquis that I’d committed adultery, I thought she’d also heard this, but apparently not.

‘So he spread my disgrace far and wide, but hid this part?’

It must have wounded his pride as a man. If Killian was right that the Marquis felt inferior to him, then imagine the blow. His wife, who rejected him at every turn, had gone to the man he’d considered a lifelong rival and offered herself first.

“Dear God, all the children of our family are so clever, how could such a fool be born? I’ve suspected it for years… you must be another man’s child.”

“That would be wonderful.”

It would be far more freeing not to share Loveridge blood at all. At that, Grandmother stared at me as if she’d been slapped, though she hadn’t been touched.

“Mother, you needn’t worry. You saw how desperately the Marquis searched for Dana.”

“He may feel differently now.”

I thought she’d explain why his feelings might have changed, but her complaint ended there.

“Even so, annulling a marriage isn’t easy. The Marquis has his pride.”

…Huh? Not easy? Then that means it’s possible.

Suddenly, a method I’d completely forgotten flashed through my mind. Strength surged into my limp body, and I was just about to spring to my feet…

“Dana.”

The door flew open and Grandmother stormed in.

“Why are you still here? It’s almost time for the Marquis to arrive, go and get ready at once.”

Unable to resist her insistence, I returned to my room. Sitting at the vanity while a maid brushed my hair, I kept forming plans around the idea I’d just had, only to tear them down again.

“Madam, which dress would you like to wear?”

The maid in charge of clothing rolled in a rack and asked. Every dress hanging there was so ornate it hurt the eyes.

“Something simple.”

The maid wheeled the rack back into the wardrobe and let out a groan. It seemed there wasn’t a single thing that could be called simple.

“Then… would this do?”

A moment later, she returned with a bright smile, as if she’d found the right answer. Utterly unaware she was holding the worst possible one.

“…Madam? D–do you not like it?”

She had no idea why my hands were trembling with rage.

What she’d brought was the summer dress that man had bought for me.

‘She thinks that’s simple?’

That was what angered me. Not that my taste was being insulted, but that the dress he’d bought by selling everything he had was being treated as something insignificant.

I was furious that they’d opened the box without my permission. And more than anything, I was furious at myself, for being angry over all of this.

‘Why haven’t I thrown it away yet?’