Chapter 55
Julia spoke in a trembling voice.
“That’s not why.”
“Then?”
“I… I have a duty to remain chaste as a widow.”
Less than a month after her husband’s death, she had been casually sleeping with another man and even gotten pregnant. It was a fall from honor.
「 Be obedient. Do what you’re supposed to do properly. 」
Her parents’ cold voices would not leave her ears. Their contemptuous gazes as well. She hated it. More than vermin. So she had to perform her role properly. Flawlessly.
“And Edgar, no, Duke… you have to get married too.”
“That talk about marriage—!”
“You’re not thinking of lowering your own value by becoming a widow’s remarriage partner, are you?”
At Julia’s calm self-deprecation, Duke Drexton irritably shrugged off his jacket. It seemed like the heat rising in his body was unbearable. He paced the drawing room briefly, then stepped close to Julia and whispered through clenched teeth.
“What if I am thinking that?”
What?
At the completely unexpected remark, Julia went blank. What was he saying right now?
Edgar Drexton.
His life had not a single blemish. He was the scion of a wealthy and prestigious family, intelligent, and handsome as well. Everyone was desperate to marry him. He only needed to choose the most outstanding woman among the bridal candidates and take her as his partner.
So why would a man like him marry an older widow? That would be a huge stain. A blemish on a perfect life. That must not happen. It would be such a waste.
“Doesn’t it feel like a waste?”
It was something Julia could not understand by common sense. She had left to protect the Duke’s public image. But now he was saying it did not matter to him.
“Do you think I’d see you as a blemish? That I’m that kind of person…!”
Duke Drexton shouted with a voice full of injustice, as if he had been gravely slandered by Julia.
“Is it still not allowed even after I say this much?”
Duke Drexton pleaded. He knelt down in front of Julia. Then, holding her hand, he pressed his lips directly to her lower abdomen. To the place where his and Julia’s child would be growing.
“Let me take responsibility. For you, and for this child.”
As the shock subsided, a strange sense of elation began to fill her. The pure devotion Edgar had held for so long finally reached Julia’s skin. Absentmindedly, she stroked the hair of the kneeling Duke.
“Why, to this extent…”
“Because I love you!”
At last, that word spilled from his mouth. Julia’s entire body began to burn as if scorched by fire. Every cell awakened. Each one died and was reborn in that very place. Julia felt her world being reorganized around the man before her.
She could not take her eyes off him.
Duke Drexton finally shed tears. A thin line of tears slipped down from one eye and beaded on his chin. Julia’s heart ached at the sight.
She did not understand. She could not understand him at all.
Yet the world explains such irrational behavior with just that word. Love. As if that single word were enough for everything, as if no further explanation were needed.
Julia knelt facing Edgar and placed his hand on her belly.
She was not as bold a person as Duke Drexton. After her girlhood passed, life had constantly attacked her. Naturally, she had no choice but to become defensive and cautious.
Looking straight into the Duke’s eyes, she whispered.
“This child is my dead husband’s.”
At Julia’s stubborn insistence, despair settled into Duke Drexton’s eyes. Julia gently shook her head, as if telling him not to suffer.
“But the child will call you ‘Father’. Do you understand what I mean?”
There was no need to confirm.
Duke Drexton pulled Julia into a fierce embrace.
Julia hugged his back and closed her eyes.
It was a truly strange feeling.
Her family had sold her off, and her husband had mocked her. Life had been nothing but bitter past a certain point.
Yet without her knowing, someone had been desiring her this blindly. Enough to watch her silently for a long time, enough to want to hold on to her even using dirty means.
An act she would normally have recoiled from even felt sweet.
Julia smiled faintly.
No, it would not have felt sweet if it were anyone else.
Perhaps, the reason she was this generous to him was…
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