Chapter 18

Chapter 18

“Why did you stay still?”

On the way home, this was Eric’s answer to Chloe after he had ruminated the fact.

“What I mean is why did you allow yourself to be battered like that?”

He seemed to have heard the conversation she had with the Countess and her group earlier.

Chloe stared at Eric as he spoke once more.

“I don’t want to see my wife being disregarded.”

“They weren’t wrong.”

And this was Chloe’s immediate answer.

She was sick of staying silent. In any case, she didn’t need to broach the subject of the divorce again. She spoke in a very sarcastic tone.

“I am a noble, elegant Marchioness, and at the same time, I am a frigid woman who is not loved by my husband.”

“Chloe.”

“You always speak that way. But did I say anything wrong?”

Eric shut his mouth. Was that the scent of alcohol lingering around Chloe? He frowned deeply.

“Darling.”

Chloe put her hands together. The locomotive shook, but Chloe remained poised.

She never faltered.

“Did the Fourth Princess ask you to marry her?”

Eric’s eyes grew wide, then he closed them slowly. Behind his gaze were worries and concerns that were piling up.

He pressed his forehead with his fingertips, frustrated, and he sighed deeply.

“It’s none of your concern.”

“Yes, it is.”

Chloe thought that this should be pointed out.

And she felt again how the small hope she was fostering might not have completely burned down and disappeared. Coming over her entirely, Chloe felt frustrated once more.

“Darling.”

Chloe spoke in a voice that seemed to be fading out, but it was nonetheless a powerful voice that was like a persistent candlelight enduring a gust of wind.

“Is that why you’re refusing to divorce me?”

“What?”

“So that you won’t marry the Fourth Princess?”

Eric was in disbelief. That’s right, the word disbelief was the best fit.

He was refusing to divorce so that he wouldn’t get married to the Fourth Princess? Him? Eric Aslan?

He could refuse the marriage as much as he wanted.

The reason he had left Prince Harris to his own machinations was because Eric had plans for him in the future. But Chloe seemed to have formed a misunderstanding.

His pride was shot.

So he wanted to say this—

I am a great person enough to ignore a prince’s orders. I am a man who holds the king at the palm of my hand. I control the entire kingdom.

He wanted to shout it all so loudly that Chloe’s ears would grow tired of these words.

But even if he did, Chloe wouldn’t believe any of it. To her, he was someone who merely bought a title to become a Marquis, someone who would never be able to erase his origins as a commoner.

And so that was the reason these words came out stiffly. He did not want to tell her the truth.

“If that’s the case, then what are you going to do?”

Eric stared at Chloe’s faultless, immaculate face.

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment, but she soon lifted her gaze.

“Then…”

Chloe thought about it.

So far, her husband had poured four million pounds into the Duchy for her.

Whether he felt any affection for her or not, it was an undeniable fact that she owed Eric a lot of money.

And Chloe never gave anything back. She just received all that money.

“Then I won’t be able to insist on divorce.”

Therefore, Chloe had to fold her resolution halfway.

She never did anything for him, but at the very least she knew enough about insisting on what she should and what she shouldn’t.

But that didn’t mean she had given up on divorce completely.

“I understand that the Fourth Princess receives a lot of marriage proposals. And the royal family is also pushing for her marriage.”

“That’s right.”

Chloe leaned back.

“Once the princess wishes to marry someone else, please divorce me.”

Eric’s expression was stiff.

He loosened his tie, took out a small machine and a cigar from his coat pocket, put the cigar between his lips and turned the cogwheel of the machine.

Chiiik. A small fire was conjured, and he lit the cigar with it.

“Why do you want to divorce me?”

The sweet smell of the cigar filled the locomotive, cloudy smoke accompanying it.

Chloe slowly breathed in.

The scent of his cigars was always like this.

At first, it was soft and sweet like the fragrance of coffee, but as time went on, it would become a bitter, sour scent.

Just like the pitiable love she had for him.

When she first married Eric, she thought that they would fall in love together. A soft, steady love.

But what was the result? Only love that had the unpleasant stench of old, rotten fish remained.

She raised her chin, looking for vestiges of her elapsed love.

“Why do you want to stay married?”

Eric’s eyes trembled.

Yes. Why? Why was he trying to maintain his marriage with Chloe? He asked himself as well, but he didn’t have an answer. And so he remained silent.

“Answer my question first. I don’t understand you, Wife.”

Eric asked in a tone that was brimming with betrayal, with resentment.

“Is there anything I haven’t done for you?”

At his question, Chloe laughed. She could do nothing else but laugh. And she laughed for a long time, even though Eric’s gaze continued to harden.

In reality, it really was laughable.

Because what he said was both completely right. And completely wrong.

“Darling, for me…”

Chloe smiled, yet it continued to be a bitter smile.

“I wanted love.”

Her blue eyes like the sea.

Such a sea that was overflowing with waves of emotion.

“But you don’t love me.”

And at those words again,

Eric couldn’t answer.

Because he wasn’t truly in love with her.

To be exact, he didn’t know what love was.

Cough!

As soon as Chloe returned to her room, she coughed blood.

Her coughing spell had lasted a long time because she endured it all at the banquet.

Cough, cough! Dark red blood flowed between her teeth.

On her elbows, Chloe crawled like a dog on the ground.

“Haa, ha…”

Chloe’s shoulders trembled as she breathed roughly. Tears squeezed through her tightly closed eyes. It hurts. It hurts so much. It hurts so terribly much.

She wanted to tell Eric—I’m sick. Please look my way even just a moment, please love me even just a little.

But she couldn’t say this. She should not beg for love in that way, and her faint pride would not allow it.

’I have work tomorrow morning.’

These were Eric’s final words to her that night. Tomorrow was her birthday.

’So I’ll see you at noon at the town square.’

As she continued to cough, Chloe raised her head.

Chloe wanted to ask—Why do you keep making me hope when you don’t love me anyway? And yet she couldn’t ask this either. More than anything else, she was frightened of Eric’s words of rejection.

‘Let’s get a divorce first.’

That’s right. She was frightened of her husband’s rejection.

She was so afraid to hear, with his own voice, his own lips, that he didn’t love her.

What kind of person was she, really. What kind of fool was she?

With her weak body, Chloe rose from the floor unsteadily.

She still hadn’t given up hope.

Hope that her husband would love her.

Eric didn’t have a good memory.

As it was with inventors, he tended to focus only on work once he started working. If there was no important business, if there was no one who came in, he wouldn’t go out of his lab on his own. Even for days to no end, without drinking a sip of water.

There were times when all he had with him were machines.

And he almost forgot that it was Chloe’s birthday today. Fortunately, it was only almost.

He glanced up and looked at the time. There was still some time left until noon, so he thought he could focus on his task a little more.

However, progress wasn’t being made with his work. Clank! He threw away the pliers in his hand and tousled his hair.

“Sh*t.”

After cursing, he moistened his lower lip with his tongue.

Where did that neat appearance go, the one he always had whenever he was with Chloe? Right now, he was practically drenched in machine oil. He furrowed his brows and removed his glasses with a hand that was blackened by ash.

“Just how the hell am I supposed to add fur?”

What he had in his hands was the machine that looked like a dog that Chloe had seen. Eric retrieved the pliers he had thrown and tightened a cogwheel.

This was his birthday present for Chloe. She seemed to like dogs. Wasn’t that why she said that this was cute when she saw it for the first time? It was clear that she would like this if she gave it to him. Yes. If he gave this to her, then…

“F*cking hell.”

Eric threw the pliers once more.

Would she even like it?

That Chloe ‘Rolphe’?

He didn’t know if she would prefer expensive trinkets more—dresses and accessories.

She might not like this lump of metal. Perhaps the word ‘cute’ was said just so he could save face.

“Huu…”

Eric sighed and put the robot away. In the end, he thought that he should go out and buy a gift for Chloe instead.

It was troublesome, but he had to. Since it was her birthday.

While standing up like that, he suddenly realized—they had never celebrated Chloe’s birthday in the past five years.

He clenched his hands into fists as his forehead wrinkled.

For him, his own birthday was nothing more than an ordinary day. Wasn’t it that he didn’t know his birthday in the first place? He was an unknown person who had slept on the streets without knowing the date of his own birth. That was Eric.

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