CH 24.2

‘I tried approaching ten restaurants, and three of them contacted me.’

Since then, Grace avoided contact with Benjamin. She just did stretching indoors and walked around the annex, replacing the activities she did at the orphanage with other light exercises.

Since Grace was originally not very active, light exercise was very helpful.

She didn’t lose a lot of weight, but she was satisfied when she looked in the mirror.

It was a good result, even though it hadn’t even been a year yet.

Grace told Cleta that she wouldn’t be involved in the tea bag business much anymore. Cleta was surprised, but she handed over the plan she had been preparing step by step.

Cleta was still young and fragile, but she was a determined child who knew how to protect her own people, so Grace wasn’t too worried.

‘And besides, she’ll rarely come by anyway.’

She had to come for the money. She might not get a lot of money, but she had to try.

Grace remembered the ledger she had seen of Duchess Felton last time. It was a slightly flawed ledger that almost matched the amount, but not perfectly.

‘If that gets discovered, she might end with almost nothing. Hmm, but the person himself doesn’t seem too bad on the surface, so maybe he might at least give me some money?’

Grace had already made up her mind to bring up the divorce talk as soon as possible.

Normally, she would have looked more closely at the Imperial Law and thought of favorable options, but she was tired.

She was tired of rejoicing, thinking that things were gradually getting better, only to be pushed back into a corner.

“I don’t want to have unrequited feelings for someone else.”

Especially if it meant getting entangled in someone else’s emotions…

Grace didn’t want to keep a man who would choose Aria as his partner despite being her husband. Maybe wanting a divorce because he might kill her was just an excuse.

But since she was certain he would choose another woman, she did not want to see that certain future.

Even if it was a forced marriage by the imperial family, wasn’t this too much? Grace muttered.

It was really too much.

She didn’t like that just one person had such control over her emotions. Then she corrected her thoughts. Yeah, it was just one person, Benjamin Felton.

Grace searched her memories, trying to figure out why she had developed feelings for Benjamin. But she couldn’t recall any specific memory that could explain it.

She simply found this unrequited love unpleasant. Because she knew the ending. No matter who the culprit was, it would eventually lead to death.

No matter how much affection he showed, she would end up dead.

Even if everyone in the mansion was kind to her and provided her with comfort, Grace would still become the “sick soldier.” Even if Benjamin didn’t really kill the real Grace, she might have died from a broken heart because she couldn’t leave him due to her love.

“Maybe Benjamin really did kill her.”

Grace chuckled.

‘In the novel, Benjamin often talked about Grace to Aria.’

However, Benjamin had never mentioned Grace’s illness even once.

Aria was a saint who could cure any disease. So why didn’t he ask her to visit Grace as a saint?

Because it was a lie. The fact that Grace was sick was a lie.

Therefore, Grace had no choice but to believe in the future written in the book rather than the affection in front of her, and to doubt.

The only person who could make Grace a “sick soldier” was Benjamin.

Grace’s smiling face became calm.

She pulled the rope.

An employee came in.

“Is His Excellency busy?”

“…Master should be in the main building.”

“Oh, really? If he’s not busy, I’d like to talk for a moment.”

What’s the harm in being hasty? Perhaps divorcing and taking care of the business was the best choice since the memories came back.

After meeting Aria in person, comparing her to me, and eventually returning to my original state.

It was more like a death sentence to be caught in depression again after feeling okay for a while, rather than being originally trapped in depression.

Grace felt like a shark that had forgotten how to swim.

⋆★⋆

The garden was always beautiful with flowers.

When Grace asked Benjamin to meet her, the reply came back to have tea in the garden, and the tea time was quickly prepared.

The garden, where flowers always bloomed beautifully, had a way of making people excited.

With a beautiful setting and a beautiful person, the combination of the two could bring life to emotions that were once absent and make even the calmest heart beat faster.

Rather, seeing the person in front of her, Grace felt only a sense of calm settle within her.