Chapter 18

Jane trembled all over. The memory of being slapped by Rachel came back to her. That day, Theodore had been with her—but not today.

“P-Please give Theodore back to me.”

“Hahaha. You’re a funny girl. You’re the one who took Theodore away, so why are you asking me to give him back?”

“You hid him.”

“I didn’t hide him. Why would I hide something like that?”

“You didn’t? Really?”

“Of course not.”

Rachel smiled with her eyes gently curved, and goosebumps rose on Jane’s arms.

“Hide him? I’m just waiting so I can crush him under my heel.”

Jane felt like crying.

Jane wasn’t very perceptive, but even she could tell that Rachel was angry. She was smiling, but it wasn’t because she was happy. If Theodore appeared, Rachel really would step on him without mercy.

Theodore wasn’t here. She had come to the wrong place.

Then what about Karl? She had to clear the misunderstanding that he had embezzled the Eloisa Count family’s assets!

Suddenly, a chill ran down her spine.

Could it be… Rachel, that witch, was behind it?

She wanted to cry and run out of the mansion immediately, but for her lover and her father, Jane gathered her courage. Love truly was powerful.

“M-Madam… was it you who did that to my father?”

“My father?”

Rachel feigned ignorance. She looked at Jane as if asking what she was talking about, then let out a small laugh.

“My goodness. Now you’re not only looking for your boyfriend here, but even your father?”

Tears welled up, and finally rolled down Jane’s cheeks.

It was already painful enough that her father had been taken away unfairly, but hearing something like that made it impossible to hold back.

“M-Madam… why would you say something like that…”

“I don’t know what’s going on, but if you came here to talk nonsense, leave. I don’t even want to look at you.”

“So it wasn’t you? You’re saying you’re not the one who framed my father for stealing the Eloisa family’s assets?”

“Me? You really think that?”

Jane covered her mouth.

Come to think of it, Theodore always bragged.

“Stupid Rachel doesn’t know anything. She doesn’t care how I use the family’s money. That’s why I can comfortably buy you gifts like this. Haha.”

Karl had never stolen someone else’s property to line his own pockets.

Rachel knew nothing.

Theodore secretly gave Jane gifts using the family’s assets behind his wife’s back.

The only person who could frame Karl was Theodore.

Jane shook her head, her face pale.

No, Theodore couldn’t have done that. We love each other. There’s no way he’d frame the father of the woman he loves. There’s no way.

She covered her mouth as sobs escaped, and then she heard Rachel muttering to herself.

“Ha… Theodore. That man was never good at doing anything properly. And I trusted trash like that as my husband…”

Never good at doing anything properly.

Only then did the blinders fall from Jane’s eyes.

Thinking about it, Theodore had always been that kind of person.

He said he loved her, spoiled her with stolen money, yet insisted marriage was impossible.

He claimed to love her sincerely, but the moment the affair was exposed, he hid somewhere like a coward.

“Jane, I had no choice. If treason against the imperial family, adultery, and tax evasion are all added up, I’m really done for. Please understand. Once things calm down, I’ll definitely clear your father’s name.”

It was as if she could hear Theodore’s pathetic excuse.

It sounded believable. It really did sound like something Theodore would do.

Jane couldn’t think anymore. She ran forward, knelt at Rachel’s feet, and bowed deeply.

“Madam! Please help me!”

She begged with a face soaked in tears.

“Yes, I took the money. Theo sent me money! He bought me things, even a house!”

“Are you bragging right now?”

“I’ll return everything. I’ll return it all, so please help my father! You can do it. You’re the Countess!”

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”

“That bad man Theodore trapped me and my father! It’s my fault! Just once—just once, please help me! I’ll never see Theodore again. Please show mercy!”

She begged desperately.

Karl was her only family. He was a kind father who always wished for her happiness. She couldn’t let him rot in prison under false charges.

That horrible Theodore. He said he loved her. He said he loved her!

Rachel looked down at the sobbing Jane and pulled at the hem of her dress in irritation.

“Go back. Even shamelessness has its limits. You expect me to help my husband’s mistress? Whatever happens between you and Theodore, deal with it yourselves.”

“Ah… please, Madam! Countess, please help me!”

But Rachel turned away without a shred of hesitation and left the hall.

Jane cried in the hall for a long time before being dragged out of the mansion by the servants.

Leaving Jane behind, Rachel returned to her room and began packing.

She took only the essentials and also gathered Theodore’s letters she found in the study. They were love letters exchanged with Jane. She almost burned them but decided they might be useful someday.

She had succeeded in making Jane misunderstand Theodore, exactly as planned. It was a joint effort between Karl and Rachel.

In truth, Rachel had never intended to let Karl take all the blame.

She planned to drive a wedge between Jane and Theodore, then gradually shift the suspicion onto Theodore.

But unexpectedly, Karl voluntarily walked into the Tax Administration Office.

“I’ll turn myself in. Please show mercy to Jane.”

“And you think that’s an attractive offer to me?”

“Yes. If I confess, you won’t need to get dragged into a messy fight with me.”

“….”

He wasn’t wrong.

Karl was meticulous and intelligent. If he wanted to, he could have made Rachel’s life very difficult.

For someone like that to quietly disappear in exchange for mercy toward Jane was an offer worth accepting.

Rachel accepted Karl’s proposal.

Now what would happen?

As soon as Jane met Theodore, she’d probably slap him.

Would Theodore get angry without understanding why? Or would he try to clear the misunderstanding through the power of love?

Ideally, they’d argue together and ruin each other. That would complete poetic justice—a proper happy ending born of karma.

Anyway, following Sian’s advice, she had prepared all the paperwork for annulment, and all that remained was to declare divorce to Theodore.

After that, she could clean everything up and leave the mansion freely.

She closed the bag filled with only what she needed and let out a sigh.

“Ha… I feel so light.”

If she’d known she’d feel this relieved, she might have left without bothering with revenge. Still, finishing everything properly made it even more satisfying.

She rested her chin on the bag and lifted her left hand. The wedding ring she had exchanged with Theodore still sparkled on her ring finger. She had kept wearing it to deceive him.

“I’ll be able to throw this ring away soon too.”

She muttered to herself, then pursed her lips.

“But… where should I go?”

Rachel had no family home and no friends. Once she left the Eloisa family, she had nowhere to go. That was also why, in the original story, Rachel had clung to Theodore excessively.

She searched through Rachel’s letters and diary, hoping to find somewhere to rely on. What she found was fragmented and lonely.

“A noble lady of a count’s family who lost her family and house in an unexpected accident.”

Rachel’s original family had once been so respectable and wealthy that even the strict Berengela had considered them for a political marriage.

Her father, Count Fram, was wise. Her mother was gentle and kind.

Rachel, their only child, was showered with love—so much that she knew nothing of the real world. When her parents died in a carriage accident, she was too stunned to know what to do.

It had been one year after her marriage.

“Rachel, don’t be so sad. You have me.”

Rachel had been foolish enough to be completely taken in by that kind of comfort. She entrusted everything to her husband—the funeral, the family estate, the mansion, all the aftermath.

Theodore liquidated the Fram family’s assets and gave them to Jane, then erased the Fram family name from the noble registry.

“The more I think about it, the more of a bastard he is. Fine, abolish the title if there’s no heir—but how could he steal his father-in-law’s assets and give them to his girlfriend? Trash.”

She organized all of this while preparing the annulment paperwork.

Once the marriage was annulled, she would reclaim the dowry, the Fram family assets, and even the title.

“I’ll pass everything on to Graham someday. It might help when he’s dating Dolorasa.”

Rachel flopped onto the bed and fell asleep while thinking about the life she would build with Graham.

Rachel dreamed.

In the dream, Rachel was not Rachel. She was an ordinary twenty-year-old female college student living in South Korea.

“Mom! Mom, wake up!”

“Haa… haa… ugh.”

After a long fight, her father hit her mother and ran away when she collapsed.

After calling an ambulance, she screamed at her mother.

“Why didn’t you just get a divorce?! Then you wouldn’t have to see Dad’s face anymore! Why do you live like this, getting beaten like an idiot?!”

“You… you need your father…”

“Shut up! Why use me as an excuse? Did you think I’d be grateful? Don’t be ridiculous!”

She never imagined her mother would die like that.

Rachel woke up suddenly, gasping for breath. She stared at the divorce papers and annulment documents on the bedside table.

“…Right. You have to divorce as soon as you can. You’ve already been through this once.”

You did well. You really did. You couldn’t have divorced any faster than this.

She bit her lip and closed her eyes again, and suddenly Sian’s voice echoed in her mind.

“You must become happy.”

Yes. That too.

Divorce was not the end—it was only the beginning.

She had to become happy. To take perfect revenge on Theodore, and for Graham—and for Rachel herself.