I Picked Up the Trash Others Threw Away - Chapter 16.2

Chapter 16.2

“Do I have anything to be angry about?”

“You look like you’re not satisfied with something. Of course, you don’t like the situation right now, but I’m asking because I think there’s another reason.”

Trish trampled his lips at my question. It didn’t seem to be that he simply didn’t like me.

Then was it because of the barons? For someone who was fortunate enough to be related to the count’s family thanks to his daughter, the baron’s attitude was shameless.

“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to answer. If you want to be alone, I’ll leave.”

“It’s fine. I was just a little uncomfortable with such an unfamiliar situation.”

Looking out the window at the end of the hallway, Trish took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.

I quietly looked at his face while he smoked, then reached out a hand to him.

“Let me take a puff too.”

“Do you know how to smoke?”

Instead of answering, I took the cigarette in his hand. Trish obediently handed me the cigarette.

I was surprised because I thought he would say something like he didn’t like the smell of cigarettes on women, or that he would give me a new one because he didn’t want to share his.

I put the end he was biting between my lips, inhaled, then exhaled. It was much stronger than the cigarettes I sometimes smoked in my past life whenever I had a hard time. Maybe because it was less refined.

I didn’t have the confidence to smoke one, so I took just one puff and handed it back to Trish.

“You look like you don’t like it either.”

“Me? No way. It’s all going according to plan, so what’s there not to like?”

“Don’t deny it. I saw you pinch the baron’s thigh earlier.”

When did he witness what was happening under the table?

“I just thought that me and your parents were very different. I don’t know what kind of parents they may have been to you, but they seemed like good people to me. Better than my parents, at least.”

“Do you really think so? That’s disappointing. To me, it doesn’t seem like they are much different.”

“Imagine being sold to an old man who has been married twice because of your bad parents. You would want to grab a rotten rope.”

“You know a rotten rope will eventually break. Wouldn’t it be better to run away from home?”

“I need money to do that.”

In any case, getting into a contract marriage with Trish was to gain a year of spare time.

I would never be able to live under the protection of the Malekiah family.

I had to find a weapon to protect myself from now on. Money would be the only weapon and means for a divorced woman.

“Don’t worry. I don’t mean to be a bad bride. I’m confident I’ll be good at least to the people in this household.”

“I don’t want anything like that. I’m fine as long as you don’t interfere with me.”

“We already talked about this, right? I won’t care if you meet other women or how many mistresses you have.”

“… No matter how trash I am, I don’t intend to openly have a mistress as soon as I get married.”

“Who was it that was grumbling about not being allowed to meet women?”

“It will be over in a year anyway, so what’s the hurry? Do you see me as a man who can’t hold himself back?”

Yes, it was only for a year that I could be his wife.

For some reason, Trish began smoking the cigarette with a more complicated expression than before. Strong tobacco smoke quickly filled the hallway.

I coughed a couple of times and took a few steps back from him, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping.

“Anyway… Take care of me for a year. I’ll go back first, so take your time.”

I took a step back and prepared to go back to the dining room.

But after a few steps, Trish, who had followed me, pulled on my arm and grabbed my hand. Spontaneously crossing his arms with mine like an escort, he touched his lips with his index and middle fingers and spoke.

“Let’s go in together. That way, they’ll think I’m the one who smells like cigarettes.”

“… Right. It’s all good for me.”

Even if I tried looking at it nicely, the smell of cigarettes coming from Trish was not fragrant.

He seemed to always smoke the strong cigarettes that covered the smell of the perfume he sprayed in the morning.

Count and Countess Malekiah frowned slightly at the cigarette smell as soon as we entered the dining room, but thanks to Trish, there was no reason for them to suspect that I had been smoking.

While the tedious and formal conversation continued, Trish only stared at the window the whole time with an uninterested look.

This made me even more curious. I wondered what kind of story that man had.

I wondered if I would get to know after we got married. Would there ever be a day when he would be honest with me?