My Fiancé Keeps Sabotaging My Love Life - Chapter 8

Chapter 4.2

“They were all such beautiful gifts that would have suited you, my lady…”

Seeing Larie stick out her lower lip in disappointment, Evelyn raised an eyebrow.

“Does everyone really want me to marry Axion that badly?”

From her parents to the servants of the household, everyone seemed greatly disappointed by the correction announcement. But the person who was most disappointed by far was none other than Viaton Inevasel. He even grumbled that if Axion wouldn’t take his sister, then who else in the world would she marry?

Thinking of her brother, who always seemed to bring trouble upon himself, Evelyn let out a wry chuckle.

‘No matter how I look at it, that’s absurd.’

She honestly couldn’t figure out why everyone was so desperate for her and Axion to end up together.

Just then, Larie folded her hands and beamed at her.

“It’s because the two of you are just perfect for each other!”

Evelyn nearly choked at her maid’s ludicrous claim.

“If we’re perfect for each other, then even a stray cat would get a laugh out of it.”

“But the two of you get along so well, don’t you?”

When Larie insisted, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Evelyn couldn’t help but wonder what made her think that.

“What makes you say that?”

Larie replied almost dreamily.

“What man gives a woman not just any brooch, but has it specially made as a piece of jewelry for her?”

“….”

That was exactly the part that Evelyn felt most wronged about.

Thanks to the nobles witnessing Axion give her the bracelet, yet another rumor had begun to spread. His behavior, so different from all the men who simply followed tradition, was more than enough to charm half the noblewomen in the capital.

The gossip tabloids hailed Young Lord Valentino as the romanticist of the century, proof that Axion’s unconventional charm was winning hearts. Her parents, who were disappointed by the marriage correction announcement, started to nurture a new hope. They began to imagine their daughter one day standing at the altar, exchanging vows with him.

‘Meanwhile, I’m the one getting played by Axion.’

The bracelet he gave her felt less like a gift and more like a form of silent pressure. He had intentionally given it to her in front of everyone, just in case she decided to be uncooperative.

With a weary sigh, she turned to Larie.

“It’s really not what they think, so could you please explain it for me?”

“Yes, of course.”

Larie replied, nodding with a glum look before slipping out of the dressing room.

Getting up from the sofa, Evelyn glared daggers at the ruby bracelet she had worn with her dress earlier. Perhaps because it resembled its original owner, it looked beautiful on the outside, but nothing but trouble underneath.

‘He’s going to be the death of me.’

Her eyes burning with determination, she resolved once more.

As soon as the engagement was broken off, she would definitely find someone even better than Axion.

Evelyn took an antique jewelry box from her vanity drawer and tucked the bracelet inside. After hesitating for a moment, she picked up a pendant bearing the marks of time.

“I haven’t taken this out in a while.”

She ran her fingers over the pendant and, smiling wistfully, opened the locket.

As she stared at the portrait of a couple inside the pendant, her green eyes slowly grew dull and distant. Evelyn closed her eyes tightly for a moment, and when she opened them again, memories of her childhood tragedy came rushing back.

The day when she lost her birth parents in the blink of an eye.

The tragedy that had struck the Inevasel family all those years ago was something she could never allow herself to forget.

When she was eight, her biological parents had been mercilessly murdered on their way back from the imperial palace. The official cause of death was accidental poisoning. Despite the fact that the imperial family tried to cover it up as a carriage accident, they failed to hide the traces of poison still in their bodies. Among the nobility, it was almost an open secret that the imperial family had orchestrated the poisoning.

It was all part of the emperor’s grand scheme, driven by his fear of the progressive faction’s growing power.