My Husband Hates Me, But He Lost His Memories - Chapter 3.2
Chapter 3.2
Translator: Yonnee
—
Then, Theodore Valentino, who had been in a daze, blinked as though he had just come back to his senses. At the same time, I took a deep breath.
I was still breathing slowly, trying to soothe my racing heart, when Theodore Valentino approached me. He walked neither too fast nor too slow.
Finally, he stood before me. And he glanced down at my thin outfit that wasn’t suitable for the cold weather. A sense of shame flooded in me.
Before I met him, I definitely didn’t care about the clothes I was wearing. But I suddenly did. I wanted to avoid his eyes, but my body wouldn’t follow my thoughts.
My eyelids trembled as I blinked several times. As though I was bound to that spot, I couldn’t move as I looked up at him. He was a man who was much taller than me, and up close, he seemed like a huge mountain.
Then, he asked a question.
“Are you not cold?”
“Pardon?”
I asked back foolishly, not being able to think of a sensible answer.
I thought he would ask my name, but Theodore Valentino just sighed, taking off his coat and placing it over my shoulders.
His gaze touched my hair, my eyes, one feature after another. At a glance, the complicated expression he had turned calm, and so I couldn’t read the emotions behind his blue eyes.
With a quiet voice, he muttered.
“White-silver hair, eyes that shine like peridots.”
“……”
“Lily Everett.”
I didn’t deny it. At that moment, there was a strange ominous feeling that swept through me, and I blinked dazedly. My heart was still pounding, but the discord I felt within me was intertwined with the beat of my frantic heart.
A breeze that carried the autumn chill blew. His emotionless eyes soon grew cold. I couldn’t say anything because I knew what this was. Hatred.
As he took a step back from me, Theodore Valentino spoke.
“You look a bit underdressed for an outside stroll.”
“……!”
Sarcasm laced his tone, perhaps intentional. I felt my cheeks burning up right then as I bowed my head. Reflexively, I adjusted his coat around me.
“Let’s go, Carmen.”
“Yes…”
The redheaded knight glanced at me. Blankly, I only stood by and I stared as they walked away. It would have been appropriate to curtsy and see them off with courtesy, but I couldn’t move.
A carriage soon arrived to fetch them in front of Everett’s garden. As it left through the iron gates, I could only stare blankly at the retreating carriage.
·
It was well after eight in the evening that I found out about what Theodore Valentino and my father talked about that day.
Unexpectedly, it was Hessen who brought me the news. He knocked roughly on my door, then proceeded to sit on the edge of the sofa. He spoke with sarcasm.
“Congratulations, Lily Everett. You’ll soon marry Duke Valentino.”
“……”
“He’d definitely want to strangle you on your first night.”
Hessen reveled in my misfortune. I grabbed the hem of my dress tightly, feeling as though my blood had cooled down.
As I had already expected, Father pressured Theodore Valentino and urged him to marry me. For the sake of sending help to the Valentino Duchy because of the troubles they’re facing with the series of fissures there, this was tantamount to a threat to Valentino, making them bow down to Everett before they could receive aid.
Father wanted to interfere with Valentino’s internal affairs, and so he proceeded with my marriage with Theodore Valentino.
Because if he’d become an in-law, he would have enough justification to ‘share’ assets.
It was a business deal that Father would be profiting from.
But if something would go wrong in the midst of it, it would be more than easy to cut me off and throw me away.
In the first place, I was raised as a tool for this purpose.
‘Theodore Valentino would have had no other choice.’
Delacroix, Avinith, and even the Royal Family—they all could have helped Valentino, but they were already under Father’s thumb.
Theodore Valentino must have known that—that my father, that the Everett family had laid down all the traps to swallow him and his family whole.
Perhaps even the fissures that were appearing more often in the north… No, that might be too far-fetched.
‘Yet wouldn’t someone like Father go that far? If he had a way to do that, he definitely would.’
“Rather than letting the north be destroyed because of all the fissures, he only thinks that it’s best to marry you and get some help from Everett.”
Hessen said this with a smirk on his lips. As I looked back at him, I pushed away the suspicion that popped up in my mind.
“I’m suddenly feeling sorry for him, that bastard Theodore Valentino. Isn’t he just being forced to marry you for the sake of his territory?”
“……”
“But will he let himself be controlled by Father? After the situation calms down in the north and his power gets restored, you’re the first one to be eliminated. You just wouldn’t know when you might die one day.”
Rather than going through a complicated procedure such as divorce, it might just be easier to get rid of me and leave no evidence behind. My heart was heavy with anxiety, and so I raised my hand and touched my chest. What was wrong with me? This shouldn’t have bothered me.
’Are you not cold?’
Why was that man’s face coming to mind?
“Why don’t you grovel in front of me instead?”
“……?”
Before I knew it, Hessen was right in front of me, grabbing my collar. Even though he still had a bitter smile, he seemed to be falling apart right then.
I blinked as I felt perplexed by his actions. Hessen went closer to me and tightened his grip on my collar. With a low growl, he shouted.
“Don’t pretend to be innocent—say it to me! You don’t want to get married! You don’t want to be killed! So beg for your life!”
With a blank look still on my face, I tilted my head to the side. I hid the laughter that was threatening to slip through my lips.
But just as I was about to answer, bang! The door slammed open.
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