Married Couple’s Qualifications

Chapter 17

*Rivianna’s POV*

Perhaps I put strength on my hand without realizing it, the sharp pain that stung my skin forced me to reason.

I wiped the flowing tears roughly with the back of my hand.

I wanted to just kill them all, but I knew that I shouldn’t.

I couldn’t simply kill those animals who were tangled up in my life without knowing where their shame lay.

I had to make them squirm in pain, just as my daughter had died, if not more so.

I had to tear them limb from limb right in front of my eyes and trample them to the point where they would rather be dead.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to handle this nausea.

I threw the glass shard roughly on the floor.

It made my reflection on the floor look bloody, but I laughed at the sight of myself.

I finally understood why I had regressed to the past.

I don’t think it was God who saved me, but the devil.

The devil who wanted to see me struggle and giggle.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t make me so miserable.

But I didn’t care anymore.

If it really was the devil who had saved me, I would gladly match the rhythm.

*** 

“So, did you have a good time?”

“I’m sorry, honey. But, it’s definitely not what you think. It’s just that we’re–“

“We?”

“No! No! No! That’s not what I meant, just, just……..”

Bake couldn’t come up with a better excuse and just looked at me.

I looked down at the kneeling man and woman and crossed my arms.

On the surface, they seemed to be apologizing enthusiastically, but I knew from experience how pointless that was.

I swallowed a slow breath.

I knew them too well, and I knew too well what I would have to do.

I didn’t know when Bake would change his mind, even if he was begging me now.

And if that happened, I couldn’t deal with Bake now.

In order to avoid ending this time with just a verbal apology, I needed a different approach.

“Let’s get a divorce. I’m divorcing you.”

“Rivianna!”

“Isn’t that what you wanted? That’s why you called your mistress when your daughter died and your grief faded. A woman with your child in my bedroom.”

“No! It’s a misunderstanding! I didn’t mean to do that! Margaret is just proof of Mariel’s death.” 

“Are you going to use my already dead daughter? Because Mariel is not your daughter?”

Scowling coldly, Bake clenched his mouth shut. I glared at the hateful man. At the end of my gaze was a wide open terrace.

I bit my lip as I felt the breeze graze my cheeks, knowing that if Mariel was here right now, she would have whispered that the wind would kiss me. 

‘I know you miss me, but please wait a little longer. It won’t be much longer before mother will be by your side.’

I looked at the sky and made a short prayer, and then turned around again. On the floor, the man and woman were still kneeling.

But no one was sincerely apologizing. Bake was just trying to calm my anger and make the situation go away, while Margaret was trying to please me and secretly hoping for the best. 

“I don’t know why you thought that. I’ve never done anything shameful since I married you.” 

“Rivianna, it’s not that I doubted you, I just….”

“She was our child, born between you and me.”

It wasn’t clear when Bake had first suspected Mariel’s blood.

From the beginning, the timing was not important.

What mattered was that even for one day, Bake had treated Mariel with such thoughts.

“That’s the reason why I turned a blind eye to your unfaithfulness. Because you are the father of my child, I believe that any stepfather is inferior to her biological father.”

“….”

By the way, you thought my daughter was a seed of my unfaithfulness, so you embraced a woman who was carrying another child during your daughter’s mourning time.”

It was something I knew, but when I said it with my mouth it felt funny.

I closed my eyes for a moment, grasping the terrace railing that touched my hands.

My body instinctively shuddered, but I wasn’t going to stop.

“I didn’t know what more I could do in this situation. I mean, I’ve lost my own daughter too.”

“….”

“I’m tired. I’m sick of everything. So I’ll stop now.”

“….”

“I tried to endure, I tried to hold on somehow. But I don’t think I can anymore.”

 “…Rivianna?”

“…I’m having a really hard time. I want to stop.”

I kept thinking.

How can I kill those animals in the most painful way possible?

And I soon realized.

In order to deal with the beasts, I would have to bite them to pieces like a beast, no matter the means and methods.

Even if the means was my own body.

I tilted my upper body slightly forward.

I didn’t choose my study out of the many rooms.

I had lived in this house my whole life, and nothing in the house was out of my reach, and I knew everything about it.

They stared at me with shocked, hardened eyes, completely unaware of this fact.

“Stop! Please stop! Rivianna!”

Bake was anxious and hurriedly raised himself up.

But I was faster than he was getting closer. I looked at Bake straight in the eyes.

Then I smiled and relaxed my hands on the railing.

I pray that this moment will be remembered strongly.

***

Fortunately, it’s not life-threatening to be scratched by a tree. There aren’t too many areas that were scratched, so if it gets treated well, there won’t be any scarring… However……” 

“However?”

“Because she’s in a state of mental breakdown. Waking up won’t be the problem, it’s what happens afterwards that will be the problem.”

“What do you mean by problems?”

“I mean that something like this might happen again.”

Silence drifted for a while after the doctor’s diagnosis.

Bake’s lips closed tightly as he looked at Rivianna, who had fallen unconscious.

He couldn’t help but remember the scene from a while ago.

Rivianna, who let herself go….

‘No, that can’t be true. Mariel can’t be my daughter. She doesn’t look like me at all.’

Bake shook his head roughly, then barely straightened up.

His head was complicated, but now was not the time to think about anything else.

Even if Rivianna survived this time, there was no guarantee that she would be next time.

If something like that happened again, then he could lose Rivianna forever.

“So what should I do?”

“First of all, since the problem is largely psychological, you should avoid as much as possible any behavior that might irritate your wife. You can give her gifts that she likes, or visit places that will calm her mind.”

“Stable……'”

Would that really be possible?

Bake couldn’t hide his anxiety and held his hands tightly.

Margaret returned it to the inn for now, but he knew that doing so would not help anything.

Rivianna was already greatly disappointed in him, and had no intention of forgiving. In particular, if Rivianna had heard all his conversations with Margaret at that time….. Bake’s hand tremors were even worse.

He could see how much his wife loved her daughter.

If Rivianna knew the truth about Mariel’s death, she would never forgive him.

‘You can’t do that. Never.’

Bake rubbed his face roughly.

Even if Rivianna turned her back on him, he wouldn’t give up.

What lengths have he gone to in order to make the noble Lady his wife who he couldn’t even dare try to talk to?

He couldn’t end the relationship because of this.

“….”

“My Lady?”

“Rivianna?”

Rivianna’s eyelids quivered while Bake stared blankly.

Bake pushed the doctor aside and hurriedly grabbed Rivianna’s hand.

As if she hadn’t come to her senses yet, Rivianna just stared at Bake and didn’t show any reaction.

Bake didn’t know what to do with Livianna, who only blinked at him, and later found the doctor he had kicked out.

Finally regaining his seat, the doctor hurriedly examined Rivianna’s condition.

Rivianna’s eyes fluttered again this time, but her focus was clearer than before.

“Are you alright, My Lady?”

“Uncle Finn?”

Rivianna spoke quietly.

But something was different.

The doctor frowned, considering the subtle difference.

Ever since she married Bake and became the Marchioness of Clayton, Rivianna hadn’t called him Uncle.

“Uncle Finn, no?”

Rivianna looked at him uneasily, unsure of the reply she had not received.

The doctor spoke cautiously, unable to hide his bewilderment.

“Yes, My Lady. I’m Finn.”

“I knew it, you’re Uncle Finn. I was wondering for a while since you look strange today.”

A smile spread across Rivianna’s mouth as she was very satisfied with the answer she got back.

However, those who saw it were instead perplexed.

Rivianna hadn’t smiled this much in the last ten years.

When she did, she usually covered her mouth, as befitted an elegant lady, and even that was not very often.

However, Rivianna was smiling now.

“By the way, why am I here now? Is there something wrong with me?”

“Oh, that…”

The doctor had to explain, but when he looked into those innocent, shining eyes, he couldn’t talk.

The doctor hesitated, but eventually turned his eyes to Bake, and Rivianna naturally turned her head in his direction.

“By the way, who is this man?”

“Who is he? You really don’t remember?”

“No, I don’t. I’ve never seen him before.”

When Rivianna nodded without hesitation, Bake stepped back reflexively.

She had a serious look on her face as if she really didn’t know who Bake was.

“You don’t remember me at all?”

‘Um, sorry. I’m generally good at remembering things, but I can’t remember you.”

“….”

‘Instead, can you tell me your name so I can remember it. As an apology for this time, I’ll say hello first next time….ahhhhh!

Rivianna, who had been smiling brightly and holding out her hand, screamed when she saw the bandage wrapped around her hand.

Her shoulders were shaking even though she had only seen the blood on the bandage.

“I’m sorry for yelling so loud all of a sudden, I’m not used to this sort of thing.”

Bake let out a disappointed breath as he looked into Rivianna’s eyes, which were already filled with tears.

It was a different look that was not remotely reminiscent of the Rivianna of today, and Bake knew that it was her.

She had looked like that more than ten years ago, before the tragedy of the Clayton family.

A naive, but noble young lady that everyone naturally loved and worshipped, whose innocence was attractive.

Bake looked into the innocent eyes that looked up at him, and laid his hands firmly on Rivianna’s hand. Rivianna didn’t hate him anymore.

She was just looking at him with innocent eyes, like the young lady who had been so kind to everyone back then.

But Bake couldn’t be happy or sad about that fact.

“Do you remember you have a fiancé……?”

“I can’t forget that. I can forget everything else, but I can’t forget that one person.”

“….”

“Perhaps you know Duke Pierre. My fiancé, he’s quite famous and very handsome.”

Rivianna sounded very affectionate when she mentioned Duke Pierre.

Bake gritted his teeth as he watched Rivianna’s cheeks flush red at the mere mention of her fiancé.