Don’T Get Caught By Your Husband! [EN]: Chapter 35

#35. I Like This Man

2024.04.04.

“Madam! A letter has arrived.”

The next morning, Cindy entered the bedroom with a stack of envelopes in one hand.

Belladonna, who was sitting in a chair at the table beneath the large window, looked up at her.

“Let’s see… Oh! It’s from Astanya!”

Ugh…

Belladonna, who had been munching on her egg dish, frowned without realizing it.

She had been enjoying her meal, but suddenly her stomach felt queasy and churned.

‘I should read this later…’

Belladonna took the envelope from Cindy, flipped it over, and put it down. Then, she picked up her fork and stabbed the bacon across from her.

“Hmm, the rest seem to be for the Lord… I’ll deliver these to his study. Please wait a moment!”

Cindy said in a light voice as she read the remaining envelopes and identified the recipients.

Huh? Give them to me! I’ll deliver them!

Belladonna raised her eyebrows and held out her hand to Cindy.

Escalion would come to this room in the evening anyway, so there was no need for Cindy to go all the way to the study.

“Oh, would you like to deliver them, Madam?”

Nod, nod!

“Thank you, Madam! Then I’ll leave them here? Most of the urgent business letters are handled by Volf, so these are probably not urgent and more like personal letters.”

Belladonna nodded to Cindy and diligently ate her bacon.

It was important to eat well before reading the letter from the Pope.

‘Because I don’t know what kind of words he’ll use to upset me…’

“By the way, the Pope seems to really adore you, Madam.”

“Keuh.”

Belladonna, who had been shoving mashed potatoes into her mouth after the bacon, swallowed the potatoes with a strange noise.

“Are you alright, Madam?”

Startled by the strange noise from Belladonna’s throat, Cindy picked up the water bottle on the table and filled her glass.

Belladonna picked up the full glass of water and forced herself to swallow it, calming her stomach.

‘Would you be okay with that? The Pope really adores the Saintess, what kind of bizarre sound is that…!’

“Eat slowly! You’ll get indigestion.”

Right…

Belladonna nodded and forced a smile.

Cindy pulled out a chair and sat across from her, looking at the envelopes lying face down on the table.

“The Pope writes letters quite often, doesn’t he? I was wondering how much he must have cherished you when you lived together, that he would ask after his married daughter so often.”

“……”

“That kind of ideal mother-daughter relationship is so enviable! My father probably doesn’t even care what I do in this castle. All my father cares about is alcohol and card games…”

Cindy said, her shoulders drooping.

Belladonna picked up the napkin on her lap and wiped her mouth, listening to her words.

“But he’s gotten a lot better these days. Before, his gambling debts got so bad that my siblings had to drop out of school. But since the Lord hired me and I started earning money, he doesn’t seem to gamble anymore.”

Cindy, a young breadwinner…

Belladonna looked at her with pitiful eyes.

Cindy shrugged as if it were nothing and continued to speak.

“Anyway! I’m so jealous of having a kind father like the Pope.”

Belladonna lowered her eyes and turned her gaze to the envelope stamped with the Pope’s seal.

The Pope’s intention in sending the letter was very different from what Cindy thought.

‘He’s probably trying to let me know that I only have a few weeks left of my married life and to make sure I’m still in his grasp… And also, to see if there’s any discord between me and my husband that he can use to his advantage…’

Belladonna sighed softly and picked it up.

It seemed like she had to stop her breakfast here.

Cindy, seeing Belladonna put down her utensils, got up from her seat and asked.

“Madam, are you finished? Then shall I bring you some cool tea? There’s a fruit that can only be harvested in Silenia, and the chef said he made fruit preserves with it! It tastes quite good when mixed with water.”

Belladonna gave her a smile, meaning she would appreciate it, and Cindy excitedly turned around and ran out of the room.

Left alone, Belladonna leaned back in her chair and tore open the envelope without hesitation.

“Ugh, I don’t want to read it…”

Belladonna muttered and forced herself to read the Pope’s handwriting, which filled the square paper.

The lower her eyes went, the more her expression hardened.

“…How can it be so predictable.”

The contents of the letter were exactly as she had expected.

A reminder that she had to return to Astanya in a few weeks to resume her role as the Saintess, and a secret hint that she should hold on a little longer and get a lot of alimony before divorcing.

“How long are you going to keep telling the same story, really…”

Belladonna raised a hand and massaged her rapidly tiring forehead.

Since last night, complex feelings had filled her head.

There were still many things she hadn’t decided, but one thing was certain: she absolutely did not want to return to the Vatican in Astanya.

And to do that…

“I have to maintain my marriage with Escalion for a long time without getting divorced…”

The way not to get divorced…

Belladonna muttered in a small voice and shook her head with a low sigh.

There seemed to be no other way.

‘Even if I don’t end up talking about divorce, the Pope could use his weakness as a problem and demand a divorce first.’

So, marriage and even divorce are not my choice in the first place…

“…But what is his weakness that the Pope is holding onto?”

According to the information obtained through his aides, there was a flaw, but outwardly, she couldn’t tell what was wrong with him.

Did he scam someone during his mercenary days? Did he touch someone he shouldn’t have?

“Sigh…”

Belladonna, who had been racking her little brain, slowly got up from her seat.

Her head was dizzy and throbbing, and she wanted to lie down in bed.

“Ugh… I don’t know anything, I’m going to stop thinking…”

At that moment, Belladonna’s gaze, as she staggered towards the bed, fell on the envelopes on the bedside table.

‘The letters that came to Escalion…’

Belladonna reached out and picked them up.

It was unintentional, checking the recipients of the letters.

She had no intention of examining who the letters were for one by one, it was just a light action to cool her dizzy head.

Belladonna, sitting on the bed, turned over the envelopes one by one, and at some point, her hand stopped abruptly.

Among the names of the men who exuded a heavy and rough feeling, which seemed to be the names of mercenaries, a familiar name that she had encountered after a long time caught her eye.

“……”

Belladonna felt her throbbing head cool down as she put the bundle of letters back on the bedside table.

* * *

“Oh, Madam?”

Cindy, who was coming in with a glass bottle full of cold fruit tea, stopped walking.

Belladonna, who had somehow finished preparing to go out alone, was standing in front of the mirror, looking back at her.

Cindy blinked her eyes and put the glass bottle on the table.

“Are you going out somewhere? Please tell me! I would have helped you.”

Belladonna shook her head and moved her feet.

She was somehow calmly subdued and had a fairly resolute face.

Startled by the unfamiliar expression, Cindy followed her and opened her mouth.

“L, let’s go together, Madam! I’ll get ready and come out soon!”

Belladonna wanted to shake her head this time as well, but Cindy’s actions were faster.

Cindy, who had somehow overtaken her, was quickly running down the stairs towards the maid’s room.

Belladonna, watching her back, sighed.

‘I wanted to spend some time alone…’

Scarlett Layton.

A moment ago, she had confirmed Scarlett Layton’s name in the bundle of letters that had come to Escalion.

The moment she faced that name, which she had unknowingly covered up and ignored in the depths of her heart, Belladonna felt as if someone had poured cold water over her head, and she woke up.

The cold realization that Escalion’s side was not her place after all washed over her whole body.

‘What am I trying to do next to a man who has a separate lover…’

Thinking that way, she felt an endless sense of depression.

For a while, she couldn’t see her traces or name, so she thought she had ended the relationship…

“……”

Seeing that she was even sending letters, it seemed that Scarlett had not been able to do so, at least.

Maybe Escalion too…

Belladonna, who had been frozen in place for a while, shook her head wildly and moved her legs.

‘Anyway, I decided to divorce him!’

She hated returning to Astanya, where the insidious Pope was waiting, but she hated even more to be forcibly holding a place next to a man who had a lover.

‘Even Escalion’s…’

Belladonna stopped walking after thinking that far.

The feeling she was feeling now was not a simple sense of betrayal or disappointment towards her soon-to-be ex-husband.

She shouldn’t care deeply about something like her soon-to-be ex-husband’s mistress.

Belladonna quietly raised her hand and grabbed her heart. An unfamiliar pain was heavily pressing down on her heart.

‘Why this feeling…’

She vaguely knew the answer, but she felt like she wanted to ignore it.

‘Th, this is all because he’s unnecessarily kind! That promiscuous playboy is holding women’s hearts in his hands and playing with them as he pleases…!’

Belladonna shook her head violently again and approached the stairs.

‘Let’s go outside and get some warm air.’

The moment she went down half the stairs and turned to look at the lobby on the first floor, she saw a familiar and huge figure walking behind Cindy, who was explaining something diligently.

Ah, no!

She didn’t want to face Escalion right now.

Startled, Belladonna unknowingly grabbed the handrail of the stairs tightly and staggered backwards.

“Bella?”

But when she raised her head and met Escalion’s beautiful golden eyes looking up at her.

And when she confirmed that her heart had fallen to the floor with a thud and was running out quickly.

Belladonna had no choice but to admit it.

It was a really sad thing.

Ah, I have come to like this man.