An Incomplete Divorce - Chapter 14
A lazy spring breeze blew in.
The abundant hair swayed in the gentle breeze, contrasting with the heightened atmosphere of the tennis court.
Olivia Blanchet’s match point.
The woman, catching her quick breath, bent her upper body while firmly planting her small feet on the grass. Without hesitation, she tossed the ball up and leaped towards the sky.
A few strands of brown hair clung and glistened on her flushed cheeks and slender neck.
As her arm stretched high, her blouse pulled up, revealing bare white skin.
Edgar, his gaze fixed on the smooth calves and thin ankles under the wind-billowed skirt, stopped in his tracks.
Bang!
At the moment she struck the ball with a roar, Edgar came to his senses, and the ball that crossed the net hit near his feet and rolled away.
Olivia cheered. She clenched her fist and let out a scream of joy.
“Go…rilla.”
The idlers sitting on the bench, who had been watching the match with bated breath, inadvertently muttered their impression.
How so?
Edgar, standing motionless, chuckled as he watched the woman laughing brightly. Beads of sweat on her rounded forehead sparkled in the morning sunlight. Edgar gazed at that sight for a long time.
Edgar walked to the net. Olivia also approached him.
“You won.”
Edgar smiled and extended his arm across the net.
“Yes. I won.”
Olivia’s voice, as she grabbed his hand without hesitation, was laced with heavy breathing. It was unclear whether the sweetness was from her breath or the flower scent.
“Congratulations.”
Edgar’s Adam’s apple moved slowly. Between the open collar of her blouse, fair cleavage rose and fell with each breath. The wind blew. A subtle scent of rose soap wafted.
“So. Your wish?”
His gaze, lifted with difficulty, captured the woman’s beautiful face.
“I’ll think about it. Is that okay?”
“As you wish.”
Behind the brightly smiling woman, the water from the grand fountain sprayed up, creating white foam. It was a defeat that couldn’t help but feel rewarding.
[This is the timeline separator]
Olivia felt a small happiness in the refreshing sensation of drinking a cold beverage after moving her body vigorously.
It was when Olivia, intoxicated with the feeling of victory, was momentarily lost in the leisure of a worry-free life while drinking ice-filled coffee.
“Take responsibility for me, Miss Blanchet.”
Olivia burst into laughter at the sudden remark.
The cafe was quiet on a weekday afternoon. The harmony of piano melodies from the record player blending with the sound of rain was as melancholic as flower petals falling in the wind and rain.
“I’m serious. Let’s go to the Rose Ball together.”
Elaine’s expression was grave, as if she couldn’t back down.
After the tennis match, Olivia had come out sightseeing in downtown Riton with Elaine. The central area, packed with department stores, luxurious theaters, and high-end shops, was bustling with tourists enjoying shopping.
The conversation that started when Elaine, who had come out to look at hair accessories to wear to the ball hosted by the Lancelot Hotel, asked about Olivia’s attendance, was continuing even in the cafe they had entered to escape the sudden rain.
“I’ve already declined, you know.”
Olivia said, scooping up a large strawberry sitting neatly atop white whipped cream with her fork.
“It doesn’t matter as long as you have an invitation.”
“I don’t have a dress.”
“Don’t tell me you left everything behind?”
“Yes.”
“What a waste…”
Elaine murmured with a sigh, then spoke again with determination in her eyes.
“I understand your situation, Miss Blanchet. But you absolutely must come with me. It’s because of someone that I have no one to go with.”
Elaine emphasized especially the last sentence as she spoke deliberately. For her, this might be the last time.
Until now, she had lived a luxurious life thanks to her husband, so deciding to part with him meant giving up this lifestyle.
Of course, if she could extract a huge alimony like Olivia, the situation would be different. But there probably wasn’t a man in Rondos who could give more alimony than Duke Johan Leopold.
“…I’ll think about it.”
Olivia smiled faintly and turned her head towards the window. In the gray-blue sky, raindrops fell like thousands of needles, shattering as they hit the road surface.
A ball…
She wasn’t keen on it, but she couldn’t ignore Elaine being ostracized by her companions because of her.
If only she had restrained her emotions a little then. She shouldn’t have brought up the necklace story. Olivia quietly swallowed a sigh.
The rain hitting the window grew heavier.
It had rained that day too.
The moment that had been like a nightmare came back to life with the deafening sound of rain in her ears. The day she had been longing for, but everything went wrong.
It was the day she was first deployed on a mission with her senior after being assigned to the violent crimes unit.
It was also the day when an early rainy season began, pouring heavy rain. The tragedy struck without warning, like a sudden shower.
‘Be careful, senior!’
At that moment, when the blade flickered between the silvery raindrops occasionally visible in the darkness, Ji-an’s body leaped out.
The sharp blade wielded by the perpetrator instantly pierced through Ji-an’s abdominal muscles. There wasn’t even a scream. It seemed like consciousness was lost for a moment.
‘Han Ji-an! Han Ji-an!!!’
He shouted.
The raindrops falling on her cheeks were no longer cold. She wanted to feel the warmth of the man she loved a little longer, but she couldn’t feel anything.
Her hearing, at least, captured his voice until the very end. Along with the sound of sirens in the distance.
I like you.
Those words she had never spoken aloud, she tried to move her lips at the last moment.
Did it get through properly?
She was curious, but there was no way to confirm.
It had become her final mission, and she died trying to protect her senior. And now she had fallen alone into a world separated from that man.
Are you doing well?
Olivia silently looked out the window.
Elaine stared at Olivia, who was quietly gazing somewhere beyond the window. An indescribable sadness could be felt from the calmness she showed.
She wasn’t unaware that the invitation to the ball was cruel to her, who had been ostracized from society.
‘Please create a special ball with Miss Blanchet.’
The letter delivered by the hotel manager and the check enclosed with it.
There was no sender on the letter, and an unfamiliar signature was scrawled on the check, but Elaine could instinctively tell.
Edgar Lancaster Lancelot.
If she hadn’t witnessed the scene at the tennis court this morning, she wouldn’t have dared to think of this man’s name.
For Elaine, who was planning to go with Olivia anyway, there was no reason not to pick up a diamond lying on the street.
Moreover, if she were to divorce her husband, every penny would count.
Although the marquis’s intentions were suspicious, she wasn’t exactly a good person anyway.
But she wasn’t a villain either. Wasn’t it perfectly normal for a single man to be interested in a divorced, beautiful woman?
Elaine decided to just think that way.
What could possibly happen?
And Olivia Blanchet was, from what she had experienced, good-natured at her core.
“Miss Blanchet?”
“…Yes? Ah.”
Olivia showed an embarrassed expression.
“I’m sorry. I was just thinking for a moment. What did you say?”
“It might be the last time. If I get divorced, this kind of life will be difficult.”
Elaine poked at Olivia’s sense of guilt relentlessly while wearing a pitiful expression. The rain still showed no signs of stopping, beating heavily on the window.
[This is the timeline separator]
“Do you have something troubling you?”
Anne asked cautiously. The young lady’s mood was low after returning from an outing in town with her first friend.
What could it be?
Anne suddenly felt scared. Could something bad have happened?
“It seems I’ll have to go to the ball after all.”
“All of a sudden?”
Anne’s hand stopped moving in surprise.
“Elaine has become troubled because of me.”
“But we don’t have a suitable dress…”
The Rose Ball was this Friday. Today was Wednesday, so there wasn’t enough time to have a dress tailored.
Even when leaving Greathill, she hadn’t touched the lavish dresses filling the dressing room. Thinking about it now, it was such a waste.
Even summer dresses had been fitted…
“!”
Oh my.
“Just a moment, my lady.”
Anne, who had been gently patting Olivia’s wet hair dry with a towel, hurriedly went to the side table.
She pulled out a notebook from the top drawer. With urgent hands, she flipped through the pages and found a memo written under the date from the day before yesterday.
「Gabriel Boutique. Three dresses」
Anne stared at it for a while.
It was a mark for the day when the summer dresses ordered a month ago would arrive.
It was a day in March when steel-colored snow was falling from the sky. It was also the day when the young lady had fallen into the lake. The young lady, who had been talking with the secretary, Diane Brook, had become very angry and called for the designer.
As always, before Gabriel Jeanne arrived, the young lady was drunk, and Olivia couldn’t remember what clothes or how many she had ordered.
“…I forgot.”
“Hm? What?”
Anne looked at Olivia, surprised at herself. She had inadvertently…
“Oh, I forgot it was my mother’s birthday.”
“Ah! I see.”
Olivia smiled apologetically.
“Let’s send her a gift, Anne.”
“…Yes, my lady.”
She couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth. How would she feel if the past of the young lady still flew in like an uninvited guest to her divorced husband?
Anne hoped that the young lady would recall Johan Leopold as little as possible. Because loving the duke was destroying the young lady.
The current young lady, that is, the young lady who had divorced the duke, always smiled as if she had been a person who always laughed. She was even prettier when she smiled.
Like all first loves, that emotion was impulsive and inevitable. But it was just that, a first love. Anne prayed that love would come again in a more refined form and more mature shape.
Just then, a refreshing spring breeze after the rain blew in through the wide-open window. The notebook placed on the table fluttered, and a page turned over.
Anne’s face turned pale once again.
*
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When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
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With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
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