Olivia found herself in a difficult situation.

The woman had not yet noticed her, so if she quietly turned around and left, nothing would happen. She didn’t want to collide again, hurting and being hurt.

But despite such feelings, a curious question arose: Why was she alone here? The group was having dinner at Grand Blue.

Between her tightly clenched hands, a white handkerchief was visible. It stood out even more against her dark blue skirt.

‘Was she crying?’

Olivia decided to stop her curiosity there. Yesterday’s incident weighed on her mind. Her revelation must have had an impact. Thinking that way, this time guilt made it hard for her to leave.

“My lady.”

Anne called Olivia in a whisper. Even Anne’s eyes seemed to say they should turn back.

Just as Olivia and Anne were about to turn around silently, it happened.

“Have you finished your amusing spectacle?”

Startled like guilty people, the two slowly turned towards the woman. Their eyes met with the woman who was looking this way, her head held high.

Olivia took a short deep breath and approached the bench.

The woman’s pursed lips looking up at Olivia were swollen red. Her eyes were also reddened, as if she had been sobbing while biting her lips. The woman’s eyelids quivered as she glared.

“Hello.”

“Do I look fine to you?”

“…”

It was a foolish first word.

“Are you satisfied?”

Olivia quietly received the woman’s reaction.

“It’s a common tactic in this field, isn’t it? Today, only my chair was missing.”

The woman spoke in an angry voice. Olivia recalled the women laughing and chatting while enjoying their meal on the terrace of Grand Blue.

“Thanks to you.”

The woman was trembling, desperately holding back tears. Apart from feeling sorry, Olivia didn’t particularly feel sympathy.

“Thanks to all of you. I never had a seat either.”

Olivia looked down at the woman with emotionless eyes as she spoke.

The woman’s lips moved as if to retort, but for a while, only silence flowed between them. Light and shadows swayed erratically following the wind shaking the tree branches.

The gaze between them was like a tightly drawn thread.

“You’ve changed.”

Elaine softened her sharp gaze as if admitting defeat and smirked.

“How did you know that necklace was fake?”

“I saw the real one.”

“…It’s at the Duke’s house. I was foolishly deceived again.”

Elaine blew her nose loudly. The tip of her pointed nose was bright red.

“He secretly sold the land my grandfather left me. When I confronted him, he couldn’t speak. I had sensed he might have another woman for a while, but I couldn’t believe it. It’s like denial of reality. You know, that scary thing.”

Elaine moistened her lips with her tongue, then held her breath before inhaling again.

“Then on our wedding anniversary, he gave me that necklace. Saying he sold the land for this. Tearing up while saying he was an incompetent husband. Ha!”

Elaine wiped her nose again.

“I had been saying I wanted it like a habit since before we married, and he remembered that. I was really touched. How stupid he must have thought I was… Not knowing he was filling another woman’s pockets.”

“The bad one is the person who deceived you.”

“The deceived person is bad too. I should have checked. It would have been simple to have it appraised. I was afraid. If I knew the truth, I couldn’t maintain the marriage. I just cowardly ran away. Not knowing I’d face the truth like this.”

“That’s… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I won’t apologize either.”

A faint smile of restrained emotion appeared at the corners of her lips that she tried to lift.

“Instead. Will you introduce me?”

“Pardon?”

Olivia blinked and asked back.

“That capable lawyer you mentioned.”

Elaine looked straight at Olivia with sparkling eyes.

“…”

Olivia fell silent for a moment. Then, as if realizing something, she exclaimed a beat late.

“Ah!”

‘If you ever need a capable lawyer, please contact me. I’ll introduce you. You never know what might happen.’

It was something she had said not wanting to be overwhelmed, but it seemed the woman had taken it to heart.

Olivia stared at Elaine silently for a while with a perplexed expression.

In fact, there was no capable lawyer.

From the beginning, all Olivia wanted was a divorce. She had to quietly exit the stage before Johan Leopold met Clara.

Olivia was wrapped in anxiety that Johan might not let her go. As these kinds of story flows often go, she worried he might become obsessed with her.

But he let her go without a moment’s hesitation and surprised Olivia by adding a generous alimony she hadn’t expected. On the surface, it was probably for his own reputation.

“Actually…”

Olivia paused as if searching for words.

“There is no capable lawyer.”

“What do you mean there isn’t?”

“It means exactly that. There isn’t one.”

She had an expression of disbelief. Elaine, blinking her large eyes, suddenly stood up and linked arms with Olivia.

“Instead of this, let’s go inside somewhere for a cup of tea. I’m too curious to bear it.”

Elaine was serious about divorce. She desperately needed the advice of an experienced divorcee rather than Rondos’ incompetent lawyers who gave meager alimony despite high fees.

Especially Olivia Blanchet, who had even secured an outrageous amount of alimony.

The three people who emerged from the path entered the first teahouse that caught their eye. A piano piece flowed from the gramophone in the quiet tea room.

The conversation was briefly interrupted by the staff bringing the ordered tea. After the employee set down the black tea and retreated, Elaine raised her eyebrows and asked.

“I read in the article that you got enormous alimony and even the Lemont villa. That you came in with nothing and left as a nouveau riche. Ah! This is just quoting the article, so don’t be offended.”

“I didn’t know such things were in the articles. I had no idea.”

“Good heavens. Do you know how big of an issue your divorce was? Even the brand of the bag you were carrying when you left Greathill that day was reported. Didn’t you read the newspapers?”

“I wasn’t particularly interested.”

Olivia smiled slightly. She had been focused solely on leaving Johan Leopold’s side.

After deciding on the Kingdom of Brit as her new settlement, she spent busy days disposing of the villa and preparing to leave while learning about that place.

“You really didn’t hire a lawyer?”

“…No.”

“Then you just divided the assets without any dispute thanks to your excellent husband?”

From Olivia’s perspective, since she hadn’t done anything for the divorce, that was the case.

“Your lawyer was my hope.”

“Wouldn’t a trial be advantageous for you?”

“The judge is a man too. He probably keeps a couple of mistresses. It means it’s that natural.”

It was common for wealthy men to have women besides their wives. In the world of men, that too was a display of wealth.

“That’s unfair.”

“Well, not particularly. We can keep lovers too if we want. As long as we don’t get caught.”

This was a part Olivia found difficult to understand readily.

“So when a woman requests a divorce first, a skilled lawyer is necessary. Unless the husband has a fatal cause for blame besides adultery.”

Elaine spoke while repeatedly putting sugar cubes in her teacup, dissolving them, and adding more.

Olivia gazed at her thoughtfully. As the piano melody ended, there was a brief pause before the cello timbre slid over the lazy afternoon sunlight.

“Then, how about making your husband want the divorce first?”

As Olivia cautiously parted her lips, Elaine, who had been meaninglessly stirring her teacup, looked up.

“Him?”

“Yes.”

Elaine frowned.

“Are you telling me to get divorced now? Do you know what that means when you say that?”

Elaine’s voice rose slightly in excitement.

“Of course, I know. But Miss Elaine, you shouldn’t grant the divorce.”

“…”

“You should hold out until he offers the amount of alimony you want. Then your husband will file for a judicial divorce.”

“…”

“Miss Elaine, you just need to show in court how virtuous and merciful a wife you are.”

“What do you mean?”

“Although your husband committed adultery, say that you still love him unchanged and want to protect your precious family. That you’ll wait for him to return anytime. Move the judge. The better Miss Elaine’s acting is, the more your husband will become a terrible person, and the judge will order the divorce with generous alimony as a condition.”

A clear change flashed in Elaine’s eyes.

“I’m confident I can make that bastard say he wants a divorce.”

Every time she went to a ball wearing the fake necklace and boasted to acquaintances, what did her husband standing beside her think? The thought made her tremble with a sense of betrayal and shame.

Was that necklace really the only fake?

It probably wasn’t. From some day when he came in smelling of unfamiliar perfume, maybe everything her husband had given her was fake. Even his heart.

That bastard.

No matter how much she tried to endure, she couldn’t. It was impossible.

She felt sick to her stomach. Tears came again.

“When the divorce succeeds, let’s have a party.”

Elaine’s lips, which had been clenched to keep from crying, curved up in a splendid line.

Duke Johan Leopold’s day began unchangingly from early morning.

Although it was the weekend, he dealt with work in his office as usual and substituted a cup of strong coffee for breakfast.

He signed documents indifferently with an expressionless face, and in the afternoon, he rode his favorite horse Alexander around the mansion grounds.

Then he changed into clothes suitable for dinner and attended the banquet he was invited to.

As if it had always been that way, his life was no different from before the divorce. If anything, the only difference might be that he had no companion to attend social gatherings with.

Diane Brook was very satisfied with that fact.

That lowborn bastard’s existence was that insignificant. Olivia Blanchet, less than dust floating in the air, had not left any trace on the noble man’s solid life.

Diane Brook adjusted her outfit in front of Johan’s office. Gently pressing down her trembling chest, she knocked, and the man’s attractive low voice flowed out from inside, telling her to enter.

Diane, the former Duchess’s secretary, opened the tightly closed office door without hesitation.