Life After Divorce (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 1
Prologue
“First, calm down.”
I stepped back, unable to tear my gaze from the solid body approaching me.
“Etricia.”
Edmund approached slowly like a predator cornering its prey and confined me in his arms. Soon, my back was pushed against the hard wall.
In the moment I unwittingly turned to look behind me, a broad shadow fell over my head as if an awning had been drawn.
As I slowly raised my head, I let out a languid sigh at the scene like a painting.
Fierily flickering golden eyes, moisture-laden silver hair, straight lips from which a voice that sent shivers down the nape emerged. And even the gown half-stripped off.
A droplet of water precariously perched on his jaw, exuding a dangerous aura, plopped down.
“I am not your younger brother. Do you understand?”
“Of course. I understand.”
Flustered, I nodded broadly, acknowledging that yes, those words were correct. Hoping that by saying so, I might escape this distressing situation. But even after hearing my obedient response, he frowned.
“You don’t understand at all.”
I had no idea what exactly I was supposed to understand, but the situation left me with nowhere to look, utterly perplexed.
I raised both hands to push against Edmund’s chest, but upon the blatant pectoral muscles, I veered direction and pushed his sturdy shoulders instead.
Even the slight touch of skin felt scorching, as if burned.
“Younger brother, first step back and let’s calmly talk—.”
“Please.”
Edmund tightly shut his eyes and cut me off with a sigh-like voice. He slowly lifted his eyelids again and spoke in a suppressed voice.
“Stop calling me younger brother.”
“……”
“You are not my sister.”
Edmund carefully propped his clenched fist beside my face. Then, pressed closely, our gazes met. The slightly distorted golden eyes were flickering hotly like fire.
“If I thought of you as a sister, I wouldn’t feel desire.”
In an instant, I sucked in a breath. It was hard to believe even after hearing it.
‘Desire……?’
Did that man just say… desire?
That outrageous statement could never come from that man’s mouth. Especially from the mouth of that man who was like an ascetic, not batting an eye at the seductions of countless women.
Instinctively, I slowly lowered my gaze.
I know. Even if he desires me, it’s not in the current sense. He’s not a beast, and in this situation, it couldn’t be.
But……
Out of curiosity, as I lowered my gaze, I couldn’t reach his pants and tightly shut my eyes. My face burned hot; I absolutely couldn’t look. At the sign of him pressing even closer as if telling me not to avoid, I bit my lips.
Yes, I had some inkling to a degree. I had noticed but……
‘Since when……?’
I quickly traced back time amid the chaotic questions ravaging my mind.
*
1. I entered a trashy novel. As the protagonist, no less.
Sigh.
I stopped at the landing, gripped the railing, and looked down at the hall.
Because thinking about the person I was about to meet made my head throb.
In the central hall, after lining up the attendants in a row, there was a woman loosely reclining on the couch.
Her age was roughly mid-40s.
The woman draped in a fox fur shawl soft enough to sway in the breeze was, for some reason, thoroughly irritated.
The woman staring at the grandfather clock sharply asked while fanning with a lilac fan.
“When is Etricia coming down?”
“She just coughed, so preparations are delayed. She’ll be down soon.”
“Tch, how pathetic. So slow it’s ridiculous.”
The woman neurotically switched her crossed legs.
For the record, I had never invited her.
Moreover, that place was the hall, a public space in the mansion, not suitable for a couch to be placed alone.
‘Usually, guests use the drawing room.’
Just from the attitude of this disorderly uninvited guest scolding the owner, one could tell how arrogant she was.
I let out a small sigh.
‘Deal with her roughly and send her away.’
Having finished my thoughts, as I descended the remaining stairs, the woman leisurely stood up and crossed her arms.
“You’re here now? Even a turtle would be faster than you.”
“……”
I expressionlessly stared at the woman in silence. I didn’t even offer a common greeting, let alone eye contact. Because I had no desire to greet an unreasonable woman who barged in like an outlaw and acted like the owner.
Even if that woman was my mother-in-law, Viscountess Antra Dian.
As I silently met her gaze, Antra let out a scoff with an incredulous expression.
“Ha, no proper greeting to a mother-in-law who came to visit the sick. Truly cheap manners befitting someone from a nouveau riche family, Etricia.”
Ha, at the clear mockery, I sighed with cloudy eyes. It didn’t seem like something someone who showed up unannounced should say.
But my current goal was to send that woman away.
I swallowed the words rising in my throat and indifferently greeted while holding the hem of my dress.
“You must have had a hard time coming, Mother.”
Then Antra raised her eyebrows like mountains.
“You don’t seem welcoming at all.”
“Isn’t it stranger to welcome an uninvited guest?”
“So you’re saying my coming is displeasing, is that it?”
“If interpreted that way, perhaps.”
“You……”
As I calmly countered without losing a word, Antra, speechless, ground her lips and asked.
‘She must be fuming. Until now, I just parroted yes, yes.’
I lazily blinked and looked around.
The interior walls gilded in antique style, dazzlingly brilliant diamond chandelier, art pieces packed so densely that wallpaper was invisible.
‘They really splashed money around.’
My money.
Grinding my teeth, I gently closed my eyes.
It was just a very common possession.
No, since the moment I opened my eyes here, I’ve lived as Etricia, so perhaps reincarnation.
The day before, drunk, I dove from the stairs and lost consciousness.
And recalled my previous life.
In the distant dreamlike state, I was an orphan and died in a plane crash on the way back from studying abroad.
Beep-. Fiercely piercing tinnitus and people’s screams.
‘Gasp!’
I swallowed breath roughly and snapped my eyes open.
The nightgown and hair were drenched in cold sweat.
My pupils wildly scanned the bedroom. Looking here or there, it wasn’t unfamiliar space.
That’s when I realized.
The fact that I’d been living assimilated into the protagonist of the trashy novel I was reading on the plane before the accident—a woman who hired a hit on her husband’s affair partner and ended up killed by the affair partner’s younger brother.
In the early part of the original, exhausted from nursing her father, she meets husband Devon and falls for his sweet talk.
He forges the will of her bedridden father to seize property and title, resulting in a catastrophic marriage.
From the honeymoon, the husband squanders wealth and commits adultery, while the mother-in-law viciously imposes in-law abuse. Saying a rootless, vulgar daughter from a nouveau riche family entered a venerable literary noble house.
When I came to my senses, I was completely isolated in the mansion.
Enduring four years unknowingly bruising my heart, in the latter part of the novel, drunk, I hire a hit on the last affair partner.
[ Is it you? The woman who murdered my sister. ]A sword flying diagonally and splattering blood droplets.
Far from revenge, dying at the hands of the affair partner’s younger brother whom I drunkenly killed. Truly an ending readers would lament.
Carefully tracing the timeline, I realized it was the day after drunkenly hiring the hit and rolling down the stairs.
If things continue this way, only a gruesome ending remains.
After I die, Antra brings in a daughter-in-law to her taste and becomes privileged in high society, Devon indulges in affairs until his sexual function declines, enjoying a luxurious life. Monopolizing everything Count Bueil achieved.
‘Don’t make me laugh, just take it all lying down and die, giving everything to that damn mother and son?’
It would enrage me even in death.
I strongly gripped my skirt hem, ground my teeth, and vowed.
‘I will definitely chase that mother and son away without giving them even 1 ogreant.’
Definitely.
“Etricia.”
“……”
“Etricia!”
I snapped awake at the shout invading my thoughts.
When male lead is the homewrecker
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
I’ve read the novel below twice already. Girls, I’m highly recommending it to you!
The female lead? Not a good person.
The second male lead? Not a good person.
The male lead? Willingly plays the third party, breaking up the female and second male lead’s relationship despite all the warnings from his friends—so yeah, he’s definitely not a good person either.
Basically, nobody in this novel is simple-minded or without scheming.
The female lead starts off as the male lead’s secretary, but don’t worry—later on, she takes over the company while the male lead steps back to support her. He won’t steal her spotlight, overshadow her, or dull her shine.
I love novels where men are out here snatching wigs, tearing each other down, and going to war just to win the female lead’s affection. And this is exactly that kind of novel. Most of Hai Dai Ran’s works have this dynamic. You’ll see the male characters’ emotions being pushed to the absolute extreme.
There’s even a scene where the second male lead exposes the male lead online for being a homewrecker. The brotherhood immediately gangs up on him, dragging him through the mud. I find it compelling —it completely flips reality on its head, where usually, women are the ones fighting over a man and getting torn apart by the sisterhood.
For me, female leads in the novels I read should only struggle in their careers, not in love. But if the brainless romantics in the story are all men? I have zero complaints.
I’ve pretty much read all of Hai Dai Ran’s novels and even translated all of them—her works are just my thing. I’ll slowly upload everything here. One day, when my website is official, I hope I can invite her to join as one of the star authors.
Here’s the story synopsis:
One-line summary: She is his lifelong obsession, to the point where he was willing to be a third wheel, scorned by society, just to wedge his way into her relationship with her fiancé.
Cold-hearted and indifferent female lead + Scheming and subservient CEO male lead
Intro 1:
“I know she doesn’t love him.”
With blood trickling from his clenched fist, Rong Xiu gazed at the woman before him, his eyes clouded with anguish. Hidden in the wardrobe, he had witnessed Fan Xia – the woman he desperately loved – in an intimate embrace with her fiancé. Yet his heart still yearned for her, defying all reason.
Fan Xia, the elegant and composed assistant, carried something mysterious in her eyes whenever she looked at her fiancé, Wen Lan Sheng. Strange occurrences began to surface – secret meetings with the young Gu Jin Yi, an unexplained withdrawal of 5,000 yuan… Then suddenly, her fiancé’s sister, Wen Jing, violently attacked her.
In this matriarchal society, Rong Xiu had risen to become the chairman of a powerful healthcare conglomerate, breaking through gender prejudices. But for the first time, he willingly stepped into the shadows as the other man, disregarding his friends’ warnings to become her secret lover.
Because he had discovered the truth – Fan Xia wasn’t the pure angel everyone believed her to be. And perhaps, he was the only one capable of helping her execute her mysterious plan…
Intro 2:
Rong Xiu’s biggest regret in life was missing out on Fan Xia.
He secretly loved Fan Xia for 7 years.
Watched her go public with her boyfriend.
Watched her kiss her boyfriend at their wedding.
Until that man blissfully nestled in Fan Xia’s arms, obtaining everything he could only dream of.
The crazy jealousy stripped away his hidden secret love, layer by layer, burning like wildfire.
Fan Xia, how can I have you!
【Reading and Trigger Warning Guide】
1. Female dominant, male submissive, male pregnancy
2. Male lead schemes his way to the top, male competition
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
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Chapter Comments (1)
Inline Comments (55)
“D-Devon will divorce you on the spot once he hears of your outrageous behavior!
This is exactly what the heroine wants. But why is intimidation considered a threat of divorce? A bad husband’s divorce is better. ◑.◑
Yes—it meant someone had already been dispatched to escort her to the netherworl
Wah! She is unlucky. The heroine possessed at the wrong time! Run now to catch up with the disaster that will happen.
“Lirien! When you send her on an errand, it always takes half the day—did you lo
It’s clear what kind of friends those are! They are exploiters and bullies. Poor Lirien!（◞‸◟）
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oh man girl, using your self as bait never goes well! just kiss the man instead