The Secret Affairs of the Fake Duke Couple (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 6
Jane already knew that Cain had a child.
Six months ago, she overheard women talking in a café.
〈Didn’t Duke Hastings have a son?〉
〈Yes, exactly. And he’s already six years old, can you believe it?〉
〈Then, will he be getting married soon?〉
〈No. They say his mother is dead—something about her being the daughter of an incredibly wealthy foreign tycoon or maybe royalty…〉
Rumors about Marquess Hastings spread wildly.
Suddenly, the Marquess of Hastings was alternately the child of the royal family, then the child of a brothel, and once even the son of a woman who had saved Cain’s life.
That was the first time Jane deliberately shut her ears to news of him after their separation.
Thus, she didn’t know much about the child.
“Joseph Hastings. He’s six. You’re working as a governess, right? I heard you teach quite well.”
“Oh… You need a governess, then.”
Jane now understood the reason behind Cain’s proposal.
At six years old, it was indeed time to start looking for a governess. While nannies sometimes took on that role, wealthy noble families usually hired both a nanny and a governess early on.
As if she needed reminding—of the Hastings family.
“They said the boy needs stability. He’s not an easy child.”
“What’s he like?”
She should have refused right away, yet questions kept slipping out.
She simply wanted to talk with him a little longer.
To her, having an ordinary conversation with him—without resentment or lashing out—felt like a dream.
Of course, the subject of their talk was a blade piercing straight through her.
“He was expelled from the academy.”
“You sent a six-year-old to an academy?”
Cain frowned.
He stared at Jane for a moment—or rather, glared would be more accurate.
She wanted to avoid his gaze, but as always, his eyes held a power that bound her in place.
His eyes traced over Jane’s tousled hair, her thick eyebrows, her tear-laden lashes, the bridge of her straight nose.
Then they stopped at her lips. Was it her imagination that his gaze lingered unusually long on her smudged lipstick?
“A child of House Hastings can never be ordinary—not even at six.”
“I know that, but… don’t children usually start at the academy at eight?”
“I don’t think early education is a bad thing. After all, it’s how people like you can make a living, isn’t it?”
Jane’s brow furrowed slightly.
“He’s not an easy child. Properly train him. Raise him into a child worthy of the Hastings name, and you’ll be rewarded accordingly.”
“Reward…?”
Jane let her words trail off.
“I heard you’re in debt.”
Cain looked around the room. A faint hint of disdain colored his eyes. Jane wished she could vanish into a mousehole.
“I’ll repay it.”
“No. This debt is mine. You don’t have to pay it off for me, Your Grace.”
“We can’t have debt collectors haunting the Hastings estate.”
Cain shook his head with a scoffing laugh.
“I could always refuse.”
“Oh.”
His tone brimmed with exaggerated awe, as if struck by some profound revelation.
That short exclamation carried blatant mockery—implying she knew full well her place.
“The position of mistress of House Hastings is far beyond me.”
“So you actually thought you’d become its mistress? How greedy you’ve become since we last met. Does poverty really make people forget their station? That you’d even dare mention becoming the lady of Hastings?”
Anger laced Cain’s voice. His expression twisted slightly.
“Know your place, Jane. What I’m proposing is that you become Joseph’s mother.”
Cain stated it plainly.
“I….”
“I’ll come back this afternoon. You’d better think it over before answering.”
Cain turned away. After glaring at the broken-hinged door for a moment, he squeezed his eyes shut.
He should have just walked out then, yet his feet remained rooted to the floor as if glued.
With a sigh, he abruptly changed direction and approached Jane. Irritably, he seized her hand.
“Are you staging some protest by showing me this?”
Her hand was bleeding, glass shards embedded in the skin.
“This… just leave it. I’ll take care of it myself.”
“Do you want my pity?”
“Cain… that’s not it….”
Jane didn’t know what to do. Her blood was staining his hand and the pristine white cuff of his shirt.
She tried twisting her wrist to pull free, but Cain not only refused to let go—he yanked her arm closer.
Then, without mercy, he yanked the glass shard from her palm.
“Ah!”
The wound, previously blocked by the shard, gaped open, and blood welled up in heavier drops.
Cain pulled out a handkerchief, pressed it firmly over her wound.
Jane couldn’t tell whether he was trying to stop the bleeding—or crush her hand.
It just hurt. Both the wound and her heart.
“Does it hurt, Jane?”
His voice sounded oddly gentle. Jane looked up. But his eyes held not a trace of warmth as they fixed on her.
“I asked if your wound hurts.”
“Oh—it doesn’t hurt.”
“Good. Visible wounds aren’t real wounds—you can treat them, Jane. Real wounds are the ones you can’t see.”
Cain dropped her hand as if discarding something useless. His handkerchief fell to the floor, and Jane’s gaze followed it.
The bleeding, which had briefly stopped, started again.
“I’ll come back this afternoon.”
Jane couldn’t bring herself to watch Cain leave. The spot where his hand had touched her tingled—not with pain, but with a sensation like a ghost awakening.
Jane still loved him.
[This is the timeline separator]Jane wrapped her hand in a bandage and busied herself with chores.
She couldn’t remember what state of mind she’d been in last night. She’d been half out of her senses.
‘It was dawn when Cain came, yet I thought it was night.’
There had been a long stretch of time between when the debt collectors left and when Cain arrived.
‘I should’ve tidied up during that time.’
How shocked he must have been.
He was always someone who kept his surroundings meticulously neat.
Jane straightened fallen objects and gathered broken pieces together.
She dabbed the dried bloodstains on the floor with a slightly damp rag.
Thanks to Jane’s industrious efforts, the house was mostly in order by the time the sun reached its zenith.
The window covered with newspaper instead of the shattered glass looked awkward, and the door hanging crookedly from its torn hinges was bothersome, but it would be livable for a few days.
Though her body felt leaden, Jane scrambled to keep herself busy. The moment she had even a brief pause, Cain’s proposal circled her thoughts again.
She wanted to accept his offer.
But still…
“It’s utterly shameless. What right do I have… to be so brazen…?”
Jane was a sinner in Cain’s eyes. Not only had she abandoned him, but she’d also kept him from being with his parents at their deathbed.
While he was abroad after their separation, Duke and Duchess Hastings died suddenly.
House Hastings never officially disclosed the cause of death.
Thus, rumors ran rampant. The most plausible theory claimed they’d suffered greatly due to business dealings entangled with the Whitneys, which ultimately ruined their health.
There were whispers someone had harmed them, but Jane dismissed those rumors immediately.
The late Duke and Duchess Hastings weren’t the type to make enemies.
Regardless, Jane couldn’t escape her connection to their deaths.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t her fault—but since she’d driven Cain away from the Ambleran Kingdom, she couldn’t claim to be entirely uninvolved.
It was true that House Hastings suffered because of their ties to the Whitney family.
When Jane left the capital, Hastings servants had swarmed her, hurling harsh words precisely for this reason.
〈Don’t you ever set foot near House Hastings again! Do you even know how much our master suffers because of you Whitneys? Just get out, already!〉
〈No need for polite speech either. That title’s just a façade anyway—a hereditary title passed to a woman who can’t even inherit it. It’s shameful that I ever bowed to a woman like you.〉
〈Don’t even think about showing your face before Marquess Hastings! Tch.〉
Did they have any idea?
That Cain himself had come to her at dawn with this proposal?
She’d never even dared to consider seeking him out.
Jane clicked her tongue loudly on purpose, then reached for the broom. Her unconscious reach with her left hand sent a sharp jolt of pain through her.
Surely, God wasn’t on Jane’s side.
“Of all things, why did it have to be my left hand?”
Her eyes grew moist.
Jane was left-handed. Thanks to rigorous training, she could manage most tasks with her right hand, but everything felt easier and turned out better with her left.
Why did injuring that left hand hurt so deeply? She hadn’t cried even when Cain spoke cruelly to her—but now tears welled up uncontrollably.
Yet Jane wasn’t even allowed the luxury of tears.
The door she’d barely propped up crashed down with a loud thud.
The shock instantly dried her tears.
“Well, look at this. All nicely cleaned up. Our Jane really is diligent, isn’t she?”
Victor and Hamuline had arrived.
Victor, who’d been using a thin branch like a skewer between his teeth, suddenly whistled a low, vulgar tune.
“Now let’s see that diligence in action—on an old man’s bed.”
At his obscene hip thrust, Jane sharply turned her head.
“I thought my refusal yesterday was clear.”
“Oh, we know~.”
Hamuline mimicked Jane by puckering her lips, then twisted her face into a menacing glare.
“Don’t even think about clumsily slicing your wrist again—unless you want to be tied up. And gagged. Or is that actually your preference? Have we been too polite?”
Jane’s last-resort plan—to bite off her own tongue—was instantly ruined.
Victor sneered.
“I realized I was wrong to make an offer to a woman who eyes other people’s money so easily. It was too much for you. So I’ve changed my method.”
Before Jane could grasp his meaning, Victor yanked her wrist.
“Let go of me!”
“Come on. I’ll wrap you up nicely and deliver you to that old man.”
“Release me!”
They were clearly planning to sell her. Jane struggled fiercely, refusing to be dragged along. The floor she’d just cleaned was dirtied once more.
“Go ahead, keep fighting. The old man will understand if you get a few bruises, won’t he? Hmm?”
Jane was dragged like a dog. They didn’t care if she stumbled or scraped against the floor.
Once outside, Victor flung her away as if discarding trash. Jane nearly smashed her face into the dirt.
“You’ve learned by now that resistance is useless, right? Let’s walk nicely.”
Victor’s voice cut through clearly. She wished she could just lose consciousness—but why did her mind grow sharper precisely at times like this?
She sharply slapped away Victor’s hand as it reached for her again.
“Don’t touch me. My legs work just fine.”
She’d pretend to comply and bide her time for a chance to escape. She’d figure out what came after that later.
Jane focused intensely on gauging the perfect moment to flee—so much so she didn’t notice someone approaching.
“Wasn’t I first in line?”
“Cain?”
The very last person Jane wanted to see right now had appeared. She clenched her teeth in shame.
When yandere male lead believes she loves him — but she never did
“How dare you!”
“How dare you make me love you, only to cast me aside as nothing more than a friend?!?
“I will never accept that.”
“I will never let you return to him.”
“Even if I have to burn myself to ashes.”
“Even if I must shatter my purity, my dignity, my very soul.”
“I will never let you escape me!”
This was the first novel that introduced me to the matriarchal genre. I’ve read it three times already!
At first, the male lead despised the female lead. Later, he misunderstood that she liked him, so he condescendingly and reluctantly reciprocated her feelings.
Then, he suddenly discovered that she was kind to everyone in the same way, and there was already someone she cherished in her heart, and that person was not him.
The male lead couldn’t believe it, he became angry and crazy. He was determined to capture her body and heart by any means necessary.
Synopsis:
Want to see how a green tea bitch male lead falls in love with the female lead?
Want to see how he flirtatiously pursues the female lead?
Want to see how he gets slapped in the face repeatedly?
The male lead is a green tea bitch, a poisonous lotus, jealous, ruthless, unscrupulous, with a venomous heart, and he’s also a delusional maniac.
The female lead is righteous, positive energy-filled, kind, a holy mother.
Let’s see how two people with extreme personalities come together~
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Sure later Cain wil regret everything he’s done to jane..he only looked the bad side from opposite but never looked inside