After a while, Edward entered Louisa’s room with a waterskin pouch on one arm and a tray of mineral water in the other hand. As soon as he entered, he first placed the waterskin pouch he was holding onto the bed with a thud.

Then, after carefully covering it with a blanket to keep the warmth of the water pouch from cooling, he approached Louisa’s side.

“Sit down. Why are you standing like that?”

Louisa was standing in front of the window that was wide open, connecting to the terrace of the room.

Edward grabbed the back of the chair placed in front of the table. After moving the chair behind Louisa, he was about to grab his wife’s shoulders to sit her down but stopped in place and opened his mouth.

“I brought a chair. Sit down.”

Louisa, who had been standing looking out the window, hesitated for a moment before sitting on the chair he had brought.

Edward handed her the sealed mineral water from the tray and said.

“It’s mineral water. Drink it.”

Louisa silently took the glass he offered.

Although she wasn’t particularly fond of the characteristic tingling of mineral water, drinking it did tend to make her feel quite a bit better afterward.

She closed her eyes tightly and swallowed a few sips of water from the glass.

The curtains swayed gently in the breeze coming through the terrace.

Edward leaned against the wall next to the terrace with his arms crossed, saying nothing. In the silence between the two, only the sound of the curtains rustling against each other filled their surroundings.

The cold breeze settling low could be felt pooling around their ankles. Edward moved his head to stretch his neck, as if it was stiff.

Louisa glanced at her husband, concerned that he was unable to sleep until this hour.

She didn’t want him to lose sleep because of her when he was sensitive to fatigue. She didn’t want him to show her unnecessary kindness.

If their feelings weren’t mutual, such consideration would only make her suffer more.

She opened her mouth.

“Thank you for taking care of me. You must be tired too, so go get some rest now.”

“It’s fine. I wasn’t very sleepy to begin with. Now I’m too hot to even think about sleep.”

Edward grabbed the collar of the shirt he was wearing and blew into it a few times.

“I’m sorry. Because of me, in the middle of the night, unnecessarily.”

“It’s fine.”

He answered curtly as if it was nothing.

But Louisa urged him again to go in now.

“When you cool down a bit, go in and sleep.”

“I said it’s fine. Your stomach isn’t feeling well right now. Finish drinking that quickly, and when you feel a bit better, tell me again.”

“Thanks to you, I feel much better now. The nausea has subsided a lot.”

Louisa said, rubbing her upper abdomen.

While it was true that she greatly wished for her husband to leave quickly, it was also true that her stomach really did feel better than before.

“Then go lie down. I’ll massage your hands or whatever.”

Edward said, gesturing with his chin towards the bed.

Louisa was at a loss for words at the unexpected statement.

She choked up at those words.

It was something she had never heard since coming here.

This wasn’t the first time she had spent the night clutching her aching stomach like this. She recalled the three years of time she had spent suffering alone in this room.

Over that, the image of the kind husband from Greenburgh who held her hand and kept watch by her bedside until she fell asleep was superimposed.

It was the image of the Allen mansion that she had longed for.

‘Why do you shake me up like this when I’m trying to give up, you.’

This makes it hard to even sort out my feelings comfortably. I thought it was all over, so why now…

She bit her lip.

She wanted to stop these thoughts and the emotional drain they caused, which is why she didn’t want to face him today of all days.

As her face contorted, Edward detached himself from the wall he was leaning against and said.

“Just go lie down again for now. You really don’t look well.”

“No. I think I just need to rest alone for a bit.”

“What…”

Edward said, his expression hardening.

“Don’t say such nonsense and go lie down.”

Not satisfied with just that, he went on to threaten.

“I’m not planning to leave until you do, so do as you please.”

When her husband started acting like this, there was no way to end the situation unless she listened to him.

In the end, it was Louisa who gave up first and stood up.

As she got into bed, the blanket was warm from the heat of the water pouch. Her body, chilled from the cold wind, melted into that warmth.

She belatedly remembered that she used to like this. When her body was struggling, she would seek out this kind of cozy warmth. Louisa only now realized for the first time that her husband remembered something that had become faint even to herself.

As she got into bed and lay down, Edward closed the window and brought over the chair she had been sitting on.

Placing it beside the bed, he held out his hand to Louisa and said.

“Give it here.”

He meant he would massage her hand, so give it to him. Louisa reluctantly held out her hand.

His large, rough hand enveloped hers.

Despite having been in the cold wind together, his hand was warm.

‘…It’s warm.’

Her husband’s body heat transmitted through her skin.

So that’s why he had been standing with his arms crossed.

Apart from her conflicted feelings, her body began to relax with the warm temperature and massage.

It was much more comfortable than when she had been trying to hold back nausea alone. The warm temperature and rhythmic motions enveloped her peacefully, and Louisa drifted off to sleep like that.

Suddenly waking from sleep, Louisa slowly opened her eyes.

The sunlight was bright even through the canopy. She raised herself slightly and leaned against the headboard of the bed.

It seemed her wake-up time was quite a bit later than usual.

Louisa absently touched her stomach as she took a deep breath. The heaviness had subsided, and her stomach felt much more comfortable.

She turned her head to look to the side.

There was nothing in the place where her husband had been sitting. The chair had been returned to its usual spot, and the tray and glass that had been on the table were nowhere to be seen.

She checked the bed.

Only the leather pouch that had kept her warm all night remained beside her.

Louisa placed her hand on top of it.

The leather pouch was still quite warm. Since the water’s warmth couldn’t have lasted for half a day, it meant her husband had come to reheat the water once more.

Louisa felt a lump in her throat.

The man who was always so exhausted had stayed up all night by her side.

In her memory, he was a man who, even if he had nothing, would fill her needs this delicately.

She must have been shaken so much because she missed the kind husband from before.

But her judgment had to be cold. Even if she couldn’t follow that judgment herself, her immediate judgment shouldn’t waver.

Even if her heart felt heavy, even if she remembered the exciting and joyful days of the past, her husband’s current behavior was only like ripples caused by the stone she had thrown.

She couldn’t rashly harbor expectations based on just that. There were too many unresolved issues for that.

First of all, the most crucial thing was that his heart and hers were different.

Even if they were ultimately looking out for each other, it was meaningless if the source was guilt. Once he started racing towards success again, they would fall out of sync once more.

And above all, she no longer had the strength to be optimistic, wondering if maybe things could be different.

It had been hard enough when she first brought up the topic of separation, but since then, it had been unspeakably painful.

Every single action caught her eye, and because of that, she consumed her emotions swinging back and forth with every moment.

She knew the process wouldn’t be easy since it wasn’t a separation decided because her feelings had cooled. She uttered the word separation knowing this. It was a word thrown out almost in resignation, wanting to get rid of the feelings she was harboring as soon as possible because they were so painful.

But she didn’t know she would become even more distressed by doing so.

If she had known it would be like this, she thought it might have been better to just endure his indifference. That’s how much the recent emotional rollercoaster had exhausted her. But having already started, she had to endure.

‘I’ll probably have to endure like this for an even longer time.’

They say a frog slowly boiling in hot water dies without realizing it’s dying.

But a frog that falls into boiling water jumps out immediately in surprise and survives.

So if she endured the current pain and separated from him, if she pulled herself together just a little more.

Then someday, there would come a day when they would have a comfortable relationship where each had found their own happiness.

Louisa opened the drawer of the bedside table.

Inside was a framed family photo, the last one they had taken.

She took it out and looked at the faces of her parents, whom she could no longer meet.

She touched the small faces printed on paper with her fingertips.

All she could feel was the flat sensation of cold paper. Nevertheless, she continued to trace her parents’ faces with her hand.

Looking at her parents in the photo, she said.

“The exhibition is only a few days away, and my husband’s engine will surely ride the rapids quickly. So even if it seems a bit foolish, please trust and wait for your daughter.”

I’ll definitely be happy. Don’t worry.

She gazed at the photo for a while, then put it back in the drawer and got up.

When she went down to the first floor, it was already lunchtime.

“Good morning, Agatha. Though it might be a bit late to call it morning.”

Feeling embarrassed about her late rising, Louisa greeted Mrs. Johnson with a shy smile.

Mrs. Johnson, who was changing the flowers in the vase, chuckled and said.

“The master told us not to wake you up, ma’am. Are you feeling better?”

“I’m fine now, thanks to that.”

“That’s a relief.”

Mrs. Johnson placed the newly arranged flower bouquet in the vase and poured water into it from the nearby kettle.

“The master said to prepare a meal when you came down, so I’ve just prepared the ingredients lightly. Shall I start preparing now?”

Originally, Louisa had no intention of eating lunch as it might be too heavy for her stomach. However, hearing that effort had already been made, Louisa nodded.

“Ah… Then please prepare it.”

“Yes, I understand.”

As Mrs. Johnson, who had wrapped the wilted bouquet in paper, was about to leave after tidying up, Louisa asked.

“Has my husband finished his meal?”

“The master said so and mentioned he needed to stop by the laboratory. He said he’d be back before dinner as we need to go see the opera.”

“The driving? Did he go alone?”

“Yes. He left without saying much…”

“I see. Thank you.”

As Louisa nodded, Mrs. Johnson also left.

‘He must have stayed up almost all night.’

Why would such a person drive alone, leaving the servants behind?

Louisa worried if the road might have been dangerous, but then inwardly lamented.

Realizing she was doing something foolish again, she shook her head and consciously erased thoughts of him.