Louisa leaned her arms on the terrace railing, gazing into the distance. She could see cars densely packed on the road far away.

She checked the calendar placed in the room.

Though I hadn’t managed it for a while, perhaps the servants had cleaned and organized it, as I saw numbers changed from the last date I remembered.

“The exhibition… It’s today.”

Louisa muttered after confirming the date.

I heard that her husband had briefly stopped by yesterday and left before dawn.

He had been busy until now, but from now on, her husband would be incessantly busy for at least a week.

She organized in her mind what she needed to do starting today.

First, she had to send a letter to Daniel. Since it was too much to convey everything that had happened by telegram, it seemed better to write a detailed letter explaining the whole story, even if it took some time.

‘How much should I write for Daniel to understand?’

Realistically, when a woman divorced, the chances of remarriage weren’t very high. So most would return to where their families were or settle nearby, and her plan wasn’t much different.

Of course, with the family fortune, there would be no problem living wherever she went. Still, since she was thinking of settling near Daniel, it would be good to have his support.

‘After sending the letter, let’s look into real estate in Tanasen as soon as possible.’

Tanasen was where the college Tanasbanian, where Daniel worked, was located.

As it was famous as an engineering college, it had quite a large residential area developed as a kind of college town.

The fact that it was a college town meant there were relatively many job opportunities for women, making it a good place for single women to live.

‘If I send it by express as fast as possible, I should be able to receive a reply before long. In the meantime, I’ll look into a few houses near Daniel, select the belongings to move from here…’

Louisa organized these thoughts as she closed the terrace door and came out.

It seemed better to go straight to the post office and send the letter first. She could think about what to write on the way, and since there was no need for much formality with Daniel, she could write the letter on paper provided at the post office and send it right away.

Louisa immediately moved towards the dressing room. However, as she grabbed the doorknob, she suddenly stopped. She turned around and walked to the bedside to pull the bell cord.

Shortly after, there was a knock and Mrs. Johnson’s voice was heard.

“Yes, madam. Is there anything you need?”

Her voice sounded a bit excited as she entered. It had been days since Louisa had called for her to do something on her own.

Louisa pointed to the dressing room and said,

“Please bring me an outfit to wear today. The usual neat ones.”

“For your rare outing, won’t you wear one of the fuller styles you’ve been favoring recently?”

Mrs. Johnson asked, sounding a bit disappointed. The recent styles had looked so bright and pretty that she had her own list of outfits she wanted to dress Louisa in for the next outing.

“That’s alright. Not those, but please bring the navy blue outfit I often wore.”

“Yes. The navy blue outfit. Understood, madam.”

Still, the mistress’s instructions were most important. Mrs. Johnson went straight into the dressing room and started gathering her clothes.

“But it’s strange…”

Mrs. Johnson muttered to herself, having come in as instructed but still unable to shake off an uneasy feeling.

The madam had definitely been strange lately.

For days she had skipped meals and stayed in her room, then suddenly resumed activities as if nothing had happened.

Until recently she had chosen quite bright outfits for going out, but today she was back to asking for dark and modest ones.

One day she even opened the wardrobe door herself and asked, ‘Which one looks most similar to the dress worn on the King’s birthday?’ while comparing, but now she wouldn’t even step into the dressing room, let alone the wardrobe.

To Mrs. Johnson, this was clearly a red flag. There must have been some major change in Louisa’s state of mind, and it probably wasn’t in a very positive direction for the relationship between the master and mistress.

‘I should tell the master when he returns.’

She made a mental note of things to tell Edward when he returned, and proceeded to prepare the modest navy blue outfit and black onyx accessories as Louisa had instructed.

Mrs. Johnson said as she hung what she was holding on the hanger next to the vanity,

“Here they are, madam.”

“Thank you. I’ll get ready myself and come down…”

But then it happened. Louisa suddenly stopped speaking and put her hand to her ear.

“Madam?”

Mrs. Johnson called out in surprise. Louisa was covering her right ear with a slightly pained expression.

After a moment, she removed her hand from her ear and straightened up, saying,

“I’m fine. It’s nothing. Please go and tell Paul to prepare in advance. So we can leave as soon as I come down.”

“Yes. Understood, madam.”

Mrs. Johnson answered but looked at Louisa with worried eyes. She hesitated to leave, only closing the door and exiting when Louisa gestured for her to go.

Louisa’s lips, which had been pretending to be fine, turned down again.

‘I need to leave this place as soon as possible.’

She hurriedly began preparing to go out.

She wanted to get away from this mansion as quickly as possible.

A place without her husband. A place where she didn’t have to think about him.

That was the driving force moving her now.

The post office, which would have been crowded normally, was quite empty. Thanks to that, Louisa achieved her goal quickly and returned to the carriage earlier than expected.

“Are you finished already?”

“I thought I’d have to wait a bit longer, but fortunately, everyone must be at the exhibition, so there weren’t many people.”

Paul opened the back door for Louisa to enter.

“Where shall we go now?”

“Now…”

Louisa hesitated for a moment. The letter was one thing since Paul couldn’t see the contents, but if she took the carriage to the real estate office, it would inevitably get back to Edward.

‘If Ed finds out, he’ll surely want to quarrel over this matter again.’

There would be talk about the company’s situation, and like last time, he would bring up words that pierced her heart, telling her to be charitable.

That was too much. She decided to talk to her husband when preparations had progressed a bit more, when she could minimize the confrontation.

“Let’s go home. I’m done with today’s errands.”

At Louisa’s words, Paul smoothly pulled the carriage away from in front of the post office.

But when they arrived at the mansion, there was an unfamiliar car parked.

Paul muttered, looking beyond the main gate.

“That’s a car I’ve never seen before. It’s rare for the master’s guests to come here.”

Louisa also raised her head, examining what was visible through the car window, and said,

“Just park right in front of the portico for now. I need to get out and check.”

But as if they had seen her carriage coming in, the front door opened and Rachel came running out.

“Madam!”

Her voice was so loud it could be heard even inside the car. Louisa opened the door and got out as soon as Paul stopped the carriage.

Rachel, who had run up to her, said with shallow, panting breaths,

“A guest has arrived. She says she’s Mrs. Bryce and her friend, and that they’ve come to see you, madam.”

“Evelyn?”

Louisa was surprised that the unexpected visitor was someone she hadn’t anticipated. She moved quickly to receive the unscheduled guests.

‘Why has Evelyn suddenly come?’

It wouldn’t have been strange to be furiously angry at an unannounced visit to a mansion without its master, especially when there was no prior appointment.

Sure enough, Mrs. Johnson seemed quite flustered, as she had come out to the entrance to wait for her.

“Madam.”

“I just heard from Rachel. Did Mrs. Bryce say why she visited without notice?”

“It seems the master contacted her. He asked her to go sightseeing at the exhibition with you starting today. Since I knew the name, I went ahead and showed them to the reception room, but…”

‘My husband?’

A question flashed through Louisa’s mind. But for now, dealing with the immediate situation was the priority.

“You did well. I would have been more concerned if Evelyn had been waiting for me outside.”

Louisa briefly considered between a formal welcome and a quick one, choosing the latter. As she walked through the entrance and down the hallway, she said,

“I’ll go in right away, so please bring some light refreshments for now. And tell Paul to remain on standby as he is.”

“Yes. Understood, madam.”

Mrs. Johnson bowed and hurried towards the kitchen.

Louisa opened the door to the reception room.

As she entered, Evelyn, who had been sitting in a chair, jumped up. She came running and embraced Louisa with both arms.

“Lucy!”

Louisa gently lowered the thin arms wrapped around her neck and said,

“Whether I see you sooner or later, you always have the same face, Ellie.”

“Isn’t it good for friends to always be the same?”

Evelyn replied cheekily, then stepped back from Louisa and began examining her up and down, holding her shoulders.

“By the way, you’ve lost even more weight. Someone might think your family has gone bankrupt again.”

“That’s a truly dreadful thing to say.”

The two women giggled. Then, the person sitting in the opposite chair waved and said,

“Am I invisible to you, Louisa?”

Startled by the sudden voice, Louisa turned around.

She hadn’t expected there to be another person in the reception room. Now that she thought about it, Rachel had mentioned Mrs. Bryce and her friend.

And in the direction she looked, there was a completely unexpected figure.

“…Evan?”

Evan Winston.

Her former fiancé, with whom things had now become awkward.