Adeline entered the bathroom inside the bedroom, feeling dizzy.

The entire time she walked, she felt something hot flowing down between her legs.

Only after locking the doorknob did she lift her skirt.

“Oh my. Why is there blood……”

Bright red blood flowed onto the bathroom floor.

Adeline’s face turned deathly pale, almost blue.

It was a situation that anyone would suspect as vaginal bleeding.

Adeline’s hands trembled violently.

“Wh-what should I do?”

At that moment, she recalled what the doctor had said earlier. Asking if she had experienced vaginal bleeding.

Adeline’s legs gave out and she collapsed onto the bathroom floor.

She grabbed her hair in a mess.

She wanted to scream out loud, but if she did, the maids would surely come rushing in.

All sorts of thoughts flooded her mind.

Was it because she wasn’t careful enough? What about the hat and such. Going into the lake for no reason.

Or was it because of too much stress?

“Why on earth……”

Adeline had no idea why the perfectly fine baby had miscarried.

Was something wrong since they said the pulse was weak? But Adeline had been perfectly fine for that to be the case.

She thought it could happen if she caught a bad cold, but that wasn’t it either, so she was full of questions.

Then Adeline clutched her stomach as a sharp pain suddenly washed over her.

A cry escaped Adeline’s lips at the pain that felt oddly familiar.

“Could it be……”

Only then did Adeline begin to count back her last menstrual period on her fingers.

When she realized it had been long past her expected date, she felt dizzy.

Adeline’s hands and feet trembled uncontrollably.

“It wasn’t a pregnancy…?”

Her voice shook unsteadily as she muttered in disbelief.

With the thought that this wasn’t a miscarriage, but the start of her period, Casius came to mind.

Since becoming pregnant, their relationship had been gradually recovering.

But.

‘If he finds out I’m not pregnant……’

Just imagining it made Adeline feel dizzy, and she closed her eyes.

Adeline did not leave the bedroom until it became a dim night.

Since returning from the villa, the two had gotten along quite well.

Because of that, they had started having dinner together, but Adeline didn’t have the courage to eat with Casius.

Just being face to face with him would make her feel sick.

So she skipped the meal and went to bed early. However, when she actually tried to sleep, she couldn’t.

It was while she was tossing and turning. The bedroom door opened and someone walked in.

In fact, Adeline could tell who that someone was. Only one man could enter and leave this bedroom.

He came straight to where the bed was.

“I heard you said you wouldn’t eat dinner.”

She lifted her head at the low voice collecting in her earlobes.

Adeline’s eyes met with Casius, who had already sat down beside the bed.

“I had no appetite.”

“Is your morning sickness starting again?”

“That’s… not it.”

Adeline was about to say she never had morning sickness to begin with, but trailed off.

She should tell him honestly. But looking into his red eyes, she couldn’t bring herself to speak.

When would be a good time to tell him it wasn’t a pregnancy?

Adeline felt nauseous. It felt like the nonexistent morning sickness was starting again.

“I enjoyed the dessert you sent. It was delicious.”

He leaned his upper body towards where Adeline was.

Then he reached out and brushed Adeline’s hair that was scattered on the pillow.

“I didn’t make it.”

Adeline flinched involuntarily every time his hand touched her.

“I know. As if you could bake cookies. It must be Becky’s handiwork.”

Adeline didn’t know what to do as she looked at the duke who had now come close.

Adeline turned her head first at his gaze, which felt so calm it seemed profound.

It wasn’t the kind of look a man desperate to devour her would have.

A man who had become gentle at some point.

So Adeline felt suffocated, weighed down by guilt.

This is driving me crazy.

She couldn’t even meet his eyes, let alone tell him it wasn’t a pregnancy.

But Casius, unaware of Adeline’s feelings, tilted his head and came closer.

Adeline twisted her head away as she saw his lips approaching, about to touch hers.

Casius’s eyebrows twitched. As if it had rubbed him the wrong way.

“Why are you suddenly avoiding me?”

He swallowed the rest of his words and stared down at Adeline.

She was trying to find the right words, not knowing how to say it.

‘Actually… there is no child.’

‘I wasn’t pregnant from the beginning. It seems there was a misdiagnosis.’

She should tell him honestly. But Adeline couldn’t open her mouth for a while.

After a long silence, Adeline painfully opened her quivering lips.

“The… the doctor said we should be careful for a while.”

Adeline squeezed her eyes shut as she said this.

It was a statement that wasn’t among the choices she had been agonizing over.

A lie on top of another lie.

Even knowing that the guilt weighing on her would grow heavier with each day she deceived him, Adeline couldn’t bring herself to speak.

No. She lacked the courage to speak.

“I know. I wasn’t planning to do anything.”

Only then did he lie down obliquely beside Adeline, as if the question had been resolved.

Then he looked at Adeline while propping his head with one hand instead of a pillow.

Adeline’s heart beat unsteadily under his direct gaze.

She was glad to see Mel in this man who had become so gentle.

But was it because she knew the reason he had become gentle was simply due to her pregnancy?

Adeline’s hands began to tremble with anxiety.

And as if sensing her unease, Casius spoke first.

“My doctor is more capable than you might think, so don’t worry.”

Adeline turned her head to look at him.

He seemed to know all the conversations she had had with the doctor.

“He said sometimes the pregnancy pulse can be felt weakly. But that doesn’t mean there’s a problem with the baby.”

“……”

“So don’t worry and go to sleep.”

Adeline’s mouth went completely dry.

Breaking through the long, oppressive silence, Adeline was the first to open her lips.

“By any chance… are you treating me so well because I’m carrying your child?”

“That’s right.”

Her voice trembled finely, but Casius didn’t seem to notice.

“Of course I should treat you well since you’re carrying my child. Is that child just any ordinary child?”

The child of the precious ducal family.

Hearing that story emphasized once again, Adeline ruminated on her situation.

If she wasn’t pregnant.

It sounded like he wouldn’t have treated her well if she didn’t have his child.

“Then if I wasn’t pregnant, would we have been able to become close again?”

“…Probably.”

Casius didn’t answer readily and trailed off.

After a moment of seeming to think, he opened his lips again.

“It would be difficult.”

I see.

While agreeing with his words, Adeline felt her heart constricting endlessly.

It was a meeting between the Duke of Torpeo and the Viscountess of Credion.

From their first meeting until now, not a single thing had gone according to the natural order.

She had deceived him when he lost his memory and pretended to be lovers with him at the villa.

And from the moment she said she would stay by his side after his memory returned until now.

Adeline knew the sense of betrayal he must have felt towards her.

That’s why he had pushed her into becoming his mistress and tormented her.

And even the fact that his anger had subsided a little because of the pregnancy.

“We’re not in a position to be close or not close.”

“……”

“I quite like how things are now. So I’d like you to think only of my child for now.”

Adeline’s heart was torn at his words that drove the point home.

Casius didn’t notice that Adeline’s face had turned pale as she lay back down.

He blew out the candle as it was.

Darkness fell in the room.

Not long after, silence descended around them as if Casius had fallen asleep too.

But even as dawn deepened, Adeline couldn’t fall asleep.

Was it because her mind was consumed by the thought that without the child, things would have to go back to how they were before?

Adeline curled up her body, wondering if he would feel her whole body trembling.

‘What should I do… from now on?’

She can’t say it’s not a pregnancy.

When she faces him, it’s as if her mouth is locked and refuses to move.

But she can’t keep deceiving him forever either.

Moreover, thinking about what he might do when he finds out she had deceived him again made her body curl up involuntarily.

Adeline had to spend the night wide awake until dawn broke.