[Beloved Edric,

All I wanted was to exchange greetings with you. To congratulate you on our wedding anniversary.

I wanted to hear from your own lips that our marriage is something to celebrate. I thought that way, I wouldn’t feel so anxious.

I suppose my thinking was too naive again. I did something I shouldn’t have to someone who came home tired from work. I’m sorry, Edric.

You know, while waiting for you today, I looked up at the sky and saw a round, yellow full moon hanging there.

After confirming its clearly outlined edges, I quickly made a wish.

I wished that you would treat me kindly like in the old days.

And if that’s not possible, then at least treat me coldly.

Just a moment ago, that wish was granted.

Though not in the direction I had hoped for, I’m satisfied.

A heart softened by kind words is vulnerable to wounds, after all.

Love is quite ridiculous, isn’t it?

It makes a person infinitely strong, then infinitely fragile like a newborn kitten.

Edric,

Please continue to treat me coldly and harshly.

Otherwise, I will keep oscillating between extremes, unable to find balance.]

“….”

Melly’s expression was hollow as she quietly gazed at the letter she had written. Soon, she rose from her seat and approached the fireplace where logs crackled and burned.

Then she tossed the letter she had just written beyond the fire screen.

Ever since someone had read her diary long ago, Melly had poured out her words like this and obliterated the traces.

So that no one but the fireplace and herself would know. So that she would not be mocked by anyone.

The paper charred black and crumpled.

A smile of relief spread across Melly’s lips.

[This is the timeline separator]

“It’s honey tea. It will help with your fatigue.”

Melly said as she held out the thermos. Her face was bright and radiant, so different from her dejected look the night before.

“You were very tired last night, weren’t you? Please drink this and cheer up.”

Though her gentle attitude was not quite to his liking, it did alleviate his sense of guilt, which was satisfactory in its own way.

Since the incident in the garden, he had been so uneasy that he lost sleep.

He even had a nightmare. Melly was standing with her back turned in the garden, and he had gone up to his quarters but changed his mind and returned to her.

‘Melissa.’

The moment he called her name and placed a hand on her shoulder, she turned to ashes and collapsed.

Her skin, hair, clothes, jewelry. Not a single thing remained as everything scattered into powder.

It was a terrible nightmare.

He immediately rushed to Melly’s quarters. Fortunately, she was unharmed. She had even lit the fireplace and was sleeping warmly.

Nothing had happened.

And now in the morning, she was caring for him so affectionately.

“I packed plenty of cookies too, so please share them with everyone.”

Seeing this, Edric felt deeply relieved. And on the other hand, he also felt he had been right.

Melly must have firmly learned the lesson that to live as the duchess, she shouldn’t get hung up on trivial matters.

“Thank you.”

Edric took the thermos from her and immediately passed it to Wilson. The warmth of the container reached him a beat later.

“Don’t overdo it. And I apologize for yesterday.”

Melly apologized first.

Edric was not the type to say, ‘No, it wasn’t your fault, it was mine,’ in such situations.

He nodded as if agreeing with Melly’s words and boarded the carriage.

As the door closed and the wheels slowly started to move, he turned his head and glanced at his wife visible beyond Wilson.

Melly waved with a bright smile.

Resolutely, as if she was born to do so.

[This is the timeline separator]

Until now, when the carriage disappeared, the smile would also disappear from Melly’s face. It was a habit Melly had developed since Edric gained the upper hand in their relationship.

But today, Melly’s smile did not fade even after the carriage was out of sight.

She kept smiling.

In order not to be selfish, to adapt herself to the role of a duchess, she had brainwashed herself.

‘I am happy. I am happy.’

Come to think of it, there was no reason not to be happy.

Her father was always yelling, scolding, drinking, and hitting. He couldn’t even make money.

But Edric was a capable man who didn’t yell, drink, or hit.

Moreover, unlike her father, he didn’t cheat either.

There had been a few rumors, but even then, Melly did not doubt Edric’s fidelity.

He was a man who liked things tidy.

He knew well that the dishonor caused by a messy private life lasted longer and was more troublesome than a moment of thrilling pleasure.

If he ever met a woman he wanted to sleep with despite all those consequences, he would boldly announce a divorce to Melly.

No matter how lowly the woman’s status was, he wouldn’t care. One could see that from how he made me, Melly Enwood, his duchess.

He was a man who definitely did what he set his mind to do. Regardless of who the other person was, once he made up his mind, he would make her his official wife, and he had the ability to restore the family’s fallen honor with his own capabilities. He had more than enough ability to do so.

Therefore, he was a man beyond reproach.

It was too much to expect such an irreproachable man to keep even the small promises he made to me and to treat me with considerate kindness. So I had to be content.

I had to be grateful and happy that Edric Pelton was not like my father.

Thinking like that, Melly felt the disappointment she had experienced seem like the arrogance of the well-fed, and she was ashamed of herself.

Unable to appreciate what she had and sulking over what she didn’t get, how immature.

[This is the timeline separator]

It was the day of Melly and Eida’s regular medical checkup.

The doctor carefully listened to Eida’s heartbeat and said,

“There is nothing out of the ordinary.”

Eida, who had been worried about frequent palpitations recently, sighed with relief at the doctor’s words.

Now it was Melly’s turn.

Prior to the examination, Eida was present during a brief conversation with the doctor about Melly’s physical condition.

When Melly mentioned that she had been feeling fatigued often lately, the doctor asked,

“When was your last menstrual period?”

Melly paused for a moment to recall.

When was it? It felt like it hadn’t been a month, but also like it had passed.

She used to always mark it on the calendar and take care of her body starting a few days before as if she were pregnant, but after giving up her lingering desire for pregnancy, she no longer kept track of the expected dates.

As the time spent thinking grew longer, the doctor said with an expectant look,

“Perhaps, Madam, you have already missed your expected date…”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

Eida answered instead.

“I know her cycle, and it’s not time for it yet. I think it’ll probably start soon. Right, Melissa?”

Eida’s voice held too much conviction. Melly nodded.

She wasn’t quite sure, but Eida’s words also seemed to be correct.

“The fatigue is probably because she’s been going to bed late. With her husband working overtime every day, she feels bad going to bed early as a wife. But I didn’t know she was fatigued to the point of complaining about it. From now on, I will take responsibility and make sure Melissa retires to her bedchamber on time.”

Eida spoke without giving the doctor a chance to express an opinion. As if she wanted to quickly put an end to any talk related to pregnancy. Far from finding it strange, Melly was grateful to her for doing so.

In the past, there had been a few times when her cycle was off and tests showed she was not pregnant.

The test results did not come out in just a day either.

During the three days until the results came out, everyone in the household was excited with anticipation. Some even gave congratulatory gifts in advance. But what came out three days later was a resolute diagnosis that it was not pregnancy, along with menstrual blood gushing out, weighing heavily on her lower abdomen. Melly did not want to enter that futile cycle again.

“Mother is right, Dr. Nerman. I’ve just been fatigued lately because I’ve been staying up late at night. I’m not pregnant.”

“You heard her, right?”

Eida’s eyes twinkled.

“Since we’re on the subject, I’d appreciate it if you could prescribe some fatigue recovery medicine and nutritional supplements. A mother-in-law should take care of her daughter-in-law’s health.”

“I understand, Former Duchess. I will do so.”

“Thank you, Dr. Nerman.”

After finishing the basic examination of auscultation and pupil check, the doctor prescribed the medicines Eida requested plus a liver protectant and handed it to his assistant who had accompanied them.

While the doctor left and the assistant went to the apothecary, Melly and Eida had a brief tea time.

“You’re taking your medicine properly, right?”

Eida’s voice sounded somewhat persistent.

Melly believed it was because she desperately wanted a grandchild, without any doubt.

It was natural. Wasn’t that the very reason she had even prescribed medicine to help Melly get pregnant more easily?

But Melly had been throwing away the medicine in the sink for a month, and was even hiding that fact.

And now she felt devastated that she had to lie again.

What on earth was she doing? If she lacked dignity, she should at least be honest.

“Of course, I’ve been taking it well.”

“You must get pregnant by the next time.”

“I hope for that too…”

Melly’s voice clouded with guilt.

[This is the timeline separator]

A few days later, not long after lunch. Eida greeted Melly, who appeared in her living room dressed in a fancy Western-style outfit, with puzzled eyes.

“Where are you going?”

“Yes. I’m going to Mrs. Phrase’s tea party.”

“Mrs. Phrase?”

Eida’s expression grew even more perplexed.

“That Countess Phrase who lives on Robes 2nd Street? The woman who made insulting remarks to you at a banquet before?”

“Yes…”

Melly answered, blushing with embarrassment at Eida’s accurate memory.

“But it’s all in the past. Come to think of it, I think I also kept my distance from her. You have to give in order to receive, and since I took the initiative to distance myself, she must have been displeased too.”

“…”

“So now I’m trying to approach her first. Even if I can’t make her my ally, I feel I shouldn’t make her my enemy.”

Eida discovered quite a noble lady-like aspect in Melly.

‘I don’t like it.’

Her eyes narrowed.

If Edric had taken a firm attitude to make Melly strong, Eida had treated her gently and kindly to keep her soft. Because that aligned with her grand goal.

The medicine she fed her every day was also one of the means to achieve that goal.

She was Eida Pelton.

The woman who gave birth to Edric Pelton.

And most of Edric’s temperament was inherited from Eida rather than the previous Duke Pelton. Although her son had elevated that temperament to another level with his outstanding intelligence and innate cunning, the foundation was his mother’s.

She knew how to act meticulously. She also had the ability to end a situation without anyone noticing her involvement.

Like a few months ago, when she deliberately omitted a few important people from the banquet guest list.

Judging from how things were going, it seemed she would have to demonstrate that ability once again soon.

Well, five years was long enough.