The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 79

Chapter 79

Tw: Su*ci*de

It took a while for her to shake off the insignificant shock of the morning.

“…At this rate, there won't be any chance for a child, Cárcel.”

Thanks to him, she was in the awkward position of bringing up a comment she had been subtly pushed into making in the morning, to the back of Cárcel’s head as he was putting on his uniform.

But it was time to address it.

This couldn’t continue. It was all well and good if he was dissatisfied, he’d have been desperate to get out of the house, but even Ines could see that Cárcel had nothing to be dissatisfied about these days. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] People are more likely to leave a house if they feel suffocated in it. But at this rate, he wasn't going to leave the house at all.

‘He was definitely… at first.’

And this wasn't how it had been for a while.

Their honeymoon, where they had been peacefully together without having s*x even once, was now a distant memory, and they were now busy having s*x. Or, they were just spending time together without doing anything special.

Who could blame him? Ines knew her assets too well. Here was her self-assessment. Even if she wasn’t as perfectly sculpted as she had been as Crown Princess, she was still a pretty good shape, and her face, even without any makeup, was kind of cute, as if it were trying to convince her.

Ines didn't succumb to her ego at all when she came to that conclusion. It wasn't going to make a huge impression on Cárcel Escalante, but considering that they were currently pretending to be in a holy marriage, there was no other option, so she could settle for it.

Besides, their timing was perfect, as she had started dressing up a little to win people over… She realized that and started to mix in more somber attire, but it didn’t seem to help when he was at the height of his youthfulness.

“This can’t go on…”

If it continued this way, it would be impossible to let Cárcel Escalante go.

“So, we need systematic rules.”

And since her plan didn’t include a part where she exercised her right to refuse, she needed rules to subtly maneuver him, rather than refusing.

“……A child?”

Cárcel, who had been putting on his shirt, turned to look at her, sideways, without replying for a moment. He was buttoning his shirt as he did so.

It was clear that he hadn’t been thinking about ‘child,’ even after he’d uttered the word himself.

You were just having fun, weren’t you? She said, hiding her slightly bitter thoughts.

“I’m saying we should choose meaningful days.”

“Meaningful in what way?”

“Days that are good for me to get pregnant, I mean.”

He lowered his gaze for a moment, fastening the cufflinks on his sleeves, then looked back up at her with strange eyes.

“First of all, that’s too stimulating to hear in the morning.”

“Please, don’t get it up, Cárcel.”

Ines replied calmly, as if putting a stop to it from the start.

“Let’s choose days, and set some rules. Like other married couples do.”

“Wouldn’t it be more effective to do it regularly?”

“…Please do your regular exercise alone. I can’t keep up with you.”

“I apologized yesterday. Starting today, I’ll only exercise until I’m half-dead.”

Cárcel answered with extreme sincerity. Why die? Ines shook her head, as if she was declining, her face furrowed, and he closed the distance between them, wearing only a blue uniform jacket over his shirt.

“You, Ines, don’t seem like you’re trying your best.”

“…What?”

“You’re not thinking of maximizing the chance by trying your best, you’re already planning to take shortcuts.”

Not trying your best? [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] That was a remark that simultaneously struck at the heart of Ines, who was, more than ever, trying her best to live, and her pride.

“Cárcel, speak properly. I’m trying my best, and you’re just having fun.”

“It seems like you’re having quite a bit of fun too.”

“…….”

“Just yesterday…”

Ines was momentarily speechless, as a series of memories came flooding back. Cárcel smiled, fastening each button on his uniform.

“You’re gaping like that, makes me want to feed you again.”

“You—.”

“—I’m talking about food.”

“…Let’s get back to the main point.”

“I understood what you wanted.”

“Are you sure?”

She asked, filled with distrust. Cárcel fastened the last button on his collar and nodded.

“I’m good at listening to you anyway.”

“No, you’re not. You’re not listening….”

“No, I am. That’s why, starting tonight, I’ll do it only once, formally.”

“……Starting tonight?”

“Reflecting your opinion.”

“So, that means you’ll end up doing it every day?”

“I’ve taken your opinion into account.”

“…….”

“Fix the collar in the back.”

As if she were under a spell, Ines tiptoed to the back of Cárcel, who had turned away for a moment, and straightened his slightly crumpled collar. He turned back around with a bright expression.

“Thanks for helping me again, Ines.”

She hadn’t actually helped him today, but Cárcel, without a shred of shame, expressed his gratitude and kissed her on the top of the head.

Ines was left alone in the dressing room, as Cárcel left.

“…This isn’t good….”

This is not a good development…

“Why have you suddenly gotten so thin?”

Ines rolled her eyes to avoid Raul’s gaze. She hadn’t lost weight, but if she had, there was only one reason.

It was a reason she couldn’t say.

“…I was eating well and living well.”

“You were sleeping?”

“I was sleeping well, too.”

“Really… That’s why they say you have to be watched over by Juana or me, Ines.”

“What about Esposa Castle?”

“First, this.”

Raul took a letter out of his waistcoat. As soon as Ines saw the seal, she sighed.

“Did you go to Perez Castle too?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to move everything to Esposa. The luggage was sorted out with Juana at Perez Castle.”

“Well done. Well done, but…”

She accepted the letter, reluctantly.

It was a letter from her mother, Duchess Valeztena.

“Should I burn it before you read it?”

As if to say he wasn’t the one who wanted to tell her, Raul asked, as usual. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Ines shook her head.

It had been more than ten years since she had clashed with her mother over everything, even resorting to self-harm.

Back then, Ines couldn’t handle it, as if she had developed some kind of anger management issue. ‘You’re disgusting, so dress yourself up nicely,’ ‘What are you going to do with that piggish body,’ ‘What are you going to do with your hair,’ ‘Fix your expression to make it more ladylike,’ ‘Take off those terrible clothes before you’re stripped n*ked and hung from the gates’… Whenever she saw six-year-old Ines, those were the only things her mother would say, and the Ines who had just been devastated in her new life had no patience.

Whenever her maids tried to style her hair according to the Duchess’s orders, she ripped their hair out. She tore apart all the colorful dresses. And whenever she heard anything about her body, she would inflict some kind of injury on herself.

She ate with abandon, as if to show her mother that even the meager weight she had gained was a problem, and she threw tantrums when she was starved. When her mother said she would be stripped n*ked and hung, she said, “Okay,” and tried to go outside n*ked, so the Duchess finally seemed to realize that Ines was beyond her control.

It was unavoidable for a mother to interfere with her daughter’s appearance, which was beyond the bounds of proper behavior for a noble girl, but since they had already been at odds with each other in her first life and her heart had become even younger, every one of the Duchess’s neurotic tirades was unbearable torture for Ines.

At some point, her mother from her first life had suffered from various delusions, paranoia, and neurotic depression, and had tormented both young Luciano and Ines. Even after Ines became Crown Princess, her mother wasn’t on her side.

Who would believe it if I said that half of the words the Empress Cayetana deliberately used to humiliate her daughter-in-law were the same ones her own mother had said to her?

It wasn't just the Imperial family who blamed her for the repeated miscarriages. Even though she no longer loved her mother, Ines was hurt.

Even while inflicting pain on her children, the Duchess wanted their affection and attention. When Luciano and Ines grew up and simply ignored her, she sent them threatening letters with the salutation, "To my dear children."

And in the year she turned twenty-four, she left a suicide note for Luciano that read, “This is all because of you and your sister,” and attempted suicide…….

Ines hated that note more than any other cruel words she had ever heard from her mother.

She had done it to make her children feel guilty. She had done it knowing how much her daughter’s life was drowning in mud, without a care….

After she confirmed that her mother hadn’t died, Ines never saw her again until the day she died. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] She didn’t read any of the letters from Perez and just burned them.

Perhaps she was still stuck in that habit… When young Ines refused her mother’s interference for years and went crazy, the Duchess, in turn, became frightened. She saw her face possessed by a demon, and said she couldn’t bear to see it, so she started to discipline her through letters, even though they were in the same castle. Even though she knew Ines used the letters for kindling.

Duke Valeztena and Luciano were men without any backbone, they would crumble if Ines pushed them, but the Duchess was different. Ines suddenly realized that when she was ten years old.

It was when she realized that that time in her first life was the last time her mother had loved her.