The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway Chapter 80

Chapter 80

Yes, it was love.

Even though she was different now, even though she wasn't a pleasant person at all, even though she had such a selfish nature, it was love.

So, the Duchess of that time couldn't give up on Ines. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] She was loving her in her own way.

It was from that time that Ines gave up resisting.

Even though she never did anything that her mother told her to, she at least started to listen to her face to face and began to swallow her insults.

She had already died twice in a fit of anger, and her life was going backwards, so it was time to kill her temper. Not wanting to receive a suicide note for the second time, saying "I'm dying because of you," also helped.

All of that must have been her fault too…

Enduring it all, everything was better than her first life.

The Duchess Valeztena, who had been ashamed of Ines’s gloomy appearance and stopped attending social events, was, for some reason, much saner now than she had been when she was in the middle of society.

At this rate, she wouldn’t attempt suicide, she would be careful not to even get a paper cut.

Her tendency to torment people around her had also changed in degree, and even though the Duke would always hesitate when the Duchess said something, to Ines, who knew the real her, it was cute. She laughed off any insults the Duchess spat out after getting drunk.

Ines’s patience with her mother truly blossomed, and so did the crazy acts, like seizures, that she had done as a child. The Duchess would forget and then remember her childhood, when she thought, 'What if this girl goes crazy and does something terrible?' and while she would scold her, she would quickly apologize and run away.

‘That’s why she’s still so scared and sending these letters… ’

If she was her usual self, how could she sit still?

She would have stormed into Calstera long ago. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] The Duchess, who would frequently barge into Ines’s bedroom, even when she was Crown Princess, to interfere and torment her even after she had just had a miscarriage, couldn’t even go near Cárcel’s residence.

So, letters were fine…

“To my dear Ines,

It’s been many months since you got married and left Valeztena. You’re still silent, just as ungrateful as you always are. I know you hate your mother, but it’s inexcusable that you haven’t even sent word to your father… But how can a parent’s heart be the same as a child’s? I’ll start by asking after your well-being.

You must not have had a child yet. You must not have been able to… Anyway, you have to keep your husband in check. I worry a lot because you are so stubborn. You have no talent for that kind of thing.

As I told you during our last meal, Captain Escalante acts as if he’s on your side now, as if he’s a decent man, but men cannot be trusted. Most of them are indecent. So, Ines, you need to have a child to secure your position. A childless woman is just an empty shell.

Speaking of shells, your husband is a sculpted shell, he’s so handsome. He’d be surrounded by women his whole life, even if he had been born on the street, not a Escalante. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] So, whatever happens, make sure that your libertine, no, your husband, gets you pregnant while he’s still under your thumb, during your honeymoon. Even if he dislikes you, even if he demands a conjugal visit by force. Before Captain Escalante falls back into his old ways and starts having children with other women, that is.

Men treat women with less respect the longer they live with them. Look at your father. If I had no children, I wouldn’t even be alive now. Children are a woman’s position. Whether poor or rich, nobleman or commoner.

You may think you’re better than me, but that’s what you’ve learned from your father. You are everything to me. A mother’s love is endless, it doesn’t know resentment… Ah, if only you could know that love.

A childless woman’s life is nothing, Ines. Women can’t live without men. But if you have a child, you can live your whole life even if you’re miserable with your husband. Just like me.

It’s fortunate that Captain Escalante has finally become your husband. When a woman gets a husband, she gets her own cozy home, servants, and a comfortable life. Noblewomen like us even get a grand manor. That’s a proper life. Your only job within that life is to bear an heir. That’s all a woman is born to do…….”

"Just burn it."

Ines, her face worn down by exhaustion, thrust the unfinished letter back at Raul. Without questioning her at all, Raul took the letter and walked towards the candlestick in the drawing room, where the flame hadn’t been extinguished.

It was ironic and sad, thinking about it, that her children were everything to her, but she didn’t love them. The Duchess Valeztena was the epitome of someone who should never have children.

Unless she really loved them. Unless they were truly everything to her… A comfortable life, a proper life, how could it be achieved by tormenting others and herself?

Ines had, unlike before, stepped back from her mother and started to consider her life, but on the other hand, she couldn’t help but feel the urge to do everything her mother told her to do, in reverse.

She had wanted to have children until the morning, but then, by the afternoon, she didn’t want to have children at all, ever. Just because of a single letter.

‘……I can’t let myself be swayed in reverse.’

It was none of her mother’s business anyway. According to the plan, she would live the rest of her life without caring what she did. Whether her mother said something or not, her life in this lifetime was flowing according to her, not the Imperial family, Oscar, or her parents.

Even so, the taste of the words lingered in her mouth.

She had said exactly those words to her daughter, who had suffered a series of miscarriages, long ago. She told her that the only thing she had to do as Crown Princess was bear an heir. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Why couldn't she even do that?

Ines, who hadn’t married Cárcel for a long time, was ‘spoiled food’ to her mother, and she was ‘damaged goods’ after she miscarried Oscar's child.

Ines suddenly remembered the humiliation she had felt, as if it were yesterday, when the Duchess bowed to Empress Cayetana and apologized, saying, "Her body is full of flaws and she has no sense of caution, so she keeps losing Your Majesty’s precious seed."

She remembered that she had hated her mother even more than the Empress at that moment.

“What about the reply?”

“I’m not going to reply.”

“Good choice. I already told her you were fine… She probably wanted to hear it directly, even though she knew.”

“If she wanted to hear it directly, she wouldn’t have spoken to me like that.”

Raul carefully observed Ines’s face, as if he were checking her mood, as usual. It was an old habit, so Ines smiled a little to prevent him from feeling awkward, then asked,

“What about Esposa? Tell me about it.”

“It was like an abandoned castle.”

“……What?”

“If you go, it’s yours. That’s certain.”

The loyal face, which had just been carefully observing Ines’s expression, was gone, replaced by eyes filled with ambition.

“I don’t really want it….”

“Ines, really, what are you saying? If Captain Escalante eventually inherits the title of Duke, it’s all going to be yours, isn’t it? It’s the natural order of things.”

“So, my opinion doesn’t really matter?”

“Why are you rejecting something that’s going to be yours anyway? All I’m saying is, you can have it sooner.”

“What about the Duchess Escalante?”

“People there say that she doesn’t seem to like Esposa very much. They say she spends all four seasons in Mendoza.”

“I know she’s in Mendoza often.”

It wasn’t that she disliked Esposa, but it was probably because of Empress Cayetana. She was probably too busy being dragged around by her greed…

A rather gentle woman who always smiled softly. [ʏᴜʟʜᴇʏᴜɴ] Ines was Oscar’s wife, and she was Oscar’s aunt, so they had been in the same place countless times, but she hadn’t felt the same kind of clear, distinct connection that she felt with Cárcel.

She must have been too busy living her own world, revolving around her, that she was indifferent to them. But it was also proof that Duchess Escalante was a quiet person. Their relationship was now peaceful and distant, but….

“And when the Captain’s brother graduates from the military academy and gets commissioned, he’ll be commuting between his garrison and Mendoza for the rest of his life. So, only…”

“…It’s mine?”

Ines asked, not very enthusiastically, and Raul nodded with gleaming eyes.

“If you just exist there, everything will come to you at your feet.”

“I don’t really want it under my feet.”

“Then you shouldn’t have married Escalante’s eldest son. You chose, and now you’re…”

Raul grumbled irreverently, then changed his expression.

“Anyway, just know that. Just call me when you’re ready to go.”

“I understand. Stop brainwashing me.”

“And there’s news that he arrived at Perez Castle a fortnight ago. It hadn’t been relayed to Calstera yet. It was about the young artists he’s patronizing, who Don Joaquin has sent word about recently… but….”

Her gaze, which had been directed out the window for a moment, as if she were daydreaming, returned to Raul’s face.