I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 46

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 46
A smile returned to his face.
“I heard that Ernan Cleroor adopted a child named Rene. And if I remember correctly, you too have a ward bound to you by guardianship.”
I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes and looked away.
“You met her at Diego’s office, didn’t you? What was her name—Kiara?”
……
“Yes, that was her.”
Red hair.
Golden eyes.
She looked to be around ten years old.
“You came to me for permission. To ask her biological mother whether you might become her adoptive mother.”
He was right.
—There’s no time. Will you tell me the truth, Fidellia?
Jushin’s temptation, like the serpent in Eden.
Then surely Jushin also hoped I would eat from the forbidden fruit.
And for me, that forbidden fruit was—
A concern for propriety and righteousness.
A regard for heavenly bonds.
Something that made me hesitate before consuming it.
‘Adopting Kiara.’
I know myself. If I adopted Kiara without telling Sarubia, I would have been tormented by guilt for the rest of my life.
“I apologize.”
So I stood before Sarubia.
“I’m sorry, Sarubia.”
I brought to light a truth I need not have exposed, laid it bare before her without necessity.
Even though I could have adopted Kiara while feigning ignorance of the blood tie between Sarubia and the child—even though that would have been easier for me.
Even though the original work never mentioned this fact, and I could have buried the truth until my dying day.
And yet, doing so would inevitably cause Sarubia pain.
I became selfish to ease my own guilt.
I became selfish so that I too could tie the certain knot that Ernan had spoken of.
I sought out Sarubia to receive judgment.
“Fidellia. You have nothing to apologize for.”
A gentle smile bloomed across Sarubia’s beautiful face.
“If anything, I should thank you. That you’ve taken up the consequences of my irresponsibility and borne the burden for me. I am forever in your debt.”
Sarubia did not condemn me.
And at last……
“Do as you wish. Adopt her if you want to, or don’t.”
From her lips came the words I had longed to hear.
But how could I simply rejoice?
“You know me, Fidellia. In the past and in the future, I have no intention whatsoever of playing the mother.”
Sarubia’s slender fingers fidgeted with the Tea Cup she held.
“Do you think I’m a bad person? Do I seem cruel and wicked? Selfish and treacherous?”
I shook my head.
“People have their circumstances and positions. That’s just how it is.”
“Yes, that’s right. It may sound like an excuse, but I had to be that way back then. I loved myself most of all. I was a child who knew no one but myself, and I couldn’t think of any other way.”
I thought things might change if I had a child, but they didn’t.
I couldn’t love my newborn at first sight.
I hated the idea of having to give myself over to such a small being.
“I won’t deny it. I’m a bad person.”
So, Fidellia.
“Thank you for not looking at me with pity.”
I never possessed what you’d call maternal love to begin with.
Since I don’t regret that choice, there’s no reason for me to be an object of sympathy.
* * *
Ernan won the custody dispute against Count Flora.
And he adopted Rene.
The news spread swiftly throughout Corvaliu—or so the elderly butler Pippin told me.
“And Miss Fidellia’s adoption was announced as well!”
Pippin hoisted Kiara high into the air and spun around in circles.
‘Is his back all right?’
The white-haired old butler looked deeply concerned.
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Pippin set Kiara down and caught his breath in heavy gasps.
Watching him, I let out a quiet laugh.
Yes. I had adopted Kiara.

After my conversation with Sarubia ended that day, I rushed to the courthouse with Kiara in tow.
And I submitted the Adoption Application.
The result came back just recently.
[APPROVED]
That Approval Seal stamped in red was so lovely.
And the name written beside it.
[Kiara Joneus]
‘There it is.’
At last, everything had fallen into place.
‘The foundation of the original work.’
Now the backgrounds of the main supporting characters had been set up similarly to the source material.
Rene had been registered into House Cleroor.
Kiara had been registered into House Joneus.
The “past circumstances” of both had taken shape.
Now they simply had to grow and move toward the future that was the original work.
Though the future of the original work that awaited Rene might have changed somewhat.
‘Because House Flora went bankrupt…….’
Ernan and I had hoped that Rene would deal with House Flora herself. We had been firm in our willingness to leave House Flora untouched for that purpose.
But House Flora had crawled into gambling dens and ultimately dug his own grave.
How could one stop a man who walked into his grave of his own accord?
He ended up on the streets as a vagrant, and so the revenge plan that Ernan and I had laid out before Rene became utterly useless.
That wasn’t all.
《House Flora: Charged with Tax Evasion》
His own daughter, Ariel Flora, exposed the tax evasion of House Flora.
In the original work, Ariel had remained silent, but she seemed to have reported him with the momentum of the lawsuit.
I heard she had submitted the Tax Evasion Ledger from House Flora’s safe as evidence.
‘This is what the original Rene had done.’
In the old days, all family members would have been executed, but in this era—setting children’s rights aside—there existed the concept of human rights.
Unless one committed the worst of atrocities, tax evasion alone didn’t carry capital punishment. Usually only the patriarch and accomplices went to prison and that was the end of it.
So currently, House Flora’s patriarch and his wife were stripped of their titles and lands and locked away in prison.
‘Perhaps prison is warmer than sitting on the streets.’
Ariel, who had become just “Ariel” as her family fell to ruin, might have actually performed an act of filial piety.
In any case, the original work had changed like this. You could say an episode of “avenging House Flora” was simply skipped.
Looking at it that way, it wasn’t a terribly significant change.
‘The news from the male protagonist’s side seems to have no major issues either.’
Only then did I come to understand Jushin’s words to some degree.