My Ex-Husband Came Back Crazy - Chapter 61

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 61
Chapter 7. The Source (1)
[ House of Windmere, dark rumors concealed in silence! ]
[ Multiple witnesses have reported seeing ‘a woman believed to be a concubine’ at Eurys Hall recently. ]
[ Eurys Hall is renowned in High Society as a venue for ‘unofficial meetings,’ and her visits invite various interpretations. ]
[ What makes it even more intriguing is the rumor that the lady in question is currently pregnant. ]
[ Some are carefully raising the question: ‘Whose bloodline does the child truly belong to?’ ]
Celia’s hand moved with startling speed.
Before she’d even finished reading, her fingers snatched at the edge of the paper—with the deft precision of an angler plucking a fish mid-leap from the water’s surface.
“This—!”
Those damned fools!
The curse crumbled between her teeth. The newspaper shrieked as she crumpled it, the inked side clinging to her palm.
Lucius approached, carefully retrieving the newspaper from her grip before turning away.
“Has it been published?”
The Attendant bowed deeply.
“We managed to prevent publication, but it seems the rumor has already spread through High Society.”
Lucius pressed a finger to his chin and exhaled slowly.
“Unwelcome news, then.”
Celia’s jaw clenched ferociously.
She looked up at Lucius. He stood with his gaze lowered, processing the situation. She grabbed hold of him.
“Send someone to the Newspaper Publishing House at once.”
“……”
“Surely you don’t intend to let those who mocked me go unpunished?”
The neatly pressed black jacket crumpled beneath her hands, its lines warping.
His chest leaned forward with the pull of her grip.
Multiple emotions crossed his gaze as he looked down at her. Celia, with no time to decipher them, shook her hand urgently, pressing him for answers.
“Calm down, Celia.”
Rather than prying her away, Lucius drew her hand closer and wrapped it within his own large palm.
“You’re asking me to stay calm?”
“There’s no way I could be.”
He massaged the back of her hand with his thumb as he spoke.
“They were disrespectful. They overstepped.”
“Then—!”
Lucius’s eyes deepened.
It was a different texture than his calm of moments before. His voice was unraised, yet a precisely calculated composure flowed from him, soothing Celia.
“I’ll handle it.”
“……Really?”
“Yes. They need to understand who they’ve touched.”
He held her hand with one hand and raised the other, picking up the newspaper. The crumpled paper unfolded in his grip.
He then issued several instructions to the Attendant.
In that interval, Celia’s anger was transforming.
The emotion that had blazed like fire moments before now kept shifting shape before an inexplicable unfamiliarity.
Something about him… is off.
Her toes scraped the carpet without reason. Celia grasped for the identity of that strange sensation and opened her mouth.
“You……”
“Hmm?”
“Are you angry right now?”
Beneath a face as smooth as a portrait glazed with varnish, his eyelids fell with each blink, and a cool green light died and revived. The muscles between his cheekbones and eyes had stiffened, leaking traces of the emotion he was concealing.
“Why would I be angry?”
“So you’re saying you’re not?”
“How could I ever be angry with you? Don’t say such things.”
Celia corrected herself immediately.
“No, not at me!”
She snatched the newspaper from his hand. Cheap phrases like “questionable bloodline” and “clandestine meetings” twisted beneath her fingers.
“At those who, lacking all shame, write such sordid articles about my name and yours.”
His gaze, tinged with something savage, scraped across the newsprint.
“I know.”
Lucius took her hand, his expression growing somewhat constrained.
“That’s why I intend to clean this up.”
A voice low as a groan, at odds with his gentle touch.
“They used your name carelessly, and they’ve angered you—I could never stand by unmoved.”
Celia fell silent.
“I’ve been restraining myself because I didn’t want to show you this side of me.”
His fingers parted the golden threads of her hair, revealing fine wrinkles of tension at the bridge of his nose that had been hidden. Celia stared in surprise at those sparse fissures etched across his otherwise flawless face.
“I’ve tried, haven’t I? Why don’t you see that?”
Celia knew what Lucius looked like when angry.
But the chill in his eyes now was not directed at her. The moment she recognized this, something lurched inside her. Her abdomen twisted tight, and something hot coiled upward from beneath her throat.
The realization that he was like this because of her proved far more sinister than she’d anticipated. That understanding rose from somewhere deep within her and transformed into a feeling she couldn’t quite name.
“……Anyway.”
She hastily changed the subject.
“Even if you handle the newspaper, we’ll still need to suppress the rumors ourselves.”
Damn it.
Why does he have to look like that?
The moment her eyes couldn’t meet his, Lucius didn’t miss the opening—his arm slowly encircled her waist. The sleeve of his fitted jacket brushed against her ribs, and soon his body heat pressed against her.
Lucius lowered his head and let his nose brush the soft skin below her ear.
A gentle breath tickled across her skin. The more he held her as she struggled to push away, the more the deep anger pooling inside him dissolved—though Celia had no way of knowing this.
“What would be the best approach?”
His voice came soft and almost innocent.
“Should we simply declare before everyone that there is no child yet?”
“Who would want that? If we did, they’d whisper behind our backs all the more about how we’re worried about the rumors. And denying adultery only makes it worse the more you try—”
Having given up trying to escape from him, she relaxed against his arms and murmured.
“I don’t care that people call me a woman who throws punches, or say I always try to get my way, or claim all I have is my face and my station.”
Lucius stilled.
“……You don’t care?”
“But it’s not adultery!”
Celia rose sharply.
“High Society can be as filthy as it wants—that’s their affair. But I won’t have my name smeared with accusations of something I never did!”
Her lips twisted. Chewing on disgust, she shuddered as she swallowed contempt.
“Especially adultery? That vile, repulsive thing—I wouldn’t even deign to touch it. What am I supposed to do?”
At those words, Lucius fell quiet like someone who’d swallowed an entire sentence whole. The hand at her waist stilled, his gaze catching briefly on her lips before slowly descending.
“It is vile and repulsive. Those who wagged their vile three-inch tongues will face fitting consequences. I’ll ensure they do.”
His arms crossed over her chest, his hands moving to her shoulders with a tenderness like placing a glass shade over a flickering candle.
She looked down at the hands resting on her shoulders for a moment.
Then she lifted her head.
“No. I’ll handle this with you.”
“……Hmm?”
Lucius, whose thoughts had been turning, looked at her as if the spinning gears within him had suddenly stopped.
“We’ve never properly attended a social function before, have we?”
Apart from a few ceremonial events. A real gathering where eyes and whispers cluster like bunches of grapes.
A party where gossip flows like wine and smiles sit like masks.
“You’re good at Socializing, aren’t you?”
Celia’s eyes sparkled.
Lucius, unable to confirm or deny, smiled ambiguously.
“I doubt you’re bad at it, but if you think you might be, tell me now.”
He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. He propped his hands on his knees and bent down to meet her at eye level.
“What would you have me do?”
Celia’s lips curved upward at that response, pleased.
“I don’t have a sincere friend who’ll chat with me all night and critiqued everything that happened between you and me down to the smallest detail.”
She lifted her chin.
“But I’m quite skilled at Socializing myself, once I apply myself.”
Confidence flashed.
Lucius gazed at the light blooming deep within her eyes and slowly parted his lips.
Though when he heard what came next, he had to suppress the expression he’d just begun to form.
“Let’s go do some Acting.”
Celia said boldly.
They needed to prepare to face those ready to condemn her, to portray Lucius as a pitiable victim, and to devour them both whole.

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