She Became My Friend’s Mother-In-Law - Chapter 114

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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 114. Evan’s True Intentions (2)
‘That bastard….’
Margaret’s jaw trembled uncontrollably.
Had Evan done even the slightest part of his duty.
Elise would never have died so pathetically.
After the incident erupted, he hadn’t shown his face once.
And now he had the audacity to appear before everyone.
“Grandmother!”
Evan dropped to his knees before the coffin with exaggerated gestures.
“Don’t leave me behind! Please?”
His wails, far too loud, echoed throughout the chapel.
It was closer to theater than genuine sorrow.
‘…The stench of alcohol.’
Cecilia covered her nose slightly with her gloved hand.
How much had he drunk before coming here?
The moment Evan opened his mouth, a sickening reek wafted forth.
His unsteady gait and slurred speech made it abundantly clear he was thoroughly intoxicated.
“Arriving at a funeral in such a drunken state.”
“Where is his respect for the deceased?”
Other mourners shook their heads in disapproval, clicking their tongues.
Of all people.
His wife was the one who killed his grandmother.
It was already absurd that he showed his face so brazenly.
But to appear reeking of alcohol on top of it all.
Yet Evan heard none of the whispers around him.
‘Let me see….’
He simply stared into the coffin.
Elise’s face, surrounded by flowers, had grown cold.
But that was not what mattered to him.
Evan’s gaze slowly descended.
Two coins worth 2 crowns were clasped in her folded hands.
Passage money for the deceased—an ancient tradition of Listea.
The moment he saw the coins, Katarina’s whisper echoed in his mind.
‘The Dowager Duchess’s inheritance. You are certainly a legitimate heir, my lord.’
Evan’s lips twitched subtly.
His grandmother’s corpse appeared to him as an enormous fortune soon to rest in his hands.
‘Yes, in the end, what remains is money.’
He wanted nothing more than to pocket those 2 crowns right then and there.
But with so many eyes watching, he restrained himself.
‘Tch, what use is that money to someone already dead?’
I clicked my tongue inwardly, though I kept my expression composed.
Evan clutched the coffin again, his sobs loud and theatrical.
“Grandmother! I will never forget you for as long as I live! Please rest easy knowing I am here!”
* * *
The night the funeral ended.
“Mmm….”
“Jeremy, are you alright?”
Cecilia kept vigil at the child’s side.
His small body, feverish and restless, labored through each breath.
The boy had grown so frail that he couldn’t even attend his great-grandmother’s funeral.
‘Elise didn’t deserve his farewell anyway.’
Still, seeing Jeremy suffer was unbearable.
“My Lady, we shall do this.”
“It’s fine. I can manage this much.”
Despite Wendy and the other Maids’ protests,
Cecilia administered the medicine herself and wrung out a cloth to place on his forehead.
At least Jeremy, she wanted to care for with her own hands.
‘Aunt Cecilia!’
In my past life, Jeremy had been my only solace amid the loneliness of life in the Hays Ducal House.
“Mmm….”
“Yes, good boy. Sleep now, Jeremy.”
“Okay….”
Jeremy rubbed his eyes and whimpered briefly,
but as Cecilia gently patted him, his eyelids slowly closed.
His face had grown noticeably more peaceful than before.
“Jeremy….”
Cecilia carefully took the child’s hand.
His small, limp fingers trembled faintly.
Suddenly, the night Elise died came to mind.
After all the commotion had settled,
the Physician had come to me with a pallid face.
‘By the Young Countess’s orders… I prescribed medicine to make the young master gradually fall ill.’
Unable to overcome his guilt,
he had confessed Rosena’s misdeeds in their entirety.
‘I have committed a sin worthy of death, Duchess.’
‘How could a physician do such a thing.’
The anger and shock from that day remained vivid even now.
Cecilia had cast the Physician out on the spot.
Without a letter of introduction, he would find it nearly impossible to work for any noble house again.
Of course, that didn’t immediately heal Jeremy’s body,
“I’m sorry, Jeremy.”
After that day.
I spent nearly every moment by the child’s side.
I personally verified every spoonful of food, every drop of medicine.
I held his hand and stayed beside him until he fell asleep.
‘Your life nearly fell to ruin because of these incompetent adults.’
He was not yet two years old.
So fragile that even holding his hand required the utmost care.
How could Rosena have attempted to harm him with her own hands?
‘No matter how I think about it, I cannot comprehend it.’
More than Rosena’s heart, which had taken my life in my past existence.
I could not fathom the heart that had sought to harm the child this time.
Though I had never given birth to a child myself.
Whenever I gazed upon something so small, my heart ached of its own accord.
How much more so, when Jeremy was the child born from Rosena’s own womb?
Though, if she were someone I could understand, I would never have come this far in the first place.
‘Jeremy. From now on, I will not let anyone harm you.’
I gently brushed the sleeping child’s bangs aside.
I was sorry for not noticing his suffering sooner.
‘Whoever it may be, if they attempt to harm Jeremy, I will never forgive them.’
Over the child’s steady breathing in sleep.
The sound of night wind brushing against leaves drifted in from beyond the window.
“My lady, you must rest now. You have pushed yourself far too hard these past days.”
The Maids beside me spoke with concern.
For days now, I had been unable to rest properly while attending to the Dowager Duchess’s funeral arrangements.
“We will care for the young master, so please do not worry. Try to get some sleep, even if just for a moment.”
“That’s right—if you continue like this, something truly terrible will happen.”
“Very well, very well.”
Yielding to the Maids’ insistence, I nodded in agreement.
Then, suddenly, my gaze fell upon the window.
Beyond the darkness, light spilled from the windows of Rainer’s Study.
‘Is Rainer still awake?’
With the matter of Elise’s funeral, he too must have had much weighing on his mind.
Of course, even ordinarily he would reduce his sleep when work demanded it.
But tonight, something felt different.
‘He must be troubled as well.’
Elise had been the object of his long-standing resentment.
Her death could not possibly pass lightly over him.
Should I go to him?
After a moment’s hesitation, I rose from my seat.
“If Jeremy wakes, tell me at once.”
“Yes, madam.”
After adjusting the child’s blanket once more,
Cecilia entrusted the boy to Wendy and quietly left the room.
* * *
Deep into the night.
Only a few candles flickered dimly within the Study.
Rainer sat before his desk, holding a half-empty glass.
He rolled the glass slowly, staring blankly into the void.
Elise Hays was dead.
A woman he had despised his entire life.
A target he had sworn to destroy by any means.
In a sense, she had been the very purpose that sustained his existence.
And yet.
She had died in such a hollow, meaningless way.
“….”
What he had heard of Elise’s final moments was horrifying beyond measure.
But what Rainer saw upon his return was merely her face, lying peacefully in the coffin with eyes closed.
He had once thought that when such a day came, he would laugh freely before that coffin.
Yet what remained was neither exhilaration nor rage.
Only a strange emptiness where his purpose had vanished.
‘So this is where all that striving has led me.’
Would my heart have felt more satisfied if I had seen her lying there in a gruesome state?
‘…I cannot say.’
Even that much remained uncertain.
I had no idea what to do now—only a profound sense of loss.
Harry, who had run alongside me all this time, showed an indifferent reaction.
‘Well, that’s fortunate. Now you can build an ordinary, happy home with the Duchess without worry, can’t you?’
‘…An ordinary, happy home, you say.’
A faint self-mockery crossed Rainer’s lips.
The years spent clinging to hatred had been far too long for that.
I did not truly understand what ordinary happiness meant.
I could not be certain whether I would ever have the chance to learn it.
And even if given such an opportunity, I could not be sure I would be able to grasp it.
Knock, knock.
Then, a knock at the door cut through the silence.
Immediately after, a clear voice was heard.
“Rainer, are you still inside?”

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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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