She Became My Friend’s Mother-In-Law - Chapter 18

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 18. A Gift to Please a Lady

An ordinary lady would have screamed in terror or fainted upon seeing a man destroying his room and raging.

But Cecilia had stayed by Rainer’s side all night, watching over him.

Could there be another woman like this in the world?

Harry couldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

“Your Grace.”

Harry approached the desk and placed both hands on it.

His expression became infinitely serious.

“Whatever the case, you should apologize to your wife first. Preferably with a wonderful gift. A husband must unconditionally grovel to his wife to maintain peace in the household.”

Wasn’t this an eternal truth?

As long as Rainer was a man, he couldn’t escape this fate.

Harry looked down at Rainer with sparkling eyes.

Rainer sighed.

“…Harry.”

Harry’s eyes gleamed.

Was he finally going to change his mind?

But Rainer immediately stood up from his seat.

“It seems you’ve been having useless thoughts because you’re too idle these days.”

“What? Me? Idle? That’s ridiculous—”

“Perfect timing. Review all of these reports by today.”

Rainer placed a heavy stack of documents on Harry’s desk with a thud.

They were reports that had come up from the Hays Estate.

Harry’s eyes widened as if they might pop out.

“What? All of this? By today? That’s impossible!”

Harry looked up at Rainer with despairing eyes.

But Rainer just nodded expressionlessly.

It was silent pressure to get to work immediately.

“Good heavens. I merely offered advice for a happy household, and you’re being so petty…”

Such a cold-blooded man who knows nothing about how to treat a lady.

Harry grumbled in dissatisfaction.

But Rainer wasn’t listening.

He fidgeted with his sleeve cuffs, lost in thought.

“…”

In fact, he knew very well that he was being unreasonable.

To begin with, he needed Cecilia’s help to bring down Elise.

So it was only right to maintain a friendly relationship.

Putting up walls like this wasn’t helping at all.

‘But…’

It was his inner self that he had never shown to anyone before.

And it had been discovered by a mere three-year fake wife.

And above all—

‘Are you alright? I was worried about you last night…’

The way she had sat defenseless on his bed, wearing only her nightgown, not even knowing how she looked.

Rainer felt pathetic for being unable to erase that scene from his mind.

“…Grace.”

“…”

“Your Grace?”

Rainer snapped back to attention at Harry’s call.

Only then did he realize he had been clenching his fist tightly.

Rainer pretended to be nonchalant as he lowered his arm and asked.

“What is it?”

“Here, please take a look at this.”

Harry, who had resigned himself to fate, held out the report he had been reviewing.

Rainer immediately took it, but the words didn’t register at all.

Over the document, Cecilia’s face appeared—how she had just widened her eyes at his cold words.

‘…This is maddening.’

Was this punishment for being unreasonable?

Rainer leaned back in his chair and covered his forehead and eyes with one hand.

Harry tilted his head.

“Your Grace? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Harry.”

“Yes?”

“So, if you give gifts, do women’s moods improve?”

Harry’s eyes sparkled at the unexpected question.

“Of course! Just give me the word. I’ll go out right now and prepare something. What kind would you like?”

“A gift…”

Rainer pondered for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders.

He had never even thought about gifts that would please a woman.

It seemed better to rely on Harry, who had at least had a few brief relationships.

“Anything is fine. Something big, expensive, and visible to everyone.”

* * *

‘Is this really something to distance himself over?’

As Harry had said, Cecilia was secretly feeling hurt by Rainer’s distant attitude lately.

At first, she thought he would get over it.

But nearly ten days after the bedroom incident, his coldness hadn’t changed.

‘Of course, we weren’t particularly close to begin with…’

Still, they had made a contract, so shouldn’t they at least maintain a friendly relationship?

Besides, Cecilia had stayed up all night taking care of him when he was struggling!

When she deserved thanks, all she got in return was cold indifference.

‘Rainer, are you very busy?’

‘Yes.’

‘If you have time later, shall we have tea together? I actually have something to discuss—’

‘I’m busy with work. Let’s do it next time.’

Sitting alone in the garden drinking tea, Cecilia let out a hollow laugh.

She had gathered her courage to extend her hand.

After being rejected so many times, she was now getting angry.

‘From now on, even if he crawls on the corridor floor, I won’t even pretend to notice.’

Cecilia made that resolution and decided not to care anymore.

She had to prepare for the next plan anyway.

‘Soon, an amazing business opportunity will appear for Evan.’

In a few weeks, Evan was scheduled to achieve great success with tea leaves imported from the Eastern Continent.

In her previous life, it had spread by word of mouth as being good for skin beauty, even earning the nickname “Velvet Tea” as it sold like hotcakes.

Naturally, Evan became busy, and Cecilia had to spend her entire honeymoon just watching her busy husband’s back.

‘Now that I think about it, I wonder if he was really that busy.’

He probably used work as an excuse to meet Rosena many times.

Anyway, the fact that Evan had achieved great success back then was true, so in this life, she planned to steal that opportunity.

‘Since it succeeded through word of mouth, it should fall through word of mouth too.’

Just as Cecilia was formulating plans in her head.

“Huh? What’s that?”

She heard Wendy muttering.

At the same time, one side of the garden became noisy.

“Easy, be careful! Careful! This way!”

Looking up, she could see Harry giving instructions enthusiastically.

Behind him, workers were carrying something heavy.

“Oh my, it’s so beautiful.”

Wendy exclaimed in admiration from beside her.

What the workers had brought was a dazzling white grand piano.

Cecilia stared blankly at the scene.

“Ah, my lady.”

Just then, Harry approached with a delighted expression.

“This is a gift prepared by His Grace. We got the finest quality available, what do you think?”

“What? This is for me?”

Cecilia’s eyes widened greatly.

At her reaction, Harry beamed even more and nodded repeatedly.

“Yes! His Grace wants to get along well with you again—”

“Harry.”

Harry, who had been excitedly explaining, stopped at the voice from behind.

Rainer had appeared behind them at some point.

Cecilia immediately stood up from her seat, but Rainer still only glared at Harry.

“Have you finished processing all the reports from the estate?”

“What? That was put on hold because of this matter.”

“I don’t recall telling you to put it on hold. Go and get back to work.”

“Aww, that’s too harsh…”

Harry, who had been bouncing around excitedly, now trudged into the Duke’s Mansion with his shoulders drooping.

Even until then, Cecilia still had a bewildered expression.

“Are you really giving me that piano?”

Rainer’s gaze finally turned to Cecilia.

Meeting those green eyes like lush foliage, Rainer hesitated for a moment.

“Yes, it’s an expression of apology for everything that has happened.”

About to add more words, Rainer closed his mouth.

It was the first time in his life he had given a gift to someone, especially a woman.

It was even more awkward since they had been on cold terms until this morning.

“Ah…”

Surprise spread across Cecilia’s face.

Just moments ago, she had resolved not to care about Rainer.

That resolution felt like it was melting away like snow.

She looked at the piano once more, as if she couldn’t believe it.

Rainer said cautiously.

“If you don’t like it, I could get something else—”

“Oh, no! Absolutely not!”

When there was no particular reaction, Rainer seemed to misunderstand that Cecilia didn’t like it.

Cecilia shook her head vigorously.

“I love it! I love it so much it’s overflowing.”

Cecilia smiled awkwardly.

It had been truly a long time since someone had given her a gift just for her.

She didn’t really know how to express herself when she was this happy.

Still, it felt like one of the wounds that had remained in her heart for so long was being washed away.

“I’ll practice whenever I have time. Until I become the best pianist in Brisen.”

Cecilia said, clenching her fists tightly.

It was the maximum emotional expression she could manage.

“I’ll look forward to those words.”

That was enough for Rainer.

Watching Cecilia make her resolution with sparkling eyes, a smile also appeared on his lips.

Now he felt like he was beginning to understand.

The reason why men want to make ladies happy.

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