That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 13

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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 13

Penelope’s pupils trembled.
Not that she hadn’t entertained the thought of how wonderful it would be if things worked out that way. But it wasn’t a simple matter.
Isaac, having taken Bridget as his wife in exchange for a substantial sum paid to her family, expected her to be worth what he’d paid.
True, Bridget’s original family, the Florence Family, had recently fallen into decline through business failures, but they were an ancient and venerable house whose name appeared multiple times in historical records.
What of Penelope’s family, by contrast? The Hudson Family.
Her great-grandfather, who had come from abroad, had obscure origins and drew endless suspicion from the nobility, never gaining social recognition.
For three generations, the Hudson Family had carried the stigma of being “a family of unclear foreign origin.”
The reason Penelope had been forced to marry the aged Earl of Bellingham, and the reason High Society had made her a laughingstock, owed much to this background.
“Isaac wants to use Bridget as a stepping stone to establish his footing in aristocratic society. He’ll never divorce her.”
Penelope understood his ambitions well.
How excited he’d been when he mentioned attending a noble’s party thanks to an invitation through Bridget.
William was flabbergasted.
“So you’re going to bear his child and hand her over based on nothing but that bastard’s uncertain promises?”
“Isaac has agreed to accept the child as legitimate, and if the child is a son, to pass down both his title and his estate to him. I’m satisfied with that.”
“And if he breaks his word?”
Penelope wanted to explain how much Isaac loved and cherished her—that such a thing would never happen.
But knowing how futile such words would be with her father, she held her tongue.
“You do understand that once you bear that child, the Bellingham Family will stop supporting you? They’ll move at once to strip you of your title.”
Penelope retained the title of Countess of Bellingham—she had stood at the old Earl’s side as his wife until the day he died.
Now that the Earl’s son had become the new Earl, strictly speaking she was the former Countess of Bellingham.
But it was for that very title that she had married in the first place. With it, she could remain a noblewoman for life and receive the protection of the Bellingham Family.
Yet if Penelope bore a child by another man, the Bellingham Family would gain legal grounds to expel her.
And the new Earl of Bellingham, who already regarded her as a thorn in his side, would not miss such an opportunity.
Merely beginning a romance as a lonely widow in need of support might be hard to challenge legally, but bearing another man’s child became a matter worth contesting in court.
“If you’re not careful, the child will become illegitimate and you’ll lose your title as well. You’ll lose everything. Don’t stake your fate on the mere words of the Earl of Winston.”
Penelope’s face went pale.
“Then what should I do?”
“Use your head. Make the Earl of Winston want to divorce Bridget.”
“How?”
“Either give him what he wants, or prove that Bridget is worthless.”
Penelope’s gaze wavered.
“When you’ve involved yourself in something this serious, you must show the spine to see it through. I didn’t raise you to become a kept woman in someone else’s household.”
William pressed the point home.
“If you lack the courage, then bear the child in secret, give her up for adoption without anyone knowing, and return to the Bellingham household. Live there as if you were dead.”
“I can’t do that!”
Penelope turned to Viola with pleading eyes, seeking help. But Viola averted her gaze, watching her husband’s expression instead.
“Listen to your father, Penelope.”
Viola, who believed that pleasing men was how women survived, could never be someone to defy her husband—no matter how much it concerned her own child.
William spoke again.
“If you leave Bridget alone, she’ll strip you of everything. I won’t stand by and watch that happen.”
……
“Now you understand what needs to be done, don’t you?”

* * *

That night, Isaac lay in bed beside Penelope, lost in thought.
Penelope nestled into his embrace and asked playfully.
“What are you thinking about so intently?”
“Bridget.”
At the mention that Isaac was thinking about Bridget, Penelope’s expression stiffened slightly.
But Isaac, absorbed in his own thoughts, spoke carelessly without noticing her face.
“She seems to have some hidden agenda.”
“A hidden agenda?”
“Otherwise, why would she allow you to stay in this manor?”
Penelope froze. Allow her to stay—those words caught her off guard.
Of course, she knew that Bridget had permitted it, but hearing such a word right after her conversation with her father left a bitter taste in her mouth.
It was as though she were merely someone who could be cast out at Bridget’s whim, powerless to resist.
“Wasn’t that matter already settled? Even if she has ulterior motives, what can Bridget possibly do? If she means to cast me out, then you should simply tell her to do so.”
Isaac wrapped an arm around Penelope’s shoulders, his tone playful.
“Are you worried?”
For Penelope, carrying a child within her, it was a matter of genuine consequence—yet Isaac spoke of it in jest. The casual way he dismissed her concern made her throat tighten.
But she was in no position to indulge her anger; she had to manage his moods carefully, so she swallowed her frustration and forced it down.
With practiced charm, she burrowed into his affections.
“It’s not my own safety I fear—it’s that I belong to you, and the way Bridget handles your wife so carelessly is an affront to your dignity as her husband, isn’t it?”
“You have a point.”
“A wife must never gainsay her husband. Everything Bridget possesses belongs to you—yet she seems to forget this. Does she even know gratitude? She lives in this grand manor thanks to you, spending freely as though it were nothing.”
A wife must never contradict her husband. A wife is her husband’s possession. Therefore, she must always honor and please him, keeping him content and proud.
It was a refrain her mother had drilled into her since childhood.
Penelope wielded these words to inflate Isaac’s sense of self-worth.
How strange that lessons she had once despised should prove so useful now.
“Exactly. She struts about this manor thanks to me, yet believes herself superior. The audacity.”
Isaac’s thoughts turned to Bridget’s inscrutable gaze, her stolid expression—and his rage kindled.
Penelope nodded in enthusiastic agreement.
“You’re absolutely right. Without you, Bridget is nothing. All she has is the honor of her family name. Whatever schemes she might harbor, if you simply crush them, what can she possibly do?”
“Your words ring true. That girl cannot touch me.”
Isaac chewed over Bridget’s recent conduct, turning it over in his mind until he arrived at his own conclusion.
“She was trying to humiliate me at the party, wasn’t she? Hoping I’d abandon my plans to enter High Society.”
Isaac let out a scornful laugh.
“What do you mean? Bridget tried to humiliate you at the party?”
“Never mind—it’s nothing worth dwelling on. I suspect she wished to obstruct my entry into High Society, but she cannot succeed. I will forge my place in that world, no matter what.”
Watching Isaac’s fervent determination to muscle his way into High Society through Bridget, Penelope’s jaw clenched.
‘I’ll cut off all her correspondence. Every last letter.’

* * *

Cedric, the butler of Winston Manor, regarded the large Ruby Ring before him with perplexity.
“Why would you entrust this to me…?”
“I have a favor to ask of you.”
Penelope smiled brilliantly, her eyes crinkling at the corners.
Her lips, painted as crimson as the ruby itself, curved into a mesmerizing smile.
During the days Bridget had been confined, this woman had lorded it over the household staff as though she were royalty.
It took only a few days to discern that this manor’s butler was a man of few words and unquestioning obedience.
“It’s a simple matter. Surely you can manage it?”
With a delicate hand, Penelope lifted the ring and dropped it into the butler’s pocket.
“A jeweled ring of this caliber should be worth at least six months of your wages.”
The heft of the ruby was substantial enough that his pocket grew heavy.
Cedric swallowed hard.
“What is it you wish me to do…?”
“From now on, bring me every invitation and letter that arrives for Bridget. Every scrap of correspondence, without exception.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“If you perform this task faithfully, I shall see you are handsomely rewarded. Is it truly so difficult?”
Penelope spoke in a low, conspiratorial voice.
“Of course, this remains a secret between us alone.”
“Even the master is not to know, madam?”
Penelope’s tone grew emphatic.
“Only the two of us. You and I.”

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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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