That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 29

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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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Episode 29

“If you had found him?”
“If I’d found him, I’d have gone straight at him and demanded an explanation. I’d have put my fist in that ugly face of his!”
“And then?”
“And then? I’d have made him apologize. Gotten a promise he’d never do such a thing again.”
“Is that all?”
Josh rolled his eyes, his brow creasing as he searched for what else he might have done.
But even after a long silence, no answer came.
Bridget’s breathing roughened—she’d pinned such small hope on him.
Unable to contain herself, she clenched her fists and surged to her feet. Her patience had run dry.
“You can’t even think about getting me out of there? You can’t help me escape from that kind of man?”
“What are you saying? Are you asking me to help you divorce him?”
Josh’s expression twisted with difficulty. Looking at his face alone, she could guess what he was about to say.
Bridget bit her lip.
Tears pooled in her eyes, ready to spill at any moment.
Her chin trembled with the weight of her sorrow.
Josh exhaled quietly and stepped forward, patting her shoulder.
“Bridget. You know that’s not possible.”
And there it was. There it was—Josh crumbling her resolve.
“We owe him money. Right now I have no ability to repay it. If you divorce him, our family will go bankrupt paying off Isaac’s debt.”
“…”
“Bridget. I’m truly sorry.”
“…”
“I have to support not just you, but Mother and young Chloe as well. Chloe hasn’t even married yet. Shouldn’t I secure a decent match for her?”
“…”
“I need to marry and produce an heir to lead the Florence Family, and here I am stuck like this. We have no money. Damn it, we have no money!”
Josh wrapped his head in his hands and sank into the armchair where Bridget had been sitting.
Bridget stood watching him in silence, her gaze hard.
A heavy tear fell.
“…”
“Divorce is… that won’t work. You belong to Isaac. I’m sorry.”
Then he quickly added:
“Well, you managed to escape well enough, didn’t you? You didn’t actually suffer any real harm. Right? Can’t you just let it go quietly without worrying too much?”
He wore a smile that looked cowardly and craven.
“But I’ll make it clear—I won’t tolerate it a second time.”
Bridget lifted her head and wiped away her tears.
A deep breath steadied her trembling, and in an instant her gaze hardened, becoming dry as she looked down at Josh.
“There’s nothing to apologize for. I had no hope to begin with.”
“My heart is torn too. Please don’t resent me. The situation is…”
“I don’t resent you.”
Josh looked up at her.
She was regarding him with a light in her eyes he had never seen before.
He felt his throat quiver involuntarily.
“You know what? You’re no different from Isaac—you sold me to him and took the price.”
“Bridget!”
Josh bristled, his eyes widening in outrage.
Bridget didn’t so much as blink, as if she’d never shed those tears at all.
“From now on, don’t treat my sacrifice as your foundation. Live on your own strength. Isn’t it pathetic—clinging to life by selling your sister in the name of family?”
“Don’t say things you’ll regret. I understand your feelings, but you can’t insult me like that. Have you forgotten I’m the master of this house?”
“What’s a patriarch of a sinking family? You gamble away the money you got from selling me, then squirm about asserting your authority as the head of house—aren’t you ashamed?”
“Stop while I’m asking nicely, Bridget.”
“People can’t live only on honeyed words and doing exactly as they please.”
“I said I don’t want to hear it!”
“That’s why you’re always surrounded by hyenas trying to devour you—because you only chase sweet tastes. Please, if you lack the ability, at least curb your greed. And listen to bitter truths.”
“Bridget!”
Angry and seething, Josh stood up and reached for her.
Bridget stepped back, putting distance between herself and Josh.
“Don’t lay a hand on me.”
Her voice was sharp as frost.
“If you so much as touch a hair on my head, a letter detailing everything you’ve done will reach the Royal Palace.”
“……!”
“You’ve treated me worse than family, but I keep silent about That Day—because I’m not like you.”
Josh’s eyes flickered.
His face went pale as he grasped what she meant.
“That’s—we agreed to bury that. If you bring it up, it won’t just ruin me. Our family will suffer. Mother will suffer. Chloe will suffer. And you too——!”
“Exactly. So remember this: I could drag us all down together into hell whenever I choose.”
The look on Bridget’s face was not to be trifled with, and Josh’s courage crumbled.
“Bridget, calm yourself.”
Bridget laughed, a bitter sound.
“Keeping the secret of That Day is the last sacrifice I’ll ever offer you. Don’t come looking for me again.”
With that, she left the Study Room.
The narrow staircase creaked beneath her feet.
Soon the sound of the front door closing came from the ground floor, and Josh sank into the armchair, his heart plummeting.
He buried his face between his knees, fingers clutching at his hair.
“After all I’ve sacrificed for this family… is this the only gratitude I deserve?”

* * *

Once back in the carriage, Bridget let loose the tears she’d been holding back the moment it lurched forward.
Suppressed emotion erupted, beyond her control.
How had things come to this?
Neither her past life nor this one had freed her from that question.
Would things have been different if Father had lived?
Would the family not have drowned in debt?
Would Josh not have been consumed by money troubles?
Would she never have been trapped in this wretched marriage?
Would Julian have……?
Thoughts beginning with “if only” kept rising in her mind, wave after wave.
With each one came a rootless resentment and sorrow that pierced through her.
It was not only Josh who had worked to protect the family.
Bridget had staked everything and done her utmost as well.
Yet the more she sacrificed for them, the more wretched she became.
She had known Josh would be unable to protect her—he’d squandered the money Isaac gave them at their wedding.
But she had not expected a conversation like this.
She had hoped he would hold more resentment toward Isaac and more regret toward her.
That alone was what Bridget had wanted.
Before he died, her father had taken her hand and said:
“You must follow Josh well. Without Father, Josh takes his place.”
So she had obeyed his every decision without question—it was her father’s final wish.
And what had obedience brought her?
In her past life, her suffering locked away in the Convent had not been solely Isaac and Penelope’s doing.
Josh had played no small role in painting her as mad, desperate to prevent the divorce at any cost.
Yet Bridget had still placed her hopes in Josh.
When she was in the Convent, letters Mother had smuggled to her said Josh was tormented with guilt, wracked with regret.
He was haunted every night by the need to sacrifice her for the family’s sake.
But seeing him today, Bridget knew the truth: it was merely a lie Mother had told to comfort a daughter whose life lay in ruins.
The Josh who made excuses, who hid behind circumstance and family duty, who said there was no other choice—she felt no true apology or gratitude from him.
Bridget sank to the floor of the carriage and wept.
She cried with a raw, animal sound, purging the bitterness that had accumulated inside her.
She wept for the wretched woman she had been in her past life.
She wept because that former self had never abandoned hope in Josh—her brother, her protector, her family—even after such cruelty, and had still returned home.
She wept because now she knew: the very family she had loved and trusted could be less than a stranger.
She knew the coachman could hear her, but she could not stop.
The coachman did not presume to ask if she was all right.
This was not tears that comfort could soothe.
The carriage circled the same spot, the gates of Winston Mansion just ahead, going round and round.
Until the sound of her anguished weeping finally subsided.
Today, Bridget had abandoned her family.

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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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