That’s How I Became a Villainess - Chapter 3

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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 3

It was Isaac, oddly enough, who felt stung by Bridget’s composure.
It was convenient that she didn’t rage at him, but what was this unsettling serenity all about?
Isaac deliberately goaded her, speaking with calculated cruelty.
“Why don’t you go use your Purification Ability to cleanse whatever impurities Penelope might have picked up during her travels? We wouldn’t want anything harmful affecting the child.”
“…….”
“It’s a useless parlor trick anyway, except for moments like this.”
“I’ll do that.”
Bridget answered without so much as a blink, her tone perfectly compliant.
Isaac exhaled sharply, deflating like a punctured balloon at her ready acquiescence.
‘Is she really unbothered, or just pretending to be?’
Her husband was having an affair with her closest friend, and yet—
Even accounting for the marriage as a means to pay off her brother’s gambling debts, this equanimity seemed impossible.
Isaac felt a strange unease settle over him, and he spoke with deliberately more authority.
“Then there’s nothing more to discuss. Get out.”
“Actually, I do have something to say.”
Her steady voice carried an air that suggested it would be unwise to dismiss her lightly.
“Were you planning to send Penelope elsewhere?”
“That’s hardly your concern. Why—does the thought of her staying a few days bother you?”
In truth, Isaac himself had begun to doubt whether bringing Penelope into the Manor where his wife resided had been wise.
In noble society, where Political Marriages were commonplace, keeping a true lover on the side was tolerated as a matter of course—but maintaining both wife and mistress under a single roof crossed the line of propriety.
Yet when Bridget raised the subject first, it felt like interference, and it rankled.
But her husband’s sharp tone did not make Bridget shrink back.
“It’s my duty to receive guests properly.”
“There’s no need. I’ve already sent someone to arrange lodgings elsewhere.”
“No, that won’t be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“It would be fine if she stayed with us.”
“What?”
“You’re going to have a child, and I’ll have a friend to keep me company—it doesn’t seem like a bad arrangement. Penelope’s been coming here regularly for so long; it’s familiar to her.”
Isaac stared at his wife in bewilderment as she calmly proposed living alongside her husband’s lover.
Bridget spoke with perfect ease.
“My mother taught me never to resent my husband’s lover. She said that once you’re married, such a day is bound to come eventually.”
“……Is that so?”
“Yes.”
She spoke of the inevitable with such serene acceptance that Isaac found himself speechless, confronted by the calm clarity in her eyes.

* * *

Moments after her conversation with Isaac, Bridget entered Penelope’s chamber to find the servants transferring her belongings. They quietly slipped out, reading her expression.
Through the gap beneath the closed door, Bridget glimpsed the shadows of the household staff.
They were clearly lingering outside, listening intently to whatever passed between them.
‘They’re quite curious, aren’t they?’
She had no intention of scolding them away.
A performance needed an audience, after all.
Why would she smile at Penelope—a woman whose very presence made her skin crawl—if no one were watching?
“Penelope.”
“Bridget!”
Penelope looked at her with glistening eyes, tears trembling on the brink of falling.
“I’ll explain everything. I never wanted things to become like this. My feelings for you haven’t changed—they’re the same as they’ve always been. Please, let me tell you how this all happened, all right?”
As Penelope reached for her hand, beseeching, Bridget kindly offered her a seat.
“Let’s sit first, Penelope. You must be exhausted.”
Emboldened by her gentleness, Penelope sank into the chair and immediately poured out everything she’d been holding back, words tumbling forth like rapid gunfire.
Those who make excuses always have much to say.
“You know I went to Rucel to try to forget my late husband, don’t you? I was lost back then. I was so lonely I could barely stand it.”
“Yes, you wrote me about that.”
Penelope fled to Rucel as though running away immediately after her husband’s funeral.
Thanks to this, when Bellingham’s former wife’s children sued Penelope over inheritance matters and won, she was at least able to secure the numerous jewels and gold she had taken with her when she departed to Rucel from among the assets her late husband had left behind.
“I met Isaac at a masquerade ball. I swear to you, I never dreamed he was Isaac. Had I known then, I would certainly have refused him. Believe me, Bridget.”
Penelope dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief, wondering what cruel joke of heaven this was.
“When I found out later that he was Isaac, I wanted to end everything. But…….”
She wept for a long time, unable to continue.
Unlike Bridget, who was neat and delicate in appearance and thus unremarkable at first glance, Penelope was a strikingly beautiful woman whose abundant red hair contrasted with her large pale green eyes, and whose full lips drew attention wherever she went.
Penelope wept so profusely that tears as large as her eyes rolled down her cheeks, and even her sorrow was lovely to behold.
“I fell in love with him, Bridget. I tried to stop it countless times, but I couldn’t help myself. The heart doesn’t obey my will, does it? You understand, don’t you?”
She wept so pitifully that anyone watching might have thought it was Bridget who had been robbed of a husband, not Penelope.
“By the time I came to my senses, it was already…….”
Penelope laid her hand upon her still-flat belly.
“I didn’t want to tell Isaac. I planned to bear the child alone and raise it alone. I thought that was the way to preserve our friendship. I knew I would become wretched, but even so, I couldn’t bear to lose you. Yet Isaac found out everything……. I couldn’t stop him. I didn’t know what to do…….”
She spoke of how she had been dragged here like this, and wept bitterly.
“I truly had no choice, Bridget. Forgive me. Don’t hate me, please? We are the dearest of friends, all but sisters. You are all I have.”
Penelope pleaded earnestly.
Bridget patted her shoulder to comfort her, but Penelope’s tears continued to soak through the handkerchief without end.
It was Penelope who had committed the act, yet it fell to Bridget to offer solace.
“Don’t cry, Penelope. I’m fine.”
“Fine……?”
“Yes. To be honest, when I first heard about you and Isaac, I was angry. But after thinking it over, I realized that my anger might stem not from fear of drifting apart from you, but from something else entirely. So I decided to welcome you instead. After all, you’re the only one with whom I can share a friendship as remarkable as this.”
There was a barb hidden within the words “remarkable friendship,” but Penelope did not perceive it.
“Really……?”
“Of course. We’re special, aren’t we? We always have been, since childhood.”
Bridget smiled.
Looking back into the past and remembering their childhood, there were many happy memories.
The two, who were like sisters, always walked arm in arm to the hills and fields to play, diligently muddying their skirts.
They had gathered wild strawberries by the basketful to make jam, and they had tumbled from a swing and been soundly scolded by alarmed adults.
They had repeated countless times their vow never to forget each other, even if they fell in love with someone.
It had been a warm memory.
Which was why it hurt all the more.
While helping with the wedding preparations, Bridget had encountered Isaac far more often than the bride herself.
Could she truly believe Penelope’s claim that she had fallen in love without recognizing him beneath that tiny mask at the masquerade—that she loved him and couldn’t help herself?
Preserving friendship would not mean bearing and secretly delivering a child, but rather never sleeping with a friend’s husband in the first place.
Because Penelope was someone with whom she had shared nearly her entire life, the betrayal cut all the deeper.
Her jaw clenched, teeth gritted tight.
Precisely because she had been close to Penelope, Bridget knew her better than anyone.
So what of their past life together?
Everything precious had been taken from her.
Penelope had wanted to possess everything that belonged to Bridget, without exception.
‘Where did your lies begin?’
She had wanted to ask in their past life, and seeing her face now, she still wanted to ask.
Her hands had been trembling faintly this whole time.
Bridget still could not know whether the trembling arose from anger, from betrayal, or from some other emotion entirely.
In the past, she had soothed the trembling by avoiding and fleeing from Penelope.
But this time must be different.
If she trembled, it should be she who trembled; if she ran, it should be she who ran.
“I’m glad you came.”
Bridget laid her trembling hand casually upon Penelope’s shoulder, and stroked her back as though nothing were amiss.
‘I don’t know when your lies began, but mine start now.’

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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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