My New Love That Isn’t Fated - Episode 45

With great shame, Elad took the dresses and jewelry to sell at a pawnshop. Having never done such a transaction before, he had no idea where to sell them. He had no one to ask for advice.

When he asked Irma and the others where Lilia used to sell them, they replied, “Since Madam did it on her own, we don’t know.” No matter how much he yelled or threatened, no one would speak up.

At the pawnshop, they looked at Elad as if he were a noble young man desperate for money, and they bought the dresses and jewelry at a cheap price. Lilia had said it would be enough, but the total only came to fifteen million Fabrice, so Elad had to search the house for more jewels to sell.

With the little money he managed to get, he went to the manager of the Royal City Theater and arranged to take Louise.

The truth was—Elad’s heart had turned cold ever since Louise had mentioned telling everyone about his actions. It became clear to him just how ugly Louise really was.

Her beauty, which had looked so dazzling in the theater and dim rooms, appeared different in the bright sunlight after the drunken haze wore off. Her skin had wrinkles, lacked a healthy glow, and looked dirty.

Still, he couldn’t back out now. She had threatened to sing the song he had abandoned her with in front of everyone at the Royal City Theater.

If she did that, Elad would never be able to show his face in high society again. The glory of the Griez family would fall apart.

“Elad-sama, all I have are old dresses. I will have new ones made for you. Since I will soon be getting bigger, I will need several. Every time my body changes, I need new ones.”

“…Do you really need to wear dresses while pregnant? There are several loose-fitting dresses in the wardrobe that can hide your stomach.”

“Are you asking me to wear someone else’s clothes? I threw away all my things thinking you would buy me new ones. I’ve already requested the tailor to come.”

Since Louise arrived at the Griez household, she had acted like the lady of the house. Even though they weren’t officially married, she had called for a tailor and ordered several new dresses.

Made of the finest silk, with jewels scattered around the sleeves and neck. When Elad saw the bill for five million Fabrice, he almost vomited.

“Heinz, here’s the bill. Do something about it.”

“I’ve already done what I could. As I’ve already informed you, I will leave once things with Lilia are over. There are other matters I need to sort out, so I’ll work until the end of the month. Elad-sama, please prepare my salary and severance for my years of service.”

Heinz, who had always followed Elad’s orders without complaint, now spoke nonchalantly. He clearly wasn’t interested in speaking with Louise and had locked himself in his office or his room every day to deal with the remaining tasks and his personal matters. Whenever Louise mentioned money, he simply replied, “You should talk to Elad-sama about that.”

“Irma! I told you to put flowers in my room every day! Bring me boiled eggs and vegetable sticks for breakfast! Take care of my nails and buy me massage cream!”

“…I’m sorry, but I have no words for someone who isn’t your wife but a common woman.”

“How dare you speak to me like that! Elad-sama, kick her out! None of the maids are useful. Get rid of all of them and hire new ones!”

Elad had to listen to these exchanges repeatedly. Every time Louise screamed, his head would ache. Ever since she told him she was pregnant, he had no desire to even touch her.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Lilia. The meals she made, the neat and clean rooms she kept. Her calm voice, her thoughtful nature—there were so many memories.

Lilia never shouted at the servants like Louise did. She had a good relationship with Irma and the others, and they had never spoken ill of her.

Whenever Elad would badmouth Lilia, calling her “a woman who flaunts her education,” Irma would gently deny it, saying, “That’s not true.”

“Elad, I heard Lilia has run away?”

“I heard you married Louise.”

“How lucky. To have the admired diva as your wife.”
“But after Louise left, Mariette, who replaced her, is much more delicate. Her voice, her appearance, so fragile and youthful. Louise had been lying about her age, and now she’s a laughingstock at the Royal City Theater. It seems she was desperately searching for a marriage partner because of her age.”

“You were deceived by the diva’s charm, Elad. The young man with no immunity to women—they’re all laughing at you.”

When Elad went out to escape the house, his friends at the pub began teasing him. It seemed they had been talking about Elad and Louise until he showed up. When they saw him, they burst into laughter, calling him the “guest of honor.”

“What is this about…?”

“Don’t you know? Things were rough with the divorce situation, I heard.”

“They say Louise is twenty-two, but she’s really closer to thirty. Most of her stories about her past are lies. She tells a different one every time—sometimes her father was a thief, sometimes he was a noble. Her mother was a prostitute, or a noblewoman abandoned by her noble husband. She tells her past as if it’s true.”

“What did Elad hear? Apparently, she was abandoned at an orphanage when she was a baby. She’s been worldly from a young age, using her looks to lure men and manipulate them.”

“I’ve heard rumors that she even seduced the orphanage director when she was fifteen. So, the director didn’t want to let her go and told the theater manager that if he wanted Louise, he’d need to donate one million Fabrice.”

Elad didn’t think these rumors were cruel. He could easily imagine Louise doing something like that.

He couldn’t bring himself to believe that the child in Louise’s womb was his. The thought that one of his friends might have been involved with Louise made him feel sick to his stomach—not out of jealousy, but out of disgust and anger.

“But Elad, Lilia is now Prince Owen’s lover. She has risen higher than any marquis’s wife.”

“They say Prince Owen paid thirty million Fabrice to take Lilia from Earl Tillys. She’s a woman worth thirty million, that’s the talk of the town.”

“I hear there are men flocking to the Tenegro Library just to catch a glimpse of Lilia.”

“Prince Owen stays by her side like a guard dog. He’s known for hating women, but she changed him. She must be quite the woman.”

Elad’s friends, who had once mocked Lilia, were now praising her.

“I hear that the embroidered trinkets Lilia sold at the open-air market bring good luck. They’re worth ten times what they were bought for.”

“Does it mean you can become the prince’s lover, perhaps?”

“Ah, yes. It seems there are a lot of women who want to leave their husbands. You should all be careful.”

After hearing his friends gossip about Lilia, Elad couldn’t take it anymore. He slammed his shot glass onto the floor, causing a scream to echo throughout the tavern.

Without saying a word to his stunned friends, Elad stood up, placed money on the table, and left the tavern. He wandered the streets in a daze.