To Those Who Regretted After I Died - Chapter 22

Sophia, tears streaming down her face, returned to her room and continued crying.

“My husband… my husband…”

Calling out her husband’s name repeatedly, Sophia wept. From the day she married, she had waited for a year, hoping her husband Alec would finally turn toward her. Yet, the time had already passed, and they had become a couple that too late to fix anything.

Knock, knock!

“Madam, it’s me…”

The head maid stood outside Sophia’s door.

Wiping her tears, Sophia opened the door, and the head maid was shocked by her appearance.

“M-Madam!? Did my lord did…”

“It’s nothing… I’m sorry for looking like this…”

“Madam…”

Sophia let the head maid into the room and took two letters out of a drawer.

“I need you to give these letters to my husband.”

“To your husband?”

The head maid looked at the two letters—one written by Sophia and the other from her father’s estate.

“Madam, why is there a letter from your family to your husband?”

“My father wrote about my sister Emily in the letter.”

“About Lady Emily?”

“She often doesn’t talk about important matters, and this time, I only found out after reading my father’s letter. I regret not reaching out to my father sooner… I could have given my husband the letter earlier. I feel like a terrible wife… but my husband needs to know my pain… and about Emily, who hid these things…”

“Madam…”

“I’ve signed the divorce papers.”

“!?”

“I’m no longer his wife… Head Maid, thank you for everything… I’m sorry for causing you so much worry. I wanted to say goodbye to Richard personally, but I need to go to the registry office again… so I’ll say goodbye to everyone this way.”

“M-Madam…”

Sophia smiled at the head maid as tears streamed down her face, and the maid began crying as well.

After bidding farewell to the head maid, Sophia looked around the room and stood by the window as usual.

“I used to hate the view from here, but now it feels nostalgic…”

She gazed at the path leading to the garden.

“I never got the chance to walk there with my husband…”

After looking out at the garden path, Sophia turned her attention to the luggage she had brought from her parents’ home and picked up a small portrait.

“Father… Mother…”

The portrait was of her parents.

“I’m sorry… I’ve been such an ungrateful daughter… You wanted to see your grandchildren, and you asked me to tell you as soon as I had a child… Ugh… I’m so sorry, Father… Mother…”

Holding the portrait of her parents close to her chest, Sophia kept apologizing.

After placing the portrait on her desk, she took a small blade from a drawer of the vanity.

Sophia walked to the bed, sat down, and used the blade in her right hand to cut her left wrist. Then, she lay down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

(…After the divorce, I was afraid of hearing rumors about my husband and Emily… When I realized the child Emily was carrying was my husband’s, I lost the strength to live, and this is the only way I could… )

Knock, knock!

“Madam, what would you like for lunch?”

A maid came to inform her of lunch but received no reply.

“Excuse me. Madam?”

When the maid opened the door and looked around, she saw Sophia on the bed, her hand bleeding, and screamed in shock.

“Eeeeek! Madam!!”

Panicking, the maid rushed out of the room and ran for help.

“Someone—!! Madam… Madam!!”

With tears in her eyes, the maid rushed down the stairs to call for help in the hallway.

“Anyone… anyone—!”

The maid cried out.

“What?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Madam, Madam is bleeding from her hand…”

“Eh?!”

“T-This is bad… Head Maid!”

The maids began to panic, calling for the head maid as she headed toward the guest room.

“Head Maid, this is serious! This is serious!”

“What’s wrong? Why is everyone in a panic?”

“Madam… Madam…”

“Calm down! What happened to Madam?”

The head maid rubbed the arm of the tearful maid to soothe her.

“Blood is flowing from Madam’s hand…”

“What?!”

The head maid ran straight to the guest room.

Alec, who had returned to the guest room, wore a dark expression…

“Alec, where’s my sister?”

“……”

“I want my sister to stay in the mansion with me! When the baby is born, I want her to help with raising it… I don’t want to leave my child with strangers!”

“Emily, you…”

“Alec! Alec!”

The head maid burst into the guest room in a flurry.

“What is it? You didn’t even knock…”

“Madam… Madam is in trouble!”

“What happened to my wife?”

“She’s bleeding from her hand…”

“What!?”

“Eh!?”

Alec and Emily were taken aback, rushing out of the room toward Sophia’s.

Bam! The door swung open with force as Alec, Emily, the head maid, and several other maids entered Sophia’s room.

“Sophia!!”

“Sister!!”

I had my eyes closed, but when I opened them to the voices of my husband and Emily, I saw Alec looking down at me, his face pale with worry.

“…Sophia… what have you done…? What are you doing? Call for the doctor, quickly!”

“Yes!”

Alec instructed a nearby maid to summon the doctor.

“Sophia… please hold on! The doctor will be here soon.”

“……”

Alec removed the scarf from around his neck and wrapped it around my left wrist, looking down at me with a pained expression.

(Why are you making such a pained face?)

“Sophia…”

(…You’re calling my name so many times now… you never called my name even once after we got married…)

Tears flowed from Sophia’s eyes, and for the first time, Alec touched her cheek, wiping away her tears with his fingers.

(…In the end, I’m glad to know your tenderness through your touch…)