To Those Who Regretted After I Died - Chapter 26
A carriage that left the government office was heading toward the Parliss family estate.
Inside the carriage, Butler Richard was on his way to the mansion after completing the divorce procedures between Alec and Sophia.
“Finally… my lord and madam have divorced…”
The butler cast his gaze on the divorce papers and sighed heavily.
“What are we to do from here? Since Madam came to the Parliss estate, the shop’s sales had been increasing… More customers from foreign countries had been coming in, and Madam had supported the shop as an interpreter… But my lord has ruined that… My lord will take lady Emily as his wife… Many of the staff do not think well of lady Emily… It seems that the Parliss family’s reputation, which was beloved by the staff, will end with Lady Sophia…”
The butler crumpled the papers in his hand and muttered as he looked out of the carriage at the passing scenery.
“It may be time for me to leave as well…”
The butler pondered as he continued toward the mansion.
Upon arriving at the estate, the butler noticed that something seemed off with the staff and maids and entered the mansion.
“Why is everyone crying?”
Seeing the maids crying inside the mansion, the butler stood in shock.
“Richard!”
The maids, noticing the butler’s return, rushed over to him while crying.
“W-What happened, everyone?”
“Lady Sophia… Lady Sophia…”
“What happened to Lady Sophia?”
“Uu…!”
“E-eh… e-eh…”
“Uuuuu…”
The maids struggled to speak, unable to form words to tell the butler what was wrong.
“…”
The butler distanced himself from the maids and ran down the hallway to confirm with his own eyes.
(…The maids I pass by are all crying… Has something happened to Madam…?)
Without hesitation, the butler ran straight to Sophia’s room. Seeing the maids crying around the room, he voiced his thoughts aloud, “No way…”
“Ah! …Richard…”
“Is Madam…?”
“She’s inside the room… with my lord and the doctor…”
“My lord and the doctor!? Is the head maid with them?”
“She went to inform Madam’s family and the stable master…”
The butler’s heart raced, his face turning pale for an instant as he tightly gripped the envelope in his hand and entered the room…
Inside the room, he could hear the maids sobbing, and he saw Alec standing next to the doctor… He was kneeling on the floor, with bruises visible around his mouth. The butler was shocked, realizing why Alec had been hurt. He then turned his gaze to the bed, where he noticed Sophia sleeping, her hands clasped together. Trembling, he let out a strained voice.
“L-Lady Sophia…”
Noticing the butler entering the room, the maids, Alec, and the doctor turned to look at him as he slowly approached and looked down at Sophia, who was sleeping in the bed.
“Lady Sophia… I apologize for the delay in returning to the mansion… I have completed the procedures at the government office… Now you are free.”
The butler placed an envelope at Sophia’s bedside and bowed his head…
“Richard, what is that envelope… and what do you mean by free?”
The doctor questioned the butler, who glanced at Alec and spoke.
“I have completed the procedures at the government office… the divorce between my lord and lady has been finalized…”
“!?”
“…”
The doctor and the maids in the room were shocked, while Alec merely hung his head in silence…
“How cruel… my lord…”
“It’s terrible to talk about divorce with Madam this morning and rush the proceedings… It’s too much…”
“…”
The maids’ voices pierced Alec’s heart, and he could do nothing but remain silent, unable to respond.
“Alec, I didn’t know you could be so cold…”
“W-Wait, I do think I have treated my wife poorly… I didn’t want her to leave the mansion… but Emily insisted on a quick divorce for the sake of the child, and that’s why…”
“Haah…”
At the doctor’s sigh, Alec turned pale.
“Who is the head of the Parliss family? Is it Emily!?”
“Eh!?”
“You are just a man being led by Emily’s whims.”
“!!”
“At this rate, no one will follow you.”
“A…”
Alec sank into despair at the doctor’s words.
While Alec and the doctor were conversing, the butler was speaking to Sophia.
“Lady, I’m so sorry… I believed in my lord… I was assured of the future safety of the Parliss family… Having seen my lord’s earnest side, I believed we would walk together with you for life… I never imagined it could crumble so easily… I can’t face your late parents…”
After looking at Sophia’s face, the butler noticed the bandage on his left hand and widened his eyes in shock.
“Doctor… What is the cause of Madam’s death…?”
The butler inquired about Sophia’s death from the doctor…
“Madam took her own life…”
“…”
The butler’s face turned pale as he picked up the envelope beside Sophia and walked over to Alec, who was kneeling on the floor.
“My lord…”
Seeing Alec in a way he had never witnessed before, the butler thought that Alec was no longer the master of the Parliss family, instead, he was a pathetic man who, while having a wife, continued to cheat and acted according to another woman’s whims.
“My lord, I have brought the documents confirming the divorce from the government office… Please review them later…”
“…”
Alec usually would have said “thank you for your hard work,” but at that moment, even those words felt suffocating, and he could only look down, unable to meet the butler’s gaze.
“…”
The butler sat down and placed the envelope on the floor at Alec’s eye level.
“Why didn’t you face your wife until the end? Why didn’t you listen to her voice?”
“…”
“Lady Sophia called out to you many times, waiting for you to turn around… She waited for you during meals and while you were working… Yet, you…”
Tears streamed down the butler’s face as he remembered the sight of Sophia waiting for Alec.
“Why did Lady Sophia marry you? Was it just to clean up after you? To show her your daily life with lady Emily?”
“tch.”
Alec, unable to respond to the butler’s words, was filled with regret for how he had treated his wife.
“My lord… When you heard that lady Emily was pregnant, what were your thoughts?”
“Eh… well…”
“Both of you were delighted. I thought you was happy because she is the sister of Lady Sophia… I never imagined that you would be happy because it was your own child…”
“…”
The doctor sighed, realizing he hadn’t known that Emily was carrying Alec’s child.
“It is natural to be happy as a father when you find out it’s your child… What about Lady Sophia?”
“Eh!?”
“When Lady Sophia heard from you that her sister Emily was pregnant with your child, what do you think her feelings were? Have you thought about Lady Sophia, who was told about the divorce?”
“I talked with my wife after discussing the divorce… I asked her to stay in the mansion even after the divorce… Emily also said she wanted my wife to remain here after the divorce…”
The butler, the doctor, and the maids questioned why Alec and Emily would want Sophia to stay in the mansion even after the divorce.
“Normally, a divorced couple lives separately… so why do you want to keep her?”
The doctor tilted his head and asked Alec.
“For the past six months, I’ve left everything to my wife… Many of our business partners mention her name, and I realized I can’t run the shop without her… I asked Emily to learn the business, but she refused, saying she had a child, and told me to hire someone… I wanted my wife to work with me, but I was told I was being terrible, and she refused… Emily intended for Sophia to raise the child when it was born… but my wife…”
The butler and doctor exchanged stern looks at Alec, while the maids were simply astonished.
“It’s clear that neither you nor Emily have thought about Lady Sophia at all… Just as she said, you are terrible people…”
“What!?”
“You say your work is difficult, but Lady Sophia cared about you and understood the things you couldn’t say, even if it was hard… If you intended to make Emily your wife, it would only be natural to push her away and learn the business… just as you’ve done to Lady Sophia…”
“…”
Alec clenched his fists, regretting that he had to hear such words about himself and Emily from the doctor and the butler, unable to respond.
The maids listened to the conversation, their faces filled with anxiety.
“Emily… is going to replace… Lady Sophia?!”
“I won’t do it! I don’t want to work under that person… just like everyone else who left, I won’t let myself be told lies…”
“What should we do…”
“Hey, maybe we should tell everyone about this…”
As their voices filled with anxiety and anger continued in Sophia’s room, they suddenly heard a voice from the hallway. Without knocking, Emily burst through the door and shouted.
Bang!
“Alec, where’s my sister!?”
Emily called out to Alec without using any honorifics, shocking the butler, doctor, and maids. Alec felt anxious under the gazes directed at Emily, and he regretted having scolded Sophia for her harsh words toward Emily, realizing now how he should have handled things differently.