To Those Who Regretted After I Died - Chapter 60
Alec, having returned to the mansion, summoned the head butler and the head maid.
“About Lady Emily…”
“I see… And the child…?”
The head butler and the head maid heard from Alec about his separation from Emily and the matter of the child, and they were utterly astonished.
“I apologize for all the trouble I’ve caused until now…”
“How should we explain this… We want to inform the Marchioness… If she’s even just waiting a little…”
“……”
The head butler expressed his regret, and the head maid wiped away tears.
“There was one more thing I had to tell you… I couldn’t cover the entire cost of the wedding between Emily and the Colbert family, but I decided to help with the payments… I requested this of my wife… Sophia’s parents, as a form of atonement… I will be troubling you all again…”
“It is not for us to question what you, our Lord, have decided… The Marchioness will surely be pleased.”
“I hope so… Thank you…”
Alec expressed his gratitude to his servants, and the head butler and head maid were delighted to see him return to his former, earnest self, considerate of his staff.
Knock knock!
“Excuse me, Lord. A letter has arrived.”
“Ah, I’ll take it.”
Alec received the letter from the maid, and his expression changed when he saw the back of the envelope.
“……”
“Lord?”
“It’s a letter from my aunt…”
“A letter from Lady Adelaide?”
The head butler and head maid watched Alec place his aunt’s letter on the desk, not attempting to open it. They exchanged glances, bowed to Alec, and left the room.
“The Lord had such a serious expression. I wonder what happened…”
“It seems there was some trouble with the relatives at the Marchioness’s funeral… Let us wait until the Lord speaks to us about it.”
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Alone in the room, Alec picked up the letter from the desk and read his aunt’s letter.
“……”
The letter contained simple information.
‘Alec, I am informing you that the date for the meeting has been decided. I have sent word to Sophia’s family. Come to my mansion with them.’
“……”
After reading his aunt’s short letter, Alec muttered.
“Three days from now… huh…”
Alec received news that the relatives would gather at his aunt’s mansion…
Leaving the room, Alec entered the portrait room.
“……”
Looking at the portraits of his predecessors, Alec saw only the empty frame where the portrait of himself and his late wife Sophia was supposed to hang, next to his parents’ portraits.
Looking around the room, Alec noticed that Emily’s portrait was gone, realizing it had been disposed of.
“Haha… So Emily’s portrait has already been disposed of… The staff and Emily were not on good terms, were they… Perhaps it was for the best that she did not marry into the Parlis family… To think that sisters of the same blood could be so different…”
Alec touched the empty frame and gave a wry smile.
“Father, Mother… if you two were alive, would you have scolded me for my wrongdoings…? If you had scolded me for pushing away my wife and for my infidelity… would my wife have not died…? I have angered and saddened my aunt… There will be a meeting in three days… I wonder if I will be able to remain as the head of the Parlis family… It will be decided by my aunt’s word…”
Alec sat in front of his parents’ portraits for a while, continuing to apologize.
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Emily woke up, and the doctor who served the Lemoire family was examining her.
“Lady Emily, how are you feeling?”
Emily, with a vacant expression, said nothing even when the doctor spoke to her.
Her parents, watching from a distance, were worried.
“Father… she hasn’t said a word since she woke up…”
“Did anyone tell her about the child?”
“No… since she woke up… no one other than us has entered the room.”
“I see…”
Her parents still hadn’t told Emily about the child.
The doctor finished the examination and walked over to her parents. Her mother spoke to the doctor.
“Doctor… how is Emily’s condition?”
“Physically, there are no problems, but she should rest for a while. I believe she is depressed due to the loss of her child…”
“Understood. Thank you very much…”
“Please contact me if there is anything.”
The doctor told her parents about Emily’s condition and left the room. Her parents went to Emily’s side, who was staring intently out the window.
“Emily, is there anything you want to eat? There’s your favorite cake.”
Emily said nothing.
Seeing that Emily didn’t say anything, her mother turned to her father.
“Emily, why don’t you take a short walk? It’s a beautiful sunny day for a walk.”
Emily said nothing.
Her parents looked at each other and were about to leave the room, thinking she should be alone for now.
“I… I made my sister angry… That’s why… she took it away…”
“Emily?”
“I apologized many times… I apologized for everything until now… But my sister didn’t show me a smile… Because I took Alec away from her… Because I took the child that my sister was supposed to have with Alec… Even though it’s my child… she looks at me with a stranger’s face… And then… she looks at my sister and says ‘Mother’… and goes to her side with a smile… Even though it’s my child… I couldn’t even go to her side or hold her…”
Tears streamed down Emily’s face. She regretted troubling her sister, taking her sister’s husband, being happy that her husband Alec sought her and not his wife, and being happy seeing her sister hurt. Emily told her parents that Sophia took the child because she had made her angry and cried, saying she wanted to see her sister Sophia, troubling her parents.
Exhausted from crying, Emily fell asleep, and her parents left her room.
“I wonder if Emily saw Sophia in her dream…”
“Since Sophia’s death, she has started to feel bad about her sister. Many things have happened in these few days. Our lives will change from now on…”
Her father wished that the rumors about his daughter Emily would be minimal, but he didn’t even imagine that it would affect him as a teacher.