After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 18
It would be a while until they secured travel expenses by selling the dowry. Until then, Sebelia and Denisa spent a comfortable and luxurious time in the guest house. Occasionally, the servants sent by Glenn would hover around it, but it didn’t take much effort to shoo them away.
“Looks like yet another person fainted this time,” Denisa said, tilting her head sideways as she peered out the window, observing one servant who had fainted, foam spilling from his mouth.
“I wish they’d just keep quiet about it,” Denisa remarked, casting a fleeting glance sideways. Where the servant had been peering so intently a moment ago, the ghost of Belita lay grotesquely bleeding.
“What on earth do they expect to gain from this?” Sebelia muttered as she dismissed Belita. “I moved to the guest house like she wanted, and now I’m nothing at all…”
What exactly makes her so uneasy that she has to monitor me like this?
Sebelia sighed deeply at Glenn’s incomprehensible behavior. “I guess there was never a time I could truly understand.”
If Sebelia had known what was going through Glenn’s mind, she wouldn’t have been so easily deceived. Sebelia chuckled bitterly and glanced back at Denisa.
“How did things go with what I asked?” Sebelia inquired.
“It might take some time. It’s not something that can be sold nearby,” Denisa replied with an apologetic look.
Sebelia shook her head, gesturing for her not to worry. “It’s fine. There’s still time… hmm.”
Before she could finish her sentence, Sebelia abruptly closed her mouth. Her haste to leave the parlor alerted Denisa to something amiss. She hurriedly grabbed Sebelia’s wrist.
“My Lady!”
“Cough…!”
Blood trickled through her fingers. Denisa’s face turned pale in an instant. With trembling hands, she escorted Sebelia to a nearby chair.
“You need to lie down.”
“I’m fine…”
“Please, just do it!”
Her quivering voice spoke volumes. Sebelia looked at Denisa’s reddened eyes and decided to stay put. It would be utterly futile to insist she was well in this situation.
Denisa hurried back and forth. In an instant, she returned with warm water, a towel, and medicine. She sat down at Sebelia’s feet and bit her lip.
“I shouldn’t have told you about your abilities. I should have just sent you away back then…” Her voice was twisted with anguish. “It was so stupid.”
It’s one thing to recognize that someone you care about is ill, but it’s another to witness the reality of it right in front of you.
I wish I had gotten sick instead.
Feeling her knees go weak, Denisa fought back the tears that were welling up in her eyes. To her, Sebelia was like a daughter she had raised. Seeing her in such a state, vomiting blood in front of her, was truly something she never wanted to witness again.
I never wanted this.
Denisa touched her clammy forehead and spoke with a trembling voice. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, I didn’t mean for me to do anything to make you suffer more…”
“No, Denisa.” Sebelia urgently grabbed her hand and spoke. “This is just… a side effect. It’s not because of the illness.”
“Then I shouldn’t have told you! I’ve stolen the little time you have left. I…”
Looking into Denisa’s eyes, deeply consumed by agony, Sebelia squeezed her hand.
“Denisa, don’t do this.” Sebelia’s voice was resolute, matched by an unwavering gaze. Her face was pale as death, yet her expression was determined as ever. “If it weren’t for you, I would have fled without any plan. I would have lived in constant fear, waiting for my father to find me and possibly died.”
Sebelia held Denisa’s hands with both of hers and spoke with sincere emotion. “I’m grateful just to have a future where I don’t need to entertain such thoughts.”
“… ”
“You haven’t stolen my time; I’ve gained the chance to make it more valuable.”
Denisa took a deep breath, gazing into Sebelia’s earnest eyes, feeling suffocated by her own guilt.
“Really.” Sebelia whispered softly, comforting her. “At that time, I wanted to escape from here so desperately that I couldn’t think of anything else. I didn’t make proper preparations. I would have failed if I had hurried.”
It would have been foolhardy to flee without enough money.
How reckless I was.
Denisa seemed as if she wanted to say something but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. Finally, she nodded slowly. “…I understand.”
Sebelia’s expression softened. “Thank you.”
“Don’t say such things.” Denisa smiled sadly.
She dabbed a towel in warm water she had prepared and gently wiped Sebelia’s face. “You really are a sight to behold, young lady.”
Sebelia chuckled softly at Denisa’s attempt to lighten the mood with a joke.
“When you were young, you loved playing in the mud. Coming in every day all covered in dirt, and I would clean you up just like this.”
Denisa took a long, long time to wipe her face, as if to commit that moment to memory.
“Yes, I know.” Sebelia closed her eyes, accepting her touch. And she concealed the truth deep within her heart—the fact that she had never enjoyed playing in the mud, not even once.
It was good that Denisa cared for me.
That’s why she could endure whenever Nathan pushed her into the mud, knowing that someone would be waiting in her room with a warm towel.
