After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 2
TN: Chapters 1-3 are re-translations of a project that was dropped in 2021. You can find the older fan translations here.
There are only 6 months left.
It was a short time compared to her twenty-seven years, but it was enough time to make one final journey.
Sebelia gazed down at neatly folded clothes inside her travel bag, a faint smile gracing her lips. She’d tucked it under her bed out of sight without anyone discovering it. Of course, the servants of the ducal estate rarely ventured into her room, let alone initiated a conversation with her.
I wonder if they’ll notice if I’m gone after about a month.
The people of Inverness were constant in their indifference, refusing to acknowledge her even when sharing the same space. Sebelia realized that she rather they hate her than be wholly indifferent to her existence.
Yes, just like her own husband.
Sigh…
She closed the bag and slid it back under the bed.
Knock, knock.
The unexpected knocking made her jump in surprise, her nerves on edge. She puffed up like a small bird whose nest had been invaded. However, upon hearing the familiar voice, she relaxed her hunched shoulders.
“My Lady.”
Only one person in this dreary manor had ever called her ‘Lady’. Well, to be precise, she was the only one who addressed Sebelia so warmly.
“You may come in, Denisa.”
As the door opened, a warm-faced middle-aged woman entered. Unlike the servants of the mansion, she didn’t wear a uniform. Denisa had cared for Sebelia from a young age and was the only servant who had accompanied her when she married into the ducal family.
“What are you doing here?” Sebelia asked. “Isn’t it past your usual off-time?”
For some reason, Denisa was sleeping outside the mansion. It was another form of discrimination, but Sevelia was powerless to protest, and they both knew it.
“What’s the matter? Is someone saying something strange again?” asked Sebelia.
In response to her anxious question, Denisa shook her head and then grasped Sebelia’s hand.
“You had no intention of telling me until the end, did you?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
She knows.
Sebelia sucked in a sharp breath as she felt her stomach churn. She had asked for it to be kept a secret. Sebelia bit her lip, recalling the stern-faced doctor she had brought in.
The doctor, whom her nanny had brought to her with difficulty, had told her that her disease was progressing too fast for treatment to do anything meaningful. At that moment, Sebelia’s first thought was this.
Denisa must not find out.
She was more like a mother than the one she’d never met. The only person who had followed her all the way to this remote northern region. She was a woman who often made her eyes red with tears at Sebelia’s pitiable position, and she didn’t know if Denisa might faint upon hearing the news. So, she fervently implored the doctor to keep it a secret.
But it’s all for naught now.
Sebelia couldn’t bring herself to respond and lowered her head.
Denisa spoke with a voice filled with anger. “This is all because of the Duke.” She pointed at the cold floor and the poorly-ventilated room. “I told you staying in a place like this would undoubtedly make you sick. So please…” She stammered and stroked Sebelia’s face. “We offered to have you stay at our home.”
Sebelia shook her head. “You know I couldn’t do that.” She had chosen this room herself in the first place. She couldn’t endure the gaze of the people who despised her next to Dehart.
“And if the rumor spreads that I was driven out of the mansion and I was staying with the servants…” It would provide an opportunity for the nobility of the central regions who were in conflict with House Inverness.
A tightly woven web of political dynamics. Within that tangled web, all she, an illegitimate child herself, could do was to lie flat to avoid being swept away by the storm.
“Even so, I consider myself fortunate.”
“What on earth for? To be married off to a wretch who torments you with baseless accusations?” Denisa seemed ready to strangle Dehart if he were in front of her. “He seems like the kind of person who should die and go to hell.”
Sevelia couldn’t help but chuckle at her determined spirit. “Haha!” However, it wasn’t a genuine laugh; it was more of an imitation.
Cough.
Blood spilled from the corners of her mouth as she forced her laughter. Denisa’s face paled the sight.
“My Lady.”
“Don’t worry too much. It’s not as painful as you think.” Sebelia said, casually wiping the blood away. “Really, don’t be sad. I’m fine. Surprisingly, I can endure.”
She knew Denisa was gossiping on purpose to cheer her up. In the past, she might have agreed with Denisa and vented her frustration by badmouthing the scoundrel.
“Ha ha…”
But for some reason, everything seemed so fleeting now. It felt like she was watching events unfold from a distant place, separated by a layer of glass.
Sebelia embraced Denisa, who was looking at her with concern, and said, “I’m going to run away.”
“…What?”
“I want to live freely, even if it’s only for the time I have left.” When she offhandedly pointed at the bag under the bed, Denisa’s expression transformed. “The departure date is a week from now. So, don’t come to the mansion after today. He might harass you after I leave, so please be careful.”
When Sebelia finished speaking, Denisa pursed her lips. She looked like she was seriously considering something.
“Denisa?”
Sebelia urged her for an answer, but instead of replying, Denisa firmly grasped her shoulders.”My Lady.”
“Yes?”
“Please grant my request.” Denisa paused, then added. “No. Of course you’ll do it, especially after you rejected my request to live with you so cruelly.”
“But-”
“Think of it as fulfilling the last wish of a poor old woman before you leave.”
Denisa tightened her grip on Sebelia’s shoulders. “If you leave like this, the Wheddon family will surely not leave you alone.”
She was right. Sebelia was sent as a hostage for reconciliation between the central and northern regions. If news of her escape were to spread, her father would undoubtedly be furious.
“You don’t want to spend your final hours as a fugitive.” Denisa spoke with determination.
Sebelia bit her lip. Denisa was right. Without a solid plan, leaving now would likely make her an easy target for capture.
“I have nothing to my name.”
Denisa gently pulled Sebelia to her feet and whispered something in her ear. “Actually, my Lady, you have…”
Sebelia swallowed hard. Her eyelids drooped in confusion as she tried to make sense of Denisa’s cryptic words.
* * *
After Sebelia left the greenhouse, Dehart tossed the bouquet of flowers he had been holding.
Thud.
Blood-soaked thorns glistened in the sliver of sunlight streaming through the glass. Dehart lowered his head to survey the mess that the greenhouse had become, and his cold, golden eyes emitted an icy glint as if lost in thought. After a moment of staring into space, he briskly left the greenhouse.
His steps were halted by his uncle, Roger, who was blocking his way. For a moment, irritation flashed through his eyes.
“Uncle.”
“You were spending time in the greenhouse again.”
With a scowl like he was scolding an unruly child, Roger brushed the dirt off Dehart’s elbow.
“We don’t have much time left before our departure. You need to hurry.” His gruff voice scolded him, and Dehart, without saying a word, glanced at him before shifting his gaze.
“What’s the matter?” Roger asked as he straightened out Dehart’s disheveled attire, then tapped his chest lightly with the back of his hand.
Dehart didn’t respond. Instead, he looked past Roger to where Sebelia’s room would be, as if longing intensely for something. The prison-like room she had stayed in of her own volition. That dreary room with its dark gray curtains drawn all year round.
Noticing the direction of his gaze, Roger sighed and shook his head. There was a hint of awkwardness in his expression. “If this is about her, it’s best to just leave her alone.”
Seeing Roger’s apprehension, Dehart probed further. “What happened?”
He spent only a handful of days a year at the manor, so he was largely unaware of events unless they were significant. Dehart pressed him for information.
Roger hesitated for a moment before responding. “…There are unsettling rumors circulating about the Wheddon girl…no, about Sebelia.”
“When you say unsettling rumors…”
“It’s not something I’d discuss openly, but there are whispers that she’s having men visit her room lately.”
The once serene air turned chilling and shattered like glass.
“Nonsense,” Dehart spoke in a low growl, his golden eyes gleaming with intensity. “And while I’ll overlook this mistake… Never again refer to her as the Wheddon girl in my presence.”
Dehart turned to leave without a second thought, but Roger held him back.
“Uncle.”
“Hush, boy, and listen to me!”
Despite the warning tone, Roger refused to yield, fixing Dehart with a sharp gaze. “You understand as well as I do that such rumors don’t emerge without cause. Don’t you know why she’s never truly integrated with Inverness?”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
Dehart’s glare bore down on Roger as he swallowed and continued. “It means we have to take the situation seriously. For the sake of the family reputation…”
“Oh, dear Uncle.” Dehart scoffed and lifted his head. His golden eyes glowed with a fierce light behind his narrowed lids. His voice dripped with sarcasm as he continued, “No one takes this situation more seriously than I do.”
Dehart swiftly pulled his sleeve from Roger’s grasp. “How much more seriously should I take it when there are vultures stirring trouble in my courtyard, daring to suspect my wife’s virtue?”
The growl in his voice was menacing.
