After I Died, My Husband Went Mad - Chapter 74
While uncle and nephew were enjoying their harsh yet warm reunion, Sebelia sat in the living room, waiting for Watts. She nestled her body among the carefully arranged sofa and cushions.
Then, a tension that had been hidden beneath her sense of relief suddenly engulfed her.
“Oh, no…”
Sebelia felt her fingers trembling. As soon as she was in a safe space, her pent-up stress exploded. It was only in hindsight did she realize how nervous she had been.
My limbs feel like jelly.
Sebelia bit down on her lip. She was unaware of how much she had put her body through. She now understood how challenging the life of a fugitive could be, far more demanding than just escaping from the mansion.
“Sigh…”
Sebelia held the mug of tea that Cardy had brewed for her, attempting to calm her tremors. The only good thing was that she wasn’t shaking from fear.
She was simply suffering from the aftershocks of her and her body’s struggle to survive.
“It’s alright, everything’s okay now…”
She tried not to think about Dehart, but given the current situation, it was unavoidable. If he hadn’t pursued her in the first place, none of this would have happened.
Sebelia lifted her head and looked up at the ceiling. Perhaps he was somewhere upstairs, tied to the wrought-iron bed, unconscious.
However, this fact didn’t frighten Sebelia as it used to. Unlike before when Dehart had surrounded the inn with his knights to capture her, the current him was powerless. And…
“He has to go back.”
No, he had no choice but to go back, because Dr. Watts will send him away.
Sebelia recited this with conviction. It was just speculation on her part, but there were reasons for her certainty. After all, unlike her, Dehart was not an official guest.
They’ll probably send him back as soon as he regains his strength.
Based on what she heard from Cardy on the way to the laboratory, it seemed that Dehart wouldn’t be staying for long. Watts was careful not to accept anyone other than desperate patients like herself.
The fact that he set up the laboratory in the rugged mountain range and established a barrier to show nightmares already revealed his reluctance to deal with people. So he would likely be less welcoming to someone like Dehart, who entered the barrier for a different reason.
Yes, that’s the way it should be.
He would leave and return to Hillend Hall, the lonely manor he loved so dearly. A home finally free of a bothersome wife who was nothing but an illegitimate child.
As her thoughts settled, a sense of relief gradually seeped into Sebelia’s heart and her trembling slowly ceased. Her jaw loosened and she could finally take a sip of her tea.
“Whew…”
It might have been a futile wish, but Sebelia hoped that at the moment of his departure, Dehart would have a heart as vacant as hers. She didn’t know why he pursued her, denying her death, but she hoped he would accept that it was irreversible.
That person was already dead.
There was no Sebelia Inverness in this world to accept his inexplicable remorse and forgive him.
I am no longer the person I used to be. So…it’s not my place to do that.
Sebelia nestled herself into the cushions, closing her quivering eyelids. The tender darkness enveloped her.
* * *
After finishing his research and exiting the basement, Watts walked through the living room and abruptly stopped in his tracks, his eyes falling on the woman buried between the large cushions.
Sleeping there was Sebelia.
“…”
His impassive black eyes scanned her almost mechanically. Her frail complexion, the bones visible through her wrists, and the trembling beneath her eyelids were instantly quantified in his mind.
A patient.
Recognizing the undeniable truth in her sickly state, he assumed she must have been guided here by one of his few friends. Watts acknowledged his feeble human connections without much concern and crossed the living room.
Coincidentally, Claude descended the stairs at that moment, meeting Watts face to face.
“Ah, Watts. Work done for today?”
“Cardy.”
Watts’s eyes briefly met Claude’s before shifting towards Sebelia. When Claude gestured for an explanation, Claude shrugged.
“I didn’t get a proper explanation either. I told her to wait until you came out, but she must have been tired and fallen asleep.”
“…”
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t do it on purpose. It just happened.”
Claude protested, giving Watts a disapproving glance and following him to the kitchen.
“Do you know the barrier almost broke while you were stuck in the lab?”
Watts paused as he was about to pull out a jar of jam. His black eyes shifted towards Claude. Claude chuckled and swiftly snatched the jar from Watts’s hand.
“There was a thunderstorm raging like mad. It looked like it might set the actual forest on fire, so I had no choice but to intervene.”
“So you’re saying…”
“Yes, I’m saying I had to deal with him, and I didn’t have time to extract information from the patient.”
Watts stared at Claude with more intensity. Knowing Claude’s background, what he said sounded anything but ordinary.
He summoned a lightning strike strong enough to break the barrier…
Natural occurrences aside, “lightning” in the Empire typically pointed to one entity—a Duke who gazed upon the battlefield with golden eyes, invoking divine retribution and earning the wrath of gods himself.
The cursed Inverness.
