I Became the Mother-in-law of the Regretful Female Lead

The novel <Everything Is Too Late After Leaving> is a typical regret story.

Liliana Locke, the only princess of the empire, faces misfortune and hardship.

She is the pitiful Female lead of this novel.

With her father having suddenly passed away and her brother going missing in action during a war, the Locke family, stripped of its pillars, falls prey to wolves.

To protect her beloved family, Liliana makes a life-changing decision.

That is, to marry Jeremion Winder, a member of a nouveau riche family.

Although Jeremion Winder held an earldom, he wasn’t respected because he was an adopted son of common origin, lacking noble blood.

He needed a noble woman, and thus he chose Liliana.

Their marriage was a contract, made out of mutual need.

However, unaware of these circumstances, Liliana, who became the Countess, was tormented mercilessly by someone…

“That trash was me!”

Despairing at this unbelievable reality, I screamed internally.

Vanessa Winder, Liliana’s mother-in-law, was the main Villainess of the story.

Though not related by blood to Jeremion, nor having played a motherly role, she acted like the typical wicked mother-in-law from media.

“It’s ridiculous to even call her a mother. What mother is only six years older than her son?”

Vanessa was a young stepmother to Jeremion, so they were almost the same age.

Nevertheless, she often called Liliana and mistreated her, made her do all sorts of tasks, and did her best to torment her.

‘Dear daughter-in-law, the soup is too salty. Are you trying to poison me with a salt overdose?’

‘Dear daughter-in-law, is this supposed to be a gift? Your eyes must be on the soles of your feet.’

‘Calling you ‘dear daughter-in-law’ doesn’t mean you are truly part of our family!’

She harassed Liliana so frequently that even as a reader of the original work, I felt like I might develop a neurosis from hearing “dear daughter-in-law” too often.

Liliana felt extreme isolation under the continuous harassment from her mother-in-law.

‘As long as I stay here… I will always be an outsider.’

But what really troubled Liliana was something else…

It was Jeremion, the novel’s male lead.

Liliana’s greatest misfortune was falling in love with the man who would become her husband.

‘Even though there was a way to annul the marriage later… she just chose to stay with Jeremion.’

However, her married life, which began with hope, turned out to be far from what she imagined.

Jeremion was a completely inadequate husband.

‘Well, there’s never a normal male lead in a regret story.’

Jeremion did nothing as his mother harassed Liliana, leaving her to suffer alone. He never once protected her from the harsh life with his family.

In fact, whenever Liliana sought him out, he turned her away and treated her like she was invisible.

When people mocked his wife, he would just laugh along with them.

‘What a fool… Even in a regret story, can a husband really treat his wife like that?’

It wasn’t that he was just bad at socializing; Jeremion deliberately treated Liliana harshly, even though he knew she was suffering.

It was due to his inferiority complex.

Unlike him, who could never shake off the label of being an adopted commoner, he was jealous of Liliana, who was of noble birth.

This inferiority clouded his judgment, and as a result, Jeremion didn’t realize that he, too, loved Liliana.

He only realized his feelings for her after she ran away.

To atone for his past actions, the first thing he did was to kill Vanessa.

‘Even if you are my mother, I can’t forgive you for laying a hand on my wife.’

After ignoring everything for so long, he belatedly killed Vanessa.

And then, after dealing with other villains, he reunited with Liliana.

‘…That must never happen!’

As soon as I recalled the plot of the original story, I involuntarily screamed and fell backward.

“Madam? Are you alright? Madam! The lady has fainted!”

“Call a doctor immediately! You there! Go get a doctor now!”

Surrounded by servants, I closed my eyes and passed out.

The shock of the original story was too much to handle.

Was I shocked because my character was supposed to be killed by my own step-son?

No, that doesn’t concern me at all.

I had already suspected that my rude son, Jeremion, would eventually kill me, given his long-standing history of rudeness.

Getting concrete evidence now doesn’t change anything.

The reason I was shocked was…

‘The thought of our Liliana marrying that bastard Jeremion… It must never happen!’

Reading the original story, I always thought Jeremion was a terrible character.

A bad guy who suggested a contract marriage and then tormented the kind-hearted Liliana!

As a reader, Liliana was my favorite character, so I could never warm up to Jeremion.

‘Even watching him suffer to atone for his sins didn’t make me feel any better.’

However, since it ended on a happy note, I brainwashed myself into thinking they made a decent couple.

But now, being in the position of Jeremion’s mother, my thoughts have completely changed.

‘Jeremion and Liliana make a good couple? Nonsense. Jeremion shouldn’t get married at all, his personality is too terrible!’

The novel that had enraged me was just a mild version.

The real Jeremion was precisely 103 times more insolent than his novel counterpart.

Having realized his true nature, I couldn’t stand to see Jeremion and Liliana get married.

‘Why ruin a young girl’s life? I must stop this marriage at all costs.’

From reading the original, I knew how hard Liliana had worked.

Despite her cheerful nature, she always tried not to lose her smile, no matter what hardships came her way.

Knowing how strong-willed she was, there was no need to stain her life with the mark of being married to my son.

‘Even if I can’t pave a flower path for my favorite character, I can at least block the thorny path.’

So I decided.

To ruin their marriage!

‘Fortunately, I’m in the position of the mother-in-law… This works out perfectly.’

If I had been in an ambiguous position, like a friend of the female lead, it would have been harder to stop the marriage… But luckily, I was the ‘mother-in-law.’ And an infamous villain at that!

I was already well-versed in playing the Villainess, so breaking up a couple who weren’t even in love yet was a piece of cake.

‘Liliana hasn’t fallen for Jeremion yet… Alright! I can stop this marriage!’

As soon as I woke up from fainting, I immediately ordered a servant.

“Bring me all the information on Liliana Locke.”

“Pardon?”

“I shouldn’t have to repeat myself.”

“I’m sorry! I’ll find out right away!”

I stopped the servant who was running out and added another instruction.

“By the way, find out exactly how much debt the Locke family needs to resolve.”

“Understood! I’ll make sure to find out!”

With a determined answer, the servant left promptly.

Left alone in the room, I chuckled sinisterly like a villain.

“…Hohohoho!”

No matter how much debt they had…

‘I’m pretty confident when it comes to throwing money around.’

Whether it was a billion shillings or ten billion shillings, bring it on!

I’ll pay off all that debt!

And so, things came to this point.

I thoroughly investigated Liliana and found out that the Locke family currently had 4.8 billion shillings in debt.

“Under normal circumstances… Paying it off wouldn’t be a problem, but the situation wasn’t favorable.”

The prestigious Locke family, known for its long history, was facing an unprecedented crisis.

The heir, Tristan, had been deployed and lost contact for the past five months, and the duke had suddenly passed away two months ago.

With only the naive Liliana remaining in the main estate, the duke’s right-hand man absconded with the business funds, and the side branches were engaged in power struggles.

Liliana, who hadn’t been properly educated as an heir, did her best in this crisis.

By working closely with the remaining family members, she managed to stabilize the situation somewhat, but the debt of 4.8 billion shillings still remained.

‘The Locke family’s assets should be enough to pay it off, but…’

Unfortunately, as she wasn’t the heir, Liliana had limited authority to access the family’s funds.

Moreover, the amount of money immediately available wasn’t much due to the duke’s right-hand man running off.

The poor girl tried to seek help from other families she had been friendly with, but they all ignored her pleas for help, as if they had coordinated it.

In her despair, the only choice left for Liliana was my son, Jeremion Winder.

After three months of dating, he agreed to pay off the debt in exchange for marriage.

This is where the novel <Everything Is Too Late After Leaving> begins.

“But now that’s all history…”

Recalling the events of a few days ago, I stared at my wine glass again. The red liquid swayed helplessly under my touch.

It felt as if I was looking at the shattered storyline of the original novel, broken by my schemes.

“Hehehe…”

Now there is no original story. No suffocating regret plot, no incidents.

Liliana had taken the 10 billion shilling check I gave her, so her life would differ from the original.

“Liliana, let’s walk the path of flowers!”

I raised my glass in celebration of the new life the heroine would lead, unaware of what the future held.