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

As though he wanted to kill me on the spot, Jeremyon exuded a murderous aura. I immediately grabbed the back of my head and shouted loudly.

“You, you, you insolent…!”

However, my son, ignoring my reaction, glared at me with a terrifying gaze and soon warned me.

“I told you, I’ll take care of it.”

“How dare you speak to me like that…!”

I tried to reprimand his tone, but Jeremyon abruptly cut off my words.

“Please allow me to at least maintain a minimum level of respect, Stepmother.”

“Hah!”

“Since I’ve finished my meal, I’ll be taking my leave.”

With the sound of footsteps, Jeremyon walked out of the dining room.

On the table, the untouched food was left alone.

I trembled with my head hanging low. It was difficult to suppress the emotions that kept bubbling up inside me.

“Hah…”

I took a deep breath, gathering the patience from the deepest part of my heart to control my emotions.

Perhaps sensing that my mood was unusual, the surrounding servants were terrified and fled the room.

They must have known how severely I would usually lash out in such situations.

Before I knew it, I was the only one left in the dining room.

After confirming that no one was around, I let go of the emotions I had been suppressing.

And then,

“Hahaha!”

I burst out laughing, finally letting it all out.

“Oh, that was close. I almost laughed in front of the servants.”

Ever since I became certain that Lilliana and Jeremyon had parted ways, I had struggled to hold back the laughter that kept coming out.

For an ordinary person, it would be enough to just laugh when in a good mood, but my case was different.

Publicly, I was known as the mad villainess who only laughed when committing evil deeds.

I couldn’t ruin the image I had painstakingly built over seven years of wicked behavior just because I couldn’t hold back a single laugh.

“Well, anyway, money really is powerful. To think I could separate the heroine and the male lead for just 15 billion.”

I was newly reminded of how sweet and powerful money could be.

Now that Lilliana and Jeremyon were separated, the original story’s flow had been completely disrupted.

It meant that the kind-hearted Lilliana would no longer have to suffer at the hands of the ill-tempered Jeremyon.

“Hah. When I think about it, Jeremyon wasn’t always like this.”

I still remember.

The day I first married into the Windor family, when he shyly greeted me.

He was small for his age, but at that time, he was a boy with dazzling silver hair.

Even though Jeremyon wasn’t my husband’s biological son, I wanted to get along with him. And I’m sure he felt the same.

But our relationship could only spiral into extremes.

My husband died before we could even properly spend our first night together after the wedding…

And I was accused of being the prime suspect in his murder.

* * *

I recalled the first night with my husband, seven years ago.

It was when we were drinking wine alone in the bedroom to ease our nerves.

My husband, whose face was bright red from repeatedly downing wine, suddenly collapsed backward and died on the spot.

At first, I thought he had just fainted. But when I approached him out of concern, his breathing had already stopped.

The sudden death of my husband right in front of me.

It was too shocking an event for someone as young as I was, only twenty-two years old, to comprehend.

But unfortunately, what awaited me were even more harrowing events.

People pointed to me as the prime suspect in my husband’s murder.

‚…I can’t say I don’t understand, given the circumstances of our marriage.’

I was originally a princess from the neighboring country of Onz. But at a banquet, my husband fell for me unilaterally and demanded me in exchange for a substantial investment.

A marriage arranged like a transaction. Moreover, it was my husband’s third marriage, not his first.

Though it’s awkward to say it myself, people had plenty of reasons to believe I had motives to kill my husband. Especially since I was the only one with him before and after his death.

‘She must be the culprit!’

‘Killing her husband before even spending the first night… There really is no one crazier than her.’

It was only natural for people to suspect that I had killed my husband.

Fortunately, after a long investigation, I was cleared of suspicion.

My husband’s death was concluded as a simple fatality, not a murder.

If it were a murder, there would have been a method of killing, but no relevant evidence was found.

Thus, it seemed I could avoid the suspicious stares… But unfortunately, not everyone agreed with the investigators’ conclusion.

Especially Jeremyon, who had lost his father so suddenly.

‘Confess. You killed my father, didn’t you? There’s no one else who could have done it! Confess! Just confess already!’

Jeremyon was said to have been very close to my husband.

‘Though he was the worst husband to his wives, perhaps he treated his son well.’

In fact, Count Windor was sterile and unable to have children.

However, initially, he couldn’t accept this and blamed his wives, leading to repeated divorces.

Jeremyon was the adopted heir my husband brought home after finally coming to terms with his condition.

A boy from an orphanage, but intelligent and dignified.

My husband treated the boy like his own son, and Jeremyon also regarded him as his real father.

‘The novel described it that way, too. Jeremyon saw his father as his savior.’

But since his beloved father died right after marrying me… It was only natural that Jeremyon despised me.

“Hah…”

At first, I tried hard to improve our relationship. I even tried to prove my innocence to him.

But to a teenage boy, the words of a stepmother who supposedly killed his father were meaningless.

Eventually, as time passed, our relationship became irreparable.

‘No wonder, in the original, Jeremyon kills Vanessa with his own hands.’

Jeremyon believed that all the misfortunes that befell him were because of Vanessa.

His father’s death, even the departure of his beloved wife. He thought everything was entirely his stepmother’s fault.

‘But that’s a misunderstanding. I didn’t kill my husband.’

I closed my eyes and fell deep in thought.

‘I have to clear my name somehow.’

As a child, Jeremyon wanted revenge on me.

And as he matured, though he may have hidden it better, he likely still harbors similar feelings.

‘If I stay like this, who knows when he’ll kill me.’

In the original, he kills Vanessa a few years later, but now that the plot has been derailed, who knows how events will unfold.

And I even encouraged the separation from Lilliana.

‘This is troublesome, really.’

Having finally realized that this world is inside a novel, being killed by my stepson was something I wanted to avoid at all costs.

But my husband had been dead for seven years already. It wasn’t easy to prove now that I wasn’t the culprit.

Even if there was a real culprit, most of the evidence would have disappeared by now. How could I prove it now?

‘But if… if I can catch the real culprit and make them confess?’

Lost in thought, I smirked like a villain. A perfect plan had formed in my mind.

“Hahaha…”

The first step of my plan to clear my name was…

‘Extravagance. Yes, I’ll indulge in as much luxury as I can.’

With my thoughts in order, I stood up. My steps were unusually light as I headed out to indulge in extravagance.

The streets lined with boutiques.

The entire street was bustling with people trying to accommodate me, the news of Vanessa Windor’s arrival having spread.

My appearance meant record-breaking sales for the day, so it was no wonder they were eager.

“Pack this up, and oh, that one is pretty too.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Ah, never mind. Just pack everything here.”

“Thank you, Lady Windor! We’ll wrap everything up for you right away!”

I indulged their expectations, putting on a lavish display of wealth, and soon enough, the servants’ arms were piled high with boxes.

Although I had left the mansion around lunchtime, the clock was already pointing towards evening.

On a normal day, I would have gone back by now, but not today.

Today had a special highlight.

“Ma’am, all the items you’ve purchased have been loaded onto the carriage. Are you ready to return to the mansion?”

“No. I haven’t bought the most important thing yet. Head to the wine shop at 12 Wellington Street.”

As soon as I spoke, the coachman drove the horses hard.

12 Wellington Street’s wine shop. It’s a famous store among the nobility, dealing only in the finest wines.

The wines here are so expensive that even a noble would struggle to enjoy them more than once or twice in their life, but the quality is superb. I’ve visited a few times in the past.

‘..But I haven’t come here much since learning who owns this place.’

Clop, clop.

It wasn’t long before the carriage came to a stop in front of the wine shop.

“You all wait here for me.”

The wine shop only allowed entry to nobles, so even the servants couldn’t follow me in.

I entered the wine shop with a bit of tension, thinking about the owner.

‘They said he returned from the war. I hope I don’t run into him.’

I carefully surveyed the interior of the shop. Fortunately, it seemed that what I feared wouldn’t happen.

Relieved, I focused on selecting wine and listening to the employee’s explanations.

At that moment,

“Mother, what brings you here…?”

When I turned my head in the direction of the sound, what was standing there was…. It was Liliana and no one else.