I Failed to Divorce My Husband

Staring intensely at Erin, he slowly opened his mouth to speak. He carefully weighed his words before speaking, as he had no intention of allowing her to leave.

“From this point forward, we’re going to live like a properly married couple.”

“……?”

Erin didn’t fully grasp the intended meaning behind what Aidan was saying.

However, the hair raised on her neck as her instincts suddenly alerted her of danger. Erin could tell that was dead serious.

His intense gaze, like a predator staring at prey, did not waver from her. Given his change in mood, she didn’t expect it to.

Aiden’s fixed gaze was menacing, and as he spoke, his deep voice twisted into a threatening, guttural tone.

“The stamp. You can never use it.”

He leaned forward to act as if he was going to press his lips against Erin’s. Just as they were about to touch, he took advantage of her distracted state to take the divorce papers she offered and tear them to shreds.

Aidan’s demeanor completely changed. This persona of his was unrecognizable.

Erin knew him as the gentle boy whose eyes crinkled when softly smiled at her. Now, he wore the expression of a hardened man.

Erin had never seen this side of him before.

Erin wore a perplexed expression and blinked vacantly as Aidan approached her.

“Erin, you’ll always be my wife.”

Aidan inched closer with every second that passed.

His heated gaze on Erin was so intense that it caused his body to warm up.

Aidan’s breath lingered on her, and his own became shallow as he grew more and more excited.

The temperature rose as Aidan’s emotions intensified, and they could feel it against their skin.

“Now I’m going to tell you,”

“….”

“The reason why we can’t break up.”

Aidan’s heart ached, and it took all of his courage as he attempted to put his thoughts into words.

“We have never been friends, Erin. Not once in our relationship, not ever.” Aidan stated.

“….”

Erin couldn’t find it in herself to deny it.

Their relationship, the one between Erin and Aidan, had always been ambiguous. It would be difficult to argue that they were always friends.

She was aware of it too.

Which is why Erin felt like she had been caught off guard by Aiden’s words.

“I’ve been patient,”

Aiden said, strained yet firm in his resolve.

Aiden always wanted to cross the line that Erin had drawn.

Erin was aware of this.

But instead of facing it, she just feigned ignorance.

“……!”

At that moment, Erin watched as Aidan’s face hardened with resentment.

He was an intuitive person, of course he instantly noticed that Erin was avoiding his gaze. Aidan registered the fact that she had known about his feelings all along.

Aidan finally recognized that it was too late to realize he had made the mistake of not acting on his feelings sooner.

Aidan wrapped his hand around Erin’s head.

His hand gradually moved deeper into her hair, applying more and more pressure.

As Aidan gently wrapped his hand around the back of Erin’s neck, he pulled her head back slightly.

He guided Erin’s head, slowly tilting it up until their lips met.

The light kiss they shared felt smooth, and gentle.

Even though they had often kissed before, the feeling made Erin’s heart flutter differently than before.

“This is something that only we can do,” Aidan said, before he kissed her again.

“If you do this with anyone else…”

“….”

“I’ll kill them.”

Aidan’s eyes flashed with murderous intent.

He emanated a threatening aura, as if imagining he was going to catch and kill any unknown rival immediately.

“I only want to spend my life with you, Erin. No one else,” said Aidan, his romantic statement completely changing the tone of his previous actions.

He was saying he wanted to cross the boundary from being friends to lovers.

Aidan didn’t let go of his hands wrapped around Erin’s head. Instead, he tightened his grip.

At that moment, Erin instinctively realized that this wouldn’t be a simple kiss like before.

She was certain as she looked into Aidan’s eyes, which were fixed solely on her at that moment.

Erin involuntarily felt her body tense up.

No matter how much she tried to avoid acknowledging the obvious, Aidan was still a man.

She realized he was no longer the soft, pretty boy version of Aidan who had made her stare in awe during their first meeting. Instead, she saw a man who was capable of exciting her with his mere presence.

Anxiety took hold, and a warning bell rang in Erin’s head. It told her to be careful and stay alert.

She couldn’t let things go any further.

Erin was anxious, but she gathered her resolve to hesitantly open her mouth and call out to him, “Aidan.”

She said out his name firmly with a stern face.

“That’s all it took, just one word.”

“…”

With just the mention of his name and a slight frown, Aidan stopped his actions.

It was instinctual. 

He would never do anything that Erin didn’t consent to, regardless of the situation.

Even in moments when he lost all reason, Erin’s words were enough to ground him.

It was as natural to him as breathing.

Erin reached a hand up to cup his face, and softly stroked Aidan’s cheek.

“Aidan, don’t get too excited,” she whispered, her softened voice gentle but firm.

As Aidan’s racing heart began to calm down, the tension that had been in his eyes slowly dissipated.

Erin continued speaking while still holding Aidan’s cheek.

“I want you to think about it slowly,” she said in a soft but steady voice.

With just that one sentence, Aidan’s heart was shocked with a cold feeling of dread.

Erin was the only person who could shake him with just a few words or actions.

Erin’s hand, which had been on Aidan’s cheek, slowly fell away as his head drooped down.

Erin turned around coldly.

She reasoned there was no point in continuing their conversation today.

Just before she made her exit, he spoke up..

“Nothing’s changing. We’ll never get divorced.”

“……”

Aidan had made up his mind and remained firm until the end.

In response to Aidan’s stubborn insistence, which, to him, seemed like an absolute and unchanging fact, Erin’s lips lifted ever so slightly.

***

As soon as Erin entered the room, Mona looked at her and bumbled around, uncertain of what to do with herself.. 

The announcement of divorce seemed sudden to everyone in the mansion.

Mona was just as surprised as everyone else. She had so many questions she wanted to ask Erin.

But Erin didn’t have the energy to deal with Mona now.

“Mona. I want to be alone.” Erin said to Mona with a slightly tired face.

“…I understand,”

Seeing that, Mona pursed her lips a few times and quietly withdrew.

Finally, she was alone.

Erin recalled the conversation she had just had with Aidan.

The words she spoke, and Aidan’s reactions to them.

She mulled over the details of both the expected and unexpected reactions, one by one.

Aidan’s reaction was unyielding.

As soon as she mentioned the word ‘divorce,’ he rejected it as if it could never happen. 

“…Of course,” she thought.

She didn’t let it show at the moment, but Erin was barely holding back the urge to grin with pride. 

It wasn’t like she didn’t expect Aidan to initially react with resistance.

After all the time they spent together, it was natural that he wouldn’t just agree right away.

‘Still… It was unexpected,’ she thought.

She had anticipated up to that point, but not what came after.

She thought Aidan would say he’d think about it if she laid it on gently.

But he didn’t.

It was like the world was collapsing.

She had come to him desperately as if her existence was so precious.

The way Aidan looked at her was still vivid in her mind. 

Just recalling the memory gave her goosebumps.

Erin wrapped her arm around him.

“….”

Erin’s lips quivered.

“This isn’t right.”

Even as she tried to quell her feelings and mask her expression, her eyes kept drifting downwards and her lips kept twitching.

Erin internally struggled with herself for a moment before relenting.

“I know this isn’t right,” she thought, “but what can I do? It feels so good.”

Despite the gravity of the situation, Erin found herself laughing over and over again at Aidan’s reaction to her divorce request.

She just couldn’t help it; she loved his attempt at clinging onto her.

Her stoic expression crumbled, and her lips couldn’t stop curling up in a big grin.

She felt happy, almost as if her emotional regulator was broken and she couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up.

That day, Erin was in a wonderful, joyous mood all day long.

She didn’t flaunt it, but her face was so bright that anyone could tell she was elated.

And that was enough to cause another misunderstanding.

***

The entire aristocratic family was left confused after Erin’s sudden request for divorce.

She had been a stabilizing force for the family, protecting them from her unstable husband, Aidan, since she had come to them at a young age.

Everyone relied on her and respected her.

Erin had already established herself as the most desirable leader to follow, which is why her unexpected divorce declaration came as a shock to them.

No one had predicted it.

The employees were all trembling with anxiety and worry.

“A divorce? All of the sudden? What happened?”

“I know, right? I never thought Madam was struggling enough to be considering divorce.”

“Surely… She’s not really going to divorce, is she?”

“No way. How close are they?”

“Don’t we all know how much the Duke loves her?”

“Yeah. It’ll be okay, right?”

The employees wanted to believe it would be okay.

They already loved Erin.

It was unthinkable to imagine her leaving them and the Duke.

“Surely there must be an unavoidable reason for Madam,” they thought.

“Right. Madam is probably suffering right now.”

“We’ll do whatever we can to help.”

The employees spoke among themselves to try to understand the situation in their own way.

They reasoned there must be something going on with their master.

That’s when their gaze turned to the hallway window.

Through the window, they saw Erin walking down the hallway.

She disappeared and then reappeared, smiling…

“…!”

Erin was smiling.

After mentioning the divorce, she didn’t seem like she was suffering nor did she wear a somber expression. Instead, she was smiling like someone who was giddy.

Smiling… after mentioning the divorce?

Was she already excited to leave?

The employees’ faces twisted in confusion.

Erin’s happy appearance before the divorce was the perfect misunderstanding.

There was one person in particular who misunderstood after seeing Erin like that.