The Villain's Terminally Ill Wife

Chapter 10

“So, what is it you wanted to tell me?”

Richard, who had come out to the balcony with me, closed the door and approached me as he asked. I took a moment to regulate my breathing, trying to organize my tangled thoughts. Fresh air filled my lungs and then exited repeatedly.

“I don’t know where to start. I need to go back a long way…”

“The ball has just begun. We have plenty of time.”

Richard spoke leisurely as if urging me to speak. His words felt like pressure, making me a bit anxious.

“Then, I’ll go back to the beginning.”

“Alright, go on.”

In the end, I had no choice but to tell Richard about my past.

“My mother, the former Duchess of Tristan, remarried the current Duke of Tristan when I was three. Unfortunately, she passed away when I was ten.”

Richard let out a low hum.

Even though he wasn’t the subject of the story, Richard showed empathy for my pain.

I understood why he could relate to me.

Richard, like me, had lost both of his parents at a young age. He seemed to deeply empathize with the pain of losing a mother.

Listening to my family history, he must have felt something—whether it was pain or sympathy.

“After that, the duchy, which should have been mine, went to my father because I was too young. Since then, I became a burden to the Tristan household.”

I didn’t elaborate and summarized it as being a burden, but Richard seemed to understand the situation I was in.

After all, there was a legitimate heir with a clear right to succession still alive. Ideally, I should have succeeded the title from my mother, but unfortunately, I was too young at the time.

In such a situation, my father took the duchy under the pretext of protecting me. However, he was merely acting as a regent, and the actual right of succession belonged to me. This meant that as an adult, I could reclaim everything my mother left behind.

How uneasy and displeased my father must have been?

Especially since I wasn’t even his biological daughter.

Still, it wasn’t possible to immediately take the noble title from my father just because I was of age.

Taking back the title would require a trial. But I didn’t have the strength to endure such a long and tedious process.

Most importantly, I was facing imminent death.

So, I remained, letting things happen as they would. I didn’t realize I was becoming increasingly lethargic, like a frog in boiling water.

“And, as you know, my father squandered the family fortune through gambling and incurred a lot of debt.”

“Then I paid off the debt and took you, the unwanted burden.”

“Exactly.”

Richard quickly grasped the situation without needing further explanation.

I couldn’t tell if I should be relieved that he understood so quickly or troubled by how fast he comprehended it.

“Richard, you paid money to the Tristan household and took in someone as useless as me. Can you imagine how delighted my father must have been?”

Richard ran a hand through his hair, which slightly disheveled his well-set hairstyle.

“I knew I was being deceived, but it’s still a nasty feeling.”

Contrary to my expectation that he would be angry upon hearing all this, Richard only sighed deeply without blaming me.

“You’re not angry?”

“Should I be angry at you? Or do you want me to be angry?”

“No, that’s not it…”

My voice trailed off, barely audible.

According to the original story, he would have been furious, treating me as if I didn’t exist.

I had brought up all this with much hesitation and worry, prepared to silently endure his anger if he lashed out.

If he were to expel me from the estate, I was ready to accept that too.

But Richard didn’t even get angry.

Was there something different from the original story?

I tried to recall as much as I could, but my story, as an extra character, wouldn’t have been described in such detail.

It was a wonder I remembered this much.

Richard sighed deeply again and looked at me with a frown.

“So, what is it you want to tell me?”

Richard asked, as if he already knew the answer.

“You want to take over the Tristan household, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then you must know why I’m telling you all this.”

A cold wind blew between us.

“Use me.”

The wind passed slowly between us, as if embracing us.

“I am the rightful heir to the Tristan household. Although my father holds my position now, it should originally have been mine.”

I reached out my hand towards Richard.

He stared at my outstretched hand.

“Use me to take it.”

“And you?”

I expected him to take my hand immediately, but Richard surprised me by asking back.

“Me?”

I was caught off guard by his unexpected response.

“If you give it all to me, what about you? It’s as if you’re saying you won’t get anything, Diarna.”

His words pierced through me, and I shut my mouth tightly.

I didn’t need the wealth anyway.

I would die in a year, so what would be the point of holding onto such things?

It’s not like I could take them with me when I died.

But I couldn’t say this directly.

Richard still didn’t know about my illness.

“Well, I’m your wife. What’s yours is mine too.”

I forced a smile, but Richard looked at me with distrust.

“My arm is getting tired.”

I urged him to prevent any suspicion.

Eventually, Richard couldn’t find anything odd about me and took my hand.

“Then, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Likewise.”

* * *

After finishing our conversation on the balcony, we headed straight back to the ballroom.

I naturally placed my hand on Richard’s arm, and he escorted me without causing any discomfort.

Our steps led us to where my father was.

“Greetings, Duke Tristan.”

Richard greeted my father warmly.

He looked at my father with a relaxed and arrogant expression.

Then he glanced at me with a smile and gently held my hand.

As if to show off to the people around us.

People around us started whispering quietly as they saw Richard and my father face each other.

My father, who had been looking our way, checked the reactions around him and then let out a low chuckle.

“Who do we have here? Isn’t it Count Theodore?”

He seemed to be welcoming Richard, but the reality was different.

My father raised his voice deliberately so that those around us could hear.

“So, what brings you here?”

“It’s the first time meeting you since I married the former Lady of Tristan, so I naturally had to come and greet the Duke.”

Richard placed his hand over mine.

My father’s gaze moved from him to our hands and then back to me.

“I see. But this is awkward.”

“What do you mean?”

“Diarna is not my daughter.”

My father delivered his final blow.

A clear line drawn between him and me.

My father’s words were true.

Even though my mother and father remarried, my father had no intention of treating me as family.

On the contrary, he saw me as an obstacle or an enemy to the dukedom.

Despite that, I had been calling him father since I was three years old.

From as far back as I could remember, he was my father.

When my mother was alive, I genuinely believed that he was my real father.

I thought he was a part of my world and the proof of my existence.

But those beliefs were shattered with my mother’s death.

My grip on Richard’s hand tightened naturally.

Richard glanced at me, noticing my clenched jaw as I struggled to endure.

In his eyes, I saw an emotion I couldn’t quite identify.

Pity? Sympathy?

I didn’t really want to know what that emotion was.

Now, he clearly understood.

All the things about my family history that my words had failed to convey.

It was fortunate that I had told him about my family history before facing my father. If I hadn’t, Richard would have been humiliated without knowing why.

“So, you’re saying that Diarna is not your daughter.”

“You could say that. Well, thanks to the money you gave, I could be free from debt. For that, I am grateful.”

It meant, ‘But you wasted your money.’

If my father didn’t accept Richard as family, Richard had no reason to marry me with money involved.

My father was truly cruel.

That he could laugh despite knowing that his words had sent my life in the Count Theodore household plummeting was too cruel.

Yes, this must be the reason.

The reason Richard neglected and abandoned the original Diarna.

This ball must have been the event that ruined Diarna’s life just as she was starting to develop affection for Richard.