Home/I Am Trying to End This Wrong Marriage/ch 7

Episode 7

In the gathering of the Kruger and Panning families, Edward spoke wistfully.

"With her gentle heart, there were many who served her within the ducal residence. I simply cannot believe she has left us so vainly."

The Dowager Viscountess Panning's face, which had briefly calmed, twisted again. Edward's words had brought her daughter back to her mind with aching vividness.

'...Just let this funeral end.'

Angela tried to think firmly.

"Though my wife is gone, I will continue my connection with the Viscount Panning household. I am still bound to Angela, after all."

'...?'

But at those words, she could not remain calm.

'I thought he would lose interest in my family once I was gone...'

Hadn't they been nothing more than a means to keep his wife confined—no more, no less?

Having made that statement in front of the guests, Edward would have to honor his words.

'If Edward stays connected to my family...'

Angela could no longer be sure whether it would be wise to secretly reveal her survival to the family he would still be tied to.

"His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!"

The brief conversation ended as the Emperor and Empress appeared.

"I didn't expect His Majesty to come."

"It's only natural that I attend my own brother's affair, isn't it?"

The Emperor and Empress, unaware of anything amiss, remained through the funeral proceedings at the temple.

After the funeral ended and they departed, the remaining attendees moved to the temple cemetery where nobles were buried.

It was to pay their final respects to the deceased as they watched the coffin being interred.

"Angela..."

Edward stood beside the weeping Dowager Viscountess Panning with a hollow expression. He glanced briefly at the Dowager Viscountess, who was being consoled by her son and daughter-in-law, but seemed in no mood to speak further.

The weather, not yet fully spring, was bleak. Angela could see young ladies in black dresses sneaking glances at Edward, who had draped his jacket loosely over his shoulders.

Even his dazed gaze at the coffin must have been picturesque.

'Yes. Perhaps...'

Angela thought, watching those gazes that seemed to neglect her own mourning.

'No matter how much he says he'll keep ties with my family, time will change things.'

He was a young prince who had been married once but was now alone and childless.

Who would leave alone a man with such a good public reputation? Someday he would meet someone new, marry, and forget about her.

'I hope he doesn't do to that woman what he did to me...'

"Your Grace, please don't be too sad. I'm sure the late Duchess is enjoying eternal happiness in heaven."

As Angela expected, one of the more forward young ladies was the first to console him. At that, Edward answered weakly.

"I wish I could turn back time."

"Pardon?"

"If I could go back to before my wife left... this time, I would never let her go."

In Edward's eyes, fixed on the coffin being lowered into the ground, there was still a tenacious intensity. Only Angela, who had lived as his wife, could sense it.

"So that she could stay by my side forever."

The moment Edward, who had been nothing but lies, spoke his truth, Angela shuddered.

At a point where the impossible—coming back to life—had become reality, she dreaded what would happen if Edward ever learned her secret.

She was already dead—so why couldn't he let go?

And one thing became clear in her heart.

'I have to hide it, no matter what.'

To prevent even the slightest hint of her identity reaching him, it would be best to keep it secret even from her true family.

'Edward must never find out that I'm alive.'

"My poor daughter..."

In the meantime, Angela's mother began to sob even more.

'Mother.'

Unable to approach her mother, Angela watched her with sorrowful eyes.

There was no choice.

Even if she wiped away her mother's tears now, as long as she didn't reveal her identity, her mother's grief would not fade.

'Why on earth do I have to...'

Angela felt deeply wronged and saddened by her situation—having to watch her grieving family from afar, all because she was afraid of her former husband.

---

Dylan stood at the very back, surveying the attendees of the funeral.

The Emperor had come and gone before he arrived, and the funeral was crowded with many nobles, befitting the name of a great house.

But was there anyone here who genuinely mourned the deceased?

"I should have seen His Majesty earlier! From back here, it'll be hard to even greet the Duke of Devonshire."

Dylan heard a man in front of him grumbling to his companion—a remark that wouldn't carry to the front where the bereaved family stood.

On the other side, he overheard a man and woman, presumably lovers, whispering.

"Why do you think the Dowager Empress didn't attend today?"

"I heard earlier that she's unwell."

"Today of all days? She's usually so healthy... Do you think she's truly ill?"

"I'm not sure. But then again, her relationship with the Duchess was never particularly good..."

There were more than a few people who cared about everything except the funeral.

From another direction, he heard the small voices of young ladies.

"The Duke of Devonshire will remarry, won't he?"

"Of course. Now I'll be the one to take that place by his side."

Just listening made him appalled. Angela's coffin hadn't even been fully buried yet, and they were already talking about becoming Edward's new wife.

"No matter how you look at it, this is his daughter-in-law's funeral. This is why people should behave well in life, I suppose."

"I don't think someone who gossips at the deceased's funeral has any right to talk about character."

Unable to bear the conversation of the couple in front of him, Dylan finally spoke.

"Your Grace?"

The man and woman, startled to see Dylan standing right behind them, jumped.

"Duke Alester!"

His intervention silenced even those who had been eyeing opportunities to curry favor with Edward, but it also drew attention from the nobles behind him.

"When did you arrive?"

"We had no idea you were here, since you were at the very back."

The nobles greeted him with pleased expressions. Dylan answered coldly to their smiling faces.

"Quietly. Did you come to a ball?"

Angela's family was weeping, but here, far from them, it was nothing but chaos.

He was disgusted by these people who could think only of currying favor with him or Edward, even at a funeral.

Ignoring them, Dylan stared at Edward in the distance.

'If Angela hadn't married the Duke of Devonshire, her funeral wouldn't be like this.'

He had learned through investigating the Devonshire household that Angela's married life had not been entirely happy.

Everyone knew that the Dowager Empress had opposed the marriage of the Devonshire couple.

But the fact that the Dowager Empress had continually tormented Angela was something even most nobles didn't know.

'In the end, it was the Dowager Empress who caused that incident for Angela as well.'

Dylan recalled what he had uncovered.

That unfortunate incident had been the reason Angela left the palace. At the time, no official reason was given, but through this investigation, he had learned that Edward had decided to move out to the ducal residence because of it.

'I thought she was living well after marriage...'

The nobles had all seen only Angela's glamorous exterior and gossiped.

Dylan, too, hadn't realized that she might be going through difficult circumstances until he spoke with her at the last gathering.

Whenever he happened to see the married Angela from a distance while out, she was always smiling beside her husband.

But when he saw her up close recently, she had seemed uncomfortable around her husband.

'And then the accident happened just days later.'

Why had it happened so suddenly?

Was it really just an accident?

He couldn't believe Angela had died so abruptly—and suspicion lingered.

"The Duke of Devonshire seems to be suffering greatly."

Perhaps.

Dylan answered inwardly to the young lord who had addressed him. His green eyes, fixed on Edward, were filled only with suspicion.

'The controversies around Angela began after she moved to the ducal residence.'

It was when she left the imperial elders and started living with just her husband.

Why had Angela tensed up when her husband approached?

Could it be that Edward was not a good husband?

Various thoughts raced through Dylan's mind.

'Could the Duke of Devonshire be involved in Angela's death...?'

"I wish I could turn back time."

Just as Dylan was thinking, he heard Edward speaking to someone.

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