How To End This Marriage-Chapter 109: The Unspoken Bond

"I’m alive!"

I kept repeating those words as I found myself drenched in blood. It was midnight, and I couldn’t fathom why I was in such a state. I hadn’t left my room all day, and no one had bothered to check on me. Did my husband forget my existence? Did he forget about the ledger work I had to finish in a single night? Had my trust in him been misplaced?

As I struggled to get up from the floor, I left a trail of bloody stains behind. My legs were unsteady, and I felt like I could collapse at any moment. I did stumble, but someone caught me by the waist.

"Sorry, I lost my balance," I muttered, and my savior’s hand got smeared with my blood.

"Wife, your head is bleeding again," my husband, the Duke, said, his concern evident as he supported me.

"You needn’t bother," I replied, pulling away from his grasp and trying to walk on my own. However, he stopped me.

"Wife, your health is not in the right condition. Let me help you," he insisted, attempting to lift me from the floor. I pushed him away towards a nearby couch.

"Don’t you dare touch me! You have lost all the trust and faith I had in you," I declared, my words no longer a product of my imagination but my stark reality.

"Wife? What happened? Are you having mood swings?" he asked, further infuriating me.

"Mood swings? Have you lost your mind? Are you trying to make me seem like a lunatic?" I retorted.

"No, no. Why would you try to make me look like a lunatic when I’m the lunatic to all of you? Since I arrived here, no one has treated me like a sane person, and neither have you. Do you remember the night you entered my room, expressing concerns about our marriage? I thought I was the issue, but now I see it’s not me; it’s you. You are the issue, and I’ve made up my mind. Let’s end this marriage."

"I know we’ve only been married for a few days, but we can get a divorce to end this marriage, and that’s what I want," I said, speaking loudly and drawing a crowd.

"Duchess, what is Bernice saying?" she pretended to be innocent once more.

"Yeah, yeah. I’m a lunatic, right? That’s why I’m blabbering. You didn’t make me work on the ledgers on my first day of marriage. You didn’t make me work endlessly, making my nose bleed without allowing me to drink water or eat. You didn’t make me recreate the ledgers because they had blood stains. You didn’t break my nose once again. You didn’t leave me alone in this mansion without a soul in sight. You didn’t try to kill me by hitting me with a metal rod because I tried to help the people of Ablia. You didn’t do anything. I did all of this casually, right?" I said, smiling.

"And now you didn’t make me work in the storage room all by myself and then lock me inside, so I couldn’t come out," I added.

"What are you saying? Have you lost your mind?" she said, her face furrowed in a frown.

"Yeah, didn’t you hear how many times I said I’m a lunatic? Do you want me to repeat it?" I asked.

"Wife! Don’t disrespect my mother!" my husband interjected.

"I have no relationship with your mother, and once I divorce you, there won’t be any relationship with you either, nor will I be your wife," I declared, walking away, with a maid coming to support me, blood still dripping.

"Wife, this is not the solution. Let me talk to you. Let us talk. This is not the solution," my husband implored, following me. I continued walking and, despite his attempts to stop me, we eventually reached my room. The maid left, leaving just the two of us.

I reached into a cupboard, taking out bandages and cotton. "Wife, listen to me. I’m sure there’s some misunderstanding," he said, but I was determined to take care of my own wounds.

"Misunderstanding? Does my wound look like a misunderstanding? Is my husband, who vowed to be with me forever, not knowing I’m in my room, a misunderstanding? If all of this is a misunderstanding, what is the understanding for you? If I die, will that be an understanding?" I responded.

"Wife!" he called out loudly, but I slapped his hand away.

"I can do it myself. There’s no need to act like a husband," I told him.

"Your intentions always told me you never wanted this marriage. You always said you wanted to end this marriage, so here it is. Let’s end this marriage. I’ve thought of various ways to end it, but divorce is the most straightforward," I said, applying medicine to my wound, placing cotton and wrapping a fresh bandage on my head. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

I could see the pain in my husband’s eyes, but I had made up my mind. "I will free you. You should be happy," I said.

"No, I’m not happy," he replied, catching me by surprise.

"I’m not happy that you want to end this marriage. I’m not happy that you want to divorce me. I’m not happy at all," he confessed.

"Duke, you don’t sound like yourself," I told him.

"That’s right, I don’t sound like myself, because I’ve never acted this way. I’ve never expressed this, but I did want to be in this marriage with you. The moment I laid eyes on you, you were so beautiful. At first, I was afraid to look at you, afraid of behaving differently and having you think of me as a monster. But when I gathered my courage and looked at you, you were beyond my imagination. You were dazzling, like stars in the sky," he confessed.

"Your face was so bright. But when I thought of taking part in marital activities, I thought you would need time. So I gave you that time. I didn’t know you would think this way. If I had known, I would never have said those things to you. It was never my intention to hurt you."

"I always come home late from hunting demons in the forest, but as soon as I return, I make sure to check on you. Today, I was about to do the same, but I didn’t know you were locked inside your room. Please give me a chance. I won’t fail you. I’ll be the husband you need. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you smile," he pleaded.

"Is this true? I can’t believe it," I said, shocked.

"I know you wouldn’t believe me, so I’ve come prepared," he told me, coming closer. I felt my heart race, fearing what he might do. But he only stopped, and our foreheads touched.

"See, this is the condition of my heart when I’m near you. Do you think it’s a lie? I’m not sure what this feeling is called. I’m not sure if it’s love, attraction, or something else, but I feel this way when you’re near. So please believe me," he said.

"Don’t end this marriage! I want to be with you. I’m not okay with a divorce," he declared, leaving me stunned and struggling to process everything.

"I want to touch you. I want to feel you. But I’m scared I might break you. You are so tender. The time I kept on looking at you, I find you so thin as if I touch you, you will break. It always scared me," he confessed, leaving me with mixed emotions as flashes of our moments together flooded my mind.

"Okay, I will give you enough time to fulfill what you said; you may take however long you want," I replied, sliding down on my bed and covering myself with a blanket. He remained seated beside me, just like the other day.

"I will stay here. I will look at you until you fall asleep," he assured me, and I drifted off to sleep.

***

"Wife!"

"Wife!"

"It’s morning!"

"How long are you going to sleep?" The voice disrupted my slumber, and I wondered who would be calling me so early in the morning.

"Wife? Are you ignoring me?" I slowly came to my senses, opening my eyes to find the Duke calling my name.

"W-what are you doing here?" I stuttered, confused by his presence.

"I’m here to wake you up," he replied, his actions leaving me even more bewildered.

"Wake me up? When did I say you can wake me up? I didn’t request that," I questioned.

"But I decided to do it. I want to give you the best impression of me," he said, smiling brightly, making me question my feelings for this man, my husband.

"I will not let you end this marriage," he whispered into my ear, leaving me with a multitude of emotions and uncertainties. But it kind of felt good.