Chapter 14 (1/2)

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chapter 14

“I’m fine with that one…”

“Do you want this?”

Eric, who was standing behind her, pointed to the pink dress that caught Chloe’s eye at first.

“Or this one?”

Then he pointed to the red dress next to it.

As he looked around the boutique, he was quiet for a moment, then he pointed his finger from here to there.

“I’ll buy everything.”

“Darling!”

“Everything that my wife looked at.”

Chloe’s face turned red with astonishment. She grabbed Eric’s sleeve right then.

“No, please, you don’t have to do that.”

Then, she added in haste.

“I won’t need to wear those once I go back north anyway. I’ll try on a few. Let’s just get the ones I’ll be comfortable in.”

Eric stared at Chloe, but with one finger again, he gestured for the clerks who were standing a distance away to come closer.

“I want to see my wife in that dress. Madam, get it ready.”

“Of course.”

Madam Lizen answered delightfully and called the clerks.

As she stood awkwardly, Chloe could feel tears in her eyes. If he buys all the clothes here, the total would be well over 500,000 francs!

“Darling, please, let’s think it over again…”

“Have her try them on.”

But Eric ignored Chloe’s words once more.

The affectionate appearance she thought she saw in him all throughout the day was replaced by a firm expression, and Chloe had no choice but to follow the clerk without the chance to say anything more.

It wouldn’t look good to refuse more here because it would look like a wife ignoring her husband. It would affect her husband’s honor.

“Let me help you remove your clothes, Your Excellency.”

Chloe couldn’t go against the clerk.

Her dress was taken off, then her corset was tightened a little more before she was donned with a panier.

The dress that caught Chloe’s attention was a robe a la francaise, with large folds and a silhouette in which the skirt was puffed out at the sides. Due to the curved hips, the tightened waist was more emphasized.

Usually, such dresses had deep necklines, but Chloe covered her chest up to her neck just like she would with a redingote gown.

After wearing new clothes for the first time in a long while, she felt better. To be exact, seeing herself in a mirror improved her mood.

Was it because she remembered the past, when she still came by here often to purchase dresses, or was it because this was the first time that her husband had bought her clothes? Perhaps it’s the latter.

’I want to see my wife in that dress.’

Did he mean it when he said that?

She hoped that he did. And she hoped that he would tell her that it looked good on her.

Chloe left the changing room with excitement, wanting to show Eric how she looked.

But then…

The reception room was empty. Was he on another floor? Chloe hurriedly looked around.

“Um, Your Excellency.”

Madam Lizen approached her.

“The Marquis has left. He mentioned that something urgent came up.”

“…He left?”

Chloe sighed in despondency, filling the empty reception room with this single sound.

He left.

Without even telling her.

Then why did he say that he wanted to see her in this dress?

Why did he make her look forward to it?

Why did he give her a sliver of hope?

Why…

The embers of hope within her, which had fostered flames for a while, were instantly extinguished. And the only thing left behind was black smoke.

It felt like her lungs were filled with that dry smoke. It pained her. It suffocated her.

“His Excellency has already paid for the clothes. We would just need to send it over to your home here at the capital, correct? Or should we send it to the north?”

Madam Lizen was unaware of Chloe’s condition, and so she continued to smile happily as she talked to her.

“Marchioness?”

“Ah, yes. Send it to our residence in the capital.”

Chloe, who had regained her senses, replied in a hurry. In fact, she didn’t care whether the clothes would be sent to the residence at the capital or to the north. She was going to be divorced anyway, so these dresses served no purpose. …It was pointless, Husband.

She wondered what he would say if she had the payment canceled here. But if she did, her husband would definitely be enraged once more. The right thing to do here was to go back calmly.

Chloe breathed heavily with a hand over her chest, feeling the stiff texture of the new dress.

“You have the best husband, Marchioness. He just buys everything for you without saying anything about it. What a great husband.”

“…Is that so?”

“Of course. My ex-husband nagged at me so much whenever I bought something and asked me so many questions about my purchases. Goodness, I was so sick and tired of it!”

Madam Lizen burst into laughter as she chatted.

Chloe opened her lips, then closed them, then did that once more.

There was a word that lingered at the tip of her tongue. She couldn’t bear to say it, nor swallow it down, but eventually, it went down and clotted over her heart.

“I…”

…don’t mind living like that.

Chloe dropped her head.

It hurts.