FBWOW 23

Chapter 23…

Now I understand why my brother is not my father’s son, and why my mother obeys my father so blindly.

As for why Catherine became my father’s mistress, I would have to ask her directly — but was that before or after her engagement to my brother?

Come to think of it, why did my brother break off his engagement with his former fiancée, Thérèse?

“Assem, why did my brother part ways with Lady Thérèse? They got along well, didn’t they?”

“You know that Lady Thérèse had an accident and was undergoing rehabilitation for her leg, don’t you?”

“Yes. I heard that because of that, the wedding was postponed a bit. Was her condition that bad?”

“I heard she would be able to walk again, though dancing might be difficult.”

That much wouldn’t have been enough for my brother to call off the engagement.

“Don’t tell me—did Father dissolve the engagement on his own?”

“Yes. And at the same time, he forced an engagement with Lady Catherine.”

So it was just as I thought.
That means Catherine’s engagement was broken off first.
After learning that Catherine no longer had a fiancé, Father must have decided to marry her to my brother instead.

It’s hard to imagine Catherine, while engaged to my brother, submitting herself to Father.
Father was merely a son-in-law, while my brother was the heir apparent to the earldom.
And in terms of age, my brother was the appropriate match — unless Catherine had a preference for older men.

In other words, Catherine must have already been Father’s mistress before her engagement to my brother.

“Assem, did you think that if Catherine bore my child, that child would become the heir?”

“Yes. I believed the next Earl should be your son, Lord Kevin. If a boy were born, I thought Lady Marianna would be married off. If a girl were born, I was prepared to tell her that Lady Marianna was not Lord Lucio’s daughter.”

He must have hoped he wouldn’t have to say it aloud.
He must have agonized over whether anyone would even believe him if he did.

But when Catherine failed to become pregnant with Kevin’s child — and Kevin instead arrived here with a mistress named Julia — he appeared, wanting to speak about what had happened between Catherine and my father.

When he learned that Catherine and Father were still involved, and that Kevin had spoken of divorce, he finally revealed the truth.

“Grandfather, Father trying to make Marianna inherit the Carmine earldom is nothing short of a takeover. It’s a crime. This goes far beyond what could be excused as simply ‘doing whatever he wants.’ Did you even sign a written oath with him?”

Wasn’t that “I’ll do whatever you say” just an empty verbal promise?

“There is no oath. For more than twenty years, I obeyed him even on the strength of a verbal promise — but that ends now.”

Trying to alter the family bloodline… it’s the height of insult.

“We’ll strip the title from Sheila and give it to you. You will accuse Catherine of adultery and divorce her. At the same time, we’ll have Sheila divorced and brought back to the estate.”

Since Mother never handled administrative duties, she wouldn’t be recognized as a legitimate count.
If Grandfather, the former Earl, and Kevin, who manages the estate as the next heir, both petitioned for it, it would be easily approved.