FBWOW 32

Chapter 32…

Descent was imprisoned.

It was because his mistress, Catherine, revealed that Marianna was his child.
That woman probably wasn’t fully aware that doing so amounted to an attempt to usurp the Carmine earldom—she simply focused on saying whatever would spare her from immediate blame.

Even so, the Crown Prince seemed to have come already knowing everything, so escape would have been impossible either way.

I don’t know why Marianna’s parentage was exposed only now, but considering that Kevin brought the former earl back from the domain, it must mean that the truth was discovered there.

I had thought it convenient that Lucio had died, but perhaps he left something behind.

Looking back, I should have taken only Marianna in and sent Catherine back to her family home.

Catherine could never replace her mother, Rosanne.
That woman, so ruled by lust—she was nothing like Rosanne.

Rosanne was the older woman I once admired.
But as the third son, it was difficult for me to ever have her.

She must have held faint feelings for me as well, yet she was bound to marry for politics.
Even so, I intended to go on loving her.

Should I find employment near her?
Should I keep watch on her husband, and tell her if he ever strayed?

That was what I thought—until my brother was killed by his mistress, and I was forced to marry Sheila.

To become the father of the child in Sheila’s womb—my brother’s child.
And also to produce a child of my own with her.

I fulfilled my marital duty so that I could divorce her at any time, and Sheila gave birth to Kevin.
Rosanne, however, bore two children and seemed unlikely to ever divorce, so I obeyed my father-in-law’s “Do whatever I say” and kept Sheila under my thumb.

She adored Lucio, my brother’s son, and neglected Kevin, her own.
It was strange—normally, it would be the opposite—so Sheila was confused.

But that was fine, wasn’t it?
That woman loved my brother, not me.

I approached Catherine because she resembled Rosanne.
Catherine was troubled by her circumstances, and with a bit of kindness and a little temptation, she was easy to take.

As I held Catherine, I pretended it was Rosanne I was embracing.

When the idea struck me—to make Catherine Lucio’s wife—it was because I wanted to use her as a means to get closer to Rosanne.
Rosanne was deeply grateful that the next earl would marry her “damaged” daughter.
Thus, I became family to Rosanne.

It must have been greed, wanting just a little more.

Unlike Sheila or Lucio, who had obeyed me for years, Kevin was not a son who would ever submit.
Yet I had him marry Catherine—and that mistake led to all of this.

When I thought I could make Marianna the next count, it felt as if I had finally won.

Against the parents who forced that marriage on me, against the former Earl and Countess Carmine, against Sheila, against my brother, against Lucio, against Kevin—and against Rosanne herself.

Whose approval was I ever seeking?