MHYFMAMD Ch 21

Tenesia had only thought of it lightly.

 

After all, it was a two-year contract marriage. There was no need, nor reason, to hold a grand ceremony. She simply thought it would be fine to live as though she were a hostess, barely present, and then leave when the time came.

 

However, the world was not so kind to Grace, nor to Tenesia.

 

“I forgot I had to deceive the people here too.”

 

Tenesia swallowed a silent scream. No one, except the two of them, knew about their contract. Those who didn’t know naturally thought that since they had decided to marry, they would obviously spend the night together.

 

Tenesia was shoved into the room without a chance to ask about the child’s existence. The suspicious smile and the closing of the door still lingered in her mind.

 

“Haah.”

 

The ones who worked hard to prepare had done nothing wrong. It was Dietrich who had made the mistake by taking the decision alone without sharing all the information.

 

Tenesia cast a glance downward. Her appearance, sitting alone in the dark bedroom, was very different from before.

 

A thin slip dress, which she didn’t know when she had prepared, fluttered along her figure. Her lightly styled hair, coated with perfume, smelled pleasant.

 

If it had ended there, she might have been able to sleep peacefully. But the problem was that all of this preparation was for one night with her ex-husband—no, once again her husband, Dietrich.

 

Tenesia pressed her own cheek once again, trying to calm herself, though it didn’t help.

 

“Why is this suddenly so strange?”

 

It was truly odd. This wasn’t the first time she had been with him, yet she was this tense.

 

Before she had become pregnant, it was their duty to share a bed once a month. 

 

Despite being bound by the contract, he had faithfully carried out his role as a husband.

 

And then… 

 

“….”

 

She unintentionally thought of her own death and shook her head. She had let her mind wander for too long. Tenesia clasped her hands tightly together and placed them on her thighs.

 

“I’m still alive. I’m not dead….”

 

Sometimes, when an odd sensation passed over her body as if it didn’t belong to her, she had the strong urge to scratch her wrist.

 

It was a strange behavior that had started after she became Tenesia Blanchette. She felt as if the touch brushing her skin was not the wind but dirt.

 

Tenesia impulsively held back the urge to rake her nails across her wrist.

 

‘I have to stop doing this.’

 

It was different from the Blanchette family, who had no interest in her. She sighed as she remembered how surprised those who had dressed her up were.

 

‘It’s a good thing I was able to cover it up.’

 

She had almost let rumors spread that the new bride had self-harm marks on her body. For a change of mood, Tenesia looked around the room.

 

It was a different place from the couple’s bedroom she had previously used. The faint smell of fresh paint still lingered in the air from the new furniture.

 

Why had they preserved that room if it wasn’t going to be used?

 

Grace’s room. ‘My room’, where even traces of use were still intact.

 

The corner of the blanket she had folded. A book taken off the shelf but left unfinished. Even the chair pushed aside at an angle. Everything was just as it had been the last time she saw it.

 

It was as if time continued without Grace, as though she had never left. Among all the changes in the castle, only this room was exactly the same as five years ago.

 

Had her death made them uneasy?

 

That thought bothered her because the room had been regularly cleaned.

 

For what reason, though? The questions piled up endlessly in her mind.

 

“By the way… why is he so late?”

 

Unlike the maids who said he would arrive soon, Dietrich still hadn’t appeared. She listened closely in silence but couldn’t hear any footsteps approaching.

 

Being alone in such a mood was more awkward and embarrassing than she had imagined.

 

Tenesia glanced behind her. The rose petals scattered across the bed, the pink bedding, the faint candlelight, the wine, and the snacks.

 

She felt as though she looked like someone eagerly waiting for him in the middle of them, and her face turned bright red.

 

Even on the bed, Dietrich played his role as a gentle husband. His tender touch was so affectionate that it almost made her forget the obligatory duty of conceiving an heir.

 

After months, she was finally going to feel his touch again. Her heart raced faster.

 

His gaze, persistent and unyielding, filled her body with heat that made her lower abdomen tingle. She squeezed her eyes shut.

 

She couldn’t stop herself from imagining all sorts of things. Tenesia shook her head vigorously, trying to erase the images from her mind.

 

“What are you shaking your head about by yourself?”