To My Husband's Mistress - Chapter 1 Part 2

Leticia walked endlessly outside. She didn’t have the courage to keep looking at the untouched anniversary dinner that was about to be thrown away.

Was it the weather or her heart that made her feel so cold?

It was as if her fingertips were frozen, so she almost dropped the precious wedding ring that Aster had thrown away.

The maids who had screamed in surprise when Leticia was slapped had all run away. No one was there to help her, afraid of the anger of their furious Master.

Even the passersby in the garden who glanced at her were half sympathetic and half mocking. They all knew how insignificant Leticia was in House Winchester.

“Here you are.”

When she raised her head, she saw the current Marquis and his wife walking towards her on the white snowy field. They were the parents-in-law of Leticia.

“I presumed you’ve heard everything from Aster?”

Leticia’s mother-in-law, Clarissa Winchester, asked with a raised chin.

Leticia, who was feeling dizzy, couldn’t say anything in response. Clarissa, who had scrutinized her daughter-in-law, criticized her sarcastically.

“You’re just a spineless woman. Your disposition so strange that you can’t even have a child.”

Meanwhile, she pretended not to see the swollen cheek of Leticia and split lips from being hit by Aster.

“…Y-You know it too, don’t you, Mother?”

Leticia opened her mouth, unable to bear the pain of her burning heart.

“The reason why I can’t get pregnant is…”

“I know, I know.”

Clarissa interrupted her with a bored expression. She had been watching Leticia for a long time since there had been a lot of exchanges between their families since childhood.

So, she knew everything that had happened to Leticia.

“Is it because Aster pushed you down the stairs when he was young and your body was damaged? Is that what you want to say now? Hmm?”

At the end of her words, she even snickered softly. What Aster had done was nothing more than a childish prank.

“At that time, there was something that provoked my son’s anger. He was still an immature child.”

Clarissa threw the last straw, as if everything was Leticia’s fault.

“It’s your fault that you couldn’t even carry a child properly. What’s so precious about you, for Aster to marry and take responsibility for someone like you?”

Responsibility. The word rolled like a stone and deeply pierced Leticia’s heart.

Clarissa was wrong. Although they may not have always been on good terms, Aster and Leticia truly loved each other.

Since childhood, Aster, with his exceptional looks, was treated like a prince. With his egoistic and cold personality, he didn’t allow just anyone to be by his side.

But Leticia, his childhood friend, was always an exception.

Special treatment. It was enough to inflate the heart of a young and immature teenage girl like a petticoat.

Even his sharp and pointed temper was charming like a rose. At least that’s what she thought. Until his thorns pierced her heart.

‘I’m sorry, Leticia. Don’t hate me.’

The day he pushed her down the stairs in a fit of anger, Aster unexpectedly burst into tears.

‘I’ll definitely marry you. Let me spend my life repenting by your side. Please.’

Seeing his tears for the first time, Leticia momentarily forgot her pain.

Was she too young at the time? The word infertility was like a beacon in the fog, too vague and blurry.

That’s why she didn’t get angry. Instead, she was slightly happy to have Aster by her side, even if it was because of the wounds he had inflicted on her.

‘Be my wife.’

As promised, Aster proposed to her as soon as they became adults. Both were inexperienced, but that made their honeymoon even sweeter.

Until ‘that woman’ took Aster away from her.

“I’m glad my son is divorcing you now.”

Clarissa interrupted Leticia’s reminiscence and patted her hand.

“You should find someone who matches your status. Why don’t you try looking elsewhere? But I don’t know if there’s a place that would accept someone like you.”

Clarissa sneered at Leticia and raised the corners of her mouth. Then she elbowed her husband William, who was standing next to her.

“Honey, this’ll be the last time we will be seeing her. Don’t you have anything to say?”

“Ahem.”

He chuckled and stepped forward as if he had been waiting.

“Leticia, my dear. I know you’ve worked hard.”

William awkwardly patted Leticia’s stiffened shoulder. It was too sticky to be considered a father’s touch.

“Of course, you may ‘work hard’, but that doesn’t mean everything will work out. Even if a sparrow works hard, can it keep up with a stork? That’s how the world works.”

William’s hand always smelled of a strong developer solution. His ‘noble’ hobby was nothing but photography.

Clarissa wasn’t always a terrible mother-in-law from the beginning. She was picky, but she didn’t intentionally torment Leticia.

Until the day she accidentally picked up a photo that fell out of William’s vest pocket.

It was a picture of Leticia changing clothes. Perhaps he had bought a maid or secretly taken a picture through a crack in the door.

But Clarissa’s anger at seeing it was directed entirely at Leticia.

‘Are you going to steal not only my son but also my husband? You shameless thief!’

Clarissa tore the photo into pieces and changed her attitude as if nothing had happened.

She would even walk around town with her son’s secret mistress on her arm, as if to humiliate Leticia.

As a result, Leticia’s position became even more insignificant.

“I hope you learned your lesson this time. If you don’t forget the lessons we taught you, you might become a better person.”

William’s words barely reached Leticia’s ears. After lecturing her, Clarissa grabbed her husband and dragged him away.

“I’ve packed your things and put them on the porch. I called a carriage as a last favor, so go wherever you want.”

And never see each other again. Clarissa said her piece and turned away with a sense of relief.

Leticia could only look back at their retreating figures with despair.

‘We haven’t even signed the divorce papers yet.’

They had waited as if to taunt her, only to bring out her luggage.

In the end, she had never been a ‘family’ to them even for a moment. Leticia realized this only after being rejected.

Whooosh-

Even the cold wind pushed her away from this place.

The Winchester mansion, made of marble, was always cold. Especially in the dead of winter, it felt like living inside ice.

Dragging her frozen feet, she turned around and saw a carriage waiting at the entrance of the mansion. It seemed to be the ‘last favor’ that Clarissa had mentioned.

‘A luggage carriage?’

It was a shabby carriage that peasants would use to transport their crops. Leticia’s belongings, piled up and crumpled inside, looked pitiful.

But there were too few of them. As far as she could remember, there were much more when she got married…

Splash-

That’s when it happened. Ice-cold water poured over Leticia’s head from above.

“Ahh!!”

Drenched in water, she screamed in shock.

Aside from the cold, the nauseating smell of the water made Leticia’s nose sting. Reflexively looking up at where the water came from, she saw a woman standing confidently on the third-floor balcony.

“Oh my, my mistake.”

The woman held a bucket in one hand and covered her mouth with the other, looking apologetic.

“Are you okay, sister-in-law?”

It was none other than Leticia’s sister-in-law, Olivier.

“I didn’t even realize there was someone there.”

It was an obvious lie.

Olivier usually acted fragile and couldn’t lift anything heavier than a fork. But she had the audacity to carry a bucket of water to pour on her.

Leticia was at the point where she was completely blocked by Olivier’s insincere malice.

“What should we do? It’s too cold in winter!”

Olivier looked at Leticia, who had become a wet rat, and pretended to be concerned.

It wasn’t just that. Every time the cold wind blew, the moisture on her skin felt like ice needles piercing her.

The cold was unbearable. She had already been outside for a long time, and it was clear that she would get hypothermia if she stayed like this.

“I personally packed your belongings, so don’t worry and go, sis, ter.”

Only then did Leticia realize why her luggage on the carriage was so scarce.

Olivier couldn’t help but sneakily touch her things again. There was even clear evidence in front of her.

“That, that dress.”

Shivering in the cold, Leticia pointed to Olivier’s dress with her delicate hand. The golden pearl scattered, and the light salmon-colored skirt was bright which was unsuitable for the season.

“It’s an heirloom that my g-grandmother left me…”

The person who raised Letitia in place of her mother, who was a famous socialite, was Grandmother Elizabeth, taking care of her as if she were her own.

Her grandmother left her a rare dress made of fabric imported from a distant continent.

She couldn’t bear to wear it and only took it out of the box occasionally.

‘I only wore it on my wedding day.’

Even Olivier, who had her in-laws on her back, couldn’t ask for this.

But on the last day, she finally laid her hands on her sister-in-law’s heirloom, taking advantage of Leticia’s rejection and helplessness.

“Hmm? Dress? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Was she in shock and out of her mind? Olivier lied with a disgusting smile on her face.

“I’d love to see you off, but I’m a bit busy. I’m cleaning the bedroom for the ‘new guest.'”

Olivier, who waved her hands like a paper doll, went inside. The place where she stood was the room Leticia had been using.

‘Is she trying to give my room to that woman?’

The woman who drove him crazy enough to go through a divorce. A woman who would have Aster’s child, which she couldn’t bear.

As she imagined the two of them standing affectionately, her heart felt like it was burning with unbearable pain.

They say everyone’s idea of happiness is different. Perhaps her idea of happiness was not like his, which might be why he went to that woman.

Leticia sat down on the ground, soaked in the rain and frozen to the bone. One could sense it without even looking.

That she was breaking apart, piece by piece.

“You can’t do this here, madam,” said the House Winchester’s servants, who had been waiting inside, as they touched her body.

Yes, it was not a maid, but a servant who dared to do so.

They gently lifted Leticia’s arms and legs, which had collapsed, and put her in the carriage. The coachman, who was clearly a temporary worker, watched the scene with an indifferent expression.

With a thud, the carriage started moving at the same time as the door, which had closed as coldly as Aster’s heart.

Carrying all her pains piled up inside.

***