“You used me, didn’t you?”
“Why did you pretend not to know?”
“You knew. That I was a fool who had fallen in love.”
Annely — the emperor’s cousin and the cherished only daughter of the noble House of Chabette.
She had married Carlos, a celebrated war hero whom she had fallen for at first sight, as if guided by fate itself. She believed their marriage, happy in its own way, would last forever.
But then one day—
“Divorce Carl for me. Don’t you feel sorry for a child who’ll grow up without a father?”
When Carlos’s first love appeared visibly pregnant, Annely finally realized how insignificant her love had been.
The day she resolved to leave him—
“Carl… I’m done with you—”
Instead of saying ‘I’ll let you go’, what marked Annely’s final moment was the deep red of her own bl＊＊d.
***
When Annely opens her eyes, she finds herself two years in the past, before Carlos quit the stage.
Determined not to repeat the same mistakes, she demands a divorce.
However, Carlos responds with an unexpected condition.
“Stay married to me for one year. After that, I’ll divorce you.”
With no choice but to remain by his side, their relationship begins to take unexpected turns.
“Pretend to love me, I’ll do the same.”
“What are you—”
Warm fingers that refuse to leave her ear slide downwards, brushing her small earlobe.
“Something secret. Hidden. Filthy like this.”
But when Annely discovers that, unlike in her previous life, she has conceived a child, she makes her decision.
This time, she will run away from him.
