To My First Love, With Regret (Libenia) Chapter 49

Lady Evelyn had been married to Ethan Fairchild. The stunned guests all turned their gazes to Eve. But she didn’t lower her head—even under those stares trying to find scars beneath the white dress.

Thanks to him, she no longer had to hide. She looked at this worst stain that had ruined her life with a gaze full of undisguised hostility. He, about to blurt out something else, suddenly stopped—as if suspecting something. Tilting his head, he looked Eve straight in the eyes and asked:

“Isn’t it a crime to marry another man without divorcing me first?”

Blood boiled. You’re the one who abandoned me and left. You’re the one who destroyed that marriage—and now you slander me as if I’m the immoral woman who betrayed you.

“Ah, distinguished guests. Now that you know Lady Evelyn wasn’t kidnapped, you must be suspicious that we conspired and killed her brother. I swear by my unjustly deceased grandfather—this is a misunderstanding. We didn’t kill him.”

He shifted his gaze from the murmuring guests back to Eve.

“They say some ladies collect jewelry, others collect art—but the Kentrell Maiden’s hobby is collecting husbands. What ambitious taste. Though, the first was a penniless bastard who bought a ring with borrowed money—and the second is a leech sucking your fortune…”

Eve couldn’t hide her surprise when Ethan gave Dr. Callas the same assessment he’d given himself.

How did he know he’s a leech sucking my fortune?

Ethan raised his champagne glass high. But it wasn’t a toast.

“Let us all pray fervently. That Lady Evelyn—with her lamentable taste—will choose as her third husband a man wealthy enough to return the Laurel Tiara to her!”

No one joined him. Alone, at Eve’s second wedding, Ethan drank champagne to her third husband.

His hand, setting down the empty glass, froze in the air. Because Eve was approaching him.

What the hell are you…

Her face—which should have been contorted with confusion—wore a flawlessly seductive smile. The very smile that had stopped his heart ten years ago. The moment he met it again, Ethan’s heart ached painfully once more.

Before him stood not an enemy he needed to destroy—but the woman he’d believed he’d forgotten.

Her blazing, fiery eyes calmly looked at Ethan—who had involuntarily dropped his third-rate villain mask and revealed his true face. She didn’t accuse him or strike him—she just silently looked. Then her gaze suddenly slid to the cake on his table.

“Do you remember? We never even had a wedding cake.”

Eve admitted she had been married to Ethan Fairchild. Before witnesses. So he had achieved his goal—turning her party into his own stage. Too easily.

But even more unbelievable was Eve picking up a plate of cake and a fork.

Lady Evelyn scooped up a piece of cake with her fork. Standing face to face with Ethan Fairchild. It looked as if the bride was about to feed the groom cake.

Was she really going to play newlyweds with her ex-husband right at the reception, in front of the current one?

The guests covered their mouths in shock and held their breath. Only when the fork went into Eve’s mouth did they exhale.

“Mmm—this taste was worth enduring today.”

Ethan’s breath couldn’t help but become uneven too. Eve, looking into his eyes, licked the white cream off her crimson lips with her tongue. It was a provocation with an unclear intention.

“You try some too.”

She smiled with deadly beauty and scooped up another piece of cake. A suppressed gasp ran through the guests.

Was she really going to put it in that gangster’s mouth this time?

Eve, under the horrified gazes of the guests, moved without the slightest hesitation.

Splat.

The bride took the plate and smashed its contents across her ex-husband’s arrogant face.

Clatter.

The plate fell to the floor, revealing a face smeared with cake. Crushed pieces fell onto his gallant uniform. Red puree, smeared like her anger, dripped down his cheeks like bloody tears—staining his gleaming medals.

“Ethan, thank you for putting on a show at this modest gathering.”

The only one enjoying this chaos was Eve.

“But if you were going to be a clown at my wedding, you should at least look the part, don’t you think?”

Eve smirked at the man boring holes into her with his gaze—as sticky cream glued his eyelashes together—and unhurriedly turned around.

Leaving the chaos behind, she elegantly sent the remaining cake from her fork into her mouth. Then she threw the empty fork to the floor—as if throwing away trash.

Clatter.

It was the period at the end of this horrific farce.

No matter how brazen he was, he couldn’t stay there, covered head to toe in cake.

The uninvited guest left, and the reception resumed—but the atmosphere could never be the same. Eve was grateful that no one else asked how she’d fallen in love with the groom—but the question of whether this was truly bigamy left her bewildered.

“What bigamy, when that marriage wasn’t even recognized here?”

The marriage certificate had long since disappeared. And although Eve had publicly acknowledged the marriage, there shouldn’t be any legal issues because of it.

“Why did he need to reveal this now…”

“Maybe he still loves you—and seeing you marry, he was blinded by jealousy?”

Eve couldn’t help but snort at Emily’s words, as they walked together in the garden near the banquet hall.

“More likely he wanted to clear himself of the false accusation of kidnapping me.”

Now no one would believe that Ethan had kidnapped Eve.

“He must feel relieved now. To justify himself, he made me out to be the criminal. But what the hell did I do wrong? I understand his thirst for revenge against the Sherwoods—but shouldn’t revenge have ended since he personally killed those who drove Mr. Robinson to his death and threw him in prison?”

“Why did he need to trample me? I already trampled my own honor long ago—trying to save that man. Did he forget that? Or is he pretending not to know…”

But if Ethan Fairchild were a man capable of understanding the meaning of that sacrifice—when she’d renounced not only her family but her own honor—he wouldn’t have fled in the first place, cowardly abandoning Eve in this hell. Eve stopped and stared blankly out the window.

“In that man’s eyes, I’m no longer the woman he loved. I’m just his enemy’s daughter.”

Through the window, she could see Ethan clinking glasses with Dr. Callas. He had returned late at night, when there were fewer people in the hall. That was why she’d left, under the pretext of getting fresh air with Emily.

But Eve didn’t seem to be his target—and he didn’t follow her. What she didn’t understand was why he’d latched onto Dr. Callas and started drinking with him endlessly.

She didn’t understand Dr. Callas either.

“How can he clink glasses with the man who clearly killed his father?”

Robert Callas had gone to the capital, Richmond, supposedly to meet a business partner—and vanished without a trace. Ten days later, he reappeared on a vacant lot by the Connaught River—with an iron stake driven through his mouth.

The police suspected Callas had been killed in a gang conflict during business dealings—but couldn’t determine which gang. His son believed it was Ethan’s revenge.

Ethan’s appearance alarmed both Chantal and Dr. Callas—but the doctor was the most worried.

“But I wasn’t involved in Mr. Robinson’s death…”

He muttered this with the look of a man being unfairly accused. He was terrified that Ethan had come to kill him too.

“Is he so afraid of him that he can neither refuse nor leave?”

Emily’s words made sense. The doctor was the type who could very well be such a coward. Eve, watching him down glasses of hard liquor he clearly couldn’t handle, then grimacing in disgust, noticed something strange.

“But it seems he’s putting up a fight? Does he think he’ll avenge his father’s killer by outdrinking him? How ridiculous.”

“If he backs down here too, he might as well forget being considered a man.”

Before Eve had fled to the garden, Ethan had been relentlessly provoking Dr. Callas. It could best be described as a hierarchy showdown—a direct test of his manhood.

“Doctor, I heard all your friends are serving the country as military doctors—so why are you still stuck in the duke’s estate?”