The Returning Husband Refuses to Divorce Chapter 3

The moment Ines first heard the rumor, her heart sank.

Not because of her husband, but because of the Saintess, Elise.

Elise again.

Ines and her younger sister had often clashed since childhood.

Strangely enough, they always seemed to want the same things.

Ines hated fighting with her sister, and she hated getting caught and scolded by their parents even more, so she would obediently give up what was hers to her younger sister.

She had never dreamed that she would one day have to give up her husband, too…

〈It means you won’t be able to keep acting so high and mighty for much longer.〉

Selena sneered as she prodded Ines’s shoulder with her index finger.

Even in the face of such an insulting remark, Ines couldn’t bring herself to respond.

It wasn’t because she was holding back out of respect for her mother-in-law. This, too, was because of Elise.

Whenever Ines thought of her younger sister, she always felt small.

But…

‘No. This is actually an opportunity.’

If Ines had been an ordinary woman in love with her husband, she would have been devastated by the thought of her younger sister stealing him away. She would have fretted endlessly, trying to win back her husband’s heart.

But Ines had absolutely no desire for her husband.

On the contrary, she wanted to finalize the divorce as soon as possible, regain her freedom, and leave this wretched mansion behind.

‘It would be much more advantageous if my husband had another woman.’

After all, for the sake of that other woman, he would be more than willing to let her go.

If she was lucky, she might even be able to get a little alimony out of him.

‘I don’t have to worry about anything anymore.’

It didn’t matter that her husband’s new woman was her own biological sister, or that this sister was the very person who had clashed with her over practically everything since childhood.

As long as Zecard Evanhardt, her husband on paper, agreed to the divorce, everything would proceed smoothly.

‘My husband…’

The word sounded strangely unfamiliar, and Ines repeated it in her mind.

She called him her husband, but in truth, she had barely seen him a handful of times.

That was only natural, considering their marriage had come about unexpectedly through a combination of coincidence and misfortune.

Moreover, immediately after their wedding five years ago, Zecard had left for the battlefield and had never returned since.

What did he look like again?

Ines tried to recall the face of the husband she would see for the first time in five years.

Black hair and blue eyes.

Delicate, beautiful features contrasted by a masculine jawline.

The last time she had seen him, Zecard Evanhardt had been only nineteen. He was astonishingly handsome, but he still had a youthful air about him, as though he hadn’t quite outgrown his boyishness.

Has he changed much since then?

He was twenty-four now, so surely he looked quite different from back then.

It was difficult to imagine, though.

‘I hope I can at least recognize him.’

Even if she was only his wife in name, she was still his lawful wife. If she couldn’t even recognize her own husband’s face, she would have no grounds to complain about being called a wicked wife.

Of course, what did any of that matter now?

Ines gave a bitter smile and pulled herself out of her thoughts.

‘Enough. I should stop thinking about him.’

He would soon become a complete stranger to her anyway.

It would be far more productive to think about her own future instead.

‘Getting a divorce isn’t the end of it. I’ll need money to support myself once I leave.’

Having cleared her mind, Ines began thinking about her plans for the future.

Her thoughts of her husband had already faded away completely.

“Hey, you there! Can’t you move any faster?”

The banquet hall, which hadn’t been lit up in quite some time, was now bustling with activity as people hurried about.

“Don’t dawdle! Do you think we have all the time in the world?”

The person directing all the preparations was none other than Ines’s mother-in-law, Selena, the former Duchess of Evanhardt.

There was only one reason the servants were rushing around like this.

They were preparing a banquet to welcome the return of the head of the household, Duke Zecard Evanhardt.

Under normal circumstances, this responsibility should have fallen to Ines, the current duke’s wife. However, she had no authority whatsoever in the household.

‘My husband had to leave for the battlefield in such a hurry right after we got married.’

Of course, even if he had had the time, there was no telling whether he would have entrusted any authority to Ines, his fake wife.

In any case, although the treatment was humiliating, Ines didn’t particularly care.

She had never coveted any significant authority in the first place, and after five years, she had grown accustomed to this sort of thing.

“You there!”

Just then, Selena suddenly glared fiercely at Ines and shouted.

“What are you standing around watching for?”

All the servants immediately fell silent.

In the stillness, so complete that not even a breath could be heard, Selena approached Ines.

Click, click, click.

The sound of her heels echoed loudly through the hall.

“…I was standing by, waiting for instructions.”

When Selena finally stopped in front of her, Ines calmly lowered her head and answered.

Selena was the former duke’s second wife and Zecard’s stepmother.

For a number of complicated reasons, she had despised Ines from the moment she first arrived.

Zecard had originally been engaged to another woman. She was a match Selena herself had chosen, someone who met all her expectations.

But one day, he had abruptly broken off the engagement and brought Ines from the capital to marry her instead.

‘If I hadn’t been here, she could have run this castle however she pleased. My very existence must have been a bolt from the blue for the former duchess.’

Perhaps that was why Selena had been hostile toward Ines from the very first moment they met.

And that wasn’t all. As though she wanted to drive Ines out altogether, Selena had spread malicious rumors about her throughout Evanhardt Castle and even across the entire domain.

Ines knew little about this place and, as a contractual wife, couldn’t act freely. She had no choice but to endure it all helplessly.

“How pathetic. Everyone here is working as hard as they can to welcome your husband home, yet you’re doing nothing but standing by? How can you say something like that so brazenly? You really have no shame.”

Ines knew Selena was simply picking a fight, but she saw no reason to respond.

After all, she had no authority as the Duchess. Even if she stayed here, she couldn’t give orders to the servants or voice her opinions.

‘If I’d actually done something, she would have gotten angry about that, too.’

For the past five years, Selena had found all sorts of ways to criticize Ines.

From the clothes she wore on any given day to major household events like this one…

It was clear that Selena wanted to wear Ines down completely for ruining her plans.

Of course, no matter what, Ines was still legally married to the duke.

Even so, there was a reason Selena dared to treat her this way.

‘She’s realized that he and I aren’t close.’

Their marriage had been arranged abruptly to secure his succession to the ducal title, so it was easy enough to guess that Ines and her husband weren’t particularly close.

The real problem came afterward.

Throughout the past five years, the duke had never once sent Ines a letter.

Ines had never expected to receive a personal letter from him, either. However, his complete disregard for her existence could easily be interpreted as a sign that the duke didn’t respect his own wife.

As a result, an atmosphere of contempt toward Ines had gradually taken root within the House of Evanhardt.

“I’ve always known you weren’t much of a thinker. And I know that, being such a noble lady, you don’t like doing this sort of work. But how can you say it so openly? Do you think everyone here is a joke?”

Selena was about to launch into another round of her usual verbal abuse.

Just then—

“W-We have a problem!”

A servant suddenly burst into the banquet hall and shouted.

At the unexpected outburst, everyone’s attention turned toward him.

“What could possibly be happening for you to make such a commotion?”

The butler, who had been assisting Selena with the banquet preparations, stepped forward and demanded an explanation.

His stern expression suggested that he intended to punish the servant for daring to cause a disturbance here.

But at the servant’s next words, even the butler couldn’t help raising his voice.

“His Grace, the Duke, has arrived!”

“What?”

For a moment, everyone in the banquet hall held their breath.