I No Longer Have Love to Offer You - Chapter 8

After leaving the drawing room, Mirabelle stopped by what had once been her own room and picked up a single small trunk. She had already packed her belongings when she filed the divorce papers.

The only reason she had stayed this long was because Ricardo had insisted she meets Marietta. As far as Mirabelle was concerned, she wanted to leave the Hylas estate as soon as possible.

Even after realizing that her marriage to Ricardo had no real substance as husband and wife, the household staff had still served her faithfully as their lady. Though Ricardo was somewhat oblivious to the subtleties of human emotion, the competence of the butler had ensured no major issues arose. A stroke of luck for Mirabelle as well.

With the resolve never to return, Mirabelle stepped out of the Hylas estate. There, waiting in the entrance before her, was a carriage drawn by two magnificent chestnut horses.

“Lady Mirabel, thank you for supporting our master all this time.”

The butler stood beside the carriage, and next to him, the coachman also bowed respectfully.

She was no longer the lady of the Hylas household, so the address had shifted from “Madam” to “Lady Mirabelle.” Yet even in that formality, there was unmistakable warmth.

Hearing those words, Mirabelle felt a momentary tightness in her chest proof that the five years she had struggled through had not been in vain.

“The gratitude is mine. Without all of you, I wouldn’t have made it this far.”

That was the truth.

Even after Ricardo had forced a marriage of convenience upon her, shattering her dreams of being a happy bride, it was the staff led by the butler who had lifted her from despair.

Though she never wanted to see Ricardo again, the thought of never seeing the servants again brought a faint pang of loneliness.

“We pray for your future happiness, Lady Mirabelle.”

It was the butler’s best farewell.

“I’ll be going now. Please, all of you, take care.”

Swallowing down a flood of emotions, that was all she said.

Ricardo would never have been thoughtful enough to arrange a carriage this had to be the butler’s doing. Mirabelle had planned to walk to the nearest public coach stop, but a noblewoman carrying a trunk alone would have drawn too much attention.

“Take me to the public coach stop in town, please.”

“Ah, but we were ordered to escort you to the Lumière residence.”

“Before returning home, I’d like to visit some shops in the capital. After that, I’ll call for a Lumière carriage, so it’s fine.”

Mirabelle answered the coachman’s hesitant words.

Though the Lumière and Hylas territories were adjacent close enough to travel between in a day she wouldn’t be coming back so casually from now on. Perhaps satisfied with that, the coachman said nothing more and set the carriage in motion.

Both Ricardo and the Hylas staff assumed that Mirabelle, now divorced, would return to the Lumière household. That was why no one had bothered to confirm her destination.

But considering she had left home years ago for marriage, and that the current head of the family was not her parent but her uncle, shouldn’t they have realized she couldn’t simply go back?

Of course, her uncle wouldn’t turn her away if she returned. But eventually, she would have to decide what to do with her life.

A divorced noblewoman often found herself in a more precarious position than a commoner. Even if she returned home, her options would be limited; remarriage as someone’s second wife, or, if no suitable match could be found, being sent to a convent. Few could continue living as they had in their unmarried days. That privilege was reserved for the highest-ranking noblewomen with exceptionally close family ties and even then, they were usually sent away once their brothers inherited the household.

(Ricardo must have had so little interest in me that he didn’t even consider that.)

Gazing at the scenery passing by the carriage window, Mirabelle thought bitterly.

This road from the Hylas estate to the city was one she had traveled many times with Ricardo. But now, she surrendered herself to the rocking of the carriage, resolved to leave the past behind.

(I’ll leave all my feelings here.)

She had been trapped in her longing for Ricardo for so long, but with every moment the carriage carried her farther from the Hylas estate, her heart grew lighter.

From now on, she would live only for herself.