So much so that when we died miserably in my past life, he didn't shed a single tear.
If anything, he was relieved he wouldn't have to write up divorce papers after all.
This time, no matter what it took, I would change my daughter's fate and my own.
Hildegarde and I knelt at the gates of the ducal estate. The servants couldn't bear the sight of us and reported our arrival five or six times. Two hours later, my father finally came out.
"Reduced to this sorry state, and NOW you remember you have a father?"
He held a riding crop in his hand and raised it as if to strike me. I didn't flinch, didn't move to dodge. Instead, I stepped closer.
"Your daughter knows she was wrong. Beat me, kill me, do whatever you see fit."
"I regret not listening to you back then. I put my trust in the wrong man."
Tears streamed down my father's weathered face. He didn't strike me. He threw the crop to the ground and pulled me to my feet with trembling hands.
"You were so heartless back then. You threw away your own father and your home for a man. But since you know you were wrong, cut those ties clean and come home where you belong!"
"As long as you sever that cursed bond completely, you are still the Duchess of Ashford, and this estate is still yours."
He told me to change out of my rags, but I shook my head.
His expression shifted. "Don't tell me you still intend to have dealings with that man?"
I smiled faintly. "He wronged me this deeply. You think I can just turn the page? I need to make him pay first."
That same day, I took Hildegarde to the Eastholm Marquess Manor and sent word inside.
"Tell Finn Acevedo his wife has come home."
The guards at the gate took one look at my tattered clothes, wrinkled their noses, and grabbed their sticks to shove us away.
"Where'd you beggars crawl out from? This is the Eastholm Marquess Manor!"
"The lady of the house is hosting a banquet for the most powerful nobles in the capital. If you disturb her guests, you and your little brat won't have enough lives to pay for it!"
"Go on, get! Get out of here!"
I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Finn Acevedo married me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a daughter! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his lady. But now that he's the Marquess, he left me and my child in the countryside eating weeds! Is that something a human being does?!"
The manor sat on a busy street. The commotion drew neighbors from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the Marquess is famously devoted to his wife. He's got two children with her and won't even take a concubine. So where did THIS wife come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Eastholm Marquess Manor is high society. She claims to be his wife, but she looks like a beggar off the road. Bet she's just some grifter trying to latch onto a noble house."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a marriage certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Finn Acevedo's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his wife, I'll take this certificate straight to the courthouse and beat the drum for justice."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate guard. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Marquess and the lady of the house."
I saw every bit of it.
Sure enough, before a quarter hour had passed, Finn Acevedo came striding out of the manor, and right behind him, draped in gold and silver, was Edith Henson.
The steward pointed at me. "My lord, this woman claims to be your wife. If she's a fraud, I'll have her thrown out at once."
Finn looked down at me from the top of the steps. "Lift your head."
I tilted my chin up slowly, the ghost of a smile on my lips.
The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.
