I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 130

He gently interlaced their fingers and had her sit beside him.

“You weren’t too startled or anything… no, wait, how did you even get out?”

“I wasn’t startled, and the baby is fine. Even amidst the chaos, I tried my best to stay calm for the baby. And…”

Judith began peeling off his fingers one by one from their clasped hands as she added coolly, “It’s true that everyone in the Grand Duke’s manor is under your command, but don’t forget that I was the one who settled here first.”

Each time she pried off a finger, Ekian let out a pained groan. Still, he didn’t resist, as if he knew he couldn’t force her.

“I mean, I have allies here too.”

Then Judith slowly rose and sat in the chair opposite him. Ekian let out a faint sigh and looked at her.

He murmured in a hoarse voice, “You need to know how much you make me anxious. We were just a little apart, yet it felt like my heart had fallen away.”

“Is that so?”

Meeting his slightly gloomy gaze, Judith sat up straight and smiled faintly.

“You came all the way here from the capital, didn’t you?”

Ekian apologized immediately.

“That—I truly regret. Sincerely.”

Then muttered to himself, “Can’t win, can’t win…”

Judith took a deep breath and got straight to the point.

“Why did you leave the capital without saying a word to me, just leaving a letter behind? Was it really that urgent?”

“……”

“Was it something to do with my mother? Is that why you didn’t tell me anything until the end?”

“I don’t know how to answer that. I’m a bit more cowardly than you.”

Ekian tapped the table lightly with his fingers as he looked into her eyes.

Before she knew it, the gaze full of relentless desire seemed like it would pierce through her.

“Part of me wanted to tie you to me with a debt you couldn’t repay. And part of me hated the thought of you getting hurt.”

“……”

“But sitting here with you like this, I feel like I really can’t let you go. I even considered making you feel guilty, just to trap you by my side. What should I do?”

“What do you mean, what should you do? Don’t create a mood and calculate in your head—just tell the truth.”

Judith fired back immediately.

“That’s exactly what you haven’t done all this time, and that’s how things got to this point.”

Ekian couldn’t find words. He simply let out a faint sigh.

With her arms crossed, Judith continued, “Didn’t you see how I walked past my mother earlier without a word? Say whatever you want. I really, truly don’t expect anything anymore. I’m not going to be shocked either.”

“……”

“I’ve honestly overcome it. I hadn’t, until now—but now, I truly have.”

Ekian stared at her for a long moment. Then he spoke slowly, “Elizabeth Dale tried to kill you and frame the House of Mayus. The truth is, I rushed out the moment I learned that because I wanted to arrive before the Emperor’s men did…”

Throughout his explanation, Ekian kept glancing at Judith’s expression, but her face remained completely calm. She looked perfectly fine.

“I only half-succeeded, so in the end, Ron Dale reached you. If I’d moved faster, I could have stopped that too.”

“Ah.”

“Still, I wanted to prevent your birth mother from ever getting close to you.”

Judith stared at him, then asked quietly, “Why?”

At that question, Ekian went silent as if choosing his words.

It shouldn’t have been difficult to answer, yet he paused for quite some time.

Judith waited patiently. Only after a long moment did he finally speak.

“Judith, do you know this? I’ve always waited for the perfect timing. I wanted to confess with everything in place, at the perfect moment. But because of that desire… maybe, just as you said, I made things worse.”

She had expected something like, ‘Your birth mother is cruel,’ or ‘I was afraid it would hurt you too deeply,’ or even ‘Because I know you well.’

So Judith was a little surprised.

“I acknowledge it, I regret it, and though it’s not easy, I will say it now.”

Ekian looked at Judith, whose eyes had widened slightly, and confessed in a serious tone.

“It was because I loved you.”

It was the first time he had ever said those words aloud.

“That is the only reason.”

No doubt, it had taken great courage for Ekian.

He had never even thought of revealing his identity until he could offer her the grand palace and territory.

Yet here he was, in a shabby makeshift building, unable to endure the fear that she might leave, confessing his heart with not even a jewel to his name.

“To be honest, I think there’s a chance you might leave me. I know you’re someone who could do that.”

Even though she had already known all of this, Judith’s heart pounded violently.

More than when she had unexpectedly come face-to-face with Elizabeth.

“At the same time, I know that if I forced you into the role of Grand Duchess just because you’re carrying my child, you’re the kind of person who would accept it. And you’d do your best to live up to that role—just like when you were the wife of the Young Duke of Mayus.”

Ekian’s voice trembled slightly.

“But… still, I hope you won’t do that. I want you to stay by my side out of your own will. I’ll do whatever I can to make up for the past.”

As if he couldn’t bear it any longer, he confessed again.

“Because I love you so much. Really, so much.”

He could have given countless reasons, yet what came from his lips was simply ‘love.’

It was a confession Judith had never imagined. Even though she had known, even guessed, it still caught her off guard.

“You know something, Judith?”

Ekian smiled gently.

“Thanks to you, I’ve overcome something, too.”

“What?”

“Confessing with nothing to offer—it’s the hardest thing in the world for me. I always thought, at the very least, when I confessed to you, I needed to be greater than Ekian Mayus.”

Judith nodded. “Well. Ekian Mayus was handsome, and he had great manners. I lived with him for a bit, so I know. His body wasn’t bad either. Just seeing him casually from the side looked like a sculpture.”

“I knew it. But that wasn’t natural, you know. Back then, I was trying every day to keep you by Ekian Mayus’s side.”

Then he cursed under his breath.

“Damn…”

“What is it, all of a sudden?”

“I look terrible right now… and I’m confessing like this.”

“What?”

“Compared to the put-together Ekian Mayus, I look awful. I haven’t slept, I haven’t taken care of myself, and I’ve been roughing it outdoors… Every time I look in the mirror, it’s like some demon’s staring back.”

Ekian sighed deeply and rubbed his face dry.

“To say I love you looking like this, asking you to accept me… sigh.”

His slightly trembling voice made it clear—he truly felt more humiliated than ever before.

“To ask the woman who once claimed Ekian Mayus was her first love to stay by my side, looking like this…”

“Ah.”

She scratched her cheek and answered nonchalantly.

“That was a lie.”

Now Ekian’s eyes widened.

“What?”

“It was just something I said before going to the Mayus estate.”

Judith spoke with a bashful smile.

“The truth is…”

After that, she told Ekian everything.

That she had suddenly come to know the future one day, that’s why she had entered the House of Mayus, and that in the end, it had all been the arrangement of the Last Priestess.

She told him even of the Last Priestess’s request: to make her son happy.

“So, the truth is, I was never interested in Ekian Mayus. Not even once.”

Judith spoke firmly to clear up all the misunderstandings.

Perhaps everything had started from that very lie.

Because Ekian, too, had been so conscious of that fabricated identity… Well, in a way, she had been entangled with several versions of the same man.