My Husband Caught Me Having an Affair - Chapter 119

“…What do you mean, a lie?” Jacques asked back, hiding his inner turmoil.

“The gambling den Vincent was first introduced to after his big loss wasn’t Noir Perle. It was one of those illegal back-alley dens. After going there, he was transferred to Noir Perle through a very secretive and tightly controlled process. In other words, the claim that there were eyewitnesses who saw Vincent frequenting Noir Perle is a lie.”

“……”

It was true. Jacques had learned the name Noir Perle through Camille’s intel.

It seemed Girard had thoroughly silenced the people who played cards with Vincent that day. Since then, none of them had ever mentioned what happened.

Interviewing those card game members directly was too risky—it might alert Girard. That’s why they had opted to recruit one of the pub’s regulars instead.

From him, they had learned about a man named Frank and several months’ worth of information, but when it came to the most crucial day, all he said was, ‘For some reason, Vincent seemed to lose quite badly that day.’

They hadn’t been able to find out the name of the back-alley gambling den Julien just mentioned, let alone confirm Noir Perle.

‘He’s speaking with such confidence—it’s possible he’s already found our source.’

If that were the case, he likely knew exactly what had been asked and what had been revealed. Given Girard’s ruthless methods, they must have forced the truth out of the man one way or another.

In other words, they couldn’t claim the pub as the source of information about Noir Perle.

Jacques hadn’t underestimated Girard. He had just assumed that Girard’s intelligence unit wouldn’t be functioning properly at the moment.

Marlon Girard would be convinced there was a mole inside the intelligence unit, so he would likely focus on rooting them out for a while. Camille and Ethan had agreed with that assessment.

But to think he would move this quickly—and take such a bold step, with thorough groundwork in place.

Maybe it was because his judgment had been clouded by worry for Ines. Whether that was true or not, what mattered now was that regret was meaningless.

What was important was how to deal with the situation now.

‘…If it was one of those common back-alley gambling dens, then it wasn’t a membership club like Noir Perle. So if I say someone saw Vincent there…’

Jacques immediately dismissed the thought.

‘No, that won’t work either. If they ask for the name of the place, I’ll be caught in a lie instantly.’

Cold sweat trickled down his back.

“I can hear the gears grinding in your head from here.”

Julien’s voice was laced with mockery. Jacques opened his mouth with a stiff expression.

“…Fine, I admit it. That was a lie. I heard the name Noir Perle from Vincent.”

“Don’t make me laugh. So you’re saying you knew nothing until Vincent told you? That you beat the truth out of him based on nothing but a hunch? Isn’t that completely against the Dumont method you were just boasting about?”

“……”

Julien twisted one corner of his mouth in a smirk. “And there’s no way Vincent would’ve confessed that easily. From his perspective, it was a matter of life and death. There must’ve been solid evidence or at least a complete grasp of the situation for him to give in.”

“…Vincent had been under extreme stress for months. The gambling debt alone was crushing, and then he received an order to assassinate someone using it as leverage. He must’ve been feeling a lot of guilt as a knight. So…”

“So you’re saying he confessed that to you of his own free will? From Dumont’s side, the only reason to suspect Vincent was because he suggested using real blades. And it was Dumont who brought up the idea of sparring in the first place, wasn’t it? You’re saying you seriously suspected him based on just that and actually got a full confession out of it?”

“…His Grace is a cautious and suspicious man by nature.”

Jacques replied with a composed demeanor, but he couldn’t completely hide the slight crack in his voice.

Julien let out a scoff. “Come on now, Alide. We’re not amateurs. You and I both know the truth. There was a rat inside Girard’s ranks. That rat told you Anglade was working on Vincent, and you used that intel to set a trap tempting enough to draw Anglade out. Isn’t that right?”

“……”

Julien placed the edge of his dagger on Jacques’s shoulder.

“Now then, the most important question: what’s the name of that rat?”

“……”

Jacques looked straight at Julien without a word.

“What, didn’t quite catch that? I’ll ask again. This time, listen carefully and answer properly. Do you want to save Ines?”

“……”

Julien’s eyes narrowed. He shrugged as if there was nothing he could do.

“That’s an unexpected answer. Well, if that’s what you say, then what can I do? It’s just unfortunate that Ines ended up in this mess because she married the wrong man.”

With those words, Julien stood up.

“I don’t know.”

At Jacques’s muttered response, Julien turned his gaze back toward him.

“I said I don’t know. It’s the truth.”

“Yeah, I heard you loud and clear. So, you’re saying you don’t care if Ines dies.”

“No. I really don’t know. The information about Vincent was passed to me, too. I wasn’t told the name of the informant.”

“Then who gave you that information?”

“……”

His clenched fists tightened again.

He’d spent over fifteen years in this world. That’s why he knew.

Someone with eyes like Julien’s could kill anyone—woman or child—without batting an eye. If he stayed silent or told a lie, Julien would kill Ines immediately.

Of course, there was no guarantee that confessing honestly would save her either. Julien had shown no intention of hiding his affiliation with Girard from the start. That meant he was almost certainly planning to extract what he could, then kill Jacques right there.

That was Girard’s way. Jacques knew it all too well.

There was only one way to save Ines—or at least, to keep her alive for now.

He had to give Julien a reason to keep him alive.

“Give me just one day. I’ll find out the informant’s name and come back here at the same time tomorrow.”

Julien smirked again at Jacques’s words. He brought his dagger to Jacques’s face. The sharp blade hovered just in front of Jacques’s eyes.

“Here we go again. We both know how this works—why keep dragging it out?”

“I promise. I won’t run. You know what Ines means to me. If I were planning to abandon her, I wouldn’t have come here today.”

“……”

Julien looked down at Jacques for a moment, then suddenly let out a sigh. He scratched his head with the hilt of his dagger.

“This is a problem. This wasn’t part of the orders I received.”

“Then send a message and check. I’ll wait here until you get a reply.”

At Jacques’s suggestion, Julien turned his chair around and sat with the backrest in front of him. He crossed his arms on top of it and rested his chin there.

“Easy for you to say. But I have my pride, too. If I’m going to bring this up at all, I need to have at least one useful piece of information to show. You get what I’m saying, right?”

“……”

“So, tell me. Who was it that first gave that information to Dumont?”

His tone seemed light, but the look in Julien’s eyes as he stared at Jacques was razor sharp.

Jacques understood instinctively. If he lied again and got caught, both he and Ines were as good as dead.

At that moment, Camille’s words came back to him.

“For now, comply with whatever demands they make. The most important thing is Ines’s safety. Got it?”

Could it be that the Duchess had even predicted a situation like this when she said those words?

It seemed unlikely—but then again, it was the Duchess. Maybe she had.

But in the end, it didn’t matter. If he wanted to save Ines, this was the only way.

He had to trust that Camille would handle the rest somehow.

Blood dripped from Jacques’s mouth. He had bitten the inside of his cheek without realizing it.

“…It’s the Duchess.”

“Hm? What was that?”

“The first one who obtained the intel was the Duchess of Dumont. She’s the one connected to the informant inside Girard. She’s the only one who knows their identity.”

Julien lifted his head and stared at Jacques.

“Bullshit.”

“It’s the truth.”

“That Duchess of Dumont? How and why would she…?”

“Like I said, I don’t know. But I’ll find out by tomorrow.”

“……”

Since meeting with Jacques that morning, Julien had been more confused than ever.

He never imagined the name of the Duchess of Dumont would come up here.

It was too random to be a lie. If Jacques were trying to bluff, he would have said someone more plausible—like Mael Cantona or even Ethan Dumont.

As far as Julien knew, the Duchess was the person most distant from anything like this in House Dumont.

He couldn’t figure out what the right call was.

‘Well, whatever.’

After all, it wasn’t his decision to make. Julien rose from his seat and stepped out of the stable. At the snap of his fingers, a subordinate hidden behind another building appeared.

“Go to Duke Girard’s estate. Tell him…”