My Husband Caught Me Having an Affair - Chapter 133

Camille was undoubtedly aware of that as well. If it were her, she would find a way to overcome the situation. Ethan believed that.

But of course, believing and the anxiety in his heart were two different things.

Rather than anxiety, it was more accurate to call it fear. A fierce terror gripped him every time the thought crossed his mind—that he might lose her due to his poor judgment… or that perhaps he had already lost her.

Ethan clenched his fists tight enough to crush them.

He would never allow that to happen. Never.

***

I was still confined in that room.

A maid came in periodically to serve meals and tend to me, but she never answered any of my questions.

Because the windows were completely boarded up with planks, I couldn’t even tell if it was day or night.

‘Where could this be?’

It was only a guess, but it likely wasn’t inside Duke Girard’s mansion. If my location were to be exposed even by the slightest chance, there would be no way to deny it.

Considering Marlon’s tendencies, it was more natural to assume he had left himself a minimal escape route.

‘That aside… how did he manage to find me before Jacques did?’

By my calculations, we should have exited Mount Shira before Marlon could react.

Given the distance between Mount Shira and the Girard estate, and the current situation where a mole was suspected within Girard’s intelligence unit, I had expected that no matter how swiftly Marlon responded, it would be too late.

The ones who kidnapped Ines appeared to be external agents, not from the Girard intelligence division. From Marlon’s perspective, not knowing who the spy was, he couldn’t trust his intel unit—so it made sense he would turn to outsiders. That had been within my expectations.

‘From Marlon’s point of view, the message I sent and my exact intentions were all unclear. He couldn’t trust the intelligence division, so he couldn’t send an agent. But knowing his character, it would’ve been hard for him to choose to go personally.’

Even if he had decided to go himself, it should have taken some time to come to that conclusion. No matter how I looked at it, the timing had been far too fast.

‘Did I underestimate Marlon’s decisiveness? Or was his sense of crisis greater than I’d imagined?’

Of course, I hadn’t ruled out the possibility that something might go wrong.

From the beginning, I had Mael as a backup. For Marlon to match the timing, he would have to forgo gathering his knights and instead send only a minimal number of men on fast horses to Mount Shira. And that level of force, Mael alone would have been able to handle.

‘But I never imagined Mael would disobey my orders like that. And who could’ve predicted that thunder and lightning would strike at that exact moment?’

Because of the storm, Jacques’s carriage must have significantly slowed as well. Meaning if Mael had obeyed or if there had been no thunderstorm—just one of the two—this situation might never have happened.

‘Even if I concede that not predicting Mael’s actions was my fault, the thunderstorm? Come on. Who could’ve predicted that?’

Honestly, it felt terribly unfair. Even in a desperate situation, I had thought I’d planned the best possible move—only to be forsaken by the heavens in this way.

But of course, lamenting alone was meaningless. What mattered now was what I would do from here.

Fortunately, as time passed, my condition was slowly improving. With just one more night’s rest, I felt I might be able to walk on my own somehow.

‘The problem is, even being able to walk is nowhere near enough to escape this place. Honestly, even in perfect condition, I wouldn’t have a solid plan… Ugh, what should I do?’

Just as I was racking my brain to come up with a solution, I heard the sound of the door opening.

Thinking it would be the maid again, I glanced over—but the person who appeared was someone entirely different.

It was Marlon Girard.

I instinctively lifted my body from the bed. Marlon raised one hand to stop me.

“It’s alright. Please stay lying down. You must still be in pain.”

His demeanor was utterly calm—almost polite, even. A stranger would never guess he was the one who had kidnapped and imprisoned me.

“You’ve got some nerve showing up in front of me.”

At my reproach, Marlon gazed at me leisurely, leaning on his cane.

“Why? Was it unexpected?”

“Not at all,” I replied flatly.

Whether it happened sooner or later, I had expected Marlon to show up in person.

He hadn’t yet identified the spy. There was no way he would believe the name I had provided without question, so I figured he’d want to conduct the interrogation himself.

“Still, I thought you’d at least observe some courtesy. Barging into a lady’s room alone like this is rather poor manners.”

“Touché. I’ll apologize for the rudeness. But as you can surely understand, this isn’t the time for us to be leisurely observing decorum. For either of us.”

“……”

I silently glared at Marlon. He took a seat in a chair a bit away from the bed.

“I must admit, you fooled me completely. Even now, it’s hard to believe. How did you manage to act so convincingly clueless?”

“Clueless? That’s a bit harsh.”

“Only if that’s your true nature. But in reality, isn’t it quite the opposite?”

“Who’s to say.” I shrugged. “So you’ve dropped the act for good.”

“There’s no point in pretending anymore.” Marlon smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Indeed. Thanks to that, I’m now certain. You were the one behind everything. You’ve saved me a lot of time.”

“That’s not quite accurate. Even if I’d kept up the act and feigned ignorance, you wouldn’t have believed me. The only difference would’ve been your assessment of me—something like, ‘Turns out she’s not as clever as I thought.'”

At that, Marlon let out a quiet laugh. “Fair point. You’re more impressive than I expected… which means you probably already know why I’ve come today.”

“To some extent. But there’s nothing I can really tell you.”

Marlon narrowed his eyes slightly. “If you plan to stay silent, I must warn you—that wouldn’t be wise. I believe you’ve already realized that I’m not as gentlemanly as you might hope.”

His tone was soft, almost gentle, but the implications were chilling.

“That’s not what I meant. I simply have nothing to tell you.”

“Are you seriously going to claim that Gaspard is the spy?”

I shook my head. “No, I only gave that name to buy time. I heard from Mathieu Anglade that such a person existed, but I don’t know anything more.”

“Then who is the real spy?”

“I don’t know.”

Marlon’s gaze turned sharp. “That’s different from what Jacques Alide claimed.”

“Jacques only used my name to get through that situation.”

Marlon gave a short, derisive laugh. “Are you saying the ‘Hound of Dumont’ sold out his master’s wife?”

“According to Jacques, if he hadn’t made such a bold move, he wouldn’t have been able to shake you. A vague claim wouldn’t have guaranteed his wife’s life, nor his own safe return.”

That was almost certainly true. Marlon’s original plan had probably been to extract information from Jacques, then eliminate him to erase any evidence.

“If he’d said Ethan was the one who knew the spy’s name, you wouldn’t have accepted a request for more time. Likewise, even if Jacques had named the spy himself, the outcome would’ve been the same. That option was his best shot—and it worked.”

Marlon stared at me in silence for a moment.