Chapter 1: Mom, Divorce Dad
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 1: Mom, Divorce Dad
“Finally...!”
I let out a cry of pure emotion.
At last, all the preparations were complete.
Having just finished signing the contract, I gave a deep bow to the real estate agent.
“Thank you so much!”
“Of course, young lady. I hope the move goes well.”
“It will!”
I gave a spirited reply and lifted my head. I couldn't see myself, but I was certain my eyes were sparkling.
As the agent saw me out, I stepped out of the office, my heart already racing with excitement.
It had taken much longer than expected.
Through blood, sweat, and tears, I had managed to get into a prestigious university. I’d spent a whirlwind of a time juggling job-hunting clubs that didn't suit my personality and a mountain of assignments.
On top of that, I’d worked part-time jobs whenever I could to save money. To be honest, balancing my studies and work was so grueling that I’d nearly collapsed from exhaustion several times.
But now, all that hardship was finally paying off.
After successfully landing a job at a major corporation, I had intentionally applied for a position at a branch located far out in the provinces.
It was all to escape that suffocating house.
As soon as I got the job, I used the money I’d been meticulously saving to lease a place. Normally, the company provided dorms for regional employees, but those were a bit too cramped for two people to live in.
I was going to live in this house with just my mom. My dream was finally coming true.
‘Mom, divorce Dad.’
‘...How could I do that?’
‘Then are you just going to keep living with him while watching him act like that?’
‘...’
The man who was my biological father was trash.
Truly, there was no other word to define him but "trash."
He had married my beautiful mother only to cheat on her as easily as breathing. When he turned into a beast after drinking, he even went as far as to hit her.
The only reason he never laid a hand on me was because my mother had desperately shielded me.
I couldn't do anything.
What could a powerless child possibly do?
I could only curl up in a dark room and tremble, listening to the sounds of my mother’s suffering.
As I grew older, my hatred for that man grew along with me.
When one of his countless mistresses finally had the audacity to show up at our house and cause a scene, I couldn't take it anymore.
I was a high school student at the time. Standing in the middle of our trashed living room, I told my mother.
I told her to divorce him.
I told her the two of us should leave and live on our own.
But my mother just shook her head.
She never gave me a reason, but I knew it was because of me.
Even though my father was a moral failure and a piece of trash, his family was incredibly wealthy, bordering on the level of a minor conglomerate.
If it had been just my mother alone, she might have divorced him without a second thought.
She would have taken a reasonable settlement and left that house behind.
But I was the problem. While my philandering father couldn't possibly love me, his family was different.
They had kept a close eye on me since I was young because I was considered a prodigy, and there was a high probability they wouldn't give up custody of me.
If she divorced while I was still a minor, my mother might have had to give me up and leave alone.
And even if she managed to take me with her after a grueling legal battle, it would have been difficult for her—having lived as a full-time housewife—to support me and pay for my education.
So, I didn't push her any further.
Instead, I studied and worked myself to the bone. All to escape that hellhole.
And now, after all this time, I was finally seeing the fruits of my labor.
I quickly pulled out my phone and pressed the call button.
—Hello?
“Mom, it’s me!”
—Oh, sweetie. Are you coming home now?
“Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”
My mother didn't know yet that I had signed a lease for a place for the two of us.
I planned to tell her as a surprise gift once I got home.
Then, I’d tell her to stamp the divorce papers she’d been hiding in her drawer and leave that house with me.
My heart was already swelling with emotion.
“Mom, when I get home, I...”
I have something to tell you.
Just as I was about to say those words—
“Aaaah!”
“Huh...?”
With a deafening crash, something hurtled toward me at high speed.
Someone nearby screamed. I could only stare blankly at the massive truck and the car that had smashed through the guardrail and plowed onto the sidewalk.
Thud!
“...!”
I couldn't even scream before my body was thrown into the air.
Then, I tumbled across the ground. My head rang with a violent shock.
‘Ah, the phone...’
I barely managed to realize that I had been on the phone with my mother just a moment ago.
But the phone was no longer in my hand. I couldn't even look for where it had flown. A massive wave of pain surged through me, making it impossible to move.
“Ugh...”
I have to go... and tell her.
To Mom...
That we should live happily together.
That she shouldn't suffer anymore because of me.
That I’ll make her happy from now on...
I... have to tell her...
“Ha...”
With one final sigh, my eyes drifted shut.
And the whole world went silent.
*
“Sniff, hic...”
“...”
So noisy.
I frowned at the sound someone was making.
Who on earth is being so loud?
As a light sleeper, I knitted my brows. It was truly too noisy to sleep.
“...?”
Then, it suddenly hit me.
Wait, didn't I get hit by a car?
Judging by how several cars were involved, I must have been caught in a multi-vehicle collision.
The memory of the accident flashed through my mind, and I snapped my eyes open.
“Ugh...!”
“Sweetie...?”
“Ow, it hurts...”
My entire body ached as if I’d been beaten.
As soon as I opened my eyes, a groan escaped my lips. At that, someone beside me gasped and looked at me.
“Oh...!”
What a stunningly beautiful person. Who is this?
I’d never seen such a breathtaking beauty in my life. Is she a friend of my mom’s?
She was even more beautiful than my mother, who was pretty enough to be an actress—though I felt a bit sorry to my mom for thinking that.
But why is she crying? Where’s my mom?
‘And this person... her eyes are red...’
It wasn't that they were red from crying; her irises themselves were red. It was a color impossible for a Korean person to have.
Her features were also very exotic. Did my mom have a foreign friend? My sluggish brain could only mumble in confusion.
“Sweetie, are you awake? Are you?”
“Uh, well...”
“Oh, thank the Gods! Thank you!”
“...!”
The woman began to shed tears again.
I watched her in bewilderment. Then, a rush of someone else's memories flooded into my mind.
“Argh...!”
“Dia, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“Dia...?”
“Are you still in pain?”
The full name of the person called by that nickname was Claudia Lionel. She was the young lady of the Marquis House of Lionel.
My eyes shook as I stared at the incredible beauty. Thanks to the memories that had surfaced, I knew her name.
Veronica Lionel. A former Ducal Lady and the mistress of the Marquis House of Lionel.
And, this body’s...
“My daughter, just lie still and rest. The doctor will be here soon.”
“...”
I looked away from her and stared blankly up at the ceiling. It was a very elegant, antique ceiling.
‘I’m inside the novel I read.’
A romance fantasy novel where Veronica appeared as the villainess.
She had a young daughter, but the sickly child dies of a fever right around the time the original story begins. At the tender age of five.
‘And I’m that kid...?’
Is this a dream?
Yes, it must be a crazy dream. There’s no way I’d be possessed into a novel.
If I lose consciousness like this, I’ll wake up in a hospital. I hurriedly closed my eyes.
“Dia, my daughter...!”
“...”
But at Veronica’s desperate cry, I couldn't bring myself to keep them closed.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes and looked at her again.
“...Mom.”
“Yes, my daughter. My beautiful daughter.”
“...”
Veronica brushed my cheek with a trembling hand. Her face, messy with tears, was still beautiful.
In this novel, I was never on the side of the protagonists.
Because the male lead was such a total scumbag.
No matter if the female lead was his first love, he was an atrocious bastard who committed adultery while being a married man.
Furthermore, he even had the audacity to tell Veronica—who hadn't even processed the grief of losing her daughter—that he was going to bring the female lead into their home.
Who wouldn't lose their mind in that situation? Veronica was treated strictly as a villainess in the novel, but to me, she wasn't.
I looked at Veronica with sorrowful eyes and slowly opened my mouth.
“Mom, I have a wish.”
“Yes, yes. Tell me anything.”
The words I couldn't say to my real mother at the end.
For some reason, seeing my own mother’s image overlapping with Veronica’s, I spoke slowly.
“Mom, divorce Dad.”
“...”
And then, I drifted off to sleep.