Certainly, what must be refused · 13. May 2025

CWMBR 1

Chapter 1

***

Blood.

She was bleeding.

It was with the tiniest trace of clots.

Unformed, it literally flowed in a pool of blood. A premonition flashed through her mind.

No, no. Oh, no.

She cried and searched for someone to help her, but no matter how hard she pulled the string, no matter how desperately she cried out, no one appeared in her room for hours. Until the hem of her dress was soaked with blood, and she collapsed in a small pool of it.

***

Her husband arrived at the mansion late at night, ten days after her miscarriage. Surprisingly, it was his first homecoming in months since their marriage.

He reeked of alcohol and stale cigars. He was probably out at some party, or maybe at the racetrack. That was where she had heard from him in recent days.

Her strength was woefully weak from the lack of proper nursing care, but she didn't know when, if ever, she would see her husband's face again, if not now, so she dragged her aching body to the lobby.

"The errand boy must not have delivered the news properly."

Her voice was hoarse from all the time she'd spent in the isolated mansion with no one to talk to.

Coughing, she struggled to clear her throat, and her lips parted as she fought back the tears that threatened to fall.

"I, a few days ago.................."

"Can't you not do this?"

Her struggling words were cut short by her husband's irritated, sharp voice.

Her breathing quickened, her barely calmed heart beating unsteadily.

"..................what do you mean?”

"You're past the age of lying to get attention."

His blue eyes stared at her, his gaze piercing her like a sharpened icicle. His disgust and contempt were unmistakable in the transparent frozen icicles.

Her shoulders threatened to slump under his breathless gaze, but she forced herself to straighten.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The whole process was a mess, she knew.

She didn't want to cause as much of a stir as possible. There were so many issues between them that needed to be resolved, and once they were face-to-face, it would just get tangled up in the worst possible way. This was not the time for that, so she kept quiet. As he wished, where he directed. But for once, she hadn't done anything wrong. She had done nothing to deserve this from her husband.

She could have complained to him about his lack of support, resented his poor treatment of her.

But he didn't seem to want to hear any of it. Instead, he had already come to his own conclusion.

"You were lying to me from the beginning."

"What?"

"You've been lying since you got pregnant, and you miscarried?"

She stared blankly at his face as he laughed coldly and said the word 'miscarriage'.

"Well, if the baby is not coming when it's supposed to, it's going to raise suspicions, so I guess you have to take care of it before then.”

From his point of view, of course, the marriage was forced on him by her unexpected pregnancy. But he said he'd take responsibility anyway.

So now what, she was lying?

Bridget knew he misunderstood her. She'd thought she could talk to him later, when she was less emotional and more rational, but it had taken longer than she'd expected, and he'd never given her a chance to explain.

That was how it got to this point. But she didn't realize how low her husband's trust had sunk. She really didn't realize he was doubting the pregnancy itself.

They both vaguely remembered the events of that night, and they both had doctors' reports.

They believed everything, which was why they agreed to the rush wedding.

"I'm not lying. You saw the doctor's report."

For once, she gritted her teeth and spoke clearly. Everything was the truth, and there was no reason not to be honest.

But her husband just laughed in disbelief.

"Forget it, it's not as if I didn't know you were impudent."

"I don't see why I should have to rehash it now, especially since I just lost the child."

The realization that she had just lost her child hit her hard. Her voice trembled and tears welled up in her eyes. She had managed to pull herself together, to pretend she was okay, but with a few insensitive, callous words from her husband, all the emotions she had managed to keep in check were turned upside down like a dumpster fire.

And then he mercilessly trampled on her feelings in every direction.

"Cut the crap," he said, "Donna Greene told me all about your inability to crawl into my room that day. You were banging another man at that hour?"

Ah, Donna.

She felt her mind go blank. She could feel the malice, so intense, consuming her from the bottom of her feet.

"Is that what ..................she said?"

Donna, Donna, the start of all this trouble.

She hadn't expected to hear that name again here. She'd even less expected her husband to be in touch with Donna, even though it was quite predictable when she thought about it.

"Yes. That means that even if you were pregnant, it wouldn't have been mine."

He replied sarcastically, his smile quickly disappearing and his face turning expressionless.

"I'm going to do a formal investigation, which I should have done from the beginning, but I was too eager to bite."

Did he think she was going to be frightened by that? She found the whole situation ridiculous and bewildering.

"You can't even tell who you've slept with?"

"Whatever's wrong with my memory is because of the drugs you gave me."

"I didn't drug you."

"I don't see anything good for you in digging into what happened that day."

He sounded like he knew everything, like he'd gotten a definitive tip from somewhere. No, that was probably right. Donna Greene must have whispered to something to him.

It was all too obvious. Here he was, listening to the whispers of his first love, accusing his wife a liar.

"Miscarriage?"

He muttered, as if he'd heard a ridiculous word.

"Do you truly believe this marriage will work if you have miscarried?"

The words made it perfectly clear that he had agreed to the loveless marriage solely to be responsible for his bloodline.

Her pregnancy was, of course, the decisive factor in the marriage, but it was also a cruel sentence for her, who still believed that somewhere, somewhere, there were feelings between them. She was mute now, and could barely find the words to respond. She felt helplessly swept away by the torrent of water from the broken dike.

"I am sorry to have trampled on your joy."

His disgust and contempt were so clear and crisp that there was not the slightest hint of recognition or mercy in them.

"I'm going to re-examine the legitimacy of this marriage."

He was a man who didn't like public, loud things, because that was how his parents had gotten their high-profile, messy divorce. He hated following in his parents' footsteps more than death, and he was saying that he wanted to erase his relationship with her from the beginning, even if it meant willing to engage in the very behavior he shunned.

"If your pregnancy was a lie from the beginning, then your vows before the gods were broken from the start, and your marriage vows are null and void."

He denied everything, not just her, but the baby that would have been hers and his.

"You'd better start packing now."

With that callous advice, he whirled on his heel. Left alone in the center of the lobby, she stood dumbfounded for a moment, then slowly raised her eyes.

The mansion was vast and old-fashioned, yet somehow bleak and cold. She had been left here, left to deteriorate, and thus abandoned.

Ah, this was the moment of her abandonment. The realization slowly dawned on her dazed mind. The trampled emotions had been crushed into unrecognizable shapes, hollowed out until there was nothing left inside. A ragged breath escaped through parted lips.

What was left of her? There was nothing here that belonged to her.

..................Nothing, not a single thing.

***

Bridget Pennington was publicly accused by her husband.

Ain Wise, a famous investor and a noble blooded member of the Alensian royal family.

He sought to have their marriage annulled. Shortly thereafter, the royal family announced that they would personally investigate this public scandal.