Certainly, what must be refused · 13. May 2025

CWMBR 15

Chapter 15

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Bridget's eyes widened slightly at the unexpected request. She remembered Ain pacing around the mansion, strangely, just before she left.

Perhaps he had noticed something odd along the way. Ain was no fool, and he would have quickly realized how poorly Bridget had been treated there. It was surprising that he figured it out and went straight to check with her himself.

Hadn't he known all along and turned a blind eye?

Well, it wouldn't make much difference if he didn't know.

"Why?"

There was no way to undo the time that had already passed. Bridget thought it odd that he should be asking, but then she understood the train of thought.

The annulment suit.

Perhaps Ain didn't want any of his negligence to affect the result of the case.

That he had mistreated Bridget, his legal wife, was something that could come back to haunt him.

It was understandable that Ain had come all this way.

But understanding didn't mean she was willing to cooperate.

"If you want to find out where you're at a disadvantage in the lawsuit, you're on your own."

"So you're saying you’ve been mistreated.”

Ain muttered to himself, and Bridget assumed that was the end of his business, though she wasn't sure what he was imagining. Now that he had confirmed from his own lips that she had been mistreated at the mansion, he could easily find out what was left from his employees. That would be much more convenient.

Even though she expected him to turn his back immediately, Ain seemed unwilling to budge.

"Did you purposely not tell me how you were being treated?"

"On purpose?"

"Because you wouldn't have kept it from me unless you were trying to take advantage of the situation."

Ah, so it wasn't just a matter of establishing the facts; he'd come to warn Bridget if she would bring it up.

In truth, Bridget hadn't realized that the way she'd been treated during their brief honeymoon would play such a prominent role in their upcoming lawsuit. It hadn't even occurred to her that it could be an issue until Ain mentioned it.

She hadn't really given it much thought, as she wasn't willing to put much energy into the case.

However, seeing Ain, who had traveled all the way here because he was uncertain of the facts, made her angry. If he realized that she wasn't committed to the case, he'd leave everything to the lawyers and get back to his busy life. As he watched her ease back into her life, he realized that Bridget's temper was not so easy to deal with.

"Are you saying it was my fault for not telling you that the treatment I received at the mansion was unfair to you?"

It was an objective fact that she had been sent, pregnant, to a remote mansion owned by her husband, where she was treated like a nobody instead of a hostess by his servants. It meant that Ain had not fulfilled his minimum role as a husband in this marriage. Apart from his social reputation, he had not even fulfilled the minimum morality that he should have as a couple.

"Of course................"

"I don't know how much you've been checking, but I'm the victim and you're the perpetrator in that regard."

Bridget cut him off with a cold voice.

"Even a child knows when to apply the word 'wrong' to someone."

Bridget expected Ain to deny her point, or to dismiss it with a suitable sophistry, but instead of retorting, he merely stared down at her.

Then, in a stiff tone, he broached a new topic.

"What about Finn Emerson?"

Bridget tilted her head at the name out of the blue.

Before they'd married, Ain had been a bit of a prude to Finn Emerson. As far as Bridget knew, their relationship had been a business one, which she found odd, given that Ain, who was usually so good at managing public relations, had been so unpleasant.

Apparently, his negative feelings were still ongoing.

"Did you keep in touch with him?"

Ain asked sharply.

"No."

"But he came to pick you up when you weren't even in contact?"

"Yes."

"And you expect me to believe that?"

Did Ain think Bridget would have enjoyed an affair with Finn?

It was true that Finn had flirted with her vaguely before they were married, but Bridget had drawn a line in the sand each time. Ain had seen it all when he had been hanging out with Finn at the time.

But Ain had forgotten how hard Bridget had worked to keep her distance. Blinking slowly, Bridget lowered her gaze.

Maybe he wasn't biting simply because he hated Finn. Ain............

"Even if it were true that you were pregnant, it wouldn't have been my child."

That was what Ain told Bridget when he came to the mansion for the first time in a long time. With that thought in mind, he was probably convinced that there was another father for the child she was carrying, and he might have even put Finn on the short list. His questioning now was likely to confirm that suspicion.

The fact that Bridget was staying at a place that Finn booked for her would only add to his suspicions, and Finn had made no secret of his attraction to Bridget.

Bridget inwardly wished she hadn't gotten involved in the first place. The deed was done, and Ain was already suspicious. There was nothing she could do to stop him if he was determined to find out about her relationship with Finn.

All she could do was keep quiet. There was nothing between Finn and her, no matter how much Ain probed.

Bridget gave up trying to explain herself. Instead, she asked back in a hushed voice.

"If you don't believe me, why do you ask?"

"You have no right to ask me to believe."

"I'm not asking you to believe me."

She quickly abandoned such naïve and foolish expectations. Bridget had long since accepted that their relationship had reached a point of no return.

"I know my answer means nothing to you."

Too much time had been wasted in a wasteful conversation. Bridget roughly deduced Ain’s purpose from his words and was ready to end the conversation, so she put it bluntly.

"I don't want to continue this painfully useless conversation."

Ain raised an eyebrow at Bridget's unadorned assertion, just as he was about to say something.

"Mr. Wise?"

Ain and Bridget's eyes shifted simultaneously to the source of the sound. Magnus had stopped dead in his tracks, and when he spotted Ain, he gave him a puzzled look.

"No, how are you here.................."

"What about the carriage?"

Bridget asked, raising her voice, which snapped Magnus out of his shock of seeing Ain and turned his attention to her.

"I have it waiting for you at the entrance to the inn."

"I'll be right there."

"..................then I'll be downstairs."

Fortunately, Magnus understood exactly what Bridget meant by her words. He glanced back and forth between Bridget and Ain, a little uneasily, then bowed slightly in greeting and slowly started back down the stairs.

Once Bridget was sure that Magnus had gone down quietly, she gathered up the suitcase she had left out earlier. She grabbed her coat and hat and left the room, paying no attention to Ain standing in the doorway.

Ain was still standing in the doorway. He held it open to keep it from slamming shut and frowned when he saw Bridget slip through the open crack and strut across the hall.

"Bridget."

Bridget stopped in her tracks, about to walk away from Ain. Half-turning her head to look back at him, she spoke in a cold tone.

"I think I've answered enough, I know what you're trying to say, so let's leave it at that."

"What am I trying to say?"

"That you don't want to have anything to do with me, I get it."

The part of him that wanted to win his case against her so badly that he had come all the way here to warn her. The part of him that wanted to annul the marriage and erase her from his life completely.

"Rest assured. This is the moment our wishes align."

Her words were cut rather sharply, and Bridget looked away. Ain stared blankly after her as she stormed away without looking back.