CWMBR 161

Chapter 161

***

With Bridget blinking in confusion, Ain rambled on incoherently.

“Have you been diagnosed? It would probably be best to see a doctor you feel comfortable with. It’s a good thing Dr. Magnus is still in Glynford.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Uh, oh.”

Ain, who had been spouting a stream of incomprehensible gibberish, suddenly covered his mouth and fell silent. Noticing the frown on Bridget’s face, he averted his gaze and muttered,

“Of course, I know this isn’t any of my business.”

Bridget’s expression grew even more sour. However, as the cleaning staff appeared at the far end of the hallway, she decided to put an end to this baffling conversation.

“Just pick up that bouquet over there. I’m busy, so I’ll have to go.”

Perhaps because she wasn’t feeling well, the strong scent of that bouquet of tulips didn’t sit well with her. Bridget absentmindedly stroked her chest to calm her nerves. Seeing the staff members rushing over, she turned away without even glancing at Ain. Ain, who just moments ago had been rambling incoherently at her, was once again at a loss for words and stood frozen in place.

The staff glanced at him with puzzled looks. However, since Ain had been hanging around the Grand Theater for quite some time, they had gradually grown accustomed to his presence and, like Bridget, easily ignored him. What mattered to the staff wasn’t their boss’s ex-husband, who was always busy chasing after his ex-wife, but their own predicament of being summoned to the CEO’s office at a moment’s notice.

And once everyone had left, Ain stood there aimlessly, unable even to pick up the bouquet of tulips he had dropped.

***

“There must be a reason he can’t let go of the baby’s spirit…”

The couple who owned the place seemed to feel sorry for Ain once they found out he was hearing voices. Of course, it was true that they had looked at him like an unspeakable beast when he admitted his mistake had caused his wife’s miscarriage, but seeing him up close, he didn’t seem like such a terrible person after all.

Perhaps that was why they gently asked Ain about his story. And upon hearing the truth—that he hadn’t stayed by his pregnant wife’s side for a single moment after their marriage—they treated him like the scum of the earth.

“Do you have any idea how grueling it is for a pregnant woman?”

“On the surface, it just looks like her belly is getting bigger! That wife must have felt like her world had turned upside down!”

Perhaps because they currently had a pregnant daughter at home whom they were caring for, the elderly couple scolded Ain with great fervor. They even added their own firsthand experiences to their criticism.

As a result, their scolding only made the sound of Ain’s crying seem even clearer to him. Though he never let on to them.

Ain mulled over the words the elderly couple had spoken to him back then. They had asked if he knew there were different kinds of morning sickness, and they had clicked their tongues in disdain, asking if he, as someone carrying his own child, didn’t even know what morning sickness was like. They had also said that for some people, it could be extremely painful.

The elderly couple had said they couldn’t even imagine cooking at home while their daughter was suffering from morning sickness.

What about Bridget?

The memory of Bridget standing weakly, clutching the stair railing, sent a wave of anxiety and melancholy surging through him.

“Aren’t you volunteering at the orphanage today?”

Ain, who had been standing anxiously staring at the ground, snapped his head up. Bridget, with her now-familiar, indifferent and cold expression, was staring right back at him.

She stopped by the grave every morning before going to work. Her schedule was almost always the same, so it wasn’t hard to wait for her at the entrance of the Grand Theater.

Bridget arrived at work around the usual time today, but her face looked paler than usual. Maybe it was just his imagination, but she seemed to have lost some weight. Bridget was naturally slender, but today she looked particularly frail.

‘Losing weight? Isn’t that something you’re not supposed to do? I thought gaining weight was the normal thing?’

“Something important came up, so I’ve decided to take a few days off.”

“Something important?”

Ain, who had been watching Bridget mutter as if she couldn’t guess what it was, forced a smile.

“First of all, well… congratulations.”

It was a line he’d practiced dozens of times the night before. Regardless of his own feelings, this was something that deserved to be celebrated. Even though he’d made a completely wrong choice in the past, he didn’t want to repeat the same mistake.

At his words, Bridget tilted her head to the side. She looked as though she had no idea what Ain was talking about.

“What?”

“I saw it by accident.”

“So, what?”

“You, having morning sickness.”

“Morning sickness……………… Oh.”

Bridget, who had been frowning as she thought, let out a low gasp. Her previously furrowed brow shifted subtly.

Bridget said nothing, but her sudden change in expression seemed to confirm what Ain had said. Feeling somewhat devastated, Ain clenched his jaw tightly. He had clearly rehearsed what to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

It was Bridget who broke the silence that seemed set to drag on forever. Rubbing her forehead and letting out a small sigh, she said flatly.

“If you say ‘congratulations’ with a face like that, no one would believe you.”

“This is something I should be happy about. I mean it when I say congratulations.”

Unable to bear looking at Bridget, Ain lowered his gaze.

“Shouldn’t you be resting? I heard you have to be careful in the early stages.”

They say you sleep more when you’re pregnant. Ain knew that Bridget was the head of the Grand Theater and couldn’t entrust its management to anyone else because of her past, but wasn’t coming to work this early in the morning dangerous?

“It’s not my place to say, but Dr. Magnus told me that someone who’s had a miscarriage before needs to be especially careful.” 

Magnus was the only doctor who had ever examined Bridget in the past. Naturally, he would know Bridget’s condition better than anyone else, so Ain immediately brought him in and asked him all sorts of questions.

Magnus looked puzzled at Ain suddenly prying into the past, but he answered honestly. He spoke of how weak Bridget’s physical condition had been during her pregnancy and how emotionally unstable she’d been.

As the conversation went on, old emotions seemed to resurface, and by the end, his tone had turned almost accusatory.

“Pregnancy is a difficult time even when you’re doting on the mother. Do you have any idea how hard it is to nurture a new life inside your body? She was someone who didn’t know how to take care of herself from the start. Since she was left to fend for herself like that, there was no way her health could improve.”

It seemed that Bridget, who had fallen into depression, hadn’t even listened properly to Magnus’s examination at the time. Magnus had said it was a miracle she hadn’t died.

“There are only a few medications that can be used for pregnant women… If that condition had persisted until delivery, honestly, her life would have been in danger.”

Ain had seen a woman full-term before. The thought of Bridget reaching full term in such a weakened state felt extremely dangerous to Ain as well.

“That doesn’t mean the miscarriage was a blessing! Once you’ve had a miscarriage, the risk of it happening again is very high!”

Those words struck Ain as a greater threat than he had anticipated.

Hearing Magnus’s words, he realized this was no time for him to be spending his days volunteering at the orphanage. Of course, volunteering at the orphanage was undoubtedly a worthwhile endeavor for him, but now that he knew Bridget’s condition was perilous, how could he just sit idly by?

The problem was that, despite this crisis, Gilum Arsiut seemed to be concerned only with his own advancement.

“By the way, I heard Gilum Arsiut was assigned to a new position a few days ago.”

“How do you know Mr. Gilum’s schedule?”

There was a hint of intimacy in Bridget’s voice as she uttered Gilum’s name. Though he felt a brief pang of jealousy, Ain averted his gaze, looking down at the floor to avoid Bridget’s questioning stare.

“……I just happened to find out.”

Even if he didn’t say it outright, there was no way Bridget wouldn’t guess that he’d been digging into Gilum’s background. But wouldn’t it feel even worse to hear it directly?

Ain had simply been verifying whether he was a man suitable for Bridget, whether his family relationships were harmonious, whether he had received a proper education, what his social circle was like and how he conducted himself in society, whether he had the financial means to support a family in the future, what his general reputation was and how family-oriented he was, whether he had any issues with women, and whether he had maintained his physical health and purity……

In the process of verifying these basic conditions, he naturally came to know his recent schedule as well. After all, to judge whether he was a decent person, one must examine him from multiple angles.

However, Ain was aware that this vetting might come across as somewhat… sinister. So, rather than going into specific details, he carefully pointed out the very concerns he had been harboring all along.

“More importantly, shouldn’t Gilum take a leave of absence right away and come down to Glynford to stay by your side?”

Gilum has a bright future. That meant he worked very hard at his job. Sanne, who was single, was the type of person who worked extremely hard at her job to build her social standing. If he was a subordinate handpicked by someone like Sanne, wouldn’t he naturally follow in her footsteps?

“You’re in poor health and need someone by your side to look after you…”

Of course, Bridget would no longer sink into depression and neglect her health as she had in the past. Unlike back then, there were many people by her side now who cared for her.

But no matter how much her friends and family looked out for her, wasn’t the psychological sense of security different from having the child’s father by her side? Especially since Bridget had already gone through the pain of a miscarriage.

“There will be a lot to do once he comes down—announcing the official relationship and filing the paperwork—and you won’t be able to handle it all on your own. Especially in your current condition……”

As he continued speaking, Ain’s expression grew increasingly grave.

“It seems quitting would be better than taking a leave of absence. His department has so much work that he’ll be out and about every day. He’ll be frequently sent on assignments to the provinces and will have to travel back and forth to the capital, but since you have to run the Glynford Grand Theater and can’t leave here, it’s better for him to quit.”