A False Salvation For Lady

Chapter 5

5. A Cheap Mouth

A child, in a relationship like this? Cordelia’s mouth went dry, and nausea welled up in her throat.

But she forced herself to suppress any sign of the turmoil inside. A child, an heir, succession… Even in a household that didn’t need to pass on a title, the topic was natural.

Cordelia was the last of the Hastings direct line—and a daughter, at that—so she couldn’t inherit the family title. With no male relatives left in the collateral branches either, the earldom had already come to an end. All that remained was the name, once glorious.

If she ever wanted to pass the countship on to her child… she would have to remarry into nobility.

That meant she couldn’t pass down the old glory to a child with Lucas.

All she could give was the noble spirit that once defined her lineage.

A sense of right and wrong, a heart that knew those with more should give to those with less—maybe just that much.

But what Lucas had said earlier still rang in her ears, too jarring to forget:

“But all of this is a lie.”

“Does that matter?”

She lowered her head and gripped the silverware tightly. If she had remained ignorant, if she hadn’t known the truth, even having a child might have been purely joyful. But no matter how hard she tried to deny it, the bliss of ignorance was already over.

What tormented her even more was that her feelings hadn’t vanished in an instant. If only love could shatter as easily as these silver utensils.

If only it had been the kind of betrayal she could shut her eyes to and forgive.

But the collapse of her family… the deception… even the criminal acts—and, worst of all, his utter indifference to it all. Everything was driving her mad from the inside out.

Even while her heart ached as if it would break, her reason screamed that bringing a child into this relationship would be utter madness.

“But I can’t avoid the marital relationship forever. So if it does happen…”

Cordelia lifted her head slightly and looked at the man before her. Lucas still wore that smile, leisurely watching her expression.

“No matter what… I’ll never raise the child beside you.”

It was a painful decision to make on their wedding anniversary, but it was a cold, realistic one.

The infamous “coal mine investment” that had bankrupted many noble houses of the Old Continent’s Hardrian Empire—including the House of Hastings.

It was supposed to be a stable source of income. But then, just at the wrong time, oil made a grand return as a favored fuel, and everything collapsed.

If the coal mines had been large enough, maybe they could’ve held out longer against the tide. But then came the rumors—conveniently timed—that the mines held less coal than initially believed. The shift was swift and brutal. The Old Continent’s coal industry crumbled almost overnight, and dependence on the New Continent became inevitable.

The groundwork for this collapse had been laid long ago, but the massive flow of capital into the Eisner Corporation—spearheaded by Lucas—only happened recently.

So now, Lucas and his associates were lounging in a social club on Millionaire Row, sipping cognac in the middle of the day. Under any other circumstance, it would’ve been a day worth celebrating in grand fashion.

But William and the other men kept sneaking glances at Lucas, gauging his mood.

Since arriving, Lucas had been singularly focused on the billiards game, and the atmosphere around him was deadly intense.

Crack! Crack! He slammed vicious smashes across the table, leaving his opponent stunned and unable to keep up. No one could read what he was really thinking.

Finally, unable to stand the sharp, echoing sounds any longer, William cautiously spoke.

“Ahem, Lucas. I imagine the lady was… quite shocked, wasn’t she?”

CRACK! The corner of the lounge rang again with the violent sound of the cue ball striking. Only after his opponent, clearly overwhelmed, shook his head in defeat did Lucas slowly straighten his solid upper body.

William and the others instinctively flinched. Every one of them had been beaten by those hands at least once back in university. And the ones who had gossiped about Cordelia DuCaine’s past? They weren’t here anymore.

But contrary to expectations, Lucas let out a relaxed laugh.

“Oh, as if. My noble lady wife didn’t waver in the slightest.”

“Oooh…”

“And even if she had, it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.”

“Well then, congratulations are in order, right? You’re one step closer to the inheritance now, thanks to all this.”

Richard DuCaine’s wife had passed away early without bearing any children. So unless he remarried, people speculated that the long-time associate Randolph Aubert might inherit the business.

Then one day, out of nowhere, Lucas appeared, claiming to be Richard’s “son.” Rumors spread that he was the illegitimate child of a noblewoman from the Old Continent. Naturally, the Eastern aristocracy was prepared to shun him.

That is, until Lucas enrolled at university and, with perfect grades, discreet fistfights, and overwhelming charisma, forced every one of them to kneel at his feet.

“Lard-brained bastards flapping their gums,” he would sneer in his refined Old Continent accent—crude and cutting. It didn’t take long for followers to gather around him.

His keen Investment sense, massive nerve, and ruthless decisiveness. That dark, dangerous allure of being a noble’s bastard.

On top of that, he helped shed the DuCaine family’s label as “nouveau riche grown fat on dirty business.” And wasn’t he now married to the daughter of one of the most prestigious noble families of the Old Continent—someone no commoner could ever dream of?

He truly was the golden boy of the “land of opportunity.” William, who had bet his life on Lucas, nodded in agreement.

Just then, a woman’s voice, lightly laced with amusement, broke in.

“So, Lucas. What did your wife think of all this?”

“Louisa Vanderbilt.”

Lucas turned his head to see a woman with lush, pearl-colored hair swept up elegantly, her green eyes gleaming like a cat’s. A dainty predator disguised with a fragile, innocent face, ready to swallow anyone whole if they got too close.

Lucas gave her a slow smile, as if only just now noticing her presence.

“Life must be boring for you lately. I hear you ran your mouth pretty cheap around my wife.”

At Lucas’s harsh and vulgar jab, the rest of the group in the club fell silent.

In business and at social events, she was the center of attention with her polished manners and confident demeanor—but among their old university classmates, no one dared speak of how much of an unhinged bastard Lucas used to be.

Louisa lowered her eyes with a pitiful expression. In an instant, tears began to pool in her large eyes.

“I’m really sorry… I didn’t know your wife would actually show up… sob But to do that to Henry…”

Henry was Louisa’s plant inside Eisner. Without Lucas’s permission, and simply at Louisa’s request, he had committed the crime of letting Cordelia into the office.

“I was so shocked when Henry came back without an ear… sob I felt so terrible…”

“Why don’t you stop wiping away those fake tears? Pretty impressive, even without eye drops.”

“…Tch.”

When her tears failed to get a reaction, Louisa finally gave a playful pout. She’d long since become intimately familiar with the dirty side of business since childhood. In the New Continent, it was easier and faster to shoot someone than wait for the law to catch up.

So when Henry came back missing an ear and bleeding everywhere, she hadn’t been shocked in the slightest.

Weakness was evil. Only the strong and wealthy were supreme. That was why Louisa looked at Lucas with eyes full of fervent admiration.

“But Lucas, honestly, I was impressed. Isn’t your wife the kind who’s always had servants do everything for her? And yet she went to a place like that, all on her own?”

“Louisa. If you pull one more stunt like that, I’ll personally recommend a marriage proposal to the Vanderbilts on your behalf.”

Lucas’s cold rebuke made Louisa, who had been smiling with her eyes, stiffen.

“To help your adoptive parents finally make the decision they’ve been dying to—selling you off to a noble family as quickly as possible.”

“…Lucas, how can you say that? You know how much I like you—”

“If you plant one more unnecessary thought in my wife’s head, I won’t let it slide next time.”

“Oh, then won’t you please not let it slide?”

Louisa stood up and slipped her fingers through Lucas’s tie ring.

“I like everything you do. I wouldn’t mind finding out right now exactly how you won’t let me go.”

Everyone in the club watched the scene with bated breath. Every time Louisa acted seductively with that innocent face, countless men had fallen over themselves to offer her gifts and court her.

But Lucas, thoroughly disgusted, brushed her fingers off with ease and scoffed.

“I’ll admit, you’re pretty easy on the eyes. But not once have you ever turned me on.”

“…!”

“So keep dreaming—in your bedroom, with your new lover. Just don’t ruin my plans by throwing one of your little tantrums.”

“Lucas!”

Louisa whined, but Lucas cleanly ignored her. He still had a long road ahead.

What Richard truly wanted was a legitimate noble title. After being endlessly scorned in the Old Continent, his one lingering regret had followed him to the New Continent. His only remaining wish was to obtain a title before he died.

But as Lucas turned back toward the billiards table, Cordelia came to mind again.

He had sent her away in a daze when she first learned the truth, but by evening, she’d stood firm and asked him, “What exactly are you after?”

And what had she said?

“Then doesn’t it matter?”

Even in this mess, she still clung to ethics. In some ways, it was clear she hadn’t changed at all.

But to manipulate someone else’s life and then feign innocence—now that was some nerve.

“So divorce is out of the question.”

After all, he had married her to make her miserable. Letting everything explode now didn’t seem so bad. He had crushed the Hastings family and broken her engagement to that duke bastard for exactly this purpose.

Lucas slammed a powerful massé shot into the billiards table.

His revenge against the count’s house wasn’t over yet.