# 45
---
Her love for him was constant and unchanging. However, she was exhausted, and now that her health was deteriorating, she didn't want to have anything else to worry about.
Meanwhile, she received a letter from Princess Elizabeth. The letter invited her to the tea session I talked about earlier.
Chloe didn't want to go, but rejecting the princess's invitation would have meant her rebelling against the royal family. Of course, because she had a close relationship with the royal family, she could have refused if there was a good reason, but there was no acceptable excuse, so she had to attend.
“So shouldn't we make the dress?”
As Andrea suggested, Chloe shook her head.
“There are dresses that I bought from Madame Leisen’s store a few days ago and had them tailored. You can choose the appropriate dress from them. There is no need to spend money on unnecessary things.”
“What do you mean by uess?”
Andrea asked in surprise.
“There will be many ladies. Of course, the princess should shine the most, but it is the lady who should shine next. Because she is the Marquise. What is worthless for a lady? There is no one in the kingdom as great as her, is there? So you must be prepared for it. As your only maid, I think so.”
Chloe felt a painful throb in her head.
There was nothing wrong with Andrea's words. The tea session to which you have been invited will not be an ordinary place, but rather a place where carefully ected wives gather and show off. So, given her husband's status, Chloe had to go out with extreme caution.
But…
“I don't want to be indebted to my husband anymore.”
After the divorce was already finalized, she didn't want to spend a penny of Eric's money. Then she shook her head.
I have a lot of dresses that I've never worn before. So, what do you think of that beige dress over there? Seems appropriate.
“However, he is so humble!”
"There's a saying that humility is a virtue. Okay, I'll do it. I don't want to talk about it any more. I already care about a lot of things, and I think my headache will get worse if I keep this in my head."
“This won't work!”
Andrea was terrified at the thought that Chloe might get sick again, so she closed her mouth. Although her facial features still indicated that she was about to say a lot, she contained her anger well, like a servant who loyally serves her mistress.
Chloe was thrilled by this silence. I took a sip of the bitter tea and felt calm.
She glanced at the door quietly.
This was a habit she picked up after she woke up, stemming from her desire to visit Eric, but she couldn't yet pinpoint her feelings. All I could think about was that the closed door seemed so heavy.
Meanwhile, Eric, who was holding the clippers and tightening the nail, narrowed his eyebrows and raised his head.
“Is Chloe going out?”
“Yes, Andrea accomplished that.”
Hearing those words, Eric nervously put down the scissors and wiped his sweaty face with a towel. His face was scrunched up behind the wrapped towel. Daniel took a step back, realizing that Eric was in a bad mood.
“Where is she going?”
I heard she was invited to Princess Elizabeth's tea session. I guess she couldn't refuse the invitation, so I accepted it.
Daniel guessed. It seems that Eric thought the same way, so he did not deny what he said.
“You haven't left the room for almost two weeks, and now you're going to the royal palace? Ha, unbelievable.”
As he mumbled in annoyance, Daniel easily found the reason for his annoyance.
“Are you worried about the Third Prince?”
"What?"
“No, you are upset by the expectation of meeting the Third Prince and the Lady.”
"prattle!"
Eric was very angry.
"Chloe and I are going to break up anyway. Isn't there any reason to worry about that?"
He spoke in a firm tone as if he were addressing himf. Daniel's eyes narrowed. He took a step closer to Eric and asked him.
“Are you really going to divorce me, ma’am?”
"so what?"
Eric answered immediately.
No matter how hard I try, Chloe doesn't recognize me. Even if I do a hundred good things, if I don't do it even once, it's all my fault… I'm tired. I don't want to keep up with Chloe anymore!
While he was saying that, he felt that Chloe tried her best, so he felt very hurt from her. She did not show any appreciation for his efforts at all, on the contrary, she described him as a bad person who did not make any effort in the first place.
Eric felt a dull ache in the corner of his chest. It's a pain he felt repeatedly after announcing his divorce from Khloe.
At times like these, he had to concentrate, so he grabbed the clothes he had thrown away again. However, Daniel didn't seem to want to end the conversation.
“But didn't you still love the lady?”
“Love?!”
Eric finally couldn't take it anymore and screamed.
"I don't know what love is. I can't even imagine this feeling... I'm not doing this because I don't know what it is! If I really loved Chloe, I would be sad that she's gone! But now I'm not sad! I'm just angry! Just because she dared to leave me!"
His face swelled. He gritted his teeth as he recalled the conversation with Chloe.
“How could she leave me? How, how could she say something like that?”
Eric said, looking very sad.
There were supposed to be tears, but he wasn't sad. He was shedding his own grief.
At that moment, he suddenly remembered Chloe's tears as she ed him to divorce her. In fact, it wasn't something that suddenly came to his mind, although the image of her crying face remained etched in his mind the entire time.
A woman who never cried, a woman who was so arrogant that she cried profuy and demanded a divorce from him...
Eric could confirm that there had never been a worse time.
“I can't believe it. I really can't believe it.”
He closed his eyes tightly and muttered.
However, he had to believe… that Chloe had abandoned him, and he knew he had to break up with her.
Chloe stared intently at the door Andrea opened. It's been a whole month since I came out. Although the doctor said that regular walking was beneficial, bad weather conditions prevented her from even thinking about going out for a walk.
But fortunately, the snow stopped falling today, and the weather was perfect for Elizabeth's tea time. I slowly walked out the door.
Andrea stated that she had hired three additional maids. For some reason, the palace was clean in its own way. The dust that was rising disappeared, and the bad smell disappeared as well.
Chloe noticed that these were Eric's thoughts, and she felt her heartbeat quicken.
The first thing she saw as soon as she left the room was Eric. He was supposed to be in the lab in the annex, but for some reason, he was in the main building.
Although she felt surprised, she tried not to make it obvious, so she approached him.
“I didn't know you were in the main building.”
Eric slowly turned his eyes to look at her. His gaze was extremely cold, as frozen as before, or perhaps even more frozen than before.
Chloe clasped her hands.
“I had some things to do, so I went out for a while. And then you left after a long time.”
His tone was suddenly cold. She felt her heart beating hard again and tried to respond normally.
“The princess has invited me. I want to go to the royal palace.”
Eric nodded lightly before glancing out the window. He did not look pleased, his eyebrows were furrowed.
“It's a good day.”
"What?"
Chloe followed his gaze and turned her head toward the window. What wasn't good? The sun was shining bright after a long absence.
While she was confused, she soon realized that Eric did not like her going to the palace.
Why…
The question did not last long. Maybe it was William. Eric had always doubted her relationship with him. However, wasn't the divorce already done? Even if there was something between her and William – which there wasn't – it shouldn't matter to him anyway.
Chloe decided that Eric's desire was to control her, and that the greed he had spoken of before, "not wanting to miss it," reinforced her choice for the future.
She didn't like this.
Because she was a human, no one was supposed to control her. She'd been controlled countless times by her parents, so she was tired of it.