I Faked a Pregnancy, but My Husband Returned - Chapter 161

Special Side Story 3. I Really Want to Do Well This Time

One early winter.

Ekian was reviewing documents in the drawing room when he looked slightly surprised.

“Hmm?”

What caught Ekian’s attention was none other than paperwork related to the Grand Duchy’s academy. This academy had long been operated under Judith’s supervision.

At first, Judith personally taught the children herself.

But as time passed and the number of students began to increase, Judith started training teachers. Those trained teachers then taught other teachers, and the academy gradually developed something called a “system.”

And now, several years later, the academy had steadily expanded throughout the Grand Duchy and firmly established itself. Judith no longer worked as a teacher and only handled administrative management.

But….

“You’re saying you won’t even be doing that starting next year?”

The position for overall administrative management had been assigned to someone else.

Naturally, the first thing that crossed Ekian’s mind was worry.

Is raising Alex difficult for her? But Alex is already seven now, so he requires less attention than before.

Or is she sick somewhere?

Has she been struggling all this time? Has it been too much for her?

Then why didn’t she tell me?

Am I such an inadequate husband that she can’t even tell me when she’s struggling?

But I thought I’d tried hard not to act that way.

Still, I wasn’t able to stay by her side during the time she suffered the most.

So is that why she can’t trust me as her husband?

Maybe she’s been sinking into depression because their second child hadn’t come to them even after several years.

Once his thoughts reached that point, Ekian’s expression darkened.

They had been consistently trying to have a second child.

However, unlike Alex, who came after only one try, their second child simply wouldn’t come easily.

Isabella, who had personally experienced the pain of waiting for a child who never came, had comforted them herself and said this.

‘Relax your minds. Just… live your daily lives while thinking that sometimes, things can simply turn out that way.’

Judith and Ekian said they were perfectly satisfied with just Alex, but in truth, they both knew it. Both of them wanted another lovely child like Alex.

To be honest, Ekian’s longing was even stronger.

Whenever he looked at adorable Alex, regret overwhelmed him that he hadn’t been there from the moment this child first came into existence.

The physician of the grand ducal estate personally departed overseas, saying he would search for better medicinal ingredients. Of course, he left an assistant behind.

From the physician’s perspective, it was a major decision. He had left to learn new treatment methods from foreign countries.

According to the standards of modern Imperial medicine, there was nothing wrong with either of their bodies, so he said it was necessary to learn new approaches. Neither Judith nor Ekian particularly tried to stop that journey.

After agonizing over it for a long while, Ekian eventually rose from his seat.

No matter what, he felt like he needed to see Judith.

As he quickly exited the office, the butler asked in surprise, “Your Highness the Grand Duke? What’s the matter?”

“Where’s Judith?”

“She’s in the drawing room.”

“The drawing room? Did a guest come?”

He hadn’t heard anything about that.

However, instead of answering immediately, the butler merely hesitated awkwardly.

So it wasn’t the kind of guest he could speak openly about?

But not strange enough that they couldn’t be invited into the mansion where he himself lived?

He couldn’t understand what exactly was going on.

Under Ekian’s fierce gaze, the butler only fidgeted nervously without saying a word.

Judith must’ve instructed him not to say anything.

Without asking any more questions, Ekian headed toward the drawing room. The butler stamped his feet helplessly, but he couldn’t stop him.

“Um, Your Highness the Grand Duke….”

In the end, by the time he reached the drawing room with quick strides, the butler, unable to hide his troubled expression, suddenly blocked Ekian’s path like lightning.

“J-Just a moment!”

The flustered butler spoke as though staking his life on it while facing Ekian, who was radiating a sharp atmosphere.

“I-I’ll announce it first…. I-I will….”

He was almost on the verge of tears now.

At first, worry had stormed through Ekian’s mind, but seeing the butler like this filled him with suspicion instead.

No, just who exactly had come for the butler to lose his composure to this extent?

“It’s, it’s, it’s a doctor, so….”

A doctor?

If it were the assistant of the attending physician staying at the grand ducal estate, he wouldn’t have referred to them as a ‘guest.’

Could it possibly be Hud Ramis?

Ekian was allergic to that name.

And he was fully aware that the people of the ducal estate liked Judith more than they liked him.

Judith possessed an incredible talent. Namely, the ability to make the people around Ekian like her more than him.

Not only the members of the Mayus family, but even the Imperial family members, including Melanie, liked Judith more than Ekian.

They even all had something to say to Ekian because Judith spent her pregnancy alone.

‘Goodness, do you know how heartbreaking that must’ve been? Didn’t it hurt your heart even seeing fathers carrying their babies around?’

‘And you said she couldn’t even contact the man who was supposed to become the father? How hopeless must that have felt.’

‘When she craved something to eat, she couldn’t even ask her husband to buy it for her!’

Kind-hearted Judith sincerely answered every one of those remarks.

‘It was heartbreaking. But I tried my best to think positively in case it affected the baby badly. I kept thinking that I would love the baby twice as much in place of their father.’

But those words only made the listeners ache even more.

‘I really wanted to contact the baby’s father, but I didn’t know how…. I at least wanted to tell him I was pregnant, but there was nothing I could do.’

Even knowing it couldn’t be helped, everyone still looked at Ekian with resentment.

‘As for cravings? If it was something easy to get, I hesitated and then asked Castin or Hud. But if it was difficult to obtain, of course I just endured it.’

At this point, even Ekian wanted to strangle himself.

Anyway, thanks to that, Ekian had become capable of viewing himself objectively.

It meant that if Judith suddenly said, ‘Please give me time alone with Hud to catch up,’ everyone would desperately cooperate with Judith’s secret for the sake of Hud’s life.

Well, it wasn’t that he suspected Judith.

Even so, the thought of the two of them spending time together without him knowing was horrifying. He had suffered for far too long because of Hud’s name.

“M-Madam….”

Meanwhile, the butler knocked with a trembling voice.

“Th-That… the Grand Duke… has arrived.”

Then Judith’s extremely flustered voice came from inside the drawing room.

“Hm? Shouldn’t he be in his office at this hour? He’s supposed to be very busy with work right now.”

Then was it really planned after all, inviting Hud over while he was busy?

As his imagination started running wild, rapid footsteps suddenly echoed over, and the door swung wide open.

“Ah, Ekian.”

She blinked with a somewhat flushed face.

“What brings you here? First… hmm, come in.”

In that brief moment, Ekian confirmed that the guest in the drawing room wasn’t Hud. It was an older female doctor.

The relief only lasted for a moment before an even greater anxiety swept over him.

Not even the Grand Duke’s attending physician, but she invited a new doctor into the house? Why would there be a reason for that?

Was Judith really sick somewhere after all?

So she secretly called in a doctor she had no prior connection with….

While he stood frozen for a moment in anxious confusion, Judith took hold of his wrist.

“I thought you’d be busy…. Sit next to me.”

When Ekian sat beside Judith with a bewildered expression, the doctor, who had been putting away medical equipment, smiled brightly and said, “Congratulations, Your Highness.”

At that moment, Ekian thought the world had stopped.

“I’ve just confirmed Her Highness the Grand Duchess’s pregnancy.”