Chapter 113
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It wasnât just Jessie and Yona who congratulated her on her recovery.
The larks, Melanie, Jeffrey.
Even the other servants.
Everyone sincerely celebrated Ninaâs recovery.
âJust a few months ago, I couldnât have expected anything like thisâŚâ
The Bayern estate was no longer an uncomfortable place.
Though they were witnesses to her dark history and it could be awkward when the past resurfaced, unlike before, they were now kind to her.
âIâd really like to hole up at home like this and just hold out until the divorceâŚâ
The problem was, that wasnât possible. And for the honor of the Taylor family, she had to erase her disgraceful past from high society.
She had prevented a major incident at the Granvil ducal manor, hosted guests from the Kingdom of Osk at the imperial palace, and earned praise for her charitable deeds at the charity event, butâŚ
It still didnât feel like it was enough.
ââŚLetâs start with a mid-term review.â
A mid-term review.
When she had first come up with the plan for a safe divorce, Nina had focused on âatonementâ.
Most of all, dissolving her husbandâs resentment toward her.
Everything else, like improving her image or reconciling with family, had been secondary.
What mattered most to her was preventing her familyâs downfall.
âFor now, my relationship with my husband has improved more than expected.â
His attitude toward her, from an objective standpoint, had improved dramatically.
The only problem was that she didnât know how he would react when the divorce actually happened. That uncertainty was what made her uneasy.
âI have to settle the damage Iâve caused him before I leave, rightâŚ?â
Her husband was not like the Marquis and Marchioness of Ulverni, or Count Azelot.
He may have had a typical amount of greed for money, but he wasnât someone who would overstep his bounds.
Still, during a divorce, no one would walk away without taking what theyâre owed.
Once divorced, they would be strangers.
And when money was involved, even the closest of friends could fall out. Being overly optimistic might lead to regret.
No matter how well they got along, nothing stood a chance in front of a large sum of money.
âIf I want to leave with peace of mind, I need to sort out the financials cleanly before I go.â
Only then would she be able to say she had done right by him.
Nina entered the dressing room and opened the safe.
The safe, once full of IOUs and wealth, was now nearly empty.
The larks had completed their missions, burned the IOUs, and returned all the money they had taken.
After sending the litigation support donation promised at the charity event to the Bar Association, this was what remainedâŚ
With a grave expression, Nina murmured,
âIâm pennilessâŚâ
âMadam, you still have many assets that havenât been liquidated yet. Donât worry. Youâre still richâŚâ
As Marsha said, even just selling off the rows of dresses crammed on the racks would be enough to keep her from starving.
âBut the catch is that most of itâs on creditâŚâ
The real problem was that more than half of it had been bought on tab.
She had used the householdâs allotted budget for her to make the purchases, meaning the creditor was Duke Bayern.
No matter how expensive the dresses, she couldnât sell them at full price.
Even if she sold them all, it would be questionable whether she could fully repay what she had borrowed for appearanceâs sake.
âIf only I hadnât overdone it at the charity event, I couldâve had enough left to live in comfort in the countryside.â
It had been great to defeat Rebecca thanks to the help from the Barrington Barony, but the fact that her spending had doubled in the process stung a little.
âMadam, even so, you still have your dowry.â
âThatâs trueâŚâ
The dowry.
The money a woman received from her family upon marriage. Effectively, it was an early inheritance.
Even in the event of a divorce, it was meant to be a foundation for the womanâs independence.
Ninaâs dowry had been so large that it became a hot topic in high society two years ago.
If she just left with that money, she could live comfortably for the rest of her life.
âBut in my previous life, I didnât get it backâŚâ
Her husband had seized it under the guise of alimony through a provisional seizure lawsuit.
And afterward, when her family fell to ruin, she couldnât even hire a lawyer to take the case, and ended up losing in court in a ridiculous fashion.
That kind of extreme ending didnât seem like a concern this time, butâŚ
She still intended to pay a portion of the dowry as alimony.
No matter what she did, she could never truly make up for the two years her husband had suffered through because of her.
Before the divorce, she decided she would tidy up the dressing room and repay the allowance allotted to her by the duchy.
To sell all this off by then, she needed to start letting go of it little by little from now onâŚ
