Chapter 236
“Right, right. So…”
“Maybe I’d feel a little more secure if you had three children, like in that old folktale.”
Adeline smirked at his reference to a tale similar to The Heavenly Maiden and the Woodcutter in her previous world.
In the end, even that celestial maiden left with all three of her children, but Adeline feigned ignorance.
“Then let’s have two more.”
“No.”
“Oh, why not? Isn’t Lisa adorable? The second and third will be just as cute. I want more children.”
“I told you, Adeline. If I’d known having children meant risking your life, I would have been meticulous about contraception from the start.”
“But we can’t avoid having children altogether. Besides, even if I’m on the verge of death, Genevieve could save me.”
“Your life, your safety—none of it is negotiable. Don’t bother trying to convince me, my love.”
“If you love me, you should respect my wishes.”
“And since this is about family planning, you should respect mine too.”
Shane’s tone was firm and resolute.
Although the labor had been short and intense, lasting only two hours, the excessive blood loss had nearly cost Adeline her life. Ever since hearing about that, Shane had been scrupulous about contraception whenever they were intimate.
That didn’t mean the frequency of their intimacy had decreased.
“If Lisa grows up alone, she’ll feel lonely.”
“Lisa will likely never even know what loneliness feels like. For one, Lloyd wouldn’t let her.”
“…But what about when Lisa gets married…?”
“…I don’t want to imagine such a dreadful future just yet. But if she absolutely has to marry, she can bring her husband to live with us as a live-in son-in-law.”
“You really hate the idea, Shane…”
“It’s not that I dislike children, Adeline.”
Shane pressed a firm kiss against her temple.
If Adeline was his color, Lisa was his warmth.
Finding pieces of Adeline in Lisa made her existence unbearably lovable, as if she were a miracle in itself. Yet, no matter how precious Lisa was, it didn’t change the fact that Adeline had risked her life to bring her into the world.
Adeline had a high tolerance for pain and rarely cried out, no matter how excruciating the agony. It was as though she thought herself the hero of an epic, enduring the pain of torn flesh with gritted teeth.
No matter how hard it had been for her, how much she had screamed, or writhed in agony, she always brushed it off afterward, treating it as if it were no big deal.
But during Lisa’s birth, Adeline had screamed for two hours straight, something entirely out of character. It was unimaginable how much pain she must have endured.
While Adeline risked her life in unimaginable agony, Shane had been left trembling in fear, powerless behind a wall. The terror of that moment was too much to bear.
If Adeline had died giving birth, Shane knew he could never love Lisa the way he did now. He would have cherished her as Adeline’s trace, loved her as a reminder of Adeline, but it wouldn’t have been the same as loving Lisa for Lisa.
“Jeff mentioned recently that Lisa will never have a boyfriend.”
“That would be ideal,” Shane chuckled lightly.
“Who could handle it? Most would flee at the mere sight of her guardians or caretakers’ glares.”
“Cowards.”
“…Wouldn’t most people run away?”
Even Genevieve had gained a sharper, more imposing presence since becoming pope. Rumors claimed that ogres fled at the sight of her glare.
Though obviously exaggerated, it underscored her commanding aura.
Come to think of it, Lisa didn’t even have friends, let alone a boyfriend.
Anyone who tried to approach her was met with suspicion and interference from Lloyd, Genevieve, or others.
‘Is my daughter going to end up a loner?’
“It’s still a long way off, Adeline. You don’t need to worry about it already.”
Our daughter is only three years old.
*
That evening, at a dinner meeting with Crown Prince Edwin, the marriage proposal was brought up.
In the cold, tense atmosphere, Edwin remained the only one calm and unshaken.
“It’s just a proposal, Shane. I’m not telling you to accept it.”
“I understand.”
“You don’t look like you understand.”
His face looked ready to tear someone apart.
“The Crown Prince of the Remvi Kingdom sent the proposal. To be precise, he asked me to act as an intermediary.”
“The Remvi Kingdom…”
Adeline searched her memory.
She recalled the incident in which a Remvi princess, Edwin’s former fiancée, had staged a coup to depose her parents and crown the man she loved as king.
And now, the proposed suitor was their son.
What kind of plot twist is this?
‘Is this seriously not a novel?’
