He Pretended To Love Me For Her

Chapter 5

Gisela's POV:

Now that I knew the whole truth, I couldn't keep up the act of being a doting, loving couple with him for a second longer. I never had his knack for masking every single one of his emotions flawlessly, decades on end without a single slip-up.

Leopold snapped his head around to glare at me, his eyes swirling with a sharp, piercing chill. "You went through the journal in my study."

It wasn't a question, not even a tentative probe. It was a statement of absolute certainty, laced with frosty, bone-chilling killing intent.

I didn't bother hiding it anymore. I nodded, calm and unflinching. "That's right. I read it."

That was exactly why I planned to tell him the truth about where I really came from. He'd been reborn too, with all his memories from his past life intact. Surely he'd be more receptive to the bizarre concept of someone being reborn in another person's body, rather than writing me off as some inauspicious monster.

For a long moment, his emotions roiled violently behind his eyes. Then, all at once, he looked like a huge weight had been lifted off his chest.

"Don't say that out of spite. Who else would you be if not Gisela?" He'd decided I was just throwing a tantrum over what I'd read in the journal, and plowed straight into his explanation without letting me get a word in. "Everything in there is fake, I—"

I cut him off, my voice rough and trembling. "Marquis, you shouldn't lie when you're in a church to pray."

He froze dead on the spot.

My lips shook uncontrollably as I kept going. "I also know the person you were praying so hard for just now in the chapel... is Anastasia."

Forcing those words out felt like carving a chunk straight out of my heart. The pain was so sharp I could barely draw a steady breath.

I fought to get my breath back for what felt like forever, then spoke again, my words rushing out so fast they almost tripped over each other. "You should remember perfectly well. When she was in danger at the suburban church in our past life, I wasn't even in the royal capital. I also know that three months later, a war would break out at the border fortress. Philip would lead the troops into battle, only to get trapped by the enemy in an isolated city. Anastasia would rush to the front lines alone to rescue him, and you followed along on horseback the whole way, even secretly teaming up with Philip to beat the enemy back." I then forced a bitter, wobbly smile. "Every word I just said is spot-on, isn't it?"

He snapped his hand around my wrist, his knuckles white as he squeezed so hard I thought he'd crush my bones to powder. "How in the world do you know all this?"

Tears spilled down my cheeks in an instant, and they had nothing to do with the throbbing pain in my wrist. It was just the bitter, heavy ache clogging up every inch of my chest.

He'd poured so much of himself into Anastasia, and never gotten even a crumb of her affection in return. Just like me in this lifetime. I'd bared my heart and soul, given him everything I had, and still couldn't win even a sliver of his real care.

Every last ending was already spelled out clear as day in that manuscript.

I lifted my chin, steadying my voice as I went on. "I told you a long time ago, I'm not the real Gisela. You left the capital under the pretense of handling the southern floods, right? Even if the original Gisela came back to life with all her memories, there's no way she'd know these hidden, unspoken events that no outsider ever caught wind of."

He let go of my wrist so suddenly his arm jerked back, and he stared fixed, unblinking at my face, the look in his eyes shifting completely. I could tell he finally believed every word I'd said. But suspicion still lingered heavy on his face.

"If you have no connection to her at all, why do you go out of your way to protect her every time?" he asked.

He'd always been on guard against me hurting Anastasia. The second anything involved her, he was instantly on high alert, walls all the way up.

"It's a mission I have to see through. Two people who are obviously head over heels for each other shouldn't have to suffer through hell just to end up together."

He went quiet for a long while, then his expression softened a little. "Is there anything you want to ask me?"

Ask him what? Ask him if, in all these years, there was even a single second he actually loved me?

But the sharp, lingering ache on my neck was still impossible to ignore. The short knife that had pressed against my throat the day before had already given me the answer, loud and clear. Even if I forced myself to ask, I'd only be setting myself up for even more humiliation.

Suddenly, my mind drifted back to the night the main couple got married, which happened to coincide with the town's church festival.

The system's voice cut through my thoughts. "Host, your main quest is almost complete. When do you plan to leave this world?"

Back then, Leopold and I were standing by the riverbank. I watched as he carefully lowered a wooden wishing plaque carved with both our names into the water, letting the current carry it away.

He turned to the estate guard standing beside him and ordered, "Track that plaque the whole way. Don't let it go off course. Make sure it floats all the way downstream along the Love River."

The locals had a name for that river, of course—the Love River.

I couldn't hold back a soft smile, and replied to the system in my head. "I've decided to stay in this world. I want to spend the rest of my life with him."

The system sounded completely shocked. "Then all the quest points you've saved up this whole time will be completely wiped out. Is that worth it, just for a man?"

"System, you don't understand what it feels like to love someone.” I reached out and slipped my hand into Leopold's. My chest was brimming with hope for the future, and I'd never felt more sure of anything in my life. "It's worth it."

That one light, carefree word I'd tossed out back then hit me like a bullet right then, boring straight through my chest.

I slowly closed my eyes. "I have nothing to ask you. There's only one thing I want to beg you for."

Leopold let out a long, slow breath of relief. "As long as you have no intention of hurting her, we can work anything out. You'll keep your title as my marchioness, no trouble, no questions asked. Any jewelry, estates, exclusive ball privileges—name it, and I'll give it all to you.”

I dipped into a small, proper curtsy, my tone steady, every word deliberate and unmistakeable. "All I beg of you, my lord, is to agree to annul our marriage pact."