Chapter 144 - 143: Adena’s Birthday Party

Eleanore walked past the courtyard along with her supposed husband to the mansion where the party is to be held. It had been months since they had not appeared in any public event or even spotted simply on the road like a normal newlywed couple on a date.

There was no honeymoon planned for them like she had heard her brother taking Stella to some foreign country. Forget going on honeymoon, they haven’t even shared a word since the day Stella appeared at the mansion.

"You look annoyed." Eleanore asks Caelestis who was looking around unstoppably, as if annoyed by something.

"I am not. Just exhausted." They enter the Velrose mansion. "My grandfather might say a few rubbish words. Ignore him." He reminds her.

"I know. How many more times are you going to say that? Moreover, it isn’t like you don’t want me to face that right?" A smile erupts on her face immediately as she enters the hall. "Him saying rubbish would surely make you happy, right?" She turned to him, wearing that same fake smile.

"Whatever." He just wards it off, tired of hearing the same question with a few words missing, every time he tries to protect her.

As if like him, she is also trying to find ways to push all the blame on him for everything that happens to her.

Caelestis walks to his grandfather and introduces Eleanore.

"Pleasure to meet you, Marquis." She bows.

The old marquis laughs, "The pleasure is all mine. Afterall, it is rare to see women like you who have done unladylike things. For example, running away to get married to your years-long crush." He laughs again

Eleanore, annoyed and tired of these taunts, shot back. "Grandfather, I am not the only one who did unladylike things such as running away to get married to your nephew." Her gaze moves to Caelestis.

"Caelestis too, did the same." Her face jolts back to the old fart. "Or did he tell you before marrying me?" She slides her hand up on his arm and rests her forehead on his shoulder.

"Honey?" She calls him. "Did you tell him everything?"

To this, her husband turns speechless. He had not expected Eleanore to reply in such a manner. It almost felt like she had turned into her old self.

"I didn’t." He answered, looking hesitant and somewhat scared by her sudden shift in behaviour.

"I thought so." She slaps on his chest, and she smiles for his grandfather.

His grandfather’s face shifts from feeling confident on suppressing Eleanore to feeling disgusted by her every word.

He clears his throat before speaking his mind again. "Then Duchess, may I steal your dear husband for a while?"

"Sure." She let’s go off him.

"Thank you."

Eleanore chuckles, it sounded as fake as his ’thank you’.

"See, if you ask kindly, I will not make things so difficult for you." She smiles before leaving the space that consisted of three bastards. Caelestis, his uncle and his grandfather, each a bigger asshole than the other.

Turns out it runs in the family. His father too was like him. Somehow Eleanore’s cuteness melted him.

Strange family!

Eleanore joins the ladies in the sitting area. Most of them ignored her appearance, except for Stella but Eleanore ignored her. She was about to take a seat, but Adena stopped her.

"There is no place for you here, Lady Eleanore." She says, keeping aside her wine and her useless conversation with the other ladies.

"I was not present for a few days, and the cats have started to show their claws." Eleanore scoffs, pulling the chair behind ready to sit.

"Also, it looks like you are not aware about this, but I am no longer just a lady. I am married and have earned the title of Duchess." She adjusts her bulky dress as she settles down on that chair.

"Earned? Are you sure about that?" Flora spoke up.

Like the last few months, she was again sitting next to Adena and spitting rubbish. Her words would feel like a needle from time to time but Eleanore had learned to ignore her. She simply gave a look and turned to Daphne, with a smile.

"Pleasure to see you here, Lady Daphne." Eleanore greets her and for a while Daphne remains quiet and shocked. She looked around but Eleanore’s gaze didn’t shift from hers, eventually her face melted into a smile.

For some reason though, that smile was unsettling as if she was waiting for this moment eagerly but acting like she was shocked.

"Yes, Duchess." She replies.

"Ladies, can you believe that a person among us has married at such a young age?" Adena begins, her gaze first travels to Stella and then skips Eleanore completely.

"I am not young, Lady Adena. I am 19 and will soon be 20 in three months. How can you call that young?" Stella defended herself, feeling annoyed and ridiculed to sit here. However, she has no choice; she cannot lie in the corner doing nothing, like before. She is now the duchess of the kingdom, and she has responsibilities to follow.

"Also, I am not the only one who got married." Stella turned to Eleanore wearing a soft smile.

Eleanore did not smile, but she couldn’t even resist her gaze.

"Can a woman be considered married, if her husband doesn’t even love her back?" Flora asked a ridiculous question.

It was on that day that the noble ladies came to know about the fact that their friendship had officially broken. The only thing that was left between them was hatred and nothing more. The two that once used to be known as the example of best friends had now turned into enemies.

"How are you so sure that my husband doesn’t love me?" Eleanore questions her reasoning.

Adena jumped into the conversation. "I have never seen you two laughing, going out on a date or even kissing. I am pretty sure you two aren’t even sleeping in the same bed." She laughs and a few follow her.