The Regretful Villainess is Happily Divorced

Chapter 1

The Regretful Man’s Wife

“Are you too tired again tonight?” I asked my husband as he returned home late at night.

Oscar glanced at me, his blue eyes cold as ice. “Yes,” he said simply, passing his coat to the butler. “Let’s sleep separately tonight as well.”

He walked right past me on those long legs without even giving me a second glance. As he did, I caught the slightest whiff of spring grass. It was the feminine scent of Serwen, the woman he had been seeing in secret.

“Dear!” I called as I hurried after Oscar. “I want to talk to you, dear. Dear!”

“I said, I’m tired!” Oscar roared. He gritted his teeth as if he were sick of me and slammed the door to his room in my face.

It was beyond disrespectful. I stared at the closed door with a wistful look and let out a soft sigh. My husband was the worst.

He really won’t bring up divorce, huh? Despite his cold shoulder, not to mention his affair, Oscar never once mentioned divorce. The man was incredibly stubborn, and this whole time, I had been holding back from suggesting it myself.

Was it out of love for my husband? No! I had to hold back because I couldn’t bring it up first. It was all because of the damned laws of the kingdom. According to the law, the person who proposed the divorce had to pay alimony. It was a stupid law that claimed that one must be willing to pay the price for violating the sanctity of marriage.

I didn’t do anything wrong, and I didn’t want to compensate Oscar just because I wanted a divorce. That was why I was pretending to be obsessed with him until he was so sick and tired of me that he had no choice but to ask for one himself. All the while, I had prayed to myself that he would get sick of me soon.

But this ends here. I’m at my limit, I thought as I bit my lower lip.

The maids crept around me as they entered Oscar’s room. To them, I was probably an angry woman, my pride wounded by my husband’s unkind treatment.

I took a deep breath before I opened his bedroom door. I looked my husband straight in the eyes and said, “I want a divorce.”

Oscar furrowed his brow.

***

Adversity fueled love. A fruit beyond a hurdle looked even sweeter than it was. I was the hurdle that the male lead of this story had to overcome, a hurdle that made the female lead look ever so sweet. At the same time, I was the very reason the male lead, who was in denial about his feelings, realized that he was in love with the female lead.

I had been transported into a mature, dark romance web novel called The Portrait of a Watery Green. I was the woman in a marriage of convenience, exploited by the regretful male lead.

—“You wish to marry me? I have no intention of jeopardizing my reputation by marrying a slave girl, Serwen.”

Oscar, the male lead, had said this to Serwen, the woman who yearned for his love, before promptly wedding the daughter of an influential family—me, Marlena.

Yet Oscar didn’t entirely abandon Serwen either. He confined her to a shack in some back alley and visited her periodically. She, understandably, became wary of him.

—“You’re married! Why are you doing this to me? Please, let go of me.”

“I don’t like it when you stir me up with those words.”

Oh, boy—that’s what I couldn’t help but think whenever I recalled the novel. Even now, I almost said it out loud.

—“I don’t want to hurt Her Grace. Please, go back.”

“I told you not to stir me up.”

I didn’t know what about those words would “stir him up.” Either way, Oscar growled as he jumped on Serwen’s slight frame, as if he was suddenly overcome with the urge to dominate her. And then… I’ll omit the rest. Let’s just leave it at that.

Honestly, I felt bad for Serwen. However, her next thoughts in that scene were ridiculous.

—This man is mine. Even though he’s married, his heart is with me. It’s pathetic, but his wife, the duchess, must be so lonely in that splendid mansion. I can’t believe she’s his wife, but she doesn’t have his heart! Poor woman…

I scoffed when I recalled her inner monologue. They were having an affair. Birds of a feather flocked together.

The surprising thing was that this crazy novel that romanticized adultery was on the most popular list for a long time. It was probably because The Portrait of a Watery Green was such a sensational story. The comment section was filled with people berating Oscar and Serwen, though they were nevertheless also eager to see how the story would end. Honestly, it was fun because it was so problematic.

However… I let out a deep sigh. It was only fun when you were a reader with popcorn in hand. It was no fun at all to be Marlena, the woman Oscar married out of convenience.

Marlena was a foolish villainess who had long been in love with Oscar. She was born into a powerful family, but he was her sole purpose in life. She fell in love with Oscar at first sight and threw a tantrum in front of her family, demanding that they let her marry him.

That said, there were all sorts of formalities and procedures involved in noble marriages. Marquess Loewysome, Marlena’s father, tried to persuade her to wait a little longer—but she threatened that their family’s reputation would be at stake the longer they waited.

The marquess scoffed as if saying, “Do it! I’d like to see you try!” So Marlena, the unattached young woman she was, started pursuing multiple men at once.

In the end, the marquess threw up his hands and coldly said to Marlena, “Very well. I never had high expectations for you, but I hardly expected that you’d be such a hellion. This is your last chance. Will you change your mind, or will you relinquish your rights to the family for the sake of a loveless marriage?”

“I’ll give up my rights!” Marlena had declared. This meant she was adamant about marrying Oscar, even if it meant being disowned and bringing shame to her family.

Duke Oscar Creedwell was a distant member of the royal family, but his noble house had its issues. On the other hand, House Loewysome was prestigious and steeped in tradition. They had nothing to gain from this marriage, which was why the marquess scolded Marlena, borderline begging her to stop chasing after this man. However, Marlena would not change her mind.

—“I’m going to marry him, Father. And when I do, I’m confident I’ll win his heart.”

Honestly… I thought. Where did her confidence come from?

Marquess Loewysome realized that there wasn’t even a remote possibility his headstrong daughter would change her mind. He sought out Oscar himself, and with his head bowed, begged him to marry Marlena.

Just like that, Marlena married Oscar, much to the humiliation of her family. She had been so desperate to marry him that she had lost too much in the process. Therefore, Oscar had no reason to be faithful to his wife. In the novel, he neglected Marlena, always saying that he was “too tired.”

Of course. To him, she was no better than chopped liver after renouncing her rights to her family’s inheritance. Plus, he was head over heels for Serwen.

Marrying Marlena just added spice to Oscar’s relationship with Serwen. It was more or less his way of telling Serwen that he had no intention of marrying her. Hurting her was a kind of catharsis for Oscar.

This guy isn’t normal, either… To think that he’d choose something as life-changing as marriage for such trivial pleasure… Well, maybe he was just that confident in himself.

However, there was something that Oscar hadn’t considered—Marlena’s morbid obsession with him. If she had been more reasonably obsessed, he could’ve continued living like this. However, he must have grown sick and tired of Marlena, since in a shocking turn of events, he brought up divorce first. He even offered to support her after their divorce so she could live without wanting anything. Considering how he felt about Marlena, it was a shocking proposition.

However, she wouldn’t accept that. She was a duchess now, after all. So her obsession with Oscar only grew. Marlena did everything you’d expect out of the villainess of a spicy dark romance novel, a woman who was always under fire no matter what she did. Desperate to achieve her goal, she tried to get Oscar to drink a love potion. She also tried to get him intoxicated so she could conceive a child with him. Of course, each attempt failed, and his hatred for her seeped down to his very bones.

As the days passed, Marlena discovered Serwen’s existence. She planned to ruin the common woman’s pretty face by attacking her with chemicals.

—“You stole my husband from me!”

Just then, like a knight in shining armor, Oscar dashed in and grabbed Marlena’s wrist.

—“What do you think you’re doing?!”

And the rest of the story was pretty predictable. Oscar realized his true feelings for Serwen the moment he was about to lose her. But Serwen, traumatized by the terrible events, completely closed her heart to him.

It was chaos in the comment section. Readers started fighting. They were split because Oscar was objectively an asshole, but Marlena had also been portrayed as a despicable person herself. Most readers felt bad for Serwen, possibly because of how she was portrayed before Marlena entered the picture. None of them were normal, but that ridiculous drama probably made it more entertaining.

Then right when the story reached the climatic moment, the author went on hiatus for health reasons. According to their social media, Marlena would make her exit, while a second male lead would enter the picture. The author actually hinted that he might have already been introduced.

To be honest, I didn’t really care. Neither Marlena’s attempts to conceive a child nor mar Serwen’s face would be happening as long as I was in her body. Those cheaters could live happily ever after, for all I cared. It was none of my business.

I just wanted to get out of here. After all, it was the old Marlena in love with Oscar in the first place, not me. There was nothing to be heartbroken over. Any pity Serwen felt for Marlena was wasted on me.

***

Oscar glanced at me when I said I wanted to get a divorce. He sighed and waved his hand. “You’ll do anything to get my attention,” he said. He sounded like he had enough of me.

I crossed my arms, a small smirk on my face. “I’m not trying to get your attention. I just want a divorce.”

“You’ve been disowned by your family. You’ll barely be able to make ends meet paying alimony.”

“No, you’ll be the one paying,” I said confidently.

He gave me a cold smile. “Did you forget the laws of the kingdom, you fool? Who’s the one asking for a divorce here?”

Ha, the laws of the kingdom. It was because of those stupid laws that I had kept my head down and pretended to be obsessed with Oscar, hoping that he’d divorce me. My original plan was to follow the novel’s storyline, in which Marlena made a clean break from Oscar after he begged her for a divorce, promising to cover the alimony and all.

That said, I did have a backup plan—I just hadn’t wanted to use it because it didn’t seem as easy as the original route. However, Oscar didn’t seem likely to divorce me anytime soon, and I couldn’t take it any longer.

“You know a woman named Serwen, right?” I asked with my arms crossed.

My disinterested husband’s face hardened at my words.