The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 207: Only an illusion

Clara wanted to earn a benefit from her husband’s side too. He was a commoner but could have her, a very beautiful and talented noble lady, as a wife. He would indeed be regarded as a lucky man for that reason alone, and she would please him with all she had. But of course, in return, he had to please her with all she demanded.

Therefore, she would give all of her to make her dream husband kneel in front of her, being addicted to her and begging for her love and affection. And all of her predictions and calculations were laid right before her eyes, as when they talked in the park. Joanna gave her a hint that she really did not want to continue her marriage, although she wondered why the General came to Terra if there was no affection between them.

But Clara did not want to waste time thinking of that much, as her main purpose was that she did not want to lose the chance to allure the General with all the charm she had.

Nonetheless, to her bewilderment, for the first time in her life, Clara felt that she was not a beautiful lady that had captivated so many eyes on her. She also felt that she was not a beautiful lady that had caused so many women to envy her with her angelic look.

All in her entire life, no man avoided or rejected her. During her time when she was breathing until that day when she could have a look over the man whom she adored closely, there was no man not praise her for her beauty.

Every man that came to approach her had plead and beg for her hands in the marriage with them, asking her to be the mother of their children. None of them threw their gazes away from her. It was she who had shown her reluctance to see them, thinking that her worth was too high for them all and they did not deserve her priceless figure.

And that day was the first time for her to find a man who had a deep, warm affection for a lady through his eyes. But that gaze was not aimed at her. Instead, it was unwaveringly directed at a lady whose charm and value were not worth being compared to her.

But why? Wasn’t she far more beautiful than Joanna de Lara?

Amidst the anger that sparked inside her, there was a trace of hope that her dream was not shattered yet. It was when the lady at whom the piercing gaze of the man was directed gave her a sign that she did not want to continue their marriage.

She asked her some questions about her feelings towards that man after he held a status as a married man. She was utterly surprised, wondering her motives for questioning her with those questions. Whether she was mocking her or being serious was hard to decipher at that time.

But after observing that lady’s demeanor, she found her avoiding the man’s gaze and shrank when he approached to hug her. Her puffy eyes helped her to conclude, as they spoke volumes, that she had cried, implying to her that she had a miserable married life.

As if intending to help that lady obtain freedom from the marriage that she did not want, she opened up her feelings that still remained the same for that man. But what she got in turn was humiliation by none other than the man who kept his gaze on that woman.

She was clearly rejected and even advised to receive a marriage proposal from another man before she grew old and her beauty faded away.

But why was he not attracted to her? What did Joanna have that made him oppose her intention for marriage annulment, telling others in silence that the plea for marriage annulment was not true? What did she not have that Joanna had, which made him stare at her with an unwaveringly warm gaze?

Nevertheless, despite the treatment she received, her desire was not dim yet, as she found him to be a loyal man, which made her admire him more. If only she was chosen as his wife in the first place, how happy she would have been in her whole life to have a loyal husband who would give anything she wanted no matter the impossibility?

But then a question emerged in her mind. What made Joanna not willing to become his wife, who had shown affection to her? Was the rumor true that he was actually a ’cut sleeve’ and he was actually pretending to be a normal man who was attracted to his wife? Was it why he was not attracted to her, the most beautiful lady in Barasca, because he thought that it was easier to control that kind of timid and weak lady?

If it were true, Clara personally viewed that as a trivial matter, although society strongly condemned that kind of sexual orientation. Thus, they hid it from public eyes, pretending to be normal, using marriage as a mask to hide their true color.

If it were true, she was still willing to accept him as husband, helping him cover that from public eyes, because she also believed that with all the charm she had she could change him to be solely attracted to her, not to other women or to the same gender.

If he could not change, what matters to her was that she had an heir with him. It was her way to secure her position as his wife, as she did not want to lose all the privileges she had as the wife of the famous and prominent General of Archess. Because Clara believed that aside from his physical appearance that made her unable to shift her eyes anywhere else, this man was not a simple man.

He was a potentially competent man. He was still young but had achieved a position that could not be achieved by most men in general. Hence, he still had time to soar highly, which would make her soar as well. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com

The more they soared, the more respect and acknowledgement she could gain, and the more her affluence would grow.

It was Clara’s dream, as she preferred to have a challenging life compared to a boring life as the wife of an incompetent and weak aristocrat who gained everything from their ancestor.

Nonetheless, despite all her readiness and acceptance to be the General’s wife, the obstacle was still there. If Joanna could not accept him because he was a ’cut sleeve’, then why was she still with him instead of processing the marriage annulment? Why did they look so good in harmony, smiling and staring with a lot of affection from both sides?

What had been said by one of her friends was not wrong—that they were not acting. If she did not deny that but admit what she saw through her own eyes, all they performed was genuinely like what lovers would do to each other.

A wife beaming with happiness and a husband gazing lovingly at his wife. It was what Clara saw.

It was not a pretentious action. It was genuine affection. There was nothing that was forced, as if what she perceived in that park was only an illusion. But that fact alone made her heart rage more. Hence, she denied it, creating what she wanted to see rather than admitting what she had seen.