Chapter 1
“W-why are you acting like this? You weren’t like this before…?”
“Like this?”
Rachel smiled.
“What do you mean, ‘like this’? Someone who turns a blind eye while her husband cheats? Someone who begs a man—who has never once seen her as a woman—to love her?”
“Rachel…”
Theodore, her husband who had been having an affair with a woman nine years his junior for over seven years, looked utterly stunned.
He deserved it.
The woman who had believed he could do anything and she would still forgive and love him was now looking down at him with a cold, unyielding expression.
“I don’t need anything else. Divorce me.”
Rachel threw the papers she was holding carelessly. They fluttered through the air, grazing Theodore’s cheek before falling to the floor.
With trembling hands, Theodore picked up the divorce papers and looked at them.
“Divorce… I can’t…”
“I knew you’d say that. The papers were just a formality; you can tear them up if you want. I’ve already submitted a request to the noble council to annul our marriage—for tax evasion, embezzlement, and dishonoring the Count family. Do you understand?”
There was no answer.
Rachel took the ring off her left hand and threw it at him, explaining again with startling clarity:
“Whether you like it or not, our marriage is over.”
People fall into two categories.
Those who are pushovers, and those who aren’t. Unfortunately, Rachel Ellosa had been a pushover.
“Madam, perhaps you could try some skincare? I’ve heard the perfume sold at the new general store makes your skin smooth. If you like, I can bring some next time you visit!”
It was Jane, her husband’s mistress, who came to Rachel’s house and spoke first. Rachel, ever good-natured, fawned over Theodore when he came.
“Jane seems so kind and polite. Can I invite her again next time?”
“Of course,” Theodore smiled.
Theodore, who liked going out, always stayed in the mansion whenever Jane visited.
Rachel was happy. Even though it was an arranged marriage, she genuinely loved her tall and gentle husband.
But Theodore did not love Rachel. He had married her for her money and title. From the beginning, his heart belonged to Jane.
Theodore was the eldest son of the Ellosa Count family, and his mother, Berengela, was strict. He knew she would never accept Jane, who was of common birth.
Their obligatory marital relationship ended after they had a son, Graham. In recent years, Theodore hadn’t even touched Rachel’s hand. Naive Rachel simply assumed he was busy and tired.
Over time, Theodore and Jane’s affair grew brazen.
Finally, when Graham turned five, Rachel witnessed them together, naked and entwined.
It happened on a day she had planned a rare trip with Graham. Theodore was too busy to join and had given the butler and staff a day off.
From the morning, accidents kept happening—cups breaking, sudden rain, carriage wheels breaking—and soon after departing, Graham fell ill.
They bought medicine at a nearby pharmacy, but when there was no improvement, they hurried back home.
Believing no one was in the mansion, Rachel cared for Graham alone until late at night.
She finally relaxed when his fever broke around dawn and returned to her room to change clothes, only to hear:
“I love you, Jane.”
“I-I love you too!”
On the very bed Rachel had slept in, Theodore and Jane lay intertwined.
Everything fit together perfectly, and Rachel discovered her husband’s betrayal for the first time.
It had been eight years since Theodore and Jane began their relationship, and seven years since Theodore married Rachel.
“Theo… were you… with Jane?”
“With her? What are you talking about?”
“I saw it! Both of you… doing that…!”
“You were just tired from taking care of Graham and imagined it, weren’t you?”
Theodore denied it.
Rachel was close to losing her mind.
The betrayal of the first man she had ever loved—the man she had firmly believed loved her back—was excruciating.
All she could do was hope Theodore’s denial was true and take him back, wishing what she saw had been an illusion.
Even if it were true, she hoped his affair with Jane was over.
It was an absurd, impossible betrayal.
She still smelled another woman on Theodore, and there were financial irregularities in the household.
Unable to endure it any longer, Rachel stepped up.
“I love you, Theo.”
“What are you saying all of a sudden?”
“Even though our marriage was arranged, I love you. And you?”
“Me?”
“Do you love me?”
Sadly, Theodore shook his head.
“You’re a good wife. Frugal, kind, running the household, giving birth to an heir. But… I do not love you. That’s just how arranged marriages are.”
The night Rachel witnessed the affair, Theodore had whispered love to Jane. But he had never once said he loved Rachel after their marriage.
Rachel hired people to follow Theodore.
They met openly outside the mansion, in places that weren’t even particularly secluded.
Everyone knew they were lovers. When asked how many times they said “I love you,” the observer said it was too many to count.
Rachel despaired. She felt her life had no meaning and even attempted to hang herself in Theodore’s bedroom when Graham was six.
Graham was devastated.
He grew up alone in the vast mansion, with neither mother nor father. He closed off his heart and ceased believing in love, becoming a cold and merciless killer.
Fortunately, Graham met Princess Dolorasa, kind and warm-hearted. She couldn’t ignore his wounded heart and embraced him.
Her sincerity melted Graham’s frozen heart, and eventually, they became lovers, living happily together.
This was the story of the novel “What is Love?”
In the book, Rachel’s role was so minor that she barely inspired sympathy.
She was overly kind and fragile, unable to withstand pain, and made a tragic choice. She left trauma for Graham. Nothing more, nothing less.
To be possessed into the body of such a woman—her luck was terrible.
Before possession, Rachel had been close to Graham’s perspective: her father cheated, his mistress tormented her weak mother. She had witnessed it all growing up.
And now, to be in the body of the wife of a brazenly cheating man who looked just like her father—it was maddening!
It would have been ideal to possess her before marriage and annul the affair-prone husband—but Graham had already been born.
Theodore and Jane were in the height of their passionate affair.
Worse, tomorrow was the day Theodore would bring Jane to the mansion for the first time.
There was no choice now.
She would make them pay for sullying the sacred names of love and marriage and deceiving a wife.
Fortunately, Theodore and Jane carelessly left traces of their affair everywhere. Preparing for divorce was easy.
However, as in the book, the Ellosa family finances were in disarray. Even if she divorced, properly dividing assets or securing child support would be difficult.
She didn’t want to help Theodore, but she needed to check the mansion’s finances before the divorce.
“Other people get to enjoy their possession lives, and here I am suffering…”
Late at night, she pondered how to deal with her cheating husband.
“Mom, I need to pee.”
The four-year-old Graham entered, clutching a soft teddy bear. He squinted at the sudden light and rubbed his eyes.
It was unbelievable that this sweet child would later lose his mother and become a cruel, ruthless killer.
Rachel quickly got up and took his hand.
“Alright, let’s go pee. Where’s Marsha?”
“She must have gone to sleep. I don’t see her.”
Graham’s elderly nanny, Marsha, was lazy. She had often told Rachel that Graham was difficult and stubborn, and Rachel had always believed her, giving her generous pay.
But after possession, Rachel realized Graham was gentle and kind, and Marsha had been neglectful and often absent. She planned to gather evidence and kick her out of the mansion.
“Mom?”
“Ah, sorry. I was lost in thought. Go pee and come back. I’ll wait here.”
“Okay. It’s scary, so sing a song for me.”
“Alright, alright.”
Humming softly, Rachel waited as Graham finished.
After washing his hands, he toddled back, smiling with rosy cheeks.
“Well done, Graham,” she praised.
He laughed shyly.
Holding his hand, Rachel led him to his room and helped him onto the bed.
Marsha had disappeared after the evening play, leaving the room in a mess. Rachel clicked her tongue and cleaned quietly.
“Mom, come here for a sec. I want to tell you a secret.”
“A secret? What is it?”
He leaned close and kissed her cheek.
“I actually love you a lot, Mom.”
Rachel smiled and whispered into his ear:
“Really? I love you a lot too, Graham.”
“We’re the same then.”
“Yes, we are.”
Patting Graham’s head, Rachel left the room.
There was something as important as the divorce: ensuring Graham would not suffer trauma or become a killer, contrary to the original story.
Seeing Graham’s closed door, she whispered to herself:
“Don’t worry, Graham. No matter what happens, I’ll make sure you and Dolorasa end up together.”
At dawn, Theodore brought Jane to the mansion.
Annoyingly, Jane greeted Rachel with a bright face.
“Hello, Lady Countess Rachel. I’m Jane.”
“Rachel, she’s the one I helped pick a gift for at the general store last time. She may not have a title, but she’s from a respectable middle-class family. I told her about you, and she said you seem very nice and wanted to meet you, so I invited her. Is that alright?”
Theodore had never bought Rachel a gift at the store. He had simply confused it with the gift he gave Jane.
Watching her foolish husband, Rachel smiled brightly.
“Of course it’s fine. Welcome, Jane. Nice to meet you.”
