The male lead's mother Eda brings over her friend's daughter Melly and raises her in the duke's family from a young age. The male lead Edric thinks of the female lead as something like a younger sister, but he hasn't realized his own feelings yet.

Melly has been in love with Edric for a long time, but when she hears that the male lead is thinking about marrying someone else and doesn't see her as a woman, she decides to give up. She even starts going on marriage meetings, thinking it's time to move on.

Edric gets engaged to another woman Rosaline, but then goes through a phase of denying his feelings for the female lead. Eventually, he realizes his true feelings after seeing Melly in arms of Francis, Rosaline adopted brother aka secret lover also the second male lead. He breaks off the engagement, and marries Melly. Then the story started after 5 years.

One thing I liked is that Edric doesn't have issues with other women. But because he has this idea that "the one who loves more loses, " he never says "I love you" to Melly. Even when that's not his intention, his words come out harsh and he ends up hurting her a lot...

Edric is at the top of the noble hierarchy, so his standards and mindset are pretty high. He probably thinks that marrying a high-ranking noblewoman is the only way to satisfy those expectations.

In social circles, Melly gets ignored from the start, and people both inside and outside the house tend to look down on her. Even the mother-in-law pretends to be nice but secretly gives her medicine to make her infertile which also makes her lose her first 5-month child.

The female lead really does try hard, though...ㅠㅠ So I feel sorry for her.

Melly lead married Edric because she loved him, but what she truly wanted was not the life of a noble. She longed for a small, warm, loving home filled with happiness, more like the life of a commoner.

One of the things the male lead dislikes about Melly is how she gets along too casually with the servants, which he finds inappropriate behavior for a duchess.

He thinks, "That's not how a duchess should act."

He also torments her a lot during their marriage with his words. His saying that he thought he loved her makes her lost herself. Also, she found divorce papers with Edric's sign which he did in case of fun beginning state of marriage. This makes her determined to leave.

After signing the divorce papers, Melly disappears, and Edric has a mental breakdown trying to find her. Three years later, he finally finds her... and she's smiling happily with another man, pregnant.

(It seems like she's pregnant from what the male lead saw, but the details haven't been revealed yet.)

I'm dying to know whether the female lead actually remarried and got pregnant with another man's child.

Immediately after the scene in the book preview, where Edric says he thought he loved her, MC is devastated. But she grew up with an abusive dad who gambled and hit his wife. So she comforts herself by saying that although he is terrible, and has hurt her countless times, at least he isn't doing worse. At this point Edric realizes he has done something terribly wrong and he goes to apologize and explain the following day. The writing here is also very good. He realizes he did something terrible due to seeing her reaction. He describes her as looking like something inside her had fallen out, and that her insides seemed to slowly drain from that place until there was nothing left but emptiness. However, when Edric goes to apologize, MC apologizes first. MC says she would try and be a better duchess and apologizes for pressing him when he was busy with other things. So Edric ends up not apologizing because this reaction was actually what the intent of his statement was. In his head he didn't say that he no longer loved her, but that he would probably be sure of his love if she acted like a proper duchess.

MC decides to study to improve as a duchess but this changes when she finds the divorce papers Edric had drafted up a while ago. She finally takes a look at her own reflection (literally, she sees a reflection of herself in a glass bookcase) and she is shocked to see a broken woman. This dialogue is so beautiful and healing to me.

Now, Mellie knew what she should do.

"I'm sorry."

Mellie said.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pretending not to know. I'm sorry for ignoring you and forcing you to do better. I'm really sorry for not accepting you as you are. I'm sorry... ..."

Mellie continued talking to herself.

The woman in the window cried sadly.

She was the one I should be apologizing to.

Not Edric.

also this scene happens at chapter 64.