I Will Abandon My Family! - v2 Chapter 15, Chapter 16 (Patreon)

v2, Chapter 15

My Own Mother's Distorted Love (3)
Henry, whom we welcomed into the mansion as the decorative head of the family, was no longer of any use to us.
We needed to remove him from the family register and kick both of them out of the mansion.

It might be difficult to stay with an obstructive little sister-in-law.
I don't want Shepherd’s lover to get a bad impression when Marie meets her parents.

I should just sell all of those two's personal belongings, since the money has been wasted on them.

How ungrateful they were to look at me accusingly when I threw them out of the mansion.

I brought you up, sent you to school, gave you permission to take in a commoner failure as a son-in-law, and let you live in this mansion, and I don't owe you any thanks or resentment.

I don't know what happened after I threw them out.
I was more excited about Shepherd's marriage proposal than anything else.

Since she was a Count’s daughter, the dowry would be huge.
I thought that perhaps I could expect support from her parents.

And yet...

The day of the meeting.

Shepherd's lover visited our house for the first time.

“Nice to meet you. My name is Mirial Felt.”

“Dania Ranford. Welcome.”

She was the same age as Shepherd, and her looks were okay.
I thought she would be more beautiful than she was, but I put up with it because I knew that a Count’s daughter would have been raised a certain way.

I prepared tea and sweets and asked her a few questions.

“What kind of work does your father do? I heard that you have an older sister, but what about the heir?”

“My little sister is…”

“Oh my, I guess your older sister wasn’t a good choice for the heir.”

That's impossible.
How bad could her sister be?
If anything, Shepherd might make a good heir to the Count's family.

I've heard that Count Felt has many businesses, but he doesn't know anything about business.
They've been on the right track and haven't failed, have they?

“There are three sisters in my family, and each of us have their own specialties. The younger sister is especially talented, and neither my Father nor my Mother are so old-fashioned they would select an heir just because of their age.”

“Huh?”

“In the Capital, they still favor the eldest sons, but because of that, many of them have become adults who are incapable of making decisions on their own... but Shepherd has had a hard time in that regard, so I think he'll be fine.”

What is this woman saying?

“Ye… yes, that’s right.”

“I hear that Lord Diaz is a truly wonderful man who rebuilt the Ranford family after it had fallen into difficult times. My parents are hoping to connect with Lord Diaz."

What?
They want to be connected to that loser of a man whose only merit is his seriousness?

“Mirial…”

“Ah, of course, I want to be with Shepard, too.”

What a rude woman?
How could she be so rude to me, her future mother-in-law, without reserve?

Unlike the woman I had expected, I began to dislike her.

But this was just the beginning.

“Shepard! What is the meaning of this… why do I have to leave this mansion!”

“Calm down.”

I was supposed to live with him.
However, I was stunned to find out that he wanted me to leave.

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v2, Chapter 16

Women Circumstances
My stomach was getting bloated, and my malady was getting worse, so I was getting worried.

“Is my body okay?”

“You are a pregnant woman. Yet you are moving around so much.”

“I have been told that I need a certain amount of exercise.”

“But there’s a limit, isn’t there?”

And I'm not doing that much heavy work.
Right now, I was only doing paperwork and calculations for the company.

“What’s wrong?”

“It was the same in our fief, but it’s difficult to work when pregnant. But I can’t complain.”

Even back in our fief, not a few pregnant women were forced to work with big bellies.
I heard that there have been cases where children have been lost because of this.

“If only pregnant women could work without getting overwhelmed.”

“Yeah…”

A casual remark that made me wish the world would be more friendly to working women.
But later, this remark caused Mother to come up with a new business idea again.

“Henry, I came up with a new business idea.”

“I have a bad feeling about this.”

“I thought of it the other day when I saw Marie suffering from the morning sickness.”

“Yes?”

Henry’s expression stiffened.
These days, whenever Mother starts something new, Henry always becomes her victim.

“I think we should create a maternity leave program."”

“That’s…”

"The world is still male-dominated! But women can't work properly when they are with a child… pregnancy is not a joke. There are many jobs they can do because they are pregnant.”

“Errm… in other words?”

“Because they are women experienced with babies, we're going to get them to work with that field!”

That sounds wonderful.

“Mother, that’s wonderful. So they could manage to work even when pregnant.”

“Yes, without any pressure… there are very few jobs that offer maternity leave after the birth of a child. Our very Paulette Company offers maternity leave, but I can’t say that it’s very generous.”

“What is your plan?”

“Of course we're going to improve the way the Company works! That’s much better than hiring new employees.”

Women were not hired for long term employment in any of the merchant companies.
Women were at a disadvantage because they could not work after marriage and pregnancy.

“How about a women-only company? We could sell baby clothes and offer childcare counseling.”

“Oh my! That sounds nice… I was also full of worries when I got pregnant.”

Everyone who is pregnant for the first time is anxious.
I am anxious too, and most doctors are men, and I'm sure there are many times when they are anxious too with only the second-hand knowledge they get from midwives.

It's a wonderful idea.
However, because of this idea, Mother, who had created a women-only business, was forced to carry out an unbelievable plan.

Next chapter: I Will Abandon My Family! - v2 Chapter 17, Chapter 18