try begging
She wants to leave completely. That's why she must have wanted to give up the child she had been carrying.
It was obvious where he was going. It was the last chance of the year to catch a passenger ship to Columbia. The only way to get from the capital to the port was by train.
Train station. Grace must have gone to the train station.
Leon, who was about to go out the front door, quickly turned around and gave instructions to the butler.
"Call the bodyguards too."
Those in charge of his personal security gathered in the central hall at once.
"Scatter through all the train stations in the capital and look for a young woman with a black stroller or a baby of about six months old. The woman's characteristics are that she is in her mid to late twenties, has blue-green eyes, and a red hat. She is likely to be taking a train heading south, so search her thoroughly and ask around. Immediately."
As soon as Leon gave the order, he got into the waiting car. His heart raced as he searched the window for the figure he had seen earlier in the car running in the direction Grace had walked.
I saw Grace. I hadn't even seen her face from a distance, but Grace appeared before me for the first time in almost a year.
Damn it. I should have trusted my instincts.
Even in his regret, Leon felt a glimmer of joy.
Grace went back to find the child. It was a pity that she had not seen the child, but it was a joy that the woman could not let go of his child.
At least one of his many wishes regarding Grace has come true.
Leon, who had been looking out the window, suddenly narrowed his eyes sharply. But why did that woman go this way? If you go this way, you won't get to the central station. Since she's heading south, you could guess that she went to the southern station, but that didn't answer the question; it only added to the question.
Why go so far away when there is a nearby central station?
º º º
At 8 a.m., when it was time for work, the security guard who unlocked the front door of the registry office was shocked. As soon as he put the key in and turned it, the door swung open.
"Joe, good morning."
As I was absentmindedly greeting and stepping back, a young woman came in pushing a black baby stroller. Her face had a serious look on her face.
The security guard was right. Grace had really come to the registry office to report her daughter's birth after making up her mind.
"I came to report a birth. What should I do?"
I approached the middle-aged female employee sitting behind the counter who seemed to be the least fussy. The woman, who had been sipping her coffee, stuck her head out over the counter, and when her eyes caught the baby sitting in the stroller and looking around, she smiled in rapture and exclaimed in admiration.
"Oh my, you're so pretty."
Grace smiled proudly, now that she had let go of all the burden on her mind. The woman turned to look at her, her expression hardened like a civil servant's, and asked.
"Did you bring your marriage certificate?"
"Uh... there's nothing like that."
The only time I'd ever been to a registry office was when I pretended to be a janitor to steal stuff I needed to make a fake ID, so I had no idea what was needed for a birth certificate.
When the woman blinked as if to say, "What kind of nonsense is this?" Grace quickly came up with an excuse.
"I had a wedding in the countryside, and the pastor didn't give me anything like that."
The woman sighed deeply, muttering criticisms of the rural administration, as if it was a plausible excuse.
"Oh... Then the birth registration won't be possible... ."
Grace lifted her daughter, who was playing by herself, her eyebrows furrowed.
"What should I do, baby? It says it hasn't registered. I really wanted to do it today."
She hugged the confused baby tightly and sobbed. When the employee's face showed a look of distress, Grace began to complain in a way that any middle-aged married woman would sympathize with, badmouthing her nonexistent husband.
"How lazy is that man? He didn't even report the birth of his daughter eight months after she was born."
"Oh my, men are really lazy when it comes to that kind of thing. And when the beer runs out, they call me lazy."
"Who drank all that beer?"
"That's right, that's right."
"That man clearly said he had registered his birth, so I was completely fooled into thinking so, and I only found out yesterday."
"There are even lies in the world...."
"I really don't know what kind of father there is in this world. Why did I marry that irresponsible man... No, honey. But I'm glad I met you."
He opened his eyes wide as if asking why the baby was crying and clumsily rubbed Grace's cheek with his small hand. It seemed like he was trying to wipe away her tears, but his control was so poor that it felt like he was getting slapped.
"No, honey. It's okay."
She looked at the staff with pitying eyes, patting the baby. The look of distress on the woman's face had already changed to 'tough'. It meant that she was almost there.
"Yesterday, the boarding house owner fought over my leaving, and I came early in the morning and sat outside waiting so that I could register my daughter... sigh... ."
"Maybe it's good. On this cold day... ."
The woman reached across the counter and patted the baby's swollen bottom, which was thick and full of diapers, as if feeling sorry for him, then muttered.
"Ahh... I can register my marriage here, but I have to bring my original husband... ."
"That guy must be snoring right now because he drank all night."
Grace, who wiped away fake tears with the end of her sleeve, suddenly pretended to remember something and rummaged through her handbag.
"I have my husband's ID, so why can't I use that?"
It was something that was left over. An employee who was taken in by Grace's acting handed her a marriage registration form along with a fountain pen.
Grace filled out the bride and groom's information and returned it to the clerk along with two IDs. The bride's was the fake identity she would use when she attempted to leave the country the next day, and the groom's was the fake identity she had originally intended to use when leaving the country.
So, originally, I was planning to leave the country disguised as a man. However, when I decided to take the child with me, I had to give up disguising myself as a man. It would look suspicious for a man to travel alone with a baby.
Grace, who was fiddling with her short hair like a man's under the brim of her hat and checking the employee's reaction, smiled lightly.
It's like marrying myself.
She smiled and assured the baby, who was sitting in the stroller and rolling her big eyes around every corner of this unfamiliar place.
I'll do it for both mom and dad.
Grace's skills were not yet dead. The ID card was so perfect that the employee didn't notice at all and stamped the registry office's stamp on the marriage certificate. He didn't forget to draw a line on the bride's ID card and change her last name to her husband's last name, and placed the certificate and the ID card on the counter.
Next, it was time to register the birth, which was the purpose of coming here. As Grace was filling out the blank spaces on the registration form, she hesitated when she couldn't fill in the topmost box, and asked the staff.
"What is the most common name these days?"
"Elizabeth."
"ah...."
It was the name of a princess born two months before Grace's daughter earlier this year.
"Let's avoid that. It's so common that in four or five years, if you shout Elizabeth in a daycare center, twenty people will turn around."
Grace nodded and filled in the last blank without hesitation.
"... ... ."
The eyebrows of the employee who received the completely filled out report were comically crinkled.
"...Elizabeth."
He had an attitude of not understanding why he had to give his only daughter a name that was so common that it was hard to avoid.
Well, that's the most common.
Grace, of course, desperately wanted to give her daughter a pretty and special name. But even now, and probably in the New World, the two of them would be chased by that man. I am used to changing names, but my child is not. She would get confused if her name changed too often, so I deliberately chose the most common name.
And at least I didn't want to live a life with multiple names like mine.
"Hmm, if you like it, Mom."
Grace, who was watching the employee issue the birth certificate, suddenly had a realization and burst into laughter.
'Elizabeth, isn't that the man's mother's name?'
I hadn't thought of this.
The corners of Grace's mouth, which had been drooping because she didn't like Mrs. Winston very much, soon turned up again.
When I thought about it carefully, it was not a bad counter-intuitive idea and a diversionary tactic. That man would believe that Grace would never give her child her mother's name.
"Okay, here it is."
The employee handed over the paper with a big smile on his face, saying that his work was worthwhile. Grace received the birth certificate and read it, feeling sorry for the child once again.
I registered the birth, saying I would fulfill my duty as a mother that I had been ignoring until now, but I chose a name and surname that would be easy to get away with.
I even had to write something wrong because I had already told him my birthday in a letter. On top of that, I had brought it up two months earlier to make it easier to avoid being tracked.
I already felt like a terrible mother.
'No. That guy is a terrible father.'