I understand, but give 1800 gold on 2000 is way too suspicious for me. In his place, I start an investigation about it. She only keeps 200 gold after all, it's too few. About the telegraph, it's a non-prepared event. She decides on the spot to sleep outside. But from some comment of his assistants, it's seem to me, he has a report about her schedule and behavior like "she cut her hair, don't forget to compliment her about it". Write by the servants in the mansion, so mother-in-law minion. In chapter 2, when Violet Beg Winter to stay he answers if she didn't want to go to the party, she just needs to said she's feeling unwell and stay in bed. That look like he knows about her "habit" to feign illness from his mum or a rapport. Well, after checking there is not enough proof so I don't really know.
Well, 2000 gold is a very big money, 2 times of what usually noble lady get to flaunt her rich (according to Hayell). Violet also mentioned that 200 gold monthly is enough because she has a simple life. More importantly, Hayell only suspects her of cheating after he read the receiver's name, a famous handsome playboy singer. Why would someone give money to that kind of person? Sponsorship? Donation? Fangirling? So, the money percentage is not an issue here, the receiver is. And (I need to check again) IIRC Winter does not want to open the case and investigate properly because by law he can only do so if he were to divorce Violet and he really really does not want to divorce Violet. Even checking his wife's property like this is already 'illegal'. Hence later he only confronts this problem to Carlson Law (the person who received the money), not to the ex-royal family (Ashe) even though the land is 'legally' belong to 'royalty'.
Actually, the 500/4500 was referring to the land area that Winter gave her. He gave her all 5000 but somehow she only got 500, which only gives her 200 gold a month from renting it. Whereas, if she got all 5000, she'd get at least 2000 a month. The 4500 was listed as "royal property" and her childhood friend, Carson Row, was the one receiving the money from renting it. Although, this was all plotted by that friend and her brother, and made possible by the central bank official, who's friends with Ash. Also, Violet wasn't really worried about the money. She wasn't extravagant to begin with. The main reason she bought dreary dresses was because she couldn't dress up. If she did, her in-laws and their friends would admonish her for living lavishly despite cheating Winter out of his title. I don't think it was ever mentioned that Winter gets reports about his wife. He never cared for her and didn't wanna deal with her emotional rollercoaster. Any of her behaviour he couldn't understand, they all always just chalked it up to her "being a royal and royals are just eccentric." Winter is someone who is pretty much socially inept and emotionally retarded (as in, medically, like his level would be that of a child) because of his upbringing. So anything he couldn't or didn't wanna deal with, he threw money at it. He was doing that to Violet and he thought she was getting that money. Except she didnt. And if he even asked about her, he would've known earlier on. He always thought she was happh since he believed she was swimming in his wealth. And yes, he couldn't easily look into his wife's finances because by their law, their property are separate and private. So unless both their names are on the deed, he couldn't investigate it legally.
Thanks everyone for the spoilers! This really should be tagged as a tragedy. For the FL to suffer so much and still end up with the ML. It’s pretty morbid. I can’t imagine that she stayed willingly.
I take this back, ml's def an a*hole. No matter what hardships he went through his childhood it doesn't mean that he's free to do something like that. Plus he doesn't listen. He's an a*hole
Well they're both twisted in their own way. The main problem is they both grew up differently, thinking their understanding of what is "common sense" is the same as everyone else's. They are each a frog in their own well. Violet was raised in the royal household where there is etiquette for every little thing. Emotions and expressions, verbal or otherwise, must be well-guarded and measured. They must always be "dignified", and laughing out loud, ugly-crying, or becoming angry was certainly not that. It also didn't help that her mother prioritised her sons over her. Hence, why Winter has trouble dealing with her - she thinks he's rude for not abiding by etiquette that even commoners aren't aware of or care for. He finds it difficult to tell how she feels because her expressions of happiness are usually just a subtle smile, hence why he tells her that if she's really happy, she should be jumping for joy so he would know. When she's being hysterical, he only thought she was being the typical "princess", eccentric and just that - hysterical. Winter, on the other hand, was conditioned in how he relates to people. He was a typical child. As they say, "monkey see, monkey do'. When he saw that he received affection for providing money or gifts time and time again, he learned that that's how relationships are - people will love you if you give them what they want, materialistically. That's not his fault. It was his mother's for abandoning him, and the Bloomings' for not properly educating him. His shitty character also stems from that. If his attitude puts him in the red (as if owing money), he'll just pay so he's back in the black (net or profit). Normally, I would hate characters like Winter as well. I definitely did at the start. But when you understand how he grew up, you'd realise he was a victim too. He doesn't act like one and that makes people forget. He doesn't realise either that he's a "stunted man" until at least a year after Violet left him. It was then he kinda understood that he had a very limited capacity and understanding for close relationships. When they found out Violet had only been receiving 10% of her expected earnings from the land Winter gave her, he wanted to let her know that he expected her to be getting 10x what she got, that he "loved" her 10x more than she believed. I was quite sad when I got to that part. He had cared for her in his own way, and all that time, she never noticed it. She wanted "his love" and he gave it but it never registered, even believing he hated her. They were speaking in different languages. Even after their separation and they meet up, and have the 3month deliberation period, he was starting to understand that the love Violet yearns for, what she expected of him, was different from the "love" he knew, yet still he struggled with it. It's like if you've only ever known Math to have just numbers, didn't you also lose your shit when you learned about algebra?
I'd agree about them simply having different love languages and upbringings if he actually took the time to pay attention to where his money was going. This would be a story about a different type of misunderstanding if she was actually able to live in luxury but just wanted his time instead. She got neither, and on top of that abuse from his family. I don't think I will ever get over how someone so money focused didn't realize where his money was even going.
Same, I find so strange that when he discovers 75% of her money was given to a tier, he only think she cheated him. Like come on, even if it's true 75% of her money it's too much.
Do you mean the money that the husband gave as dowry and rental income? The problem is partly the husband’s negligence and partly privacy issues. It seems like he trusted that the dowry would be safe with MC not knowing that her trash brother would swindle her just like he swindled him. The privacy issues arise with the husband looking into her financial affairs. The husband’s assistant had to bribe the official who kept the records in order to review the income stream and that’s when he found out that the money was diverted to the drug addicted friend of MC. It seems that they couldn’t do anything about it though because it was illegal in the first place for the husband to violate the wife’s privacy in digging up this information. It’s terrible that MC had to find out the way she did through accusation of an affair but she will get back to the money by threatening her trash brother and the trash bank president. She’ll return the money to the husband and then try to runaway but the husband was at the train station waiting for her so he coincidentally stopped her. I suppose it doesn’t matter because she’ll leave him that next day after telling him he makes her life miserable or something of the sort. ML is really odd. I guess I can’t relate to it because I never had to buy affection from family. It’s true that he really thinks that showing love mean giving money. I hope he eventually come to understand that there is a better way to show love but I also like that the author doesn’t just abruptly changes him.
This isn't your run-of-the-mill misunderstanding story. If it was as you said, this novel would be bland AF. The point exactly, that is repeatedly smacked to the reader's face, is that Winter's understanding of love is solely money-based. Of course he didn't look into how she was during those 3 yrs. He was desperately trying to restore his wealth and more because, knowing she's a princess, he needed to provide for her AND get her so much money she wouldn't know what to do with it. It was his way of showing how much affection he had for her. He was already insecure about his birth - being half Conic, and then having a princess for a wife that there's a massive gap between their worth, he had to make sure he could keep Violet by his side by any means necessary. And time and again, we are reminded that he never expected she'd be mistreated, let alone abused because as he said so many times: "who would dare... To a princess." He put her in a pedestal because she's royalty. What moron would disrespect someone of her position and pedigree? (His parents did but he didn't know that because they were great actors.) The novel is complex and yet simple. I don't understand why people keep ignoring the basics of each character. This isn't your dumb romance novel where the ML was thinking this but said that instead to be cool, and FL misunderstood and now they're in this dumb back-and-forth over something so damn trivial, like any other 3rd rate misunderstanding romance story. The fundamentals of each character is twisted enough already from the start and their experiences make it better or worse. That's what makes the story interesting - it's that they're slowly learning that their view and understanding of things is different from each other, hence the novel's title.
Does anyone know what happened to the quack-doctor who gave the pills for fake-pregnancy to Violet? Did he and his family die brutally and painfully?
As far as I read, ML did receive the doctor’s letter to MC that arrived a year after the doctor ran away. In the letter he confessed that ML’s family bribed him to give MC the fake pregnancy inducing drug. ML promptly cut off all financial assistance to his family after finding this out. ML also had his people track down the doctor to find out if the information in the letter is true. The doctor confirmed it. I think the most recent I read is that he wanted them to detain the doctor because he’s also waiting for the right time to reveal the truth to MC. I think he intends to tell her after the three months period is over and then they plan to divorce.
Here’s an update on the matter regarding the doctor. Spoiler: Violet’s ultimatum So, Winter is at his new hotel and he’s sitting in the window sill and he’s basically depressed about what his parents did to Violet. He also remembers a year ago when Violet told him that being with him is like hell. He knows she means it because even after she ran away from him and they haven’t seen each other for a year, she didn’t make any attempts to meet him even after she heard he was in the same place as her. He understands that his marriage is very likely over. However, they still have the three months grace period before the divorce. He wants to see Violet and decides to enter the bathroom in his office and he slits his wrists. This leads to the body switch. Violet ends up in Winter’s body in the bathroom. She goes out into the office to find a ton of work and a middle age Konic woman who is there to force him to do his job diligently and sign off on the hotel opening party documents. Violet realizes that Winter’s assistant was correct. Winter has basically been neglecting his work big time. She even discovers that the gardener is swindling them quite blatantly. It’s so glaring that she knows Winter would have immediately noticed it if he was in his right mind especially since he likes money. Violet decides to complete Winter’s work simply because she wants to finish the work she started. While she’s there, Iglin, one of Winter’s trusted subordinates, visits the office. She talks to Winter (Violet) about bars she intends to visit in the area. She thinks Winter is acting strange and wants to know if it’s because of the truth he learned about what his parents did to his wife. Violet, in Winter’s body, is speechless when she finds out that the doctor fed her drugs to create fake symptoms of pregnancy. Iglin tells Winter that he’s too lenient with the doctor but she also understands that he’s also grateful that the doctor revealed what his family did. After Iglin leaves, Violet is very upset. She even kept the baby clothes and intended to cherish them forever only to find out that this was a cruel scheme of the Bloomings. She doesn’t know if she should be mad at Winter too. Later she goes to her house and asks Winter how long he was going to keep the truth from her. He admits that he was going to tell her when they sign the divorce papers. He didn’t want to tell her before then because she might have refused to see him for the three months. He asks her not to blame him. Violet says she needs to think about the matter and she sends him off for the night. The next day Violet made up her mind. She goes to the post office and sends a message to the Bloomings. The Bloomings are in their home. Since Winter cut off all financial assistance to them, they realize how expensive hosting tea parties are. They actually think that Winter will forgive them and he just needs a little time. He didn’t send them an invitation to his new hotel opening but they intend to go uninvited. While they’re thinking along these lines, the butler says a message arrived from Violet. She tells them she heard what they did and informs them that she knows they probably did it so that she and Winter will get divorced. She tells them that currently she’s trying to decide if she should be angry at her husband or should she forgive him. She believes either way, her decision will have a big impact on him. If she forgives him, she can ask him to resume sending financial assistance to them upon one condition. If they fulfill this one condition, she can forgive the unforgivable. The one condition is that they pass the duke title to Winter, as the elder son of the family and the one who actually contributes to the prosperity of the Blooming family now and in the future.
He loves her from the beginning. He just has a very specific (awful) love language. He didn't wait for her to left him to start realizing his feeling.
It’s clear that he loves her. He just doesn’t know the right way to show that love. It’s also clear that he was working hard for her while he was originally neglecting her. However, after she leaves him, it’s like he doesn’t care about working hard anymore. He isn’t motivated at all. His assistants are all fed up with him because he’s not paying attention to the business and they’re overworked because he won’t do his part. The business can also go wrong if he keeps expanding like he’s doing. Right now, Winter’s goal is to spend the three months before the divorce with Violet and then commit suicide to leave all his assets to Violet. However, he has to first find out how to break the connection so that he will die instead of switching bodies. So, it seems like he really feels that there isn’t any reason to continue living. His parents are trash. His biological mother showed up simply to beg him for money to pay for her twin sons medical expenses. Then there’s Violet who will no longer be by his side. I guess in his mind, there’s nothing to live for so he intends to end it for good. I believe there are already spoilers on here that reveal that he will attempt suicide for a third time and it somehow leads to a reconciliation between him and Violet. He confesses his love to her about 20 chapters after that.
I guess what makes it make some level of sense is that deep down he might know their marital relationship is odd?? That's all I got, lol. Like but also because he is socially and emotionally inept his lack of self worth is blocking the true reason why their relationship is odd. So he thinks as a princess she didn't want to marry him anyway so of course she'd cheat. Instead of the most obvious answer that ignoring one's wife for three years could cause her to lose interest in staying faithful. Yes, I get that his love is money based. But there is no "of course he never looked into her life in 3 years to earn money" I'm sorry, it doesn't make him an understandable person, it makes him seem at best stupid. It isn't that people are ignoring the basics of each character. It is that she has a more compelling situation than he does. And it is because we have all read a lot of these romance stories that it makes it harder to sympathize with him. He has done nothing redeemable. A tragic backstory ain't enough for readers anymore. Characters need to have multiple dimensions and he as like maybe two. An inferiority complex and a severe lack of patience. A lot of this could be resolved by communication, which he refuses to do. So in the end there is so much drama and its mostly his fault. The only thing that could be done on her end is if she had a more outspoken personality. But that would be a totally different story. Also, back to the money focus, why is he not checking to see if she even likes the extravagant gifts he gives her? For instance, she has a closet full of clothes that he gave her that she never wears. We know that its because she doesn't want to be picked on at public functions because we've seen her pov. But it is only recently, when he is in her body and has to go to a function, that we see him ponder why she never wears what he has bought her. And even get a little pissy about it. You'd think he put a little more effort into making sure that his expensive gifts fit the person he's giving them to. The idea that he didn't think she could be mistreated because she is a princess falls apart when one considers the fact that her brother destroyed the monarchy.... She is an ex princess of a bankrupt royal family that swindled her husband out of his money(she had nothing to do with that plot but still). Yeah...sooooo much prestige there. No, we all understand what is going on. He's just unrelatable. She never seemed to be using any of the money and land he gave her. And he just never checked in on that. I don't mean doing what he did by snooping into her affairs. But because they never talk since he never wants to talk. You'd think he'd at least want to know if she was happy with such gifts if that how he shows love? Like his parents very obviously use the money he gives them, so no need to check up on that. But here she is wearing nothing but plain clothing and basic jewelry. We as readers know the reasons why she spends little to no money. If he interprets giving money as sending his love, then wouldn't her not spending his money mean that she doesn't love him? So why is he so super shocked that she want's a divorce? Or why did he never check into see if there was something in particular that she wanted him to buy for her?
I agree that Winter's words and actions are stupid, when compared to how we expect normal people to behave. Indeed, he has at best 2 dimensions as a character, but if you think of a normal childhood vs his, it's comparable to his potential character being crumpled to what he became. Violet appears to have a more compelling situation because she is the more normal between the two of them. It's like you're expecting Winter to speak a language that everyone knows but he himself had never heard nor spoken of it. It's easy then to say "why is he so stupid to not know English? It's the international language." The man is practically a feral beast wearing expensive clothing trying to blend into human society. It's easy to say he has done nothing redeemable because you look at them like they KNOW how to be normal but INSIST on doing crazy things, and that they should have an idea of what's going on around them as if they're the readers themselves. On the money focus, he kept hearing straight from his assistant how she blatantly, repeatedly rejected his gifts. It wasn't that he didn't check if she liked them. He didn't need to. She was straight up turning them away, except for the most drab ones. It was later subtly implied that it was all due to her in-laws' intervention but neither Violet nor Winter knew. Violet heard his assistant purchased multiple racks of beautiful clothing whereas she never received even a shred of fabric, and so only thought that Winter purchased them as a gift to his mistress. Winter on the other hand couldn't understand why Violet would not want his presents. To him, it was rejection - of him, of his attempts to show affection. Had Violet been aware, she would have at least realised that he did think of her during those 3 yrs despite his constant absence. And that was all she needed to persevere in that marriage, as she confessed on the night she shot herself in front of Winter. If further explanation is required as to why the in-laws did that, it was to keep Violet hammered down. If she so ever had a sliver of confidence that she and Winter could have a normal relationship, they worried they wouldn't be able to control her. A wife has better claim over her husband's assets compared to his parents, and they needed his wealth all to themselves. The idea that you think prestige is lost in their family because her brother destroyed the monarchy falls apart from the first few chapters of the novel. It was a brillaint political maneuver that may have cost the royal family their title but gained the support of the common people who were ready to pull the Russian Revolution on their asses. Lawrence is still highly respected despite technically becoming a commoner because he has connections, and the shrewdness and cunning of a tyrant. In case you didn't know, he's still considered royalty by the nobels. Violet on the other hand is stepped on due to propaganda that it was SHE who swindled Winter, and poor Lawrence had to bear the brunt of it all by giving up the crown and working as a farmer. Considering the lack of support she got from her mother as well, it's highly unlikely that she even got the chance to network and expand her influence as a princess. She was nothing but a tool for Lawrence. I think you also forgot that he conspired with her in-laws so they could both benefit from her and Winter.
This is fiction, it is the writers talent that imbibes characters with a personality, backstory, ect, ect that makes them enjoyable to read. But look at the results. If you did a poll of readers how many people would be on Winter's side? This isn't about how normal people behave. Characters don't need to be normal, if anything normal is boring in stories. Violet is pretty easy to put down. There is a lot she is putting up with that a "normal" person wouldn't. Yet somehow, despite her flaws and lack of agency, most readers are engaged with her story and her future happiness. It may just be that Winter isn't the type of person who can be in a romantic relationship. Or at least it seems to take Violet killing herself in front of him, and then leaving him for him to get the memo that the way he does things ain't working. That is beyond normal vs not normal. Or neurotypical vs non neurotypical. His wife had to kill herself to get the message across because he won't talk to her. That is well beyond the type of character flaws that can be understood because of a tragic backstory. Maybe he is just a feral beast, the reaction you keep seeing to him is that readers don't understand why is Violet's lot in life to take said feral beast since the cost keeps being her life and mental health. We have used the concept of love languages but no one is so extreme that just because their love language is gift giving, that they won't have dinner with their spouse. Even if I was faced with trying to communicate with someone despite a language barrier I can point to shit, this dude hasn't even done that. Take the time when she tired to tell him about being locked in the closet. She tries to tell him what happened, and he wouldn't let her. Later he puts two and two together and gets upset that she didn't tell him. That just felt odd to me. You don't want to spend time with her, you don't want to talk with her. At the time he thought that she was only going to talk to him about nonsense anyway. How was she supposed to tell him if he doesn't want to listen to her talk? He has the "normal" expectation that as his wife she should tell him when someone mistreats her, but also isn't interested in talking to her at all. Or even seeing her during the day. It is part of why he seems so stupid. Because if he is supposed to be at heart a decent person he has to be stupid at worse, or have a severe developmental issue at best for him to be redeemable at the end. The other only option is that he is a villain. Is that the writers intention? If he isn't supposed to come off as villainous then the writer is doing a bad job with his character. He seems to rely on his assistant for everything concerning her. What I mean is that I don't understand why he never goes himself to ask if she likes what he gives her. He goes himself to fuck her doesn't he? Yet now, at this mid point, he doesn't understand why she want's a divorce. So we are back to him being at worst stupid. He has adoptive parents, abusive and manipulative as they are they spend time together. He has the whole entire business world, has he never met other couples? Never seen anyone go out on a date. Never heard of anyone eating breakfast or dinner together. She wants to spend time with him. She has asked him to spend time with her over the years. He generally declines. He is a brash person that doesn't often accept things from people he doesn't want. Yet he can't understand that she doesn't want money, but his time? Let's ignore the fact that she turns his gifts down because of her mistreatment. From his viewpoint she never accepts his gifts but always wants his time. Time he won't give her, that should be a clue that they are incompatible. Yet he won't let her go....but us as readers are supposed to understand that he just has a different way of expressing his love so this is all a misunderstanding? No. He is a tyrant. Her abuse aside, he is keeping a woman who does not want to be with him a captive. He might not be able to help his nature because of his upbringing or whatever, but that just makes this more a story about a woman escaping a beast, than a woman trying to understand her husband. They are switching bodies to understand each others lives when chatting over breakfast would have done the trick with a hell of a lot less pain on HER part. Because he ain't getting any real pain from this. Even after she leaves him, so what? Your heart is broken? Go buy another bitch then. That's how you treated your wife, like a possession, so go to the store and buy another one since money is how you express your love. No seriously, he expressive his love through money, ok...what if she doesn't want his money/love? Should she be forced to accept his money/love? Should we as readers think that just because he loves her that she should be forced to accept his love? Cuz before they separate that is what is happening to her, which is why she is more sympathetic. Not because she's more "normal" but because his "abnormality" is terrorizing her. Her prestige was lost. That's what I'm talking about. He seems to think that as a princess she'd be fine when there is propaganda that she was the one that swindled her new husband. He has purposefully cut himself off the social circles yet is self absorbed enough to guess that he knows how social circles work. He has made up his mind based on nothing but his preconceived notions that she would be treated well because she is a princess.