Chapter 20
To Shion, Selena was like a painful thorn in his heart.
She had lost her mother at birth, and the trauma from being kidnapped at such a young age had left her with fragmented memories. After the kidnapping, her personality had completely changed.
Shion, who was five years older than Selena, clearly remembered the state she was in when she returned to the Count’s household.
‘What’s my name?’
Selena, rescued after several months in a disheveled state, didn’t even know who she was.
Her empty eyes spoke volumes about the suffering she had endured, and Shion’s heart ached for his younger sister.
In place of their overly busy father, Shion stayed by Selena’s side and taught her everything from scratch.
‘Your name is Selena Estarion. I’m Shion. Your older brother.’
‘Do I have a sibling?’
‘Yes. You’re my younger sister, and I’m your older brother.’
Selena, who had to relearn everything like a blank slate, seemed terribly confused for a while.
The Selena who had returned was no longer the little sister he once knew.
‘Um… excuse me…’
‘You can call me brother.’
‘Ah… brother… no, elder brother.’
Hearing her speak so formally, unlike before the kidnapping, tore his heart apart. Swallowing his tears, Shion gently asked:
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I can’t eat shrimp. It makes me nauseous and gives me a headache.’
‘A headache? Maybe you’ve developed an allergy. Is it hard to breathe?’
‘My chest feels tight.’
The shrimp allergy that had suddenly appeared seemed to be another aftereffect of her trauma, and Shion sighed deeply.
‘I’ll tell the head chef to be careful with shrimp.’
‘Thank you, elder brother.’
‘You can speak comfortably.’
‘I’m sorry… maybe next time. Just for now…’
‘It’s okay. There’s no rush. Take your time.’
More than the awkwardness between them, what hurt the most was how her once bright and cheerful personality had changed.
There were other oddities, too. She had developed a shrimp allergy and the mole on the back of her neck had disappeared.
Still, neither Shion nor their father doubted her identity.
The child looked exactly like Selena, and they believed the change in personality was simply the result of the kidnapping trauma.
‘She was definitely Selena.’
Back then, the girl had the same face as Selena.
With no room for doubt, father and son accepted her as Selena, convinced by appearance alone.
All the while, the real Selena was suffering somewhere, struggling to survive, her memories lost.
As that thought took hold, Shion clenched his teeth in suppressed rage.
While they were at fault for not searching more diligently, admitting that mistake was unbearable—so they cast all the blame on the now-disgraced Selena.
“Elder brother?”
Sienna’s voice broke the silence as she cautiously called out to Shion, whose face had gone rigid.
“Ah. What is it?”
“What were you thinking so deeply about?”
Sienna looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Your name. I was wondering if you should change it.”
“I’m fine. I’ve lived with this name so long that it feels more comfortable.”
“But it wasn’t originally yours… Even if you can’t live as Selena, you could choose a different one.”
“No. I’m very attached to this name. And I think it’s safer this way.”
Changing her name might arouse suspicion and lead people to discover the Count’s family had raised a cuckoo’s chick.
If that happened, their relationship with the imperial family would also suffer.
‘And if it came to light she was once just a maid, marriage prospects would vanish.’
Had she grown up in the Count’s household under her rightful status, Sienna would have been engaged to the Crown Prince, destined to become Empress.
To protect Sienna’s future and honor, the truth had to be buried completely.
‘That one cuckoo chick has brought our house to ruin.’
Selena, now declared disowned from the Estarion family lineage, was that cuckoo. But she wasn’t entirely detestable.
Shion glanced at his father, Count Estarion, sitting across from him. Though the man remained outwardly composed, his face had paled in recent days.
‘This is maddening.’
For ten years, they had raised that girl with love—as a daughter, as a cherished younger sister—especially after the tragedy of her kidnapping.
She never once disappointed her family, never indulged in extravagance or caused trouble. If taught one thing, she learned ten.
Her personality? Gentle and wise. She even saved her allowance to aid the poor.
She was flawless in every way—an ideal child any noble would be proud of.
‘And yet, she was the daughter of a maid who helped the kidnappers.’
It wasn’t that she couldn’t remember her childhood—she had been pretending all along.
The maid who worked with the kidnappers had switched her own daughter, who looked exactly like the real Selena, into the Estarion household.
That heartless daughter faked amnesia and deceived them all her life.
The memory loss, the personality shift, the sudden allergy, the missing mole—none of it belonged to the real Selena.
‘She tricked us with that innocent face.’
They had poured love into the wrong child, completely unaware that the real sister was suffering outside.
“Sigh…”
Unable to hold back, Shion let out a deep breath.
If he felt this heavy-hearted, how much worse must it be for his father, the Count?
Sienna, ever perceptive, misread his expression.
She assumed Shion was worrying over Selena’s pitiful state.
A fleeting flash of hostility crossed Sienna’s face, but the heavy-hearted men didn’t notice.
“Father. Elder brother. Sitting like this reminds me of my childhood.”
A sharp desire settled in Sienna’s heart.
Like pebbles hidden in muddy water, it was concealed behind her golden eyes.
“I was eight, wasn’t I? I remember that winter—it snowed a lot. Elder brother, you made a snowman for me outside my window.”
Sienna continued to share memories from the snowy day.
As vivid memories of their childhood emerged, Shion’s face softened.
“Back then, I wasn’t used to the cold since I’d been working as a maid. Now, even heavy snow doesn’t bother me, but at the time, it was very hard.”
Hearing her speak of such past hardships, the faces of the Estarion men were filled with guilt.
If they had been more cautious and investigated thoroughly, Sienna wouldn’t have grown up as a maid.
‘How pitiful. If only she had remembered earlier.’
The real Selena—now Sienna—had supposedly lost her memories due to the trauma of kidnapping.
That memory loss allowed the maid to successfully raise Sienna as her daughter while replacing her own child in the Count’s home.
Fearing that Sienna might end up in the Estarion household, the maid raised her as her own. When the maid died of illness, Sienna wandered from house to house.
Then, one day, she regained her memories and returned.
Imagine how she must’ve felt, finally returning home only to find an imposter in her place.
The thought tore both Shion’s and the Count’s hearts apart.
“You remember that? You really are my sister.”
Shion glanced at Sienna’s rough hands and turned to his father.
“We should summon Madam Gordon as soon as possible.”
Madam Gordon was the most prestigious etiquette teacher in high society.
Even though Sienna was still learning to read and absorbing knowledge daily, there was still so much she needed to learn.
She had to become the perfect Count’s daughter as soon as possible if they hoped to reopen her engagement with the imperial family.
As she was now—barely able to read—she’d struggle to marry into even a fallen noble house.
“Madam Gordon?”
“She’ll teach you everything you need—reading, etiquette, common knowledge.”
“But didn’t you say you were going to call Madam Miller before?”
“Madam Miller was very close to that girl. I can’t assign someone like her to be your teacher. Madam Gordon is just as capable, so don’t worry.”
“Even with a good teacher… I’m not sure I’ll learn well. I’m too low-born to…”
Sienna hung her head, and Count Estarion erupted:
“You are the legitimate daughter of House Estarion. Who dares call you low-born? As long as you are my daughter, you can achieve anything. Have confidence.”
“Father’s right. You’re precious to us. And you deserve to become even more distinguished.”
“Even more… distinguished?”
A dark desire flickered in Sienna’s eyes.
As if embarrassed by the idea of becoming someone of high stature, she rubbed her face to hide her craving.
“Yes. This spring, I plan to introduce you to His Majesty the Emperor and His Highness the Crown Prince at the imperial ball.”
As soon as she heard the names of the Emperor and Crown Prince, Sienna’s…
