The reception room, where everyone was waiting, was the same place where the previous commotion had occurred. As they entered, Idel couldn’t help but think, ‘Why here again?’ Melisa stood up and spread her hands, as if she had been waiting for her.
“Idel, my daughter!”
Her warm, affectionate voice was quite poignant.
‘But it’s all a facade.’
Knowing that everything she showed was just an act, Idel cynically chuckled inwardly as she approached her.
Melisa may have loved her daughter as a tool, but she never truly loved her.
‘What mother curses and manipulates her beloved daughter into doing evil deeds?’
Even now, despite stroking her cheek as if she had missed her daughter after just a few days, her eyes were anything but warm.
‘Like checking a tamed bird if it hasn’t flown into someone else’s hand.’
This was also a point acknowledged by her sister in her book review.
[…Melisa’s character was excellent in constantly rejecting Idel’s longing for her mother’s love and only using her! What should I call it? A sense of how far a person driven by love and inferiority can go?]
Back then, Idel didn’t realize it, but seeing Melisa’s actions conscious of the Duchess made it seem like ‘crazy person’ wasn’t even a sufficient insult for her.
‘Since it’s a spoiler, I won’t write down the line said by the duchess after the duke died, but given the circumstances, it’s understandable.’
She was someone who attempted to kill both the Duke, whom she loved, and her own sister due to an inferiority complex. It was a shocking remark from the Duchess, who barely survived and returned as a villain.
‘Well, she probably mentioned that she was adopted or something.’
Melisa wasn’t the Duchess’s real sister; she must have revealed that fact.
‘No, how many people are suffering because of her fancy emotions? Does she think she’s the only one in this world?’
Idel, who had been inwardly cursing Melisa with her eyes, quickly composed herself once Melisa’s gaze met hers.
Melisa’s gaze swept over every inch of her body. It seemed like she was checking to see if there were any issues with the curse she had placed.
After quickly confirming, she met Idel’s eyes squarely.
Between her enchanting smile and her determined gaze, a single voice echoed loudly in her mind.
[Idel. Hold me close and tell me you missed me.]
Oh, damn it.
Melisa’s voice reverberated in her mind, and her stiffened body began to move on its own, as if someone had taken control of it.
“Sob, Mom, I missed you….”
“Oh dear, Idel…”
With her arms around Melisa’s waist, Idel buried her face into her belly.
‘So, this is what the “brainwashing curse” looked like—only in words.’
The gap between imagination and experience was indeed vast. Now she understood why the “Idel” in the original work couldn’t even move a muscle and was at Melisa’s mercy.
Having endured such treatment from the age of seven to adulthood, her body was no different from a doll being played with by someone else’s hands.
‘So, because I didn’t stand by her side and act kindly to the people of the dukedom, she put me under such brainwashing?’
Idel furrowed her brow, feeling indescribable discomfort and a bruised ego.
She could feel her fingertips trembling slightly the harder she resisted, wondering if she could take away all control.
With undoing the curse as the top priority of her plan, Idel bit her lip before raising her head. It tasted oddly like blood.
‘No matter what, I must break these shackles. And as soon as possible.’
She couldn’t bear to feel like this anymore.
Swiftly regaining control of her emotions, Idel slowly pulled away.
Melisa’s expression upon facing her again seemed quite satisfied. It was as if everything was moving according to her plan, bringing her a sense of satisfaction.
With a slight tug at the corner of her mouth, she silently laughed, then placed her hand on Idel’s shoulder. Then, with a stern voice, she reprimanded her.
“Idel, I know you’ve missed me, but you’re behaving unbecomingly. Go on.”
Rowena lightly tapped Idel’s shoulder, turning her body towards the duke and duchess.
“You should greet the duke and duchess. After all, they are your father and aunt, privately. Apologize.”
“Ah…”
“…I’m sorry…….”
Rowena, who didn’t miss the faintly trembling voice, cautiously examined Idel.
The child with red hair, like her sister, kept her head bowed and trembled slightly.
Was that all? Her small hand, tightly gripping her skirt, even turned pale.
Since she had heard the shocking truth, she hadn’t been able to give the girl a proper glance since their first meeting.
She inwardly blamed Idel’s presence.
‘But seeing her like this…’
The being she blamed was just a child, a very young child.
Upon seeing the child looking nervous in the unfamiliar situation, a slight sense of guilt crept into the duchess’s heart.
She, an adult, had acted poorly.
‘Sylvia, or rather, the head maid, said that the child often ignored the maids and behaved badly. She also said she was emotionally unstable and sensitive.’
She was not one to fabricate stories; there must have been some truth to it. However, upon seeing the child in person, she couldn’t simply place blame without reason.
Especially since she had been left alone for so long after being separated from her older sister.
As Rowena looked at Idel with bitterness and guilt in her eyes, Idel, on the other hand, was doing everything in her power not to show her emotions.
The reason she was trembling in the first place wasn’t nervousness, but because of Melisa’s outrageous words.
‘My father and my aunt privately? Is that even a word that can be used together?’
Their already nonexistent affinity had now plummeted to the ground.
‘She’s blinded by love. Is it normal to talk about family matters in front of a child who knows nothing?’
And on top of that, it’s a blatant lie.
Indeed, if one had any shame or common sense, they wouldn’t have done such things in the first place. That’s why you hear people say that characters in melodramatic novels are beyond redemption.
As Idel was busy criticizing Melisa with plenty of prejudice, a gentle touch brushed her cheek.
“Idel, if you’re okay, could you lift your head and show your face a bit?”
Idel’s body stiffened at the sound of a voice.
She’d been so busy cursing Melisa that she’d forgotten, for the briefest of moments, that the person in front of her was, in many ways, the person she needed to save herself from.
‘Get a grip. Melisa is here too. You can’t afford to lose your composure.’
Idel’s eyes cautiously met the duchess’s.
The duchess was smiling faintly, unaware of what lay ahead.
Underneath her softly falling light brown hair, her face looked gaunt.
‘…she seems to be pretending to be okay in front of a child, but it must have been tough for her.’
Honestly, she wouldn’t be surprised if she went into shock right now, especially after suddenly learning that her husband had a love child with her sister.
As Idel looked at the duchess, feeling both human sympathy and tension, she bit her lip.
‘Wouldn’t it be better to find a way to avoid each other? Like going to boarding school or something.’
That way, she could lessen unpleasant memories at least once. Plus, if she were confined to boarding school, she could avoid Melisa’s gaze and therefore behave less defiantly.
‘Of course, that’s a low-probability scenario.’
Melissa wouldn’t just sit back and watch Idel distance herself from the duke’s family.
‘Isn’t there any other way?’
Rowena bent her knees to meet the child’s gaze. Seeing Idel furrowing her brows in contemplation, Rowena seemed to mistake her for being wary of herself.
“Rowena.”
Despite the duke’s brief objection that it wasn’t necessary to go this far, she didn’t flinch.
When establishing a relationship, extending a hand first was the duty of an adult, not a child.
“Idel, shall we introduce ourselves properly? I’m Rowena Clementine. And as my sister introduced me, I’m your… aunt.”
“Hello, um, Madam.”
A faint smile briefly appeared on her lips at the sight of the child not uttering the word ‘aunt.’
“Well, hello, Idel. I called you today because I wanted to talk about us becoming a family from now on. In the future, you won’t be Idel Lopez, but Idel Clementine. It means you’ll live as the daughter of me and my husband, like Gianna.”
So that’s what this is about.
As Idel forced herself to snap out of it, a displeasing voice echoed in her mind once again, like when she first hugged Melisa.
[Idel, why does the duchess call herself my mom? The Duke is my dad, but you’re not my mom. How can the duchess, who’s not even my mom, become family?]
Idel’s hand clenched into a tight fist, trembling slightly.
‘So, she’s basically asking me to throw my first impression in the trash?’
Damn…
Yeah, she’s garbage!
( ´-｀)