The Male Lead’s Father Refuses to Break Off Our Engagement

Chapter 21

 

“I will be a really good child. I will eat well, and I’ll learn etiquette diligently.”

Evelia’s heart ached at the words the child said as if it were a promise.

It was as if he thought that he could only be loved by being a good child. Just like she did in her past.

Ruth deserves to be loved just for being himself.

She held the child carefully.

“You don’t have to be a good kid.”

“Really?”

“Just like now young master, you just need to do everything you want to do. You can be a little spoiled, you can be a little rude, I don’t care, as long as you’re happy.”

Ruth squirmed in Evelia’s arms and cried.

“Then what about Lady Evelia? Are you happy to be my mother?”

Evelia pondered for a moment on a subject she had never thought about before.

Despite her curious determination to be a mother, she wasn’t sure she could be a good mother to Ruth.

She scolded Cassis for not being able to express affection properly to Ruth, but in fact, she was the one who was not good at expressing affection.

Besides, she was too young to be a mother to seven-year-old Ruth.

But at this moment, I was able to answer Ruth with confidence.

“Yes, I am happy too.”

It seemed like I could be happy enough with this adorable child.

 

* * *

 

While Evelia was gone, Cassis was lost in thought.

‘Lionel Cesia…’

Ruth’s biological father and the man who heartlessly abandoned Julia.

Crash. The pen holder he was holding in his big hand broke in an instant.

Cassis put down the broken pen holder and leaned back in the chair, closing his eyes.

Upon learning of Julia’s pregnancy, Duke Adelhard, as well as Cassis, asked about the father of the child.

But Julia kept her mouth shut and didn’t say anything when the story of her child’s father came up.

The former Duke Adelhard, was furious and stopped seeing her, and Cassis was persistent.

 

—Who is he, and why hasn’t he come to see you?

Eventually, Julia opened her mouth to his persistent question. But the words that came out of her mouth were not her lover’s name.

 

—He’ll be back. He said he will be back.

She whispered as she stroked her swollen belly.

 

—He said he’ll come back after he gets permission to marry me. It’s probably difficult to get permission to marry me because of his family. That’s why he’s late, he will come someday.

 

Cassis didn’t believe her.

What kind of family would oppose the marriage of his son and Princess Adelhard?

Everyone, even the imperial family, was eager to be associated with the Adelhard family, they wouldn’t reject it.

So, Cassis thought that Julia’s lover had other flaws.

Like already married, or not being a nobleman.

 

―Does that bastard know that sister is pregnant?

—Don’t call him like that. He’s a good person. And of course he knows. After hearing the news of my pregnancy, he rushed back to his hometown.

 

It was clear that the unknown bastard made such a ridiculous excuse and ran away because he didn’t want to take responsibility for Julia.

Naive Julia didn’t know that and was waiting for him.

 

―If it’s a daughter, we’ll name it Lucia, and if it’s a son, we’ll name it Lucius. Isn’t the name pretty? It was him who suggested it.

—…..

 

Poor Julia. My poor sister.

She’ll spend the rest of her life waiting for a man who will never return.

Cassis’ anger towards the unknown man grew day by day.

But Julia believed that Ruth’s real father would return even to the moment of her death.

She held Cassis’s hand and asked for it even though she was in such a bad condition that she couldn’t speak properly.

 

―Take care of my Ruth until he returns.

 

What kind of a man was he, that he didn’t see Julia’s condition until it was too late?

His anger reached after Julia’s death.

Cassis held the newborn Ruth in his arms and made a promise. Even if Ruth’s biological father returned, he would never show Ruth’s face to him.

However, because of the curse, he was forced to find Ruth’s real father, and Cassis tried hard to hold back his anger even at that moment.

Because if he didn’t, he’d kill him as soon as he found him.

By the way, the prince of the kingdom of Cesia? That prince who is rumored to be a bastard and a troublemaker?

How dare you, a man like that would take Julia… How dare he.

“Hah…”

But it’s still too early to get angry. The first step is to find out if he is Ruth’s real father, and if so, how Count Venion knows about it.

Cassis biting his lip called out to Logan.

“Investigate the Cesia royal family and Lionel Cesia. Also, take a look at what kind of exchanges between Count Venion and the Cesia.”

Logan was confused by Cassis’ words. However, he bowed his head without revealing it and left the office.

Then Cassis took up a new pen and wrote a letter to Count Venion. Now it was time to fulfill Evelia’s demands.

Except for the fact that he signed a contract with Evelia, he wrote down everything he talked about with her.

The story that he will marry Evelia, that the Venion family shouldn’t interfere with this, that there will be no material support, and so on.

After sealing the letter with wax, Cassis got up and left the office.

The place he headed was the portrait room located in the innermost part of the top floor of the mansion.

Everything was the same in the portrait room as it had been in seven years.

But Cassis walked through the room, not paying a second glance to the other paintings.

Eventually, he approached the bookshelf at the far end of the room.

A bookshelf that doesn’t suit this place full of portraits. Without hesitation, he pulled out the red book at the bottom of the bookshelf.

Then the bookshelf was pushed back with a loud noise. He strode through the gap.

It was a small room inside.

In the middle of the room, where the ceiling and walls were all white, an easel stood alone.

Cassis hesitated for a moment, then removed the white cloth covering the easel. Then the hidden portrait was revealed.

A blonde haired woman smiling brightly. She was his older sister, Julia Adelhard.

After Ruth’s birth, Cassis removed everything related to Julia from the mansion.

It was because he was afraid Ruth would find out about Julia.

But there was one thing he couldn’t get rid of: the portrait.

Without this, even the fact that Julia existed in this world would be buried.

However, he didn’t have the confidence to look at the portrait, so he hid it in this room where no one could enter.

A portrait he hadn’t looked at since her death.

I looked at it after seven years, and she was still bright and lovely.

Cassis opened his mouth, habitually suppressing the unknown emotion that rose up his throat.

“I heard that the man you were dating was Lionel Cesia, Julia.”

It was obvious, but no answer came from the portrait.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Did you think that if I had known, I would have invaded Cesia?”

If it really was for that reason, Julia was right.

If I had known earlier, I would have gone straight there with my sword and brought back that damn bastard.

He would have brought him on his knees in front of Julia and told him in detail how incompetent and bastard he was.

Then, wouldn’t Julia have abandoned her lingering feelings?

If so…

No, nothing really would have changed. Julia would have died giving birth to Ruth in the same way.

The child’s father might have offered to take the child, but Cassis wouldn’t have allowed it.

At least Julia would have been able to close her eyes with a little more peace of mind.

Cassis clenched his fists in the emotion that kept running up his throat.

Living through the past years, I thought I had completely killed my emotions.

However, after seeing the scar on Evelia’s white arm, he couldn’t control his emotions.

From Evelia, he kept seeing Julia’s figure. There is no resemblance to her hair color, eye color or expression, just because of a scar on her arm.

Is it because of that? Evelia’s face floated above Julia’s brightly smiling face.

The face that never said what it was thinking.

Cassis stared at Julia’s portrait as if it were the real Evelia, then ran out of the room as if being chased.