When You Turned Your Back On Me, We Became Strangers

She had silver hair like Riley’s, and she was Riley’s sister, Leta, whom everyone thought was dead.

 

“How are you feeling?”

 

Carver asked as he entered the room. At first glance, he could see that she had gained some weight.

 

She noticed the present in his hands.

 

”Thank goodness you’re feeling better, although I don’t think you’re fully recovered yet…….”

 

She was still shaking, and he could see the worry in her eyes. She wasn’t going to hear the news she was hoping for today. Carver gave a bittersweet smile and leaned back in his chair.

 

“It’s pretty…….”

 

Opening the gift, Leta fingered the green gemstone jewelry. The sophisticated design with the well-crafted gemstones reminded her of someone, and tears welled up in her eyes.

 

“Don’t you like it?”

 

“No, no, it’s very pretty, but…… I don’t think it will suit me.”

 

“Is that so……. I bought it on your recommendation.”

 

“I can think of someone who would look better in it.”

 

“Well, …… will have more jewelry arriving tomorrow, and if you see something you like, you can keep it.”

 

Carver tried to play dumb. He knew all too well who Leta was talking about. He remembered Riley and looked away from Leta.

 

“Do you mind if we go outside for a walk?”

 

“Yes, sure, there are plenty of eyes to see and ears to hear.”

 

Carver walked at the same slow pace as Leta. She couldn’t walk fast yet; it had only been less than a week since she woke up.

 

He only found her by keeping an eye on the Prinz family. The hidden knights quickly sent him a letter with Leta’s situation and a return date.

 

As they walked through the garden, Leta turned to Carver, her eyes still full of questions.

 

“Why were you watching the mansion where my sister was staying?”

 

“It was the only thing I could do.”

 

Leta nodded in understanding at Caber’s words. she thought, She wouldn’t be here if Carver hadn’t been waiting for Leta’s carriage to pass by that day.

 

“I don’t know if it was a coincidence or a plan planned by someone, but……. if it wasn’t for your highness that day, I would have already lost my life.”

 

Leta actually had a feeling that the Count was behind it. Only Theo, Riley, and the Count knew that she had left to visit her that day and she said her to live here.

 

As they rode in the carriage to the count’s estate, Leta sensed something was wrong, a sense of unease that seemed to come from the rush of the carriage. She looked out the window and saw that the carriage was traveling faster than usual.

 

“Stop! It’s going too fast!”

 

Leta shouted out the window, but the coachman didn’t respond. All she could hear was the sound of hooves and the crack of a whip. “Help me! Help me!” Leta screamed, terrified.

 

She thought someone would answer, that maybe a passerby would hear her, but no one did until her throat was cracked open and she screamed.

 

“Grab the saddle!”

 

At that moment, a man’s voice came from above. Men on horseback surrounded the carriage on either side. Leta’s gaze went straight ahead, and a shiver ran down her spine.

 

It was a cliff. Any further and she would fall over the edge.

 

As Leta stood there, her face white and pensive, she heard shouts of panic.

 

“There’s someone in the carriage! Save her first!”

 

“Yes, sir!”

 

The masked man opened the carriage door. Leta’s legs gave out and she couldn’t move. A hand suddenly grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into his arms.

 

“This is urgent, so please excuse me.”

 

Nodding, the man pulled her into his arms and leapt from the carriage. Leta’s consciousness was cut off by the screams of the steed.

 

When she came to her sense, it was in an unfamiliar place.

 

Leta from House Trailla had died.

 

When she woke up, she realized she wasn’t in the same place anymore. When she found out what her father did with the Count, she wasn’t fazed.

 

She was glad that she no longer existed. She didn’t have to suffer anymore, and she was finally free.

 

She really wanted to get out of that life, and it finally happened.

 

“I’m just glad to be dead.”

 

“……leta.”

 

“I’m happier every minute I’m here right now than I’ve ever been in my life.”

 

Except for one thing: Riley was gone.

 

Tears formed in Leta’s eyes as another wave of longing washed over her. Her heart sank as she thought of Riley, who must have been overcome with guilt at the thought of her being gone.

 

“……Doesn’t she get the bow pin?”

 

She intercepted a letter from the Count and sent it to Leta with a butterfly pin. She thought the pin would trigger something in Riley.

 

But when no response came from her sister, Leta knew something was wrong.

 

“If she recognized it, she would have contacted me.”

 

Carver never received any contact from Riley. As the shop confirmed, she had probably tried to erase her past.

 

Only the proof arrived in her hands, along with the papers for Riley’s divorce from Ren. She hadn’t expected her to leave, but when she did, she wasn’t there.

 

“Did she use her powers? Why would she do that?”

 

“I don’t know exactly what caused it. We can only assume that she was put in a situation where she had no choice but to use her powers…….”

 

It was to hide her identity. He couldn’t tell Leta because He didn’t know what happened. The knights were watching, but they didn’t know what was going on inside the house.

 

‘Apparently, everything that happened to Riley was unknown to Leta.’

 

Carver didn’t know where to start and where to stop. In the end, he didn’t tell her anything.

 

“I wonder where she went. I don’t think she went to……!”

 

Leta clamped her mouth shut, remembering something she didn’t even want to think about. It was too horrible to even think about.

 

“Leta, I don’t think so, seeing as the sword hasn’t returned.”

 

He didn’t wanted to hide Riley’s whereabouts, but he felt guilty for deceiving her.

 

“Then where on earth could she have gone…….”

 

“……I actually saw a woman who looked like her today.”

 

In the end, He only said a little bit before thinking about the worse.

 

“Really?!”

 

Leta’s eyes sparkled. A bitter smile tugged at the corners of Carver’s mouth as he watched her eyes widen in anticipation. he said it she looked like her, but it was Riley.

 

“But, it wasn’t Riley.”

 

“Oh……. I see.”

 

Carver changed the subject. 

 

She was taking every opportunity to see her father fall apart.

 

“I stopped by House Trailla today.”

 

“You’re still hanging on, clinging to the shreds of hope that have already been scattered and lost, dreaming in vain.”

 

Carver shook his head softly at Leta’s words, knowing exactly what the She meant.

 

Her eyes were filled with anger and disdain, and her trembling fists showed how she felt about the Duke.

 

“If I find her, I will never let her go.”

 

“I will never let him find her.”

 

“It’s horrifying to think of him as a father. How can he use his own children as tools, but I thought he might have some affection for us.”

 

A little bit of my father’s warmth as a child.

 

The smiles and affection he sometimes showed her were just expectations, hoping that she was some kind of manifestation.

 

Until Leta confronted him with the abuse that had been going on without her knowledge, she thought he loved her and her sister.

 

Even when he took her to the imperial palace, he always wore a kind smile and was easygoing.

 

“By the time I realized there was something going on that I didn’t understand, it was too late.”

 

After Riley hid her mark and went to marry into the Prinz family, her father’s attention shifted to Leta.

 

Leta was fine at first. “My father’s attention was directed toward me, and my young heart was delighted.

 

Unaware of anything, Leta often accompanied Duke to the imperial palace. He always said something she couldn’t understand, but she thought she would understand when she grew up.

 

“Now you must carry on our family name.”

 

“You are your father’s last hope, and if not you, then …… one of you must be deceiving me.”

 

The Duke of Vetter was looking at Leta with a crooked gaze and lust.

 

It didn’t take long for her to realize that his treatment for her was not one of interest, but of obsession and greed.

If you like my work please support me on coffee and leave some comments.