Night of the Abandoned Duchess

The maid who followed Olivia took a deep breath and began to explain the situation.

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“Yesterday, Miss Olivia came up for a while.
She has business in the Capital…”

“Why are you here?”

However, her high-pitched voice cut off the maid’s words.

“Why are you here?”

“I’m here to deliver something to the Duke.”

Olivia’s face was wary.
No, it was closer to hostility than anything.
She had a similar expression four years ago, though she seemed to be standing taller than she did then.

Olivia sneered as she twisted the tip of her mouth.

“Why are you still…”

Rosalind frowned at the tone without dignity or even the slightest respect.

“What are you talking about now…?”

“Who are you? What’s the big deal about you!”

She then grabbed her by the shoulder and started shaking her wildly.
The momentum was so ferocious that Rosalind was unable to respond due to the shaking.

“Why are you hovering around brother? I thought he would accept me without you… Why doesn’t brother look at me, and why are you showing up like this again…!”

Her voice was weeping a little.

“Why are you still going in and out of here!”

“Don’t be mean to mom!”

At that moment, it was Leo who suddenly intervened.
The child screamed at her and tried with all his might to stop Olivia, though she wouldn’t budge.
Rather, he seemed to annoy Olivia and she even pushed Leo back.

“Get out of my way!”

The moment his body fell over with a cry, Rosalind quickly lowered her body to receive Leo.
It was a gesture that was unbelievable that she had been shaken helplessly until now.

Holding Leo in her arms, she stared coldly at Olivia, then picked up the cup from the table and poured it over her.
With a splash, cold water poured down Olivia’s face.
The water covered her face all over and wet her clothes.

“Ack! What are you doing…!”

“That is what I want to say.”

Unlike Olivia, who looked at the water dripping from her head and frowned to the fullest, Rosalind stared at her with a cold face without change.

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“I can tolerate being angry with me, but I can’t stand it on my child.
No matter how angry you are, there are things you can do and things you can’t do.”

“Do you know how I feel? Do you know my heart!”

“I didn’t want to know, and I had no reason to know in the first place.”

Even though it wasn’t clear whether the dripping was water or her tears, Olivia’s eyes were wet.

“And, above all, I am nothing with him now.
So please, leave me alone and do whatever the two of you want.”

Rosalind turned to her as if she had no regrets.

“Let’s go, Leo.”

Only the voice echoed faintly.

 

* * *

 

Although she wasn’t covered in water like Olivia was, the corners of Rosalind’s eyes were wet the whole time.
Even in the carriage, when she came to the house, she clenched her teeth to swallow the tears, though the sorrow continued to build up.

Leo, who was wriggling in her arms as he watched Rosalind holding back her tears, asked with a sad voice.

“Mom, are you crying?”

“No.
Why would mom cry?”

“Is it because Leo is getting into trouble?”

Hearing his question, she seemed to want to cry even more.

“Mom doesn’t cry over that.
Mom is not crying, really.”

Her voice was full of weeping so that the words “not crying” were overshadowed.

“But, why are you crying?”

“That is.”

She just smiled faintly, unable to find anything to say back to her.

It was amusing.
She felt hurt again by Olivia’s words and only felt stupid.
Though Rosalind believed she had become strong enough, with Olivia’s words, everything fell apart easily.

When he said, ‘I have an engagement,’ she just thought it was really a job.
But, it was none other than Olivia that was in his castle, which she had not expected at all.

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Was he lying that he had a job to hide that he was meeting Olivia…? Like all the things he had shown her all the time? The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous this whole situation became.
In the end, she was the only one who got fooled again.

“Don’t cry, mom.”

Leo reached out and wiped the corners of her tear-filled eyes.
“I won’t cry, mom won’t cry,” Rosalind whispered to Leo.

“Still, why are the tears?”

“I’m sad.”

“Mom, are you very sad right now?”

Rosalind struggled to calm her heart and responded to the sullen question.

“Well… I don’t know.”

“You don’t even know? Is there something you don’t even know about?”

“Yes.
There are many things that even mom doesn’t know.
That’s why it is always difficult and hard.”

Sometimes it was too hard, too difficult…

As she glanced out the window with a blank expression, darkness was slowly descending on the sky.
Rosalind gazed endlessly at the stars that were already shining.

How much time has passed? Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

“…Madam, someone has come to you.”

“Who?”

“The Duke has come.”

Both her and Leo reacted promptly to the maid’s words.
Rosalind clenched her fists tightly, and Leo said, “Dad!” and blinked his eyes.

“Please, say no because today is going to be difficult.”

“Yes.
Understood.”

However, the maid returned not long after.

“He says he has something he wants to tell you.”

“…Next time, tell him I’ll listen to it next time.”

She honestly wished he never had anything like this forever.
Rosalind didn’t want to spend any more of her feelings because of him.

She hated Olivia.
Even more, she hated him and hated herself for having to end up hurting.
After four years of running away from him so that her heart would no longer be broken, she finally felt as if she had returned to the beginning.

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“…Is dad waiting for Leo?”

Although as she looked into Leo’s innocent eyes, she couldn’t help but say no.
Kyle may be a bad husband to her, but a good father to her son…

“Leo, do you want to see dDad?”

“It’s okay for Leo not to see!”

“Mom is not feeling well, so Leo can just go today.”

“Yes, I got it,” Leo said, nodding his head.

The maid held out her hand to him, and Leo, who continued to glance at Rosalind, followed the maid out of the room.

Rosalind took out a book after Leo left.
She took out anything she could get her hands on and tried her best to put the inconspicuous typefaces in it.
Only the sound of her turning the pages filled the quiet room.

One, two, three…

It was when her fingertips were forcibly turning over the pages, a click was heard as the door opened.

“…Rosalind.”

Startled by the low-pitched man’s voice, she dropped the book she was holding onto the floor.

Thud.

The book hit the floor with a blunt sound, and Rosalind froze, unable to even pick up the book.
As if in disbelief, she lifted her head up and looked in front of her.

“Rosalind.”

Kyle called her name again.
It was a quiet but deep voice.

“…Please, leave.”

Rosalind turned her gaze away from Kyle and picked up the book.
The pages were laid out haphazardly with letters engraved on them.
The reason these neat letters look dizzy was probably because of her heart.

“Look at me.”

Pretending she didn’t hear him, she didn’t say anything.

In order not to give him her gaze, Rosalind gave more strength to her hand holding the book.
Though her eyes were looking at the book, the nerves in her body were directed at the man in front of her.
Even though she knew that, she turned away from him.

Suddenly, the sound of the man’s footsteps got closer and closer.

At the sound that was closing by, she sensed that Kyle was approaching her, and at the same time, her head was forcibly turned by his hand.

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A strong man’s fingers gripped Rosalind’s chin, forcing her eyes to turn to him.
Just as her voice was about to come out of the one-sided touch, he took his hand off her before opening his mouth as he stared at her watery eyes.

“…There was a misunderstanding.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.
What misunderstanding?”

She made a reckless reply as if she didn’t want to even deal with that.

“Everything you think about now.”

“You don’t need to explain what happened.
We are nothing except for Leo, nothing really…”

“Why are you nothing to me?”

While his eyes were staring at her, his voice became a little deeper.

“Do you think I threw everything away because I wanted to explain to someone who was nothing…?”

“What are you planning to explain?”

At that moment, a clear light shone in her eyes.
Her eyes were clear and unshakable.

“You told me you had a job and brought Olivia home again…? You said she was like your sister, did you stay out with her? Or, did Olivia say she pushed Leo because of you? What misunderstanding is this! I really don’t know.”

The words were unstoppable.

The more they continued, the more he frowned.

“What did you say now?”

He gazed at her with her blank face as if he didn’t know where to begin.

“Staying out with Olivia? …Olivia is like my sister.”

“Do you do things like that with your sister? I’ve seen it all, the two of you together…”

Rosalind bit her lip as she couldn’t speak anymore, and the words fell.
Her hand, holding the hem of her dress, trembled slightly.

“I don’t know where you are thinking… Even though I’ve been mean to you, I’m not that kind of a human being.”

“Then, why did you go out with Olivia that time and didn’t come home? At that time, I saw that you went into the inn together…”

His eyes looking at Rosalind darkened a little.

‘Damn it.’

Kyle began to slowly bring out the story of Olivia and memories of four years ago that are now too old and hazy.