Chapter 7. The Malice of Others

“Isn’t it because you overreached yourself without knowing your place that you ended up like this? Ellen.”

It was a phrase I had heard more than ten times already. As if it had become a habit, my stepmother repeated those words every time she saw me. Even a parrot would probably have a more varied vocabulary.

“His Highness the Grand Duke Bayern must have danced with you out of pity. You attended the Spring Ball at Ivona Palace, which is famous for its splendor even abroad, looking so shabby.”

She continued with comments about how I was a disgrace to the family and how it was embarrassing to show my face in public, but I pretended not to hear and focused on cleaning the window sill. Watching the dust disappear with one wipe of the cloth was one of the few things that made me feel good.

“You should properly apologize to Marquis Anderson, don’t you think? He must have been kind to you because you looked like a maid, but you caused a scene and made things difficult for him. A proper lady should apologize.”

My stepmother surely knew that Marquis Anderson’s rudeness towards me was nothing short of harassment. Yet she dressed it up as ‘kindness.’ Her ulterior motives were suspicious. Was my uneasy feeling just a baseless worry?

I stopped wiping the window sill and turned to look at my stepmother.

“I will send a letter to Marquis Anderson myself.”

Of course, that was a lie. I wouldn’t send even a single card. The one who deserved an apology was me, not him. Right now, I just wanted to get rid of my annoying stepmother.

“Oh, really? That’s a good decision. I have to get ready to go out with Helene now. Make sure to finish cleaning the second-floor hallway by today.”

“Yes, Mother.”

My stepmother glanced at me once more before walking away like a peacock.

I sighed quietly and stared blankly at the long second-floor hallway in front of me. To clean all this by today… it would take at least five hours.

‘…Seems like I won’t be having lunch.’

Fortunately, I had a hearty breakfast today. I wrung out the cloth in the bucket of water and resumed wiping the window sill. I had to hurry to finish cleaning before sunset.

“Hey, sister…”

By the time I finally finished cleaning, it was already close to 6 PM. The sun was setting, and I was heading to the kitchen, rubbing my hungry stomach.

“I have a favor to ask…”

Melissa approached me with a request, which was unusual.

Unlike Helene and Anthony, who often bossed me around, Melissa, who usually stayed timidly in the background, had never directly asked me for anything.

I stood still and faced my stepsister, who kept fidgeting with her dark brown hair like tree bark, glancing at me.

Melissa, who seemed infinitely gentle and kind at first glance, was someone whose insidious and twisted nature I knew all too well.

“A favor?”

When I asked, Melissa flinched slightly and twisted her lips into a smile. Her awkward expression and the way she looked up at me with her head bowed and eyes raised showed the passive malice I had encountered from her several times before.

“Well, Mother asked me to run an errand… but I’m a bit busy right now…”

“…….”

“Could you go for me, sister…?”

An errand… It sounded like a simple request. Not difficult at all. But…

“You’re busy? That’s a surprise.”

“…!”

At my casual remark, Melissa visibly flinched and bit her lip, glaring at me. She seemed to understand that my words were sarcastic.

“You pretend to be stupid, but you’re not really stupid. Why are you trying to make me run that errand? Tell me.”

“…….”

Melissa had no reason to be busy. Helene and Melissa’s main activities were choosing dresses and jewelry for parties or lounging in the living room. They sometimes played the piano or did embroidery, but they were undeniably idle.

So being busy was just an excuse. Melissa was clearly asking me with bad intentions.

“I have to write a letter… It’s a simple errand, so you could do it, right?”

“A simple errand?”

In fact, I knew what the errand was. I had overheard my stepmother instructing Melissa.

That’s why I was angry. I pressed Melissa to make her admit it. I felt like I couldn’t suppress my anger otherwise.

“Walking for an hour round trip is a simple errand? Do you have a different definition of ‘simple’?”

“Y-You can take a carriage, right? The fare isn’t that expensive…”

“I have no money. Your mother took all my savings because I attended the ball. You know that, and you’re asking me, aren’t you? You’re asking me to walk for an hour on my injured ankle.”

As I snapped at her, Melissa’s eyes widened, and she covered her mouth with one hand. Her expression twisted strangely, and her facial muscles twitched as if she was having a spasm.

“What…? ‘Your mother’…? Puh… Puhuh…”

As Melissa’s unpleasant laughter reached my ears, a cold sensation crept up my spine.

No way.

I turned around slowly. There, standing as if they had just returned from an outing, were my stepmother and Helene.

“’Your mother’…”

My stepmother’s cold voice echoed softly. Next to her, Helene was suppressing a laugh, her eyes sparkling as if she had found something amusing.

“So, Ellenore. You still don’t recognize me as the mistress of this house.”

“…….”

…I made a mistake. I was so angry at Melissa’s vile malice that I misspoke. It was undeniable that I didn’t consider Margot as my mother, but it was a thought I should never have voiced…

“There’s a limit to how much you can look down on someone. Even if I am your father’s second wife, I’m still his legitimate wife who bore him an heir! The one who couldn’t fulfill her role as a person was your real mother, wasn’t it? You must be very proud to be the child of that crazy woman!”

“…!”

At the insult to my mother, I clenched my fists without realizing it. …Why? My real mother had only treated me as a possession and never given me love…

“Melissa was given that errand out of consideration for your injured ankle. But you don’t even appreciate it. You should be grateful that we haven’t abandoned someone like you and are letting you live in this mansion!”

I was stunned, but not even a hollow laugh escaped me. Consideration? What a joke. Then why was I tasked with cleaning the hallway? And the reason stepmother always had Melissa run that errand every week was…

“…The reason you have Melissa return the books is to set her up with Mr. Button, the librarian.”

“What? How dare you talk back to me like that…!”

“But if I do the errand instead, how will that help? If you want to marry off Melissa, who doesn’t have any decent marriage proposals, to a good family, she needs to be seen by Mr. Button. Even though he doesn’t have a title, he is of noble blood and, more importantly, wealthy. And, Mother.”

Every time I called this woman ‘Mother,’ it felt like I was swallowing a shard of metal.

Margot had hated me since the moment she first stepped into this mansion. Or maybe it wasn’t even hate. She and her two daughters just seemed to enjoy tormenting me.

I was weak and defenseless, with no one to care for me, a child who could be tormented without consequence.

“I am also Father’s daughter.”

“…….”

“I am also a member of the Lopez family, not an adopted child, but Father’s real daughter.”

Therefore, I had the right to stay in this mansion. My father, Baron Lopez, married my mother for her wealth, which saved him from bankruptcy. So, if he had any conscience left, he wouldn’t be able to throw me, his wife’s daughter, out of this mansion.

Stepmother Margot knew this well. That’s why, despite always seeing me as a thorn in her side, she couldn’t actually expel me from this house…

Margot’s green eyes sparkled with anger as she looked at me. She bit her lips in fury and spoke in an even lower voice.

“…Yes, you are the biological daughter of Baron Lopez. My daughters, Helene and Melissa, are the children of my ex-husband. Is that what you want to bring up now?”

“That’s not what I meant…”

“You impudent brat!”

Smack!

I realized what had happened only after hearing the loud sound and feeling the sting. A burning pain slowly rose from my left cheek. Soon, the sharp sensation spread vividly across my skin.

“…….”

I held my cheek, struck by my stepmother, and stared at her blankly. Her breathing was rough with anger, and her eyes were filled with clear hatred towards me.

“You’ve finally made me raise my hand. …What do you have left if not being a blood relative of the Lopez family? There’s nothing remarkable about you. If you leave this mansion, you’ll be worse off than the girls selling flowers on the streets. Don’t you understand? You’re nothing. Know your place!”

After yelling at me, my stepmother snatched the bundle of books from Melissa, who was standing next to Helene. Then she threw them at me with a rough motion and commanded,

“It would be fine if you became permanently lame. So you can’t climb back up from the bottom. Go return these books to the library, Ellen. Maybe Mr. Button will take notice of you. If he has a peculiar taste for a maid covered in ashes and limping…”