127. White Lies

Baptiski sent Marquis Menshikov away saying he would think about it, and took his second daughter to see his eldest.

He thought if Bianca had something she couldn’t tell her father, she might be a bit more honest in front of her sister.

He had already made one mistake with his eldest daughter’s marriage.

He had immediately given permission, overjoyed by the letter his daughter sent while staying at Petrovsky’s villa.

The marriage with Ivan eventually led to its cancellation.

He only learned that Ivan had imprisoned Katya and forged the letters when everything was revealed in court during the marriage fraud lawsuit.

His daughter had kept it secret so her father wouldn’t feel guilty and suffer.

Though Katya fortunately met a good man in Nikolai, Baptiski couldn’t ruin his second daughter’s marriage too.

Looking back now, there was nothing good about rushing into marriage.

He wanted Bianca to think more carefully.

After telling his eldest daughter about her sister’s engagement intentions, Duke Smirnov left the two daughters in the room and got up first.

“You’re getting married?”

Katya asked in surprise.

“To Olen Menshikov? Are you serious?”

“It turns out he was the boy I’ve been looking for.”

“The boy who saved you at the resort?”

“Yes.”

“Is that what’s important?”

“It is important. I thought if I found that person, and if he was still single, I wanted to marry him.”

Bianca spoke with forced cheerfulness.

But she couldn’t stop the movement of her hands on her knees.

She was unconsciously picking at the hangnail on her left thumb.

It was a habit from when she suffered from mutism that would surface when anxious, which she had supposedly broken but was now returning.

Catching this, Katya raised her gaze to meet her sister’s eyes.

She knew that smile was pretending to be happy.

While Katya didn’t have the ability to see through everyone’s lies, there were a few people around her who were easy to read.

Two of those were her husband Nikolai and her sister Bianca.

“And now?”

“Huh?”

“You keep speaking in past tense.”

Struck at her core, Bianca was momentarily speechless.

Her sister was right.

That’s how it used to be. Bianca didn’t know love.

After meeting the boy who saved her at the resort, she had never felt the emotion called love.

She wanted to find that boy.

She wanted to find him and tell him that she was alive thanks to him, that he had gifted new pages to a life that could have ended then.

She wanted to express her gratitude by saying those words.

But as finding that boy proved more difficult than expected, she became solely focused on meeting him again.

While women her age were feeling romantic emotions for others, Bianca’s attention was entirely on that boy.

So she decided to call it first love.

Though she couldn’t be certain if she had truly felt love for that boy at such a young age, perhaps she wanted to reassure herself that she too knew how to love.

When everyone else seemed to fall in love so easily, she didn’t want to be abnormal by being the only one who couldn’t.

Before properly examining what that emotion was, she had determined it was first love, falling into the illusion that it really was love.

She believed without doubt that he was her destined one.

She vaguely thought she would marry him when they met again.

Perhaps that had been her only life goal.

“Do I have to get married?”

“Why should I get married when I’m surrounded by unsatisfactory men?”

“I’ve decided. Rather than lowering my standards to the underworld, I won’t marry at all!”

The sister she envied could say everything she wanted to say.

For most women, finding a good husband and getting married was life’s greatest goal.

This was true not only in Hersen but in neighboring countries as well.

The reason for cultivating beauty, intelligence, and refinement until their debut was to receive more proposals during the social season and increase their options.

Even if not completely satisfied, they would typically choose the best among their options and marry before passing their prime age.

But Katya had rebelled against such conventional life views.

Saying she would live alone if there was no man she liked.

Though some mocked her choice, she eventually met someone who loved her genuinely, just as she was.

While she always wanted to live like her sister, Bianca actually lacked the courage to do so.

The fortunate thing was that she had her first love.

A marriage of love…

Though passive, it was the only rebellion she could make against society’s standards without stepping outside the lines.

She realized it wasn’t love after meeting Luka.

“Teacher?”

“You’re my teacher now. I should respect you properly as my mentor.”

“Ah……”

“Oh, I’m late with introductions. I’m Bianca Smirnov.”

“I’m Luka Tranov.”

Meeting the man from the perfume shop by chance and having him become her tutor was truly unexpected.

If this had been a romance novel, she might have thought it was a fated encounter.

After her sister left on a secret journey with the Grand Duke, she often chatted with him, her tutor, feeling lonely.

Time flew by when talking with Luka.

It was her first time connecting so well with someone of the opposite s*x.

She didn’t properly understand her feelings while spending time with Luka.

Ironically, she didn’t realize when true love had arrived.

She only realized when he left without a word.

That this was love.

The empty feeling she felt upon finally finding her long-sought first love was because she had found real love.

“He’s someone who continued to love me even knowing I might not be able to have children.”

“Besides that reason. I’m asking if you love that man.”

“I just found out someone I didn’t have feelings for was actually my first love. How could I fall in love right away when I just learned this? I need time.”

“Then take time to understand your feelings and decide then.”

“I don’t have time, Sister.”

Bianca murmured.

With Marquis Menshikov at the lead, this was a never-to-return opportunity to draw more boyars to the Grand Duke’s side.

She was uncertain if such an opportunity would come again after refusing this marriage proposal.

The situation was chaotic with Nikolai’s policy reforms.

At times like this, it was important for everyone to unite around the Grand Duke.

Though Bianca didn’t know the details of such political matters, she knew this marriage would definitely help her sister and brother-in-law.

Besides, delaying wasn’t good for her either.

She needed to marry when she had made up her mind, or else she would reverse this marriage decision herself and never be able to forget Luka.

“Why don’t you have time?”

“I want to get married and start a family as soon as possible. Seeing how you and brother-in-law cherish each other and live happily, I want that quickly too.”

“What if your destined one is another man?”

“Olen could be my destiny too. If I reject him this time, Olen will truly give up on me, and I’ll lose him forever.”

“Are you certain you’ll find the happiness you want by marrying Olen?”

“Yes. I’m certain.”

Bianca told a white lie for her sister and herself.

***

Meanwhile, Lyudmila was searching for her sister Irina after hearing from the palace servants that she hadn’t returned to her bedroom last night.

But fearing her maids would find out, she casually said she was going to the bathroom and left them in the reception room.

Usually, maids would follow even to the bathroom as custom dictated, so she had to exhaust herself making various excuses to prevent them from following.

For an unmarried woman to stay out overnight was fatal to her reputation.

Though they were her maids, they were daughters of boyar families who could easily spread it through social circles if they loosened their lips.

As she walked around the palace pretending to look for something she lost, she saw Irina approaching from afar in the same clothes as yesterday.

Unaware of her sister’s anxiety, she was even humming a tune.

Lyudmila, pale with worry, grabbed her sister’s arm and dragged her into the nearest room.

As soon as she locked the door, she turned to Irina with a fierce demeanor.

“Where did you sleep last night?”

“Is that why you’re so angry?”

“Are you going to answer or not?”

At those words, her thoughtless sister blushed shyly while pressing her index fingers together.

“In His Highness Mikhail’s bedroom.”

“What?”

Shocked, Lyudmila grabbed Irina’s arm and struck her back repeatedly with sharp blows.

“Ow! That hurts!”

“How could you do this after how Father and I raised you! How could you? How!”

“I’m a grown adult! I know how to take care of myself!”

“This is how you take care of yourself? If this gets out, you and our family will be buried in social circles! What will you do if Mikhail doesn’t marry you!”

“Don’t worry. I was frustrated that the marriage was stagnating, but Her Highness the former Grand Duchess showed me an easy way.”

“What did Her Highness say?”

Lyudmila’s expression hardened at learning her mother-in-law was involved in this.

Surely not.

It must not be.

Contrary to her hopes, shocking words poured from her sister’s mouth.

“She said it’s an auspicious day for conception. The temple determined it was a lucky day. I’ll become pregnant with His Highness Mikhail’s child.”