Chapter 25

After finishing their meal, they both went to their respective rooms.

Aneta, coaxed by Carlos to eat a few bites, lay down on her bed and fell asleep almost instantly, as if she had fainted.

She woke up to the sound of birds chirping by the sunlit window. The habit of thinking she had to go to work made her rise, and she stared blankly at the unfamiliar scene.

“Oh, I’m at the estate…”
The belated realization came out as a soft whisper. Habits are powerful; her body had reacted before her mind caught up. Aneta brushed her hair back.

Since becoming an adult, she had only been to the estate twice. It was natural for it to feel somewhat unfamiliar.

Aneta swung her feet off the bed. The cool temperature of the floor rose up her skin, dissipating around her ankles.

Could yesterday’s events have been a dream? She let out a dry laugh at the thought. It seemed she had been shocked by her father’s death.

In her memories, Derek was always a consistent presence. He was always drunk, carousing with half-n*ked women clinging to his arms.

Some days, he would pull out a money pouch and scatter gold coins, and on other days, he would choose someone he fancied and match them to his whims.

He had never hesitated to act like that in front of her as a child, so it still seemed like he could be doing the same thing somewhere now.

But just because it felt like a dream didn’t mean she wished it were one.

Aneta had no tears to shed for her father. She had even less desire for him to live.

Aneta set her lips in a firm line and left the room. Her steps towards a place she had never forgotten bore the weight of determined patience.

After passing through many doors, she finally stopped at one. With a face full of longing, she grasped the doorknob.

The creaking knob turned with a small noise.

Standing on the threshold and looking around, the interior perfectly matched her memories.

Aneta slowly approached the portrait hanging in the middle of the wall.

It seemed that all she had left were the remnants of the dead, as Elena’s serene smile was captured in the painting.

She reached out, her eyes fixed on the smile. Her fingers traced the surface, but of course, there was nothing tangible to grasp.

Yet her mother remained as beautiful as ever.

“She was a beautiful woman.”

His words came unexpectedly, enough to make her not want to deny them.

“I can see where your beauty comes from.”

“Don’t say that. No one knows better than me that I look nothing like her.”

Aneta replied to Carlos without turning around.

Ironically, she resembled her despised father rather than her beloved mother. How she wished she had inherited even just the color of her mother’s eyes.

The face that used to mock her, as if saying no matter how much you hate me, you carry my blood, came to mind.

She shivered and pushed the image away.

“How did you find this place?”

“The butler told me you’d be here.”

Carlos, looking at Aneta who couldn’t take her eyes off the portrait, paused for a moment and asked.

“Is this your mother’s room?”

Aneta nodded in response. The small movement was easily caught by his eyes that were solely focused on her.

“Why do you think my father never got rid of this place?”

“I don’t know.”

“He lived as if he had forgotten her existence.”

What could she wish for from someone who brought his mistress home as if buying a new piece of furniture just because she fit his taste? Derek was trash who fooled around with other women even on his wedding day.

“So I pretended to forget too. I never came near this place. I realized that was the only way to keep it intact.”

She had kept all her mother’s belongings here, living as if she had forgotten them too.

“If he knew I came here, he would have destroyed everything.”

The image of him burning things at the mansion in the capital flashed before her eyes. The realization that angered her and the memories that infuriated her never faded.

The memories clung to her more tightly, growing in their intensity.

Her gaze lowered. The light streaming through the window cast an angled shadow at her feet.

The wall that separates life and death will never fall.

As anger surged, her hands involuntarily clenched.The angrier she became, the colder her mind grew.

Carlos watched her hands clench. He couldn’t even begin to guess her feelings.

After all, she had lived in hell for nearly ten years.

Derek’s notoriety had also reached his ears. However, upon hearing her words, he realized that public opinion was biased.

The more he knew, the more he realized he was a despicable man.

Carlos gritted his teeth silently.

As Aneta stared at the portrait, Carlos watched her back. Mort arrived then.

“My Lady, as you instructed, everything is prepared.”

She had ordered all items from his father’s room to be removed as soon as the day broke.

“Thank you. I’ll be out shortly.”

Aneta, recalling yesterday’s memories, was about to leave the room when she hesitated.

“I’m taking my mother’s belongings to the mansion. Prepare them right away.”

She accepted her lingering attachment without hesitation.

Carlos naturally followed behind her. It was only natural for him to accompany her through all the procedures from the beginning.

“Are you coming too?”

“Even a thread must follow the needle. Isn’t that right?”

“Do as you wish.”

Aneta didn’t bother to stop him.

“When do you plan to return to the capital?”

“As soon as my mother’s belongings are sorted.”

It would take considerable time to move everything from her mother’s room.

As they stepped outside, the lingering moisture touched their skin.

Items taken from Derek’s bedroom and dressing room were categorized into two groups according to Aneta’s instructions.

Those of relatively high value and those to be disposed of. The former would be sold off entirely, with the proceeds to be donated.

“Yeah. This should cover the amount I’ve spent so far.”

Aneta clicked her tongue at the endless extravagance of luxury items.

“Give it to me.”

“Do you want to do it yourself?”

Aneta took the torch and stood before the pile of items to be burned. Most were small items and clothes, excluding the bed.

It wasn’t about avenging the burning of her mother’s belongings by burning his. Whatever happened to his belongings, he would not know from the afterlife.

She just wanted to destroy all traces of him.

“Be careful.”

Aneta tilted the torch with Carlos’s concern. The spread of the flames was instantaneous.

After placing the torch down, she quickly stepped back.

The flames wavered precariously in the damp breeze, then soon grew fiercer. The flames devoured the items greedily, turning them into white ash that scattered into the air.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Now that there’s no one left to serve, take a good rest for a while.”

Aneta acknowledged their efforts before boarding the carriage. Serving a master who was far from a decent human being had been exhausting for them.

Unlike when she arrived, there were now two carriages. One was a cargo carriage that would carry Elena’s belongings.

“Mort, take good care of the estate and the castle.”

“You can count on me, My Lady.”

Mort, who had been wiping his eyes with a handkerchief, bowed deeply at Aneta’s request.

Though he regretted their parting, he couldn’t bring himself to ask her to stay longer at the estate.

“Shall we leave?”

“My Lady!”

As Carlos extended his hand and started to speak, someone else’s voice overlapped his, shouting urgently as they ran up.

“What now?”

Aneta, about to accept Carlos’s help to board the carriage, turned to see who had stopped her.

A woman in her early thirties, clutching something in her arms, was gasping for breath. A knight of the estate seemed to accompany her.

“A baby?”

Aneta looked again at what the woman was holding upon hearing Carlos’s murmur.

Indeed, there was a baby with distinct blonde hair in her arms.

“Aneta, do you know her?”

“Not at all.”

The afternoon sunlight highlighted the baby’s hair.

The woman hurriedly ran up to them, but the guards blocked her path. She, however, seemed pleased with herself.

A woman holding a blonde baby. The worst scenario crossed Aneta’s mind, and she frowned.

“Who allowed a guest in without permission?”

Mort scolded with a stern voice, and the knight, looking troubled, explained.

“She insisted she must see Her Lady…”

“You know you can’t meet her just because you want to!”

“I apologize, but she claimed the baby is the late lord’s child, so we had to let her in.”

As soon as the knight finished speaking, the woman raised her voice.

“My Lady, this child is your heir!”

The woman held the sleeping baby forward. The guards blocked her firmly, but she didn’t back down.

“Who dares to stop me? I was Derek’s lover!”

A lover and an illegitimate child. If her claim was true, it was not something to be taken lightly.

‘Only if it’s true.’

Aneta played the card she had prepared for such an occasion, knowing it might happen someday.

“Baron.”

“She is one of the women who had relations with Derek. Her name is Mella, thirty-three years old, and she works in the red-light district.”

Baron immediately recited the woman’s background.

Aneta had ordered surveillance and documentation not only on Derek but also on everyone closely associated with him.

“Ah, so you’re that Mella.”

Aneta recalled the name she had frequently seen in reports until just two years ago.

“You were favored for a while. But I heard he quickly got tired of you and you moved in with another man.”

The woman’s face turned pale at the mention of cohabitation.

“Even though I did, this child is Derek’s. Look, though his eyes are closed, he has the same blonde hair and blue eyes.”

“Blonde hair and blue eyes may not be common, but they’re not rare either. Besides, I heard the man you lived with also has blonde hair and blue eyes. That can’t be considered proof.”

It was the word of a woman who sold her body. Without clear evidence, her claim couldn’t be trusted. There was no way to know whose child it was.

“How do you know such things…”

“Why wouldn’t I? You never know when a threat might arise, just like now.”

Aneta dismissed the guards and stepped forward, ignoring their worried expressions.

“Who decided this child would be my heir?”

Aneta gave the baby an indifferent look. Though the baby had the same blonde hair and blue eyes, there was no resemblance to Derek.

“If that’s all you have as proof, you should leave.”

“I have other evidence!”

As Aneta showed signs of dismissing her, the woman hurriedly pulled something from her bosom.

“This proves my relationship with him.”

Aneta’s face contorted visibly as she looked at the item the woman held out expressionlessly.

“Why do you have the necklace?”

The necklace that Elena had searched for so desperately but couldn’t find was now in the woman’s hands.