Chapter 2

Having witnessed that, Raphael threatened Estelle….

— You know what will happen if you talk? If you mention what you saw today anywhere, you won’t survive. If you don’t want a finger or toe cut off, behave. Stay quiet like now.

It was a threat. Estelle nodded, crushed by his murderous aura. During the time she had lived in the main residence, she too had eyes and ears.

Unlike his handsome appearance, Raphael was not kind-hearted.

After being adopted into the Duchy, she lived quietly, accepting Raphael’s warning. There was nothing good about standing out. If she wanted to live, she had to obey. She had no resentment toward her brother.

Shocked by the fact that the man who seemed to have neither blood nor tears could cry, Estelle left the study. Even afterward she still could not fully understand Raphael, but a secret sense of bond formed between them.

Since she had been adopted into the ducal family, Estelle could not even visit the graves of the parents from her fallen house. Sometimes she missed her birth parents. Though they had died miserable deaths befitting ruined nobles and were people she could never meet again…

That was why, when she saw Raphael sobbing and crying like that, her heart had stirred—at least in that moment.

Until the year she turned fourteen, when she heard from the Duke’s own mouth why she had been adopted—and Raphael caught her crying.

— Did you really think you were adopted without any purpose? If it’s for the revival of House Pellia, Father is the kind of man who would use anything.

— Uh, uh….

—You already knew, didn’t you? That you’d be raised as a flawless young lady and used for a profitable marriage. The father who never once came suddenly says his real son died one day and even drags me in to attach me here—what couldn’t he do? He’s the kind of man who says he can’t stand filthy blood.

She thought he’d ignore her for being caught crying, but Raphael said a few words to Estelle that day.

His sincerity chilled her, but she knew. Honestly, she knew but ignored it.

Harsh etiquette training. Daily packed lessons. The Duke’s cold gaze, even assigning which ladies and daughters she should mingle with at society parties.

Though not formally registered, from the moment she was adopted, the Duke was her guardian. He invested time and money, so she was a tool expected to fulfill her purpose later.

His attitude was so blatant, she couldn’t not know….

Even knowing there was nothing good about breaking down in front of Raphael, Estelle cried for the first time after entering the Duchy. She had shed tears before, but never cried as if she’d faint.

Raphael, watching her, did not comfort her. Naturally. But he didn’t leave either. Just….

— You’re in the same situation as me.

That short phrase lingered in her mind even now, as an adult.

With a bitter expression, Estelle headed straight to her bedroom. What her father demanded was always precise, so it did not shock her too greatly.

It was time.

― Since I’ve told you countless times why I brought you here, I’ll cut that short and speak only of the point. Marry Duke Blythe. He is a man whose former wife is dead and who has two sons, but among great nobles, that is not a major blemish. More than anything, he still has not yet passed forty, so if things go well, you may even have another child. Duke Blythe agreed to this as well. He said that if it were you, he would consider it sincerely. If this matter proceeds smoothly, I will formally have you entered into House Pellia’s registry. The terms are not bad, so carry yourself properly.

Thinking he could sell the adopted daughter he had painstakingly polished for a long time at a high price, Duke Pellia’s eyes gleamed wildly.

She, who had silently endured that gaze the entire time she was in the study, did not argue back. She only answered, ‘Yes.’

When she reached her bedroom, she stepped up to the vanity mirror and reflected on her own face. Her rose-tinted hair and green eyes looked strikingly glamorous. Raphael had blond hair and blue eyes; the Duke had blond hair and green eyes. She had red hair and green eyes…. The late Duchess had rose-tinted hair and blue eyes.

They each had one thing in common. Whether it was hair color or eye color, there existed overlapping colors as though they were connected by blood.

That was why, despite her being a complete stranger to them, she could be adopted into the ducal family under the pretense of being an illegitimate child. No one suspected Estelle. Not even Raphael.

It must have been around this time last year when Raphael discovered that secret.

The link he had believed to be a half-shared bloodline had turned out to be nothing but a connection between strangers….

Raphael, having learned the truth, conveyed that fact to Estelle. He wanted to hear from her whether it was really true.

Raphael’s expression at the time was intense enough to be hard to forget after seeing it once. His face looked desperately earnest, as though he wished she would confess if it were the truth, yet his gaze alone shone with a churning light, as if it would swallow every spark of fire. Before that, she had no choice but to confess everything as it was. It was only after several days had passed that he began to act differently, and it was around then, too, that Raphael—wearing the mask of an older brother—began to tangle their bodies together with lingering insistence….

Recalling the past, Estelle needlessly brushed a hand over her own face.

Whenever Raphael came to mind, she felt her heart race. 

This could not go on.

Biting her lower lip, she turned her back on the vanity mirror.

If she married into House Blythe, as the Duke advised, everything would end.

‘Nothing is forever.’

She had to cut off her relationship with Raphael. Even if she could not refuse him, she had to push him away somehow.

***

Raphael learned that Estelle was planning to marry the Duke of Blythe through a lackey he had planted around their father.

Unable to endure it, he headed for Estelle’s bedroom. When he appeared without warning, she was terribly flustered, but she immediately hid it from her face. Only after dismissing all the servants did Estelle speak.

“Why did you come so suddenly?”

“Do family members need a separate reason to meet? If I miss you, I will come.”

Raphael, who did not particularly like titles such as “family” or “older brother,” deliberately brought up that word. Estelle quickly noticed that his temper was twisted and asked,

“You came because you already knew? They haven’t even officially announced an engagement yet….”

“There are ways to find out. Don’t you think you’re taking your older brother too lightly, Estelle? You didn’t even tell me until now.”

He, with a sly smile, strode toward Estelle. His lips drew a gentle arc, but his eyes remained cold, unamused.

Her face stiffened in an instant.

“Don’t be afraid. Anyone seeing us would think I’m about to devour you. I just want to know why you hid it. We were quite close, weren’t we?”

He was asking whether they had not been close, considering how many times they had intertwined their bodies—not as siblings, but as a man and a woman.

Estelle could not immediately answer his obvious intent. She always knew it was wrong, yet each time, she succumbed to his temptations.

As he reached out again, Estelle grew anxious, biting her lip before replying hesitantly.

“It’s not that our relationship was good. We simply crossed a line that should never have been crossed.”

Unable to look Raphael in the eye, she cast her gaze downward.

Her glance prevented even a bitter smile from reaching his lips; he let out a faint sigh. His expression, rarely, faltered.

“Are you going to do this again?”

“‥‥‥.”

“How long will you keep this up? Saying you hate it when you actually like it. Pushing me away as if I disgust you, only to ultimately accept me—how long will you keep acting like that?”

Raphael seemed to have lost his composure upon hearing the news of the marriage at the Duke Blythe’s Duchy. Perhaps because it was the first time he’d heard it.

Normally, even if she said she hated it, he would approach calmly and press his lips to hers, but now things were different.

Ever since he learned they were siblings only in name, not by blood, his endlessly cold and indifferent demeanor changed openly. Whether things worked out or not, he tried to melt her heart with a friendly expression.

He had claimed Estelle’s first moment when she was off guard, and Raphael intended to officially announce himself as the head of the family and tie her to him as his wife. If Estelle would bear him children, he had no intention of taking any other woman.

Only Estelle was the woman he longed for. But…

“Why are you so sure? That I wasn’t disgusted?”

She lied shamelessly, her words transparent.