She had been confined to the annex for allegedly trying to kill her older stepsister.

Medeia felt wronged.

She had done nothing more than share tea with Daphne as she always did, yet right before her eyes, Daphne had suddenly coughed up blood and collapsed.

Her father, her mother, her twin older brothers, and her younger brother.

Not a single member of her family believed her.

They locked her away, telling her to reflect on what she had done to Daphne, but not once did any of them come to visit.

They had even warned her that if she refused to repent, they would cut all ties with her.

But that wasn’t the end of her misfortune.

Her vision had begun to blur little by little the previous year, and when she woke that morning, she could no longer see anything at all.

A misunderstanding could be cleared up.

Blindness could not.

To move through the endless darkness, she had to crawl across the floor, feeling her way with her hands.

The bruise on her forehead from colliding with a piece of hard furniture was still swollen.

Drawing her knees to her chest, Medeia lowered her head.

Too afraid of stumbling into something again, she hadn’t left the bed.

It was strange.

The cheek her father had struck still throbbed.

A whole week had passed, so why did it still burn so badly?

Tap. Tap. Sshhhh—

The sound of heavy rain battering the window filled her ears.

It seemed the rain had begun.

Without her sight, her hearing had become painfully sharp. Even the smallest sounds pierced through her, and a chill spread through her body, making her tremble.

No matter how many times she insisted she was innocent, no one believed her, and the injustice of it all sent tears streaming down her cheeks.

Afraid lightning might strike, she pressed her hands tightly over her ears.

Her heart pounded violently in her chest.

It was a habit she had picked up in childhood, when rainy nights had terrified her because she always had to face them alone.

‘…This.’

The faint scent of daisies drifted to her nose.

“…Sister?”

It was Daphne’s scent.

Medeia quickly lowered her hands from her ears.

“Dea. Why are you crying? Are you hurt?”

A gentle voice reached her ears.

It was Daphne.

Because she had been covering her ears, she hadn’t even noticed Daphne entering the room.

Relief washed over her.

It seemed she had finally regained consciousness and recovered.

“…Sister, are you feeling all right?”

Medeia reached out, searching for the hand resting on hers.

Now Daphne would finally realize it had all been a misunderstanding.

The real culprit would surely be found soon.

More than the relief of clearing her own name, she was simply grateful that Daphne had awakened.

Although they had only lived together for a little over two years…

Daphne had been the one who helped her adjust to life in the unfamiliar Heidel Ducal House.

The biological daughter who had been kidnapped at the age of five and returned thirteen years later.

That was Medeia.

During her absence, her parents had adopted Daphne to fill the void she had left behind, but Medeia understood why.

Having spent years longing for a family while struggling to survive on her own, she had come to cherish Daphne wholeheartedly, despite the fact that they shared no blood.

“Dea. What’s wrong?”

“Sister… I… I woke up this morning, and I can’t see anything. What am I going to do…?”

“My goodness. Really? You can’t see anything at all?”

Medeia heard Daphne draw in a sharp breath.

“…Oh, you poor thing. Stop crying. Your eyes will become inflamed, Dea. Come back to the main house with me. We’ll have you treated.”

“…Mm. Are Mother and Father… still very angry with me?”

Unsure of what her family was thinking, Medeia asked, but Daphne remained silent.

A knot of unease tightened in her chest.

What if they truly believed she had tried to kill her?

She had been so overjoyed that Daphne came to see her first that she had completely forgotten to defend herself.

“Sister… you know it wasn’t me, don’t you? I really didn’t do it. I could never do something like that to you…”

“Dea. Come on, get up. We need to go before your condition gets any worse.”

Daphne’s deliberate refusal to answer filled Medeia with unease.

She bit her lip until the metallic taste of blood spread across her tongue. Taking Daphne’s hand as she was helped to her feet, she quietly followed her out of the room.

After walking for some time…

Daphne suddenly released her hand, and Medeia felt her brush past as she stepped behind her.

“S-Sister?”

Unable to tell where Daphne had gone, Medeia stiffened in confusion.

Then—

“Medeia, you’re still just as foolish as ever.”

Daphne’s voice brushed against her ear in a cold, sinister whisper.

“Do you still not understand?”

A chill raced down Medeia’s spine, making every hair on her body stand on end.

“Why do you think I drank the poison and collapsed? Or why you’ve gone blind?”

Medeia couldn’t believe what she had just heard.

For a moment, she thought she must have misheard.

“Have you figured it out now? That’s right. I poisoned the tea myself… and drank it.”

“…”

“Oh, and that sleep incense you’ve been burning every night? That’s what made you go blind. You’ve been breathing it in day after day. Lily did such a wonderful job.”

The sleep incense was something Daphne had personally made for her after Medeia confessed that she suffered from severe insomnia.

“…Lily?”

“Did you really trust Lily? She was never on your side to begin with. She knew you were going blind, yet she never once stopped burning the incense.”

Medeia desperately shook her head.

That couldn’t be true.

Why would Daphne—the one who had covered her ears whenever it rained and stayed by her bedside through the night whenever she was sick—do something like this?

Even Lily, her personal maid, had always cared for her with unwavering devotion.

“You’re so innocent. That’s why you’ve been deceived all this time. Our foolish, pitiful Dea.”

“Hahaha!”

Daphne’s laughter rang through the air, sharp enough to make Medeia’s ears ache.

“Ah… It took longer than I expected, but knowing I waited all this time for today makes me feel so satisfied. It was worth every moment.”

“…”

“Thank you, Medeia. Truly. Thank you for never doubting me, not even once. You made everything so easy.”

“…Why?”

The word escaped through Medeia’s trembling, bloodied lips.

“What… did I ever do… to you?”

“Hmm… let’s see. You didn’t really do anything wrong. Well… if I had to name one thing, it would be that you came back alive instead of dying.”

Daphne answered with a bright, carefree smile, clapping her hands as though she were sharing a pleasant story.

“…How is coming home… a crime?”

“The moment you came back, Mother and Father pitied only you. They fussed over you and worried about you. Do you have any idea how hard I worked all those years to earn their affection?”

“…”

“I was just a pitied orphan, nearly having frozen to death on the streets one winter. Seeing all that disgusted me.”

Daphne had once told her that she had been adopted into the Heidel Ducal House when she was ten years old.

“If only you had never come back, everything would have been mine. So why did you have to return and take it all away?”

She had once been the only one basking in everyone’s love.

Of course she could never have truly welcomed the sudden return of the duke’s biological daughter.

But…

It had belonged to Medeia from the very beginning.

How could Daphne claim it had been stolen from her?

The realization that every smile, every act of kindness, every bit of affection Daphne had shown her had all been a lie made it feel as though her mind were about to shatter.

Her trembling legs finally gave way, and she collapsed onto the floor.

She groped across the ground, trying to push herself back up, but there was no strength left in her hands.

No matter how many times she braced herself against the floor, she couldn’t stand.

“I thought you’d be furious once you learned the truth. That reaction is a little disappointing.”

Betrayal.

Emptiness.

Heartbreak.

All of it crashed over her at once.

She wanted to ask why.

Why Daphne had done this to her.

But her breathing grew ragged, and dizziness overwhelmed her.

Even speaking had become difficult, and she still couldn’t bring herself to believe any of it.

“Now that I think about it, you’ve lived such a pitiful life. Then again, no one has ever truly loved you, so it’s no surprise you keep ending up like this. It’s your own fault for trusting everyone so blindly.”

“…”

“So don’t blame only me. The person who kidnapped you and ruined your life was someone you trusted too. It’s not just me. Everyone hates you.”

Lies.

That couldn’t possibly be true.

“Father is furious. He’s planning to send you to Aragon’s Fourth Prince. Mother and Vunoa both agreed.”

“…”

“Wouldn’t it be better to die here than be married off to that wastrel with three illegitimate children?”

She had to be lying.

When Medeia failed to give her the reaction she wanted, Daphne must have started making things up just to provoke her.

“So you should be grateful to me. I’ve said everything I needed to. Now die.”

Thud!

A powerful shove slammed into her chest, and Medeia stumbled backward as a terrifying sense of weightlessness swallowed her whole.

She was falling.

The faster she fell, the heavier it felt, as though an enormous stone were crushing her chest.

Crash!

“I spent quite a while deciding whether to throw you off the balcony or push you down these stairs.”

Only after her head slammed into something hard did Medeia realize where she had been standing.

“I decided against the balcony. I wanted you to die without ever realizing what was happening. If you’d felt the rain, you would have known you were outside.”

The metallic scent of blood filled her nose.

“Father and Mother will think you simply lost your footing and fell down the stairs. After all, you’ve been telling everyone your vision has been getting worse since last year.”

“…”

“And since you only ever told me about your insomnia, no one even knows you’ve been using the sleep incense I gave you. They’ll never suspect me.”

Every inch of her body burned with agony.

Still unable to see, she weakly reached into the empty darkness before her.

“…Help… me…”

Even those two words drained the last of her strength.

Thud.

***

The splitting headache that had felt as though it would shatter her skull vanished in an instant.

Breathing came easily.

At first, Medeia thought death had finally freed her from pain.

Then she felt someone gently trying to wake her.

By instinct, her lashes fluttered as she slowly opened her eyes.

The moment her vision came into sharp focus, she froze.

‘I… can see?’

She could see.

She hurriedly raised a hand and felt around her head.

There wasn’t a single wound.

Not a trace of blood.

More importantly…

Seated across from her was her maternal uncle, Baron Velosi.

“…Medeia, we should be arriving at the Heidel Ducal Estate before long.”

A strange sense of déjà vu washed over her.

It was the exact same scene…

As two years ago.