Chapter 49

Diane was sitting by the window in her room, looking out.

The sun was slowly moving to the south, and far away, Gardener Bill could be seen busily trimming branches.

Soon, Young Master Leon would head to the stables for his riding lesson.

As she remembered the schedule of the Young Master’s lessons, just then, she noticed the new instructor, who had been hired to replace the riding teacher who had suddenly quit one day, entering through the front gate. 

She was the only female teacher besides Diane.

Until now, there hadn’t been any female teachers except Diane, and especially among the riding instructors, women were rare, but strangely, this new instructor was a woman.

Was she especially close to the President?

She heard that the President recommended her to the Duke, and the Duke hired her immediately that day.

For someone so notorious for their personality, he seemed quite passionate about his nephew’s education.

Even Diane herself, as the reading tutor, had been hired by the President.

“She must be lucky.”

Watching the riding instructor head toward the stables on horseback, Diane muttered to herself.

That instructor wasn’t a live-in tutor, so she only visited the Wale mansion on days like today when Leon had a lesson.

So even though Diane never had the chance to talk with her, she felt envious of her.

Duke Adrian Wale’s kindness and warmth, and her own helpless state of mind that wavered because of him, made her feel troubled and miserable, while President Edward Wale’s ruthlessness and wildness, made her feel uncomfortable and ashamed.

Nevertheless, what saddened her most was her situation—unable to leave this house, the Wale mansion, which belonged to them.

If she had a home like that riding instructor, she could have left this place before sadness completely consumed her body and mind.

The instructor probably had a family too, right?

If Diane had a family, even if she couldn’t quit her job because she needed to earn money for them, at least knowing there was family waiting for her to come home after work would have kept her from feeling this kind of sadness.

But she didn’t have such a home.

Nor did she have a family…

Of course, there were Gale and Uncle Walt, but they weren’t her real family.

It wasn’t that their affection for her was lacking.

There was just some line she couldn’t cross.

Sometimes, those two would raise their voices and argue.

Of course, it never lasted long, and they would soon reconcile.

But Diane had never once fought with Gale or Uncle Walt.

They were people she felt gratitude and thankfulness toward, not people with whom she could bicker, complain, or share her troubles.

Sometimes she felt sad, but she never told them she was sad.

She always acted cheerful and strong.

She couldn’t ask them to comfort her too.

She needed to be someone they needed.

Someone who could make them smile, who could help them even a little.

Before she knew it, the tears she had been holding back were flowing down her cheeks.

“Why are you crying, like a fool.”

She wiped away the tears with her hand.

Unlike when she was young and cried often, as she grew up, Diane cried less and less.

She sometimes cried when she was happy or moved, but she tried not to cry when she was sad.

It wasn’t that she had nothing to cry about.

There were so many times she wanted to cry that she ended up holding back even more.

She thought that if she didn’t have a handkerchief to wipe her tears, she could hold back better, so from some point, she stopped carrying a handkerchief altogether.

Even if she cried her heart out and showed her ugly, red-faced self, the kind prince from her childhood who said he’d be her father and brother and told her not to cry was no longer in her world.

But no matter how much she held back, sometimes, like today, there were days when tears just burst out.

Days when she couldn’t handle the tears that kept falling even if she wiped them with the back of her hand.

She got up from the chair.

Since the tears had already spilled, she had no choice but to wipe them away.

On the table was the handkerchief she received from the Duke.

Just as she picked up the handkerchief—

“Diane Lina.”

A voice she never wanted to hear came from outside the door.

It was President Edward Wale.

She quickly wiped her tears with the handkerchief.

“Diane Lina.”

With a knock on the door, the President called her again.

She considered pretending not to be in the room and making no sound.

But soon she approached the door.

That rude President would find her wherever she was if he needed her, and he wasn’t the type to hold back until he’d said everything he wanted to say.

As long as she was in this Wale mansion, there was nowhere for her to hide.

“What is it?”

“Open the door. I have something to say.”

The door wasn’t locked.

If it were that rude man, he might just barge in, but for some reason, he waited outside.

She wiped her eyes again with the handkerchief she was holding and opened the door.

“What do you want to say?”

Diane asked stiffly.

The President stared at her through the doorway.

“You cried, didn’t you?”

Diane quickly bowed her head.

Even though she wiped her tears with the handkerchief, it must have been obvious she had cried.

“If you have something to say, please just say it and go.”

“Hey! I asked if you cried!”

Diane glared at Edward, whose voice was rising again.

Why did every conversation with this man go this way?

Why did he have to yell at someone who was crying, asking if they cried?

And she cried because of him!

Such a nasty man.

“Yes, I cried. So what’s wrong with that? Am I not allowed to cry?”

She was venting all her anger and disgust toward President Wale, and even her resentment toward the Duke, at him all at once.

She disliked the President and liked the Duke.

But whether she liked or disliked them, it was equally painful and difficult.

But she couldn’t even get angry at the Duke.

How could she be angry when he had been kind to her?

He had just treated her with his naturally warm and gentle nature.

Just like the prince from her childhood.

The fact that she kept getting shaken by his actions was entirely her own fault.

But she didn’t care about showing her worst side to this rude man.

Nothing good had ever happened with the President, so things couldn’t get worse.

Even if, at worst, she was fired, that would be it.

She couldn’t bring herself to quit since she had nowhere to go, but if she was fired and had no choice but to leave, she thought she would gladly go.

So she no longer had to fear what happened with the President.

Showing some tear stains, saying what she wanted—none of that mattered.

“Why are you crying! Why did you cry again? Looking at you now, you don’t look pretty at all when you cry, so why do it!”

Diane was so shocked that she changed her mind.

Things could get worse.

She hadn’t thought she could dislike him more, but she did.

The President was definitely a crazy, twisted man.

As if what he’d said earlier wasn’t enough, he came all the way to her room just to say, ‘You don’t look pretty when you cry.’

“President, please stop saying strange things and just tell me why you came.”

She still glared at Edward through the doorway.

“I asked why you cried. What made you so sad?”

She couldn’t communicate with the President.

“If you didn’t come to fire me, please leave. I don’t want to have meaningless conversations with you.”

“Fire you? Why would I fire you? Why would I…”

“You suddenly show up and yell at me, come to my room and shout at me for crying, and say weird, twisted things like I don’t look pretty when I cry. Isn’t it perfectly reasonable to fire me?”

“Twisted?”

Diane pressed her lips together.

“Did you just call me twisted? To my face?”

“Sorry. That was a mistake. Anyway, if you have something to say, please say it quickly and go.”

“Ha!”

The President let out a laugh as if he couldn’t believe it.

Diane turned her head away from him, looking toward her room, and stayed silent.

She hadn’t said anything she didn’t mean, nor anything wrong, so she had no intention of apologizing further.

Strangely, the President also said nothing.

Feeling an odd chill, she looked up at the President.

What was he looking at?

His eyes were not on her face, but on her hand.

Why was he doing that?

“What’s that?”

“Excuse me?”

The President’s voice, which had been raised just moments ago, was now cold and calm.

“That handkerchief, did my brother give it to you?”

Diane looked down at the handkerchief in her hand.

She saw the embroidered initials ‘A.W.’ of the Duke’s name near the top.

Suddenly, Diane’s face flushed.

Memories of the time she watched a performance with the Duke at the opera house and the feelings she had then came rushing back.

The President reached out his hand toward the handkerchief.

At that moment, Diane realized he was trying to take the Duke’s handkerchief away.

Without thinking, she gripped the handkerchief tightly.

She didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to let go.

“Let go!”

The President glared at her, trying to snatch the handkerchief.

“No. It’s not yours.”

“It’s not yours either.”

“If it needs to be returned to the Duke, I’ll do it myself.”

“What?”

“I’ll return it to him myself.”

“You…”

“…?”

“You, don’t tell me you really… my brother…”

Diane finally realized she’d made a mistake.

Saying she’d return it herself—why did she say that to the President?

“President, please just say what you need to and go.”

She tried to cover her embarrassment by speaking more formally.

But the President just stared at her without saying anything.

“If you have nothing else to say…”

After an awkward silence, Diane was about to send him away.

“You think the boy you met at the orphanage was my brother, don’t you?”

“What?”

Diane frowned.

Orphanage?

She didn’t immediately understand what the President was saying.

But if it was about the orphanage…

‘…!’

She looked up at the President, her eyes wide as if they might pop out.