She had spent years as a child wondering about this man, and now here he was, standing right in front of her.

But the anticipation and excitement of meeting her father for the first time shattered the moment they came face to face.

‘So. Do you have any proof that I am your father?’

Parnelli’s response had been ice cold.

More than cold. He seemed to find her distasteful.

He looked at her the way someone looks at something they wish they had not seen.

Those mineral-flat eyes, like glass, had pierced her with their chill.

‘……My mother told me. Did you not, kn, know?’

Even then, Riley had thought that if he simply had not known of her existence, he would be glad to learn of it now.

‘My mother’s name is Mina de Lamol Spencer. I am sixteen years old.’

She had thought perhaps he had forgotten her mother’s name after all this time, so she had spelled it out clearly.

But Parnelli’s lips curved in something close to a sneer.

‘I did have a connection with Viscount Spencer’s daughter, once. But it was only the connection of painting her portrait. There was no other special relationship between us.’

Caught off guard, Riley had stumbled over her words.

‘B, but my mother told me you were my father.’

Parnelli’s brow creased with irritable impatience, the way one might look at a flustered child who could not keep up.

‘Your name is Raul, was it?’

‘……Yes.’

‘I don’t know why your mother would have said such a thing, but I am not your father. There was nothing of that nature between us. It seems your mother, in her girlish sentimentality, mistook something for what it was not and distorted the truth.’

Riley had been struck hard.

She stared blankly at the man speaking of her mother as though she had been lost in delusion.

Those distinctive lavender eyes, identical to her own, eyes that could only have come from him, looked back at her without warmth.

Riley clasped her trembling hands together and lowered her head, forcing herself to continue.

Every exchange made her feel more wretched, but she wanted to defend her mother, the mother who was no longer in the world.

‘My mother would not have been mistaken. She wore this photograph around her neck for her entire life.’

But Parnelli’s cold amusement only sharpened.

‘The fact that she could not forget me does not prove I am your father. She may have had other lovers. One can long for someone and still be with someone else.’

Before Riley could fire back, he cut off the argument entirely.

‘Yes, well. Your mother may have been unable to forget a fleeting connection and gone on pining for me, but I swear I am not your father.’

Riley stared at him as he delivered his verdict.

Her own blank, stunned face was reflected in those cold eyes beneath their golden lashes.

Disappointment rose in her, and with it anger at the way he had insulted her mother, but Riley steadied the turmoil in her chest and spoke clearly.

‘My mother had no one else. She was cast out of her family for insisting on keeping me.’

Parnelli did not yield.

‘If all you have is speculation and you refuse to believe me, the person directly involved, then there’s nothing more to be done.’

Riley had nothing left to say.

She had known nothing of what had happened back then. All she had was what her mother had told her, and that was what had brought her here.

Stunned, Riley looked at the man who was her mirror image.

He surely knew it too, looking back at her.

That Riley was his blood.

Only then did she understand what he was doing.

This man did not want her to exist.

A memory surfaced: she had recently seen a piece about him successfully marrying the divorced Count of Radonel.

Of course. He was on the verge of climbing into a new social position. The last thing he needed was a hidden illegitimate child turning up.

‘Why did it take me this long to see that.’

The agitation drained out of her.

The fury at being denied, at having her mother denied, went quiet too.

After a long silence, Riley finally apologized.

‘I’m sorry for today. I came here under a grave misunderstanding and caused you trouble. Please forget this conversation ever happened.’

Parnelli’s expression eased slightly at the sight of the thin young boy finally showing some sense.

Even so, he made sure to leave her with a firm warning.

‘If you come to me again over this matter, or breathe a word of it anywhere and damage my reputation, I will take legal action.’

The warning came in a voice with a smooth, unhurried elegance, and it was absolute.

‘Yes. I will keep that in mind.’

Legal action.

Those words were the conclusion of what had been their first and last meeting.

She never went to him again after that. She threw away the photograph in the locket. She erased him from her mind entirely.

Instead, with truly nowhere to turn, when Andrea appeared and asked if she would come to Eli Palace, she had simply followed without a word.

Her plan was to save her wages and strike out on her own when she turned twenty.

And now here was someone she had forgotten, appearing before her again.

His Highness had commissioned him to handle the interior design for the palace expansion, and had tasked her with weighing in on the pattern designs and color choices.

She could not clearly remember what she had said or chosen throughout that bewildering planning meeting, but by the time she came back to herself, it was all over.

‘Why are you so stiff, are you feeling ill.’

She remembered Andrea saying that and pressing a hand to her forehead without warning. That was the only moment that had stayed with her.

Parnelli had clearly recognized her even after four years and been thrown off. But he had steadied himself quickly, and from that point on he had watched her with careful, deliberate attention.

Her and Andrea, in turns.

‘He was afraid I might say something.’

Even as he left the drawing room at the end of the meeting, he had cast a long, peculiar look in her direction on his way out.

“Telling me to keep my mouth shut, is that it?”

Riley pressed her hand to her forehead, which genuinely felt warm, and muttered to herself.

“Hmph. I have no intention of telling anyone, so don’t worry. I had forgotten all about you. You’re the one who showed up out of nowhere.”

Hah……

But from the way things were discussed, there would be several more meetings like this.

‘I will consult with Sir Edward and the stonemasons’ guild before preparing the second set of plans and returning, Your Highness.’

He was coming back.

Surely His Highness would not call for her again next time.

It was gratifying that His Highness trusted her, but being quietly handed this much responsibility was a lot to carry.

In any case, Riley decided that if she had to face that man again, she would handle it more calmly than today.

He had insulted her mother and thrown the words ‘legal action’ at her when she had come to him as a child, with nothing but a small, fragile hope of some small affection.

The shock still had her heart pounding. She pressed it down with a quiet, deliberate hostility.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A few days later.

“My sister?”

Andrea had been about to head out for a hunt when his elder sister descended on him without warning, and he found himself pinned to the drawing room sofa with nowhere to go.

Riley moved quickly and set down the tea, and Duchess Charlotte curved her eyes warmly.

“Oh, Raul. It’s been a while. Have you been well?”

Riley concealed her delight and offered a respectful bow.

“I hope you have been well too, Your Highness. Or rather, Your Grace, now.”

Riley smiled, and Charlotte made a fuss.

“My, Raul, you’ve grown quite a bit since I last saw you.”

The princess had visited the Queen Dowager’s estate often in those years and had sometimes played with young Raul.

“But our Raul really ought to be getting more strapping. Getting prettier by the day instead, what are we to do? Are you not eating enough? His Highness isn’t mistreating you and starving you, is he?”

“Mistreating, hardly.”

Andrea brushed it off with indifference, and Riley scratched her cheek with mild embarrassment.

“P, prettier, I’m not—”

Flustered, she made a deliberate effort to square her chest and shoulders and look as sturdy as possible, but her narrow frame did not seem to help much.