Chapter 4

The next day, Riley was summoned once again to a meeting about the Eli Palace renovation.

She was genuinely uncomfortable.

Parnelli was behaving as though nothing had happened, but she was not brazen enough to do the same.

Andrea, however, knew nothing of any of this and had simply handed all responsibility for selecting interior patterns and materials over to Riley, washing his hands of the tedious task.

By some coincidence, Parnelli and Riley shared identical taste, so the two of them never disagreed, and everything proceeded smoothly.

Parnelli seemed to sense this himself and made a point of emphasizing it in front of Andrea.

“I find it remarkable that my aesthetic sensibility and the attendant’s are in such perfect alignment.”

Riley’s brow furrowed. She could have tolerated it if he had not kept saying things like that, but the effort to highlight their common ground at every turn grated on her.

“Does Your Highness have no preference of your own? Even with this mantelpiece alone, both the Lirico style and the Renacé style would suit it. But once the decision is made, it sets the direction for the entire room, so I would appreciate a more considered opinion.”

Andrea was lounging against the back of the sofa with his usual ease and gestured toward Riley beside him with a look.

“He’ll think it over and let you know.”

Parnelli’s eyes sharpened with careful interest, and he asked with studied delicacy.

“Your Highness appears to place great trust in Attendant Raul. And I must say, from what I can observe, he possesses a remarkably refined eye. There are people born with that kind of innate sensibility, without any formal training. Among the students I instruct, there are occasionally such exceptional talents, but none quite at the level of Attendant Raul here.”

Riley inwardly rolled her eyes watching Parnelli deliver his smooth, transparent flattery.

‘Good grief…… why is he doing this.’

A growing sense of resistance was building inside her.

‘What exactly is he trying to accomplish at this point?’

But then Andrea’s response made Riley flinch.

“Well…… trust is an understatement, isn’t it?”

He turned to look at her with something like quiet pride, and Riley could only shrug.

Right. More than trust. They were already in the same boat.

Lately she had been working as an illustrator for the Daily Minerve, helping to bring down various political figures one by one.

She had known nothing about politics, but reading Nina’s editorials and drawing whatever was asked of her had given her a working sense of who was an ally and who was an adversary.

Along the way, she had spent considerable time accompanying Andrea to balls and salons under the pretext of learning faces.

She felt less like a personal attendant and more like an aide and secretary.

Word of that must have spread, because Parnelli’s manner was noticeably more obsequious than the last time she had seen him.

‘Hmm…… so I’ve become someone worth attaching yourself to, in his eyes?’

How had things come to this?

She had only ever wanted to do simple work and get out of here.

But unlike the unsettled Riley, Parnelli had taken Andrea’s words as full confirmation of what he suspected, and he moved to call her out privately.

As Riley was leaving the meeting to attend to her own tasks, a note was pressed into her hand by another attendant.

「Let’s meet briefly in the rear garden. — Parnelli」

Unable to refuse in the end, Riley stood in a quiet side path through the rear garden.

Lavender fields stretched out on either side of the path, and Parnelli was waiting there, posed against that backdrop with a carefully cultivated air of melancholy.

“Raul, I’ve been thinking it over, and I’ve come to the conclusion that things cannot continue this way between us.”

“What do you mean?”

Riley’s brow creased with a sinking feeling.

“Our relationship.”

A brief silence followed. Riley pressed down the unpleasant churning inside her and answered evenly.

“There is no relationship.”

“Yes, you may have been hurt by my behavior in the past. But how long can we go on pretending? The bond of blood cannot simply be severed.”

“What exactly are we pretending about?”

Parnelli’s eyes filled with tears.

“We are father and son. I am your biological father. Mina never had another lover at the time, and beyond that, one look at the two of us makes it impossible to deny.”

She bit back the urge to say ‘you denied it perfectly well back then’ and asked calmly.

“Could you tell me why you’re doing this now?”

Faced with Riley’s continued coldness, Parnelli produced a genuinely anguished expression.

“I want to acknowledge our relationship openly, even now, and have you entered into the official family register. I’ve already spoken to the Count of Radonel, who will be your stepmother, and received her full blessing, so there is no obstacle.”

Riley barely managed to keep the smile from her lips.

He thought his wife’s permission was all it took? What about her own?

She thought again that Parnelli would have made a fine stage actor, and shot back.

“Who is to become my stepmother? I have one mother, or rather two, counting the late Queen Dowager.”

“What? The Queen Dowager raised you? Of course!”

Everything suddenly made sense to Parnelli.

He had been very curious about how Raul had come to occupy a position so close to the crown prince, the highest power in the land, and now the reason was clear.

A flash of greed crossed Parnelli’s eyes. He pressed on with renewed urgency.

“Raul, think it over again. Once you are entered into the Radonel family register, I will make up for everything I failed to give you. You have already earned the crown prince’s trust, so you can maintain your position at the palace while also receiving a proper education at the Royal Arts Institute.”

Parnelli went on at length after that, talking about teaching him to develop his own distinctive artistic style and so on.

Riley watched this man pour out every honeyed word he could think of, clearly in a hurry, and felt nothing.

Years had passed and he was still as smoothly handsome as a marble statue. What was this man, supposedly her father, trying to accomplish by coming to her like this now?

From what she could gather, it seemed to stem from the mistaken belief that she was the crown prince’s closest confidant.

She stepped back as though to leave and asked,

“By the way…… how did you know I draw?”

“Because I still have the postcard you sent me four years ago.”

He had apparently anticipated the question and reached into his coat without hesitation, producing something immediately.

Riley looked at the postcard she had once worked up the courage to send, the first and last time she ever had.

On it was a drawing of her mother’s last smiling face, and in one corner, her own handwriting.

「Hello. You may be surprised, but I am Raul, the son of Miss Mina Spencer.

If you ever have a moment, might I come and see you briefly? — Raul」

The feeling of writing those few lines, carrying all her hopes, passed through her for just a moment.

“I could never bring myself to throw this away. And looking at this drawing, I understood at once that you had inherited my talent. So even if it is late, should that innate gift not be allowed to bloom?”

Riley’s already-furrowed brow tightened further, and she answered with finality.

“I have no interest in that. I don’t understand why you’re doing this. Going forward, please do not call me out like this for personal matters unrelated to official business. Goodbye.”

Parnelli seemed caught off guard by Riley’s blunt dismissal, and as she turned to leave, he grabbed her arm in a hurry.

Those handsome eyes, so much like her own, were full of desperation at the thought of losing this chance.

“Why, why are you refusing? Is it because you’re still hurt by how I treated you back then?”

At that, Riley’s irritation finally boiled over. She shook off the pale, fine hand gripping her and snapped back.

“There is nothing to be hurt about. I forgot about you completely back then. I intend to keep doing so. Goodbye.”

Riley turned away sharply and walked off across the stone bridge, and Parnelli was left standing there, postcard in hand, staring blankly at the direction she had gone.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Someone had been watching this scene quietly from between the tall canna flowers.

Andrea.

He had not seen the whole thing. He had been on his way back from a workout at the training ground when he heard voices from behind the rear garden, and had come to investigate.

So he had only caught the last exchange.