The truth was, Father didn’t like my brother.

No—he hated him. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that he wanted to deny his very existence. 

It all began with my parents’ sudden arranged marriage. Mother was the second daughter of the Ducal House of Acadania, now wiped out by civil war. At one point, she had been such a prominent young lady that there were even talks of marriage with the Crown Prince.

Compared to the royal family, the Bailey Countship didn’t stand a chance. Everyone assumed Mother would naturally become part of the imperial family, but unexpectedly, she chose Father. 

That’s when the rumors began.

“The newborn baby… doesn’t he resemble His Highness more?”

“Oh my, I thought the same thing!”

Black hair and green eyes. People couldn’t accept what they didn’t understand, so they added their own speculation.

Truthfully, there had been an ancestor in Mother’s family with the same features, so it was deeply unfair that the child’s appearance became grounds for suspicion.

But the members of high society were quick to tear into the Bailey family over it. Eventually, it reached the point where it was almost taken as fact that my brother, Cabil, was the illegitimate child of Mother and the Crown Prince.

“Get out! Never show yourself in front of me again!”

SLAM!

Father loathed Cabil with a sick obsession. Branded as the source of disgrace from the moment he was born, Cabil came to despise his own appearance. 

How painful must it have been for him, knowing that his mere existence had driven a wedge between our parents?

And then I, Kyla Bailey, was born into that situation.

Silvery-white hair and sapphire eyes—I was the spitting image of Father, undeniably and perfectly a Bailey.

“Our lovely little bunny.”

Cabil, instead of being jealous, cherished me deeply. He would always say that, unlike him, who had been a symbol of scandal all his life, I was the last proof of love between our parents.

“Cabil…”

Kyla curled into herself, hugging her knees as her brother’s gentle green eyes came to mind.

‘How unfair it must’ve been.’

Cabil was truly Father’s son, too. He had discovered documents in Mother’s drawer—expensive ones confirming paternity beyond any doubt.

Cabil had tried to show them to Father, but he ignored the truth, too focused on toppling the Revalon Empire in the civil war. After all, the alleged affair with the Crown Prince gave him political justification for continuing the rebellion.

“Brother… Father loves me, so why does he hate you?”

Little Kyla could never understand why Cabil, who managed the estate and did everything on Father’s behalf, was always despised.

But over time, she grew increasingly afraid of their father. He would smile kindly at her, only to glare at Cabil like a madman. It felt like living with someone who had two faces.

‘So maybe this time too…’

Could the man who always trembled with fury at the sight of black hair and green eyes have done it again? Cabil died protecting her while her father was away. He was hated all his life, but still desperately sought her father’s recognition—right up to the moment he died. 

And yet, even after death, her father continued to doubt him. He hated Haiden too, simply for resembling Cabil.

And in the end…

‘Did he kill him?’

The memory flashed through Kyla’s mind—her father glaring suspiciously at Haiden in the garden just days before. Snapping out of her daze, Kyla suddenly stood and rushed to find the Count.

“Was it you, Father?”

Outside, rain fell in a steady drizzle.

Rumble.

A white bolt of lightning split the darkened sky, followed by a deafening thunderclap. Unaffected, Kyla stood in the doorway of the study, looking down coldly at her seated father.

“Where is he?”

FLASH!

The lightning illuminated the room for a brief second, and the Count’s eyes glowed like those of a beast.

“…That boy is better off not being found. Turns out, he’s more dangerous than we thought.”

“Stop lying. You saw how he treated me! How is someone like that dangerous?”

Haiden was a more innocent boy than she had thought. Whenever she acted spoiled, he would believe it was all genuine.

When she said she was afraid of thunder, he would stay by her side through the cold early morning, gently patting her shoulder until she fell asleep. Just like a real older brother.

“Say something, please!”

He was a kind person. A rare, precious connection.

“Father…!”

But what followed was a response so cruel it was hard to believe.

“He’s dead.”

“…What?”

“It was an accident.”

No way. That couldn’t be.

Kyla shook her head in a daze.

“That’s a lie.”

“You’d find out eventually, even if I lied. It’s the truth. I originally planned to send him on an expedition as a mercenary.”

“…”

“But he kept cutting the leash and running away. During the pursuit, he tripped on a rock.”

…And just like that, his life ended?

The Count spat out those despairing words with an unchanged expression, as if he were merely annoyed.

“I’m sorry you got hurt. But he broke the promise he made to me. I told him not to so much as lay a finger on you…”

“Haiden never touched me!”

“I doubt that.”

“What misunderstanding are you under?”

Now, even she felt like she was being accused. The betrayal of such an unbelievable truth surged within her.

“Father, do you even know what you’re saying? Right now, you’re—”

“Men like him are all the same! They go crazy the moment they see a woman!”

The Count’s face twisted horribly, as though he were recalling a face he never wanted to see again.

It was an expression Kyla had never seen on him before.

“He was just a substitute for Cabil. He could never be Cabil! You know that. Or what? Do you like some guy you barely met more than your own father? Is that it?!”

Looking at her father’s madness-filled eyes, Kyla finally understood.

The infamous Count Bailey, said to be able to bring down birds in flight. So terrifying that no one believed rumors he doted on his daughter.

That was her father.

The window rattled as the wind shook it. Kyla felt the icy air on her skin as her lips trembled, pale with fear.

The Count continued, his voice slightly softer than before.

“I only thought of you, even on the battlefield, Kyla. I fought, fearing our house would be destroyed and something would happen to you.”

Ten years of civil war. But hadn’t that war essentially been waged by the noble faction, led by him?

“My dear…”

The Count reached out to hold her hand, but she jumped back in surprise and lost her footing.

Thud!

She fell on her backside but still refused to be touched by that hand.

“My dear!”

The Count rushed to help her up, but Kyla roughly yanked her arm away.

“Don’t touch me!”

Whether it was because her body temperature had dropped, she was now trembling all over.

Her gaze, filled with resentment, swept coldly over the Count’s face. When he took another step toward her, she shuddered and shook her head violently.

“Don’t… come any closer!”

“Kyla, we’re the last family we have!”

He killed her friend and dared to call himself family? To her, that was unforgivable.

With tears in her voice, Kyla ran out of the study, fleeing from the Count.

Even when she returned to her room and spent a long time thinking, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand her father.

‘How can someone kill another person…’

And still reach out with such a calm face?

‘He’s like a monster…’

Outside, the rain poured down in torrents.

Kyla pulled open the curtain and sank into the pitch-black darkness. Ever since Cabil’s death, her world had been nothing but this darkness.

She had gotten lucky for a while and briefly basked in sunlight—but now she was right back where she started.

“Sigh…”

She collapsed where she stood.

The rainy season showed no sign of ending.

* * *

After losing Haiden, six long years passed.

Time had molded her into a fine young lady, and since her debut at fifteen, she had reigned for five consecutive years as the most beautiful debutante in the social scene.

But…

“Oh my, aren’t you Count Bailey’s daughter?”

“Ah, yes.”

“I heard you were terribly heartbroken after Prince Gellensid dumped you… Are you doing okay now?”

Smack!

“Ah!”

And along with the title of ‘most beautiful’ always came another label:

‘Crazy b*tch.’

After slapping the baron’s daughter across the face, she spoke with a cold, expressionless face.

“You got rejected by me, too, didn’t you? Come back when you’ve recovered from that wound. Seems like you don’t even know how to properly greet someone.”

“W-What are you saying?!”

“What, does it hurt being slapped? You hit me, too. What’s the difference between hurting someone with words or with your hand?”

“There is a difference!”

Kyla let out a soft scoff.

“Girl, you must’ve just come up from the countryside and don’t know who I am. Go find out properly and then come apologize. Next time, you won’t be able to act like this in front of me.”

…Not that she’d forgive her anyway.

With a bored expression, she gracefully exited the ballroom.

Sure, she had just assaulted a baron’s daughter, so she wouldn’t be showing her face at any social events for a while. But she hadn’t wanted to be at that ball in the first place, so honestly, it felt freeing.

‘I was sick of hearing Gellensid’s name anyway. Perfect timing.’

“Kyla Bailey!”

Her father still called her to the study whenever he was angry.

‘Is it because I cause so many incidents?’

The Count, now looking ten years older, had deep wrinkles etched around his eyes. His hair had always been silver, so it now looked purely white.

“I told you to be careful! And yet you’ve caused trouble again?”

This time, she felt wronged. That girl had insulted her first.

But instead of defending herself, she simply looked away, feigning disinterest as she stared out the large window behind the study.

Infuriated, the Count grabbed a portrait on his desk and hurled it to the floor.

Crash!

With a sharp, shattering sound, broken shards of glass scattered across the floor. Only then did Kyla’s icy gaze shift to the Count.