Vieta pushed Lady Winter to the edge of a cliff with an innocent face, as if she didn’t understand what was happening.

She knew the couple had been arranged by their families and never had any love between them.

She also knew the Duke’s character—generous to himself but harsh to others.

If the Duke discovered the ugly truth about the seed of one night’s l*st that had made him quietly accommodate Lady Winter, her towering influence would surely crumble.

“Show me.”

The Duke’s command fell.

Winter, who had been standing still, suddenly rushed at her and shoved her head.

This sent Vieta sprawling to the floor. Seeing this, Amy fretted anxiously that her dress might be ruined.

“You’re just like your mother, telling lies so skillfully! How could a knight who fled possibly re-enter the ducal residence?”

No one helped her up from where she had fallen.

She raised herself and looked up at Winter, who was glaring at her.

“How would I know that? I’m not lying, Mother.”

Vieta gritted her teeth.

She had been the misfortune of the once-harmonious ducal family. She was also the crack that strengthened their bonds.

Honestly, Vieta carried a small amount of guilt in her heart.

But that didn’t mean she would allow them to frame her for things she hadn’t done, or prevent her from hearing the voice of the person she loved most in the world.

The Duke remained silent.

However, his expression as he looked at Lady Winter was markedly different from before.

“There had better be no falsehood in your words, Vieta.”

Vieta looked at the Duke and uttered the words Lady Winter hated most.

“I swear on my name, Lukbiche.”

Wordlessly, the Duke extended his hand to her.

She stared blankly at the outstretched hand.

Before she fell into this hell, her father had been a man who didn’t know how to offer his hand.

‘Ah. He did reach out before dying. Begging for his life.’

Burying her past memories, Vieta took the Duke’s hand.

She clenched her teeth against the bitter emotions coursing through her arm.

The Duke clearly distinguished between those useful to the family and those without value.

He gave affection to the valuable ones and indifference to the useless.

Even his children weren’t exempt from his knife-like personality.

“Surely you don’t believe this liar, Father?”

Vilter, who had been quiet, suddenly blocked the Duke’s path.

“How could someone plan to take away a person who can’t even speak? And to sneak in and leave a letter? Even if I were a knight, I wouldn’t do something so insane.”

Vilter’s body betrayed him. His pupils shook violently, and his hands couldn’t stay still.

His arms slashed through the air frantically, like someone drowning.

It was anxiety accompanied by fear.

From his behavior, Vieta realized something she hadn’t known in her past life.

‘You knew. You knew your mother was sleeping with that knight.’

She barely managed to suppress her anger as she spoke.

“The letter is there, Father. You don’t have to believe me. But the letter is something I couldn’t have fabricated. I don’t know how to read.”

She emphasized the fact that she had received no education in the ducal household.

The Duke pulled her past Vilter, who was blocking their way, and walked out of the mansion.

Outside, snow was falling so heavily they could barely see ahead. Vieta walked barefoot, relying solely on the Duke’s hand to guide her.

Despite the pain of her feet being cut by the cold snow and the snowfall obscuring her vision, Vieta was smiling brightly.

The greenhouse, emitting a soft glow in the distance, seemed like nothing less than an entrance to heaven.

The Duke roughly opened the greenhouse door.

To Vieta, the warm humidity felt like an embrace.

“Now. Where did you see it?”

She walked to the storage cabinet she had seen when disposing of the ducal family’s belongings one by one.

It contained equipment for maintaining the greenhouse.

With her small body, Vieta knocked over the cabinet. As it fell, the various shovels hanging on it scattered across the floor with distinct clangs.

She pulled out a small box from a rectangular hole in the floor.

Lady Winter, who had belatedly entered the greenhouse, lost her balance, and Vilter supported her.

Amy looked at Vieta, who was holding the box, with an irritated expression as she observed her already soiled dress.

The Duke took the box from her dirt-covered hands.

After slowly opening it, he placed it on the table and examined the letters inside.

Vieta already knew the contents of the letters the Duke would read.

They were filled with childish love complaints and intimate, vulgar conversations.

And there were secret writings clearly in Lady Winter’s handwriting, soliciting nights together.

They also contained detailed insults about Susan and the Duke, and the pair had even written down their scheme to frame Susan.

The Duke’s face changed moment by moment as he read the letters, and when he put down the last one, his face was consumed with betrayal.

Vieta approached the Duke with a face that showed no understanding.

“Is he really trying to take my mother away? That knight, I mean.”

Ignoring her, the Duke approached Lady Winter with the letters in hand.

He threw the letters over Winter’s head.

“You’ll need to explain this properly.”

The lady grabbed his hand as if there had been a misunderstanding, but he coldly pushed her away.

The Duke cast a disgusted glance around the greenhouse before leaving, and Lady Winter, coming to her senses, hurriedly followed him out.

Stunned by the Duke’s sudden actions, Vilter and Amy stood dumbfounded.

When Amy tried to pick up a fallen letter to read it, Vilter quickly snatched it and tore it to pieces.

“Brother!”

Vilter ignored her calling him and only caught his breath after gathering and tearing up all the letters on the floor.

He walked resolutely toward Vieta, who was standing blankly.

As Vilter raised his right hand high, Vieta looked at him with her neck held even more *rect.

“Seeing you raise your hand against me without reading the letters, I assume you knew about your mother’s affair and kept quiet.”

His hand, poised to strike her cheek, stopped.

His face was filled with confusion.

It was a look of incomprehension—how could an illegitimate child who couldn’t even read know the contents of the letters and orchestrate all this?

Vieta reminded the dumbfounded Vilter of something he had forgotten.

“None of this would have happened if you hadn’t stolen your mother’s ring.”

“Shut up!”

Despite Vilter’s enraged shout, Vieta didn’t even blink.

“Return the stolen ring. It was a token of love the knight gave to your mother.”

Finally, Vieta was shoved and fell to the floor.

As a result, Amy’s dress became covered in dirt.

Having witnessed her dress being ruined, Amy burst into tears, and Vieta laughed loud enough to shake the greenhouse.

Vilter stared at Vieta as if he were looking at a monster.

After that day, he stopped tormenting her.

More precisely, he avoided her.

Having seen how Vieta had brought down the formidable Lady Winter, Vilter endured his anxiety, fearing that he too might be rejected by his father.

That didn’t mean he intended to go easy on her.

He was simply waiting for another opportunity to get rid of her.

※※※

Despite the major incident, unlike in the past, Vieta’s reality didn’t change dramatically.

She still lived in the attic where rats fell from the ceiling, and her meager meals remained the same.

The only slight change was the subtly altered atmosphere in the ducal household.

The Duke frequently left the mansion, and Lady Winter spent more time alone in her room.

The relationship between Vilter and Amy had also changed.

Vilter often went out to avoid causing further problems, and Amy, who used to growl at the mere sight of Vieta, now passed by without a word in her mother’s absence.

But Vieta knew well that this situation couldn’t last long.

They were still members of the Lukbiche family, and the fact that she was the Duke’s illegitimate child remained unchanged.

Still, a small change had occurred in Vieta’s heart.

The past had changed, and her mother was alive before her.

Unlike her previous life where she had nothing to lose, now she had someone to protect.

Vieta recalled the outcome of her revenge, knowing how it would end.

After bringing down the Lukbiche family and killing everyone who wasn’t truly family, what she gained wasn’t happiness but ruined love.

Vieta thought of Leytan and Esta Ariogen, who had always been by his side.

‘Leytan was just using me too. He must have thought an unloved illegitimate child would be a reliable ally in bringing down the Lukbiche family.’

All the sweet whispers promising salvation, all the tender gazes, all the warm touches—they were all lies.

She felt empty realizing that in her previous life, apart from her mother, not a single person had truly loved her.