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Chapter 24
The coffin, in which her father with a peaceful face lay.
Rosalind was told that he had been brutally stabbed to death, though her father’s eyes were silently closed as if he knew nothing of such pain.
Seeing her father lying down, it felt like reality was touching her skin little by little. He was a father who only felt so frightening, and he lay so helpless. He was going to go like this, she resented why he had lived such a futile life.
She then grabbed Leo’s warm hand by her side as though trying to shake off those complicated feelings.
The Priest continued his remarks, reflecting on her father’s achievements and life. His achievements, the moments that left a big mark in his life…
As she was looking at it, something fell on her cheek. Those tears felt more like debris from a cluster of unknown and complex emotions, rather than pure sadness.
“Father…”
In her memory, her father was always strict and fearful. He was the bad person who hurt her mother. That’s why she didn’t want to meet someone like her father…
After the bereavement ceremony, which had been complicated throughout, people started to come and offer words of consolation to her. Rosalind, who had been standing awkwardly, was quickly greeting them lightly.
“I came early, but it seems to be late. What should I do?”
She turned her head to the source of the voice, recognized who it was, and smiled softly. It was Baron Albert.
“No. Thank you for being here.”
“You must be heartbroken. Your father…”
“I know. It’s a human thing…”
Saying so, she laughed bitterly.
At that moment, her tears fell, and Albert reflexively stretched out his hand. Then, hesitatingly, he took his hand again.
“I almost moved my hands on my own. I’m sorry.”
“No.”
Rosalind smiled as she wiped the tears with the back of her hand.
“…If it’s okay with you, could you give me a minute?”
At Albert’s words, Rosalind left Leo to the nanny and walked to a secluded place. Spotting a wooden chair in a corner not far from there, she blinked her eyes and pointed to the chair.
As she was about to sit on it, Albert stopped it lightly.
“I will bring you a handkerchief to sit on. I couldn’t even bring a handkerchief because I was in a hurry.”
“No, it’s okay.”
“No. You can’t get the skirt of a lady dirty.”
Rosalind gazed at Albert’s back as he went to get a handkerchief and smiled softly. She was very grateful for him, so she hoped that they would remain good friends like this for a long time.
Looking around, the flowers that had fallen on the ground came into her eyes. It must have been that someone had spilled flowers. Rosalind bent her back and picked up the flowers that had fallen from various places, then lifted her head and turned to the side where Albert had disappeared.
How come he was a little late?
Thinking that she’d better go find him, Rosalind could feel someone grab her wrist.
“Rosalind.”
At the same time, she was grabbed and turned roughly.
A faint groan came out of the strong grip.
“Sir Alber…”
The moment she made eye contact with the man, she couldn’t continue her words and just froze.
The flowers in her hands also fell to the ground helplessly.
Low and rude voice. She stuttered her back as she was going to run away, though he wouldn’t let her get away from him.
“Looking at your face, I don’t seem like the person you were expecting.”
The person standing in front of her was not Albert, but her husband, Kyle.
“Ky…Kyle.”
She barely brought the name to her lips.
Unlike Rosalind, who had a look of embarrassment and not knowing what to do, Kyle’s eyes were unshaken.
“It seems you still remember my name.”
I thought you forgot me forever…
It was a voice that was soft, bitter, or seemed to be twisted somewhere. A suffocating silence passed at the end of his words. As if time had stopped, she just stood there and watched him. Then, she heard another voice calling her from behind her.
“Rosalind…?”
Glancing behind her, she could see Albert standing there. He looked at Kyle with wary eyes.
“Who are you?”
Kyle was also staring at his face and opened his mouth arrogantly.
“I’m Kyle Spencer, and I’m the husband of Rosalind Spencer.”
“Husband?”
That was the moment. Leo, who was approaching holding Anna’s hand, found Rosalind and started running.
Leo tugged at the hem of her skirt as if he was used to it.
“Mom!”
Kyle’s eyes turned to Leo.
Oh, god…
Rosalind closed her eyes in embarrassment.
Rosalind Alicia.
It must have been several months since she left. He whispered her still vivid name. He glanced at the box and the mask that was placed on the chest of drawers in the distance.
There were many things that Rosalind left behind. However, oddly enough, he didn’t think she had left any traces of her, except for that mask… She was a woman with too narrow a realm of herself, as if looking back, she would surely leave at some point.
Ironically, even her personality made it feel as if she had prepared in advance to leave him. Even though he knew it may not be true, she could not control his twisted and tilted heart.
“So… So, what will happen?”
He looked at the butler, Walter, with a drunken face.
The old man’s face was blurred with drunkenness. Walter was someone who had been here all his whole life, and he treated himself and Rosalind as warmly as a father. He remembered that Rosalind had gotten a lot of help by asking Walter things she didn’t know by the time she came in as the mistress of the castle.
Suddenly, the youthful face that had been listening to Walter came to mind, and he smirked.
Rosalind looked younger than her age, and they often felt like a father and daughter when he watched them from afar.
As she smiled with her white cheeks blushing, she looked just like a young girl. When she gently lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes stood out, and she looked pitiful and naive when he touched her little hand and smiled mischievously.
‘Shall I look for Madam?’
Shortly after Rosalind was gone, Kyle said at Walter’s question.
…No need to find her.
There was no need to find such a woman.
He thought she would come back, anyway. No, it didn’t matter if she didn’t come back. She felt like a mistake at every blink of his eyes. He tried to think that was better because she was a woman who scratched his nerves.
But, less than half a day later, Kyle ordered a search.
‘Search for her now. Rosalind, bring that woman to me right now.’
His face was cold, though his hand holding the glass was trembling slightly.
Perhaps, it was because of his drunkenness, emotions leaked out clearly, and at the same time, he was more sensitive than usual.
‘Master, why are you so angry? What did Madam…’
Just thinking of her makes him angry as if it was natural, but when he asked why he was angry, he was so speechless. By the time Walter, startled by Kyle’s sudden hardened face, hurriedly bowed his head, his expression had already turned cold.
‘I was presumptuous… Forgive me.’
Walter’s words sounded like an accusation, ‘What did the Madam do that made you so mad?’ It was also funny to think that Rosalind had made everyone in this house on her side.
The answer to Walter’s question could not come to mind until a few months after Rosalind’s departure.
No, rather than coming to mind, it was right to say that he had felt the answer for months.
“…What are you mad about?”
A few months after she left, Walter stopped and asked again.
“Isn’t it obvious? She’s a funny girl. When I say I like her, she disappears.” Uttering so, he smiled self-pitifully, as if frustrated.
“She was very cunning and bad…”
…Like her father.
Kyle gulped down the wine. Soon, Walter opened his mouth in a cautious voice.
“Master, drinking too often is…”
“You pretended to be kind in front of me.”
Kyle smirked and looked at him.
“…Isn’t it?”
Walter didn’t answer, he just bowed his head.
‘Your eyes are like mine. I’m thinking of using you as my son, how about it?’
When he was a young man struggling with boiling rage, Duke Alexander came to him. That was the first thing the Duke said when adopting him.
‘What you must learn is not etiquette, learning, or swordsmanship, but hiding those eyes. In order to survive, you have to hide your eyes and emotions and learn to manage them.’
After his wife died childless, the Duke, who had no heirs, chose Kyle as his successor.
Later, when Kyle asked why he had chosen him, the Duke talked with a smile.
‘Because anger is the driving force of development. It may sound funny, but I saw myself as a child in your eyes. My eyes were a bit intense when I was young.’
Kyle didn’t laugh at the mischievous remarks. And, as he said, he was raised as the eldest son of the Spencer family.
Just as his stepfather advised him to control his emotions, he grew up to be a man who knew how to control his emotions.
Kyle was more adept at dealing with people, including women, of course. To the shy, clingy, and even weeping young girls who confessed his feelings, he was gentle but firm. He sent them back by soothing them as he learned so his reputation would not be degraded.
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In Olivia’s case, she was no different from those women. Of course, it cannot be said that she was exactly the same, as his stepfather had instructed to ‘please cherish and treat her like a younger sister.’
Although he cared for Olivia, not a grain of rational feelings were mixed in it. However, oddly enough, Rosalind was different.
Nothing was easy.
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