Chapter 5 (1/2)

Chapter 5

She deep down hoped Lucius won’t misunderstand her as a bystander. But, contrary to her impatience, she experienced the cold atmosphere.

“Is it true that he is an illegitimate child?”

Someone raised their voice to answer the question. “Obviously Mrs Anise said that she had lived with her child until he was six years old. He might be knowing.”

On receiving no response, that same person looked at Lucius directly and said, “Mr Fenry, you heard me? What will you say on this? Is that true? Is she your mother?”

There was a brief silence. Now, all of them looked at Lucius. He tore apart his gaze away from Deatrice to face the people. He spoke in a suppressed voice, “I don’t really remember if she is my mother, but it is true that I am not currently living with my family. The last I remember staying with them was when I was six years old,” Lucius spit out the words that soon became affirmations.

“Oh my gosh!”

The duke stood up and cleaned up the messy living room, but he couldn’t hear what Lucius was saying. Perhaps for a definitive end, Mrs Anise will be questioned and her claims would be matched with the Count’s situation. After that, she would be referred to the nobility law.

That was the end of it.

Even though Deatrice did not pass out, her memory ended there.

Lucius disappeared after that. Deatrice knew nothing of his whereabouts until he came to visit her once more.

Despite pretending to be different, Deatrice was the same inside as the nobles present there.

She no longer found herself loving him or choosing him, nowhere near to how deeply she once used to. And left no stone unturned to vehemently refuse to the plan of her eloping with him. She cared more of her status and her family’s name sake.

When Lucius was stripped of his successor status, he lost all the rights to the last name of Fenry. Lucius Eden Fenry went to the battlefield as Lucius Fenry Elliot, and since then, it has been the same.

After he returned from the war, Deatrice had seen him in the crowds. She felt them as nothing but strangers. When Lucius came to visit her, it was the first time they were meeting alone since the time things went wrong.

* * *

The greenhouse was warmer than the garden. It already gave away the feelings of summer.

Deatrice feared her reunion with Lucius. The scorching hot weather made her heart sink heavily. Was it guilt? Or remorse?

Even before his victories in the war and home returning as a hero, she used to casually fantasize about these encounters. This warm greenhouse, him waiting for her, their exclusive space, his blonde hair dazzling in the light peeping through the window!