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Chapter 12
When rumors first began circulating that the relationship between the Ebrov couple had deteriorated, perhaps those with sharp instincts had already anticipated this news.
Even though Hagenti and Shasha had secluded themselves and stopped appearing in society, the divorce papers had already passed through countless hands. It would not have been strange at all if one of those people, loosened by alcohol, had exposed the state of their relationship.
The reactions varied.
Some bared their fangs in order to attack Hagenti. Some expressed pity. Others simply reacted calmly, saying they had expected it all along. Most of Shasha’s academy classmates merely delighted in the appearance of fresh gossip.
In this way, the nobles of high society stepped back and watched the news of the Ebrov couple unfold like a stage play.
…With the exception of one person.
The rain, which had been unusually fierce from the beginning, only grew heavier, and by the time dinner ended it had become a raging storm like a typhoon. If Shasha had not gone to check the windows one more time, she might have completely missed the carriage standing in the garden.
At first she thought fatigue was making her hallucinate. But even after rubbing her eyes, the carriage remained there, and Shasha immediately turned pale and rushed downstairs in a panic.
In that brief moment—not even a full minute—countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Most of them were questions.
Why?
Why come without notice? Did something happen to the family? Had someone collapsed from illness? Or perhaps… had they fallen into terrible debt?
Otherwise, there would be no reason to travel such a great distance through weather this dangerous.
Another nightmare she had long forgotten slowly raised its head from the depths of her subconscious. A vicious anxiety twisted in her stomach until she felt she might vomit up her dinner.
Her hand trembled helplessly as she reached for the doorknob. Belatedly, she realized she was violating etiquette as the mistress of the house and should call for the butler instead. But at the same time, a flashing red warning seemed to blaze through her mind, telling her she could not keep that person waiting any longer.
The moment Shasha opened the door, the violent rainstorm nearly knocked her backward.
As soon as her gaze met the woman standing there like a frozen statue, her lips parted.
“Godmother…”
“……”
Carlotta glared at Shasha with bloodshot eyes. Her soaked red hair dripped streaks of dye down past her shoulders.
She must have left in tremendous haste; beneath her coat she wore only a thin chemise suitable for sleeping. To Shasha, she looked like a living catastrophe.
Frozen in fear, Shasha’s teeth chattered.
Her mother’s younger sister. Her one and only aunt.
Though related by blood, Carlotta and Shasha possessed completely opposite personalities. If Carlotta was a lioness of the plains, then Shasha was a tiny mouse that trembled at the sound of birds and hid inside burrows.
That was not their only contrast.
Unlike Shasha, who was slender and looked as though a light shove could knock her over, Carlotta was tall and sturdily built. Among her striking features, her large, sharp eyes were especially intimidating. Looking into them too long made one feel as though every hidden thought had been thoroughly exposed.
Because Shasha had been half-hidden away inside the mansion, she knew nothing about the atmosphere within high society. Never in her dreams did she imagine Carlotta had come because of the divorce rumors. She frantically searched around her waist with trembling hands before turning deathly pale.
This is bad. I forgot my notebook.
Then, fortunately, a savior appeared. Aiden—far younger and faster than the elderly butler with bad knees—came hurrying over first.
He reflexively exchanged glances with Shasha, and when she shook her head helplessly to indicate she had no idea what was happening, his expression stiffened with dismay.
“Lady Carlotta, what brings you all the way here in weather like this without even sending word…?”
“Is Sir Hagenti absent?”
Her voice was calm, but Shasha could feel the blazing fury hidden beneath it.
She came because of me. What did I do wrong?
Shasha’s heart began pounding wildly. Aiden’s smooth reply brushed past her ears like an echo.
“The lord is occupied with urgent business at the moment. If there is something you wish to convey, I can later—”
“Alexandra, matters like this are something you should have discussed with me before deciding.”
Shasha, who had been staring only at her feet, jerked her head upward. Carlotta’s thunderous voice crashed down upon her utterly bewildered niece.
“I mean the divorce! The divorce!”
Flash.
Lightning split the sky behind Carlotta.
A few seconds later thunder followed with a deafening roar, and rain poured down in torrents.
Hearing the commotion, the fairies gathered like a swarm of bees. Through the thick mist of rainwater, dozens of tiny eyes glimmered brightly.
“Please come inside and speak, madam. The weather is cold. You’ll catch your death out there.”
At the gentle interruption, they both turned.
Bill Danver was descending the stairs with the aid of his cane. With an older man stepping in to calm the situation, Carlotta’s momentum weakened somewhat, and she reluctantly followed his lead.
The moment she entered the drawing room, she ripped off her coat stained by dripping dye as though she had been splattered with blood. The fury boiling inside her seemed to make her incapable of feeling the cold.
“After all I did to raise you… how shameless must you be to stab me in the back like this?”
Ignoring the sofa entirely, Carlotta paced furiously through the drawing room.
Shasha stood stiffly in place, praying only for this situation to end quickly. At this point, how Carlotta had learned about the divorce no longer mattered in the slightest.
“Haven’t I told you over and over? Without your husband’s financial support, our family’s status cannot be maintained. Have you truly given no thought to the opera house your mother worked so hard to protect?”
Carlotta sharply sneered as she flung parchment and pens from the table toward Shasha. Every movement carried meaning. It was silent pressure demanding that she say something—anything.
“The people waiting for that opera house to appear at auction do not understand even one-millionth of its value. So I suppose you believe you won’t regret it after they tear apart and remodel our family’s legacy however they please?”
With trembling hands, Shasha slowly wrote:
「My husband left property in my name. If I sell it, I should be able to cover the maintenance costs.」
“Maintenance costs? Ha! I can’t believe how ignorant you are about the real world!”
Carlotta let out a hollow laugh, and Shasha felt as though a sharp arrow had driven itself beneath her ribs. Leaning forward threateningly with a body a full head taller than hers, Carlotta scolded her harshly.
“Do you even understand how difficult it is to maintain an opera house? That building is an artifact over three hundred years old! Something corrodes every single day and must be repaired, yet the proper materials are difficult to obtain, so repairs cost several times more than ordinary buildings! And have prices and taxes not continued rising? A few properties won’t even come close!”
Hearing that, Shasha suddenly felt as though an enormous stone had been dropped onto her chest. They were all family, yet somehow she alone was expected to bear the burden of maintaining the opera house. A sense of injustice welled up inside her.
And yet, before Carlotta, Shasha always became a child unable to utter a word. Even if she had never cherished her like a real daughter, Carlotta had still been the second mother who took her in after she lost her parents and had nowhere to go.
Carlotta released a weary sigh and collapsed heavily onto the sofa.
“If you divorce your husband, then my daughter’s study abroad expenses will end up being paid with the money from selling the opera house. Let me make this perfectly clear: I have no intention of taking you back in. Don’t you dare crawl into my home carrying the labels of a mute and a divorced woman.”
「Godmother, you know perfectly well what kind of relationship Hagenti and I have. We already agreed to separate—」
“Then undo it!”
Carlotta suddenly shouted furiously.
Thud.
For a moment, the world around Shasha seemed to tilt. Before a hiccup of panic could escape her lips, she hurriedly clamped both hands over her mouth.
Grabbing her niece tightly by both shoulders, Carlotta whispered darkly like a witch casting a spell.
“Beg him, Alexandra.”
Her black eyes, dark as the curtain of night, gleamed with greed.
