In Between Thorns and Roses

Chapter 2: Family Breakfast

When I was a beggar, I starved all day long, I even went as far as drinking rainwater. That was why when they asked me to be with them, I didn't think twice about accepting their hands.

They treated me well... the Duke and Duchess are such great people.

I didn't know what happened but my brothers broke the picture of those two people.

They never accepted me as their sister.

For them, I was just a substitute meant to be thrown away once the Duchess and the Duke rid of their miseries when they lost their first child.

But the Duchess and the Duke loved me so much to the point that they reprimanded Kaiver and Keister for their actions and treatment towards me. And the two hated me more and more.

"Lady Chione." I opened my eyes when I heard the stutters coming from the doorway.

When I raised my head to look at the door, it was already opened without my permission.

It makes me so irked and irritated but I am not in the position to reprimand her.

I flipped my hair towards the back and looked at her irritatingly.

But the fact that I am just a person who wandered and was lost within this house, that I don't own anything, and knowing that they own me allowed the maid to act nonchalantly.

"Hmm?"

"The Duke and the Duchess asked for your presence during breakfast." I blinked.

I forgot about that.

I was so caught up in reminiscing about my last death that I completely forgot about the next day of my death.

Every first day of the month, the Lazuella Family always holds their breakfast, dinner, and lunch together. It was to make sure that even during their hectic schedule, they could still see the faces of one another.

"Sure." The maid didn't bother answering me back, she didn't even bother serving me or at least taking care of the essentials. "Dea."

"Yea?" An irritated tone escaped her mouth.

How impolite. Really.

"Prepare the carriage. I'll be riding to town."

"Yes." Is the word 'yes' all that she can say?

It's not like it matters anymore since I am gonna run away.

But imagine talking to a broken phonograph record.

It seems like I'll be fixing myself up all alone again.

Maybe it's also a blessing that no one helped me clean up after myself.

Because of the cold treatment from the Lazuella family, their personnel treated me as an outsider rather than a master.

With that level of care, no one will even notice the plans I wanted to make.

Or if there was any change in how I acted.

In this house, my existence is really less than the garden worm.

Will they be happy?

I will be gone from their lives, from the life that was meant to be their real daughter's. I will make sure that we won't meet, and that I won't leave any footsteps behind.

And that Chione, myself, will surely grow old without a half-sister, she'll be with her loved one that is herself, and she'll accept death lonely but happily. Without drama, worries, or competition.