Chapter 141

unedited

“Oh my, mother. I understand that you’re shocked to meet your family out of the blue, but . . .”

“Why should I be?” I’ve seen more than enough of these humans in this novel. It would have been a pleasure to meet them . . . aside from the fact that they were m family. A stepmother and stepsister, and me, as a stepmother once more.

It wasn’t common to have such relations in families regardless of how much one would try to make it happen for generations. Lania raised her eyebrows as I looked up from the silver cup.

“I heard that mother has been busy recently, but you seem to be more relaxed than I had expected.”

“Um, speaking of which . . .” Mmm, this stepmother was quite tactless.

Let’s see what she has to say.

She leaned lazily into her chair, and expected, her answer was packed with punch. “Catherine, you know of our family’s situation . . . After your father passed, it’s just us four left . . .”

“Three.”

“. . . Catherine.”

“I had meant to say that when you sold your daughter to marry a dying man . . .”

Lania, I apologize for cursing your father.

I nodded slightly towards Lania momentarily, due to formalities. “. . . isn’t it the same as having abandoned me?”

“No, how could you say that? For someone like you to marry Duke Evendell? Are you kidding me? Such honor . . .”

“If it was that honorable, you should have sent your own daughter instead. I’m still willing to give away this position.”

“You!”

“I’ll break your wrist if you ask for any more favors from me.” I chuckled and mimicked breaking her wrist by shaking my own, showing that it wasn’t just a verbal warning.

But the characteristics of these people was that they did not know when to stop until you said it straight to their faces.

“I have no money to spare or give, no items or positions, so don’t waste your effort on me and leave. Go ahead and curse me for being heartless all you want; I’ll let you do it.”

“Mother, aren’t you being too agitated?”

“Are you disappointed in me then, daughter?” I responded, with the latter remaining silent.

“It’s no use threatening me like this.” Just get straight to the point.

I knew what she was planning when Lania brought them all the way here to find me. While she couldn’t do anything to me, she wouldn’t leave me be. Thus she wanted to intimidate me by bringing my family over.

“I don’t understand what you’re trying to say . . .”

“I should enlighten you then. Unfortunately, I have no interest in whatever happens to these people. I don’t care if you seal their mouths with money, cut off their tongues, curse them with magic, or whatever other tricks you have up your sleeves. They have nothing to do with me.”

“But still, if you have decided what you want to do with them, do let me know. I would very much love to see what their ending is after selling off their daughter.”

There’s something else I’m grateful to Rashid for. After experiencing almost every bizarre situation with him, I have been trained to toughen my heart and not stutter, even with Lania standing before me.

I even thought that this was quite manageable, well, if there was nothing else for me to lose.

“Oh my. Since Mother has said so, I shouldn’t hide it either.” Soldiers came marching into the room as Lania chuckled and raised her free hand.

I might not know who these soldiers are, but for them to avoid getting cursed by Lania must mean that they aren’t any decent men either.

“Escort them out.”

“Yes, My Lady.”

“Hey, hey!” A soft-spoken order from Lania had those who were just standing tall fall into total loss and dragged out of the room.

Unlike Lania, they seemed to be more naive than they looked, seeing how dumbfounded with eyes blinking as they were being dragged out the door. “. . . Catherine.”

“You look more heartless than I had expected. They’re your family after all.”

“Well, you’re my family now.” I emptied the last cup and smiled brightly in response.

One might ask if I really like her, but she would have been ecstatic, had I trembled in fear. If there were something she wanted, she would have made it possible no matter what, so there was no need for me to waste so much energy on dealing with her.

“As I’ve said before, I will be on my best behavior, so there’s no need for you to be anxious or waste extra effort on me.”

“How dare you . . .”

“Don’t you remember? You’ll be the one suffering if this goes on . . .”

“Are you sure?”