Chapter 21 - Father - I

Kim Su Won's head was throbbing. She already had a brawl with her arrogant sister and the rage was still seething inside her, no matter how much she wanted to calm down and focus on the task before her. Which was why she just ended up wanting to scold the guard.

There was a stale air in the hall. The servants who were pretending to clean in the hall, stopped their activities altogether and just stared at the short girl who was wearing a weird dress and was standing cross armed. Her eyes were full of authority, not a childish tantrum as would be the case usually. She, for some reason, in this moment, befitted being the legitimate kid of the duke. Was this really Emmeline Whittemore?

While the guards were in a dilemma whether to obey this kid or not because of her fierceness, the huge door in front of Kim Su Won suddenly opened from the inside and a tall figure loomed over the girl. She looked at the person before her, who looked more intimidating than her. She could not make out the features in the dark but the ferocious eyes made her want to whimper.

But… she was also a twenty four year old woman inside. She even had given her piece of mind to that jerk of the boyfriend, why could she not take on whoever this person was? She did not back away but stared back at this tall figure, without any fear in her eyes.

The tall man was taken aback a bit. His stance softened and he invited the young kid inside. "Miss Emmeline, I apologize for my rude behavior. I should have come myself to fetch you," he said. Now Kim Su Won knew that this guy was the owner of the voice earlier. She could guess right away that this man was Harold Whittemore's right hand man, Isaac Laurent, the Earl of distant Laurent County in the north of Krislabet.

The man with stark red hair and red eyes was also the protector of the duke and leader of the Order of Knights for the duke. All his sons were also part of the order and the eldest son was set to inherit the Order once Isaac Laurent retired. This was a family that even imperial family coveted, they were that famous for their combat skills. Unfortunately for them, Laurent family had served Whittemores for generations and they were going to continue that.

But to think that the man himself was apologizing to this young lady, suddenly everyone was confused, Kim Su Won included. But she did not show it on her face and walked inside with pride, acknowledging the Earl with a nod.

She was not very familiar with peerage system, so she was not sure if she was supposed to greet this man. However, Emmeline Whittemore had a nasty reputation to begin with, so she decided to go along with it. If she showed too much change in her personality, people would get suspicious.

In the vast office room that she was seeing for the first time, her dad was sitting on a desk. The desk was brown, seemed made of some precious glossy wood. The chair on which his father was sitting behind the desk seemed more like a throne with more intricate designs. Atop the table, piles and piles of papers were neatly arranged on both the duke's sides. The man was writing something with a golden ink pen in his hand, he did not raise his eyes to look at her at all.

Behind the duke's desk, there were huge wall to floor windows, heavy blue colored plain curtains were drawn over them. Kim Su Won was yet to look at the design or plans of the mansion, thus, she had no idea how the scene behind looked like. She was quite curious what it would look like to be staring outside when one wanted to take a break from all that paperwork.

On the left hand side, there was a table with glass top, a three seater plain sofa on the long side and a plain love seat on the shorter side. The sofas were made of velvety navy blue material. Minimal but tasteful furniture. It was giving a great contrast against red colored carpet on the floor. Kim Su Won could not help but admire the designer's taste. They really had taken in consideration the personalities of the owners. Her own father in her previous life was quite simple too.

Unfortunately, on the sofa, was sitting Audrey Lazarus, her brows furrowed as usual. She was casually sipping tea.

On the right hand side of Duke Harold Whittemore, was another small desk, which had bigger piles of paper. Perhaps, the desk belonged to Isaac Laurent. Kim Su Won had no idea but she realized she could not just be staring around all day without any greetings. Anna also nudged her from behind lightly to remind her of the work she had come here to do.

"Sir, the young lady is here," Isaac announced.

Audrey snorted, "For once, she is on time. I am sure not a single one of us had anticipated it," she had a mocking tone. Kim Su Won did not even pay attention to this mother. She had spent twenty four years of her past life to get used to this behavior, she knew how to handle it already.

"Good evening Duke and Duchess," Emmeline curtsied with her frock, slowly and elegantly as if her each move was measured.

Duke Whittemore finally put his pen down. Resting his elbows on the table and clasping his hands together to support his chin, he stared at the young girl.. Did she just call them 'Duke' and 'Duchess'? Anna's face also fell when she heard the greeting.