Prologue

<For a Happy Ending>

It was the title of a book she had read a long time ago, before she had become ‘Laila.’ The pleasing story brought her great comfort. In the book, almost everyone loved each other except for the Devil Duke. She wanted to be a part of them because she wanted to be loved.

Her life story was a common one. She was the adopted child of two foster parents who miraculously ended up giving birth to their own child after the adoption. Because of that, she was neglected and started hoping to be loved. The kind of thing that she was hoping for was something she couldn’t tell anyone whatsoever and knowing that her wish wouldn’t be granted anyway, she continued living each day just like that.

But one day, oddly enough, her wish was granted. Although she was barely mentioned in the original work as a supporting actress and faced her death, she was able to at least be part of the story. She was now a character in the story that served as an anecdote for the main character, Amelia.

‘Laila Estevan.’ 

The first day after she died while avoiding her step father’s beating and came back to life, she cried like a little child and felt her heart beating rapidly..

‘Now… now I’ll be able to be happy after all.’

But was she hoping for nothing…? 

* * * 

The name of the body she was reincarnated into was Laila, who was the illegitimate child of Estevan Duchy. Being an illegitimate child meant that the duke didn’t want her.

Therefore, she was given her name along with the least amount of rights needed in order to live with the duke’s family. It was unfair, but her current situation was better than before. Regardless, the body still represented half of the duke’s family.

‘I want to be loved.’ 

She assumed a child who was bright would always be adored. So, she would put on her best smile around others until Estevan Duchy’s people started telling each other about how her smile was bringing down their mood.

Ever since then, she helped them with whatever they needed and didn’t talk much until she heard people commenting about how they wished she was dead.

She had thought that trying her best would be enough. She had hoped she could be loved one day if she constantly expressed her love towards them without changing herself.

“You’re an idiot. So stupid. You should’ve just not done anything.”

Later, before anyone else told her, she had reminded herself. She had thought that it was unavoidable. It was just meant to be this way and she hoped for something that wasn’t meant to be. 

“I was not loved before because I was not lovely enough. I am just simply useless and bad.” 

When she thought of it this way, she felt more at peace. Everything became easy. She thought everyone was probably right, including Amelia, who always frowned when she looked at her, the twin brothers who treated her as if she was some type of bug, her own father, and everyone who whispered amongst themselves as well.

In the beginning, from the story <For a Happy Ending>, Laila Estevan was a foreigner who was supposed to disappear in the beginning of the story or in the middle. The twin brothers of Laila Estevan were the main actors from the original work.

And Laila Estevan was the reason why they became closer to Amelia. She encouraged those who became sad because of Laila Estevan and when their hearts were broken through the death of Laila Estevan, Amelia was there to comfort them. 

‘Yes, they were sad because of Laila’s death.’ 

They would be sad when Laila dies. So, she had thought she could be part of their family as long as she was acting lovely before she died. It was something she dreamed about.

‘If it wasn’t for that particular scene, I would’ve given up a while ago.’

But she didn’t know what difference she was going to see now when Laila Estevan was suffering from an illness.

From a young age, Laila suffered from an unknown disease and the cost to treat her was high. It was hard to know whether spending that much money for her treatment would actually help her since it was difficult to find the exact name of the disease. Eventually, Laila’s condition had reached the point where the special treatment, which was her last hope, was no longer going to work.

She was going to die soon.

‘….going to die.’