CH 78

Elena gradually turned pale at Gareth’s cynical words. She felt dizzy, as if the room was spinning. Elena looked up at the second floor, where Madel and the maids were busy cleaning up, then barely opened her mouth again. “Still…” she trailed off, unable to say out loud that he was the only person left who could give her his trust and keep her sane.

“We’ll talk about this later,” Gareth said in a dismissive manner, then turned around.

Elena felt as if her heart was sinking into a bottomless abyss. At that moment, she suddenly remembered how Gareth had called his sister’s name with a trembling voice.

“Adelia…” he had said sorrowfully.

‘Adelia, Gareth’s younger sister he couldn’t save. It must be true that Lydia was pregnant with his child. There’s no other way Gareth would have said her name like that after looking at the baby if it wasn’t his child…’

Gareth walked past Elena and left the hall. Watching him leave, Elena could feel a shadow of despair loom over her, waiting to eat her alive. ‘What should I do now… what should I…’

Gareth, who had left after spitting out cold words, didn’t return that night. A terrifying hunt began the following day at dawn.

* * *

Madel glanced behind her, where Elena had sunk to the floor and was leaning against the wall with a pale face. Madel turned back around and used the ladle to stir the pot of soup she was making for Lydia. At that moment, she heard a noise from behind her. Madel inadvertently turned her head again towards Elena and saw that she was sliding down again with her back against the wall, as if she had tried to stand up.

“Lady Elena, if you’re tired, go upstairs and rest,” Madel said rather coldly.

Elena, who was clutching her head from dizziness, looked up at the sound of Madel’s voice, thinking that it had been a long time since Madel had spoken to her.

“Madel, please tell me,” Elena said.

“What do you mean?”

Desperately wanting to know, Elena asked, “How big was the baby?”

Madel clicked her tongue when she realized Elena was asking about the size of the child who had already been buried in the cold ground and replied, “She was about the size of my hand.”

Elena looked at Madel’s hands in silence while still on the floor. ‘Too small. It’s too small. That’s not how big a seven month old fetus should be…’

Gareth hadn’t returned after leaving the castle last night, giving Lydia time to spread the rumor that Elena had pushed her down the stairs and caused her miscarriage. The word had spread throughout the estate like wildfire, causing every villager to glare at Elena with disapproving eyes whenever she would encounter them. Although Elena kept her head high and tried not to be shaken, her heart had already gone through irreversible damage.

“Madel, isn’t it strange?”

Madel raised an eyebrow in response.

“It’s too small. If the baby was really seven months old, it has to be at least two handspans bigger than your hand.”

‘She’s going on about it again. Even if she’s right, what is she going to do about it? It’s not like the dead child will come back alive. I don’t understand why she keeps going back to this issue.’ Madel turned her attention back to the pot and replied curtly, “What’s the use of arguing about it now?”

Elena gazed at Madel with deep green eyes that looked somewhat bizarre. After noticing that Madel was deliberately looking away from her, she asked, “You’ve been watching me until now. Do you really think I’ve insulted Princess Lydia during my time here?”

‘Just one person… please… I just need one person to agree with me…’ Elena prayed silently.

However, Madel remained silent. To her, everything was already over, since she had been hoping the child would be born safe and make Gareth settle down at the estate. She had hoped for Gareth to quit being a mercenary and start living happily and safely with his people, but such thoughts were but a dream now.

“You’ve seen it. You saw that I didn’t push her,” Elena asserted.

Madel tightly shut her eyes before opening them again. It was the uncomfortable truth that Elena hadn’t pushed Lydia, but she believed that Elena had definitely provoked the princess.