Chapter 7: My Happiness Is Something I Choose
“What is it that you need help with?”
“The documents with the Valentone Count’s family, the arrangements for the spring events… various things are a bit in disarray.”
I quietly looked at Mother.
“So you did not come to apologize.”
“Apologize?”
“You cast me aside at my own engagement announcement, and now you come asking for help. I was wondering if there was something you should say first.”
“One should not dredge up old matters like that among family.”
Mother said it with slight displeasure.
“It’s already over, isn’t it?”
“For me, it is precisely because it is over that I am refusing you now.”
Cecil hurriedly cut in.
“Sister, please don’t say it like that. We are truly in trouble.”
“I can imagine.”
“It’s fine if you just take a quick look, you know? You always understand these things immediately, don’t you, Sister?”
It was just like before.
Whenever she wanted something, she would use that sweet, pleading voice.
“I refuse.”
“Why…?”
“Because I no longer intend to clean up after you.”
Cecil’s eyes wavered.
Mother frowned as if to scold me.
“‘Clean up after’? That is a terrible way to put it.”
“Is it not?”
I asked in return.
“You take only what you want, and it becomes my role to put everything in order. That is how you have always thought, isn’t it?”
Mother fell silent.
Beside her, Cecil’s face stiffened slightly.
“Sister, that’s not what I meant…”
“Then what did you mean?”
When I asked directly, Cecil could not answer.
I continued quietly.
“On the night of the engagement announcement, I told you. If you were going to stand beside him, there were things you could not avoid.”
“I…”
“But you only wanted the fiancé, and refused to face the responsibility of standing beside him.”
Cecil’s lips trembled.
“That’s not…”
“Is it not?”
Tilting my head slightly, I watched as tears quickly filled her eyes.
“Because… I’m really in trouble…!”
“Yes.”
“Ever since you left, everything has been going wrong! Nothing is like it used to be—”
At that point, Cecil finally stopped pretending.
“Why am I the only one who has to suffer like this!? You always gave in at the end, didn’t you, Sister!”
“Cecil!”
“But it’s true, isn’t it, Mother!”
Her face flushed red as she shouted, no trace of her usual delicacy remaining.
“You’ve always been able to do everything, Sister! Something like this, you could at least help a little! Why have you suddenly become so cold!?”
The reception room fell completely silent.
I simply looked at my younger sister quietly.
“So that is how you truly feel.”
“…!”
“You just want and take. And anything inconvenient, you push onto me. Nothing has changed.”
Large tears spilled from Cecil’s eyes.
“I hate you, Sister!”
“I see.”
I replied calmly.
“That is perfectly fine.”
With those words, Cecil completely broke down in tears.
Mother stood frozen, unable to say anything.
Frederick simply watched with a grim expression.
I slowly shifted my gaze and looked at Frederick.
The moment our eyes met, his throat moved slightly.
He seemed as though he wanted to say something.
But the words would not come.
“…Lydia.”
The voice he finally managed to force out was hoarse.
“What is it now?”
As he frowned, I spoke plainly.
“What you regret losing is not me, but my usefulness.”
At those words, Frederick’s expression visibly twisted.
He wanted to deny it.
But he could not.
—At that moment.
“Is the conversation over?”
A low, quiet voice came from the direction of the door.
When I turned, Lord Ashley was standing there.
His gaze was as cold as a winter night.
“Y-Your Grace… this is a family matter…”
“So what?”
Lord Ashley cut off Mother’s words in a single breath.
“My wife has refused. That is the end of it.”
“However, if she could lend just a little help—”
“Why should my wife clean up your mess?”
Mother fell silent, and Cecil could not even lift her face as she cried.
Only Frederick managed to speak.
“This is a matter between both families.”
“It is not.”
Lord Ashley’s voice was low and unwavering.
“You are merely trying to conveniently rely on someone you once discarded.”
“…”
“Do not think you can use someone you have thrown away.”
Frederick’s face turned red.
But he could not say a word in return.
Lord Ashley looked over the three of them in turn, then spoke decisively.
“I have no intention of ever letting you treat my wife as a convenient pawn again.”
The reception room fell into complete silence.
I quietly stood up.
“Please leave.”
Mother forced out one last desperate plea.
“Lydia… do you truly intend to send your family away like this?”
“Yes.”
“You will regret this.”
“I will not.”
I answered without hesitation.
“Losing myself was far more painful than losing all of you.”
Mother held her breath.
Cecil remained collapsed in tears.
Frederick lowered his gaze in silence.
The three of them were ushered out by the servants, leaving the reception room in miserable silence.
—The door closed.
At last, it felt as though something that had clung to me for so long had finally been severed completely.
Letting out a small breath, I found Lord Ashley standing beside me.
“Are you tired?”
“A little.”
“You spoke well.”
“…Yes.”
Those brief words sank deeply into my chest.
Lord Ashley gently drew me into his arms.
“You do not need to yield to them anymore.”
“Yes.”
“You can stay here.”
I rested my forehead against his chest.
Only then did it truly feel like everything was over.
“On the day my engagement was broken, I thought I had been abandoned.”
“That is not the case.”
“Yes. I understand now.”
“Tell me.”
Encouraged, I smiled slightly.
“People who lacked discernment simply let me go of their own accord.”
“Exactly.”
Lord Ashley nodded with satisfaction.
Still resting my forehead against him, I continued softly.
“Even so, it does not change the fact that you saved me.”
“I do believe I did.”
“Then, was I simply fortunate to be picked up?”
“No.”
His arms around me tightened slightly.
“I did not take you in out of sympathy.”
“Then?”
“I chose you.”
Those words made me happy, and I gently leaned my cheek against his chest.
“I am glad I came here as well.”
“‘Glad’ is not enough.”
“Not enough?”
“No. I have no intention of ever letting you go again.”
For some reason, those words made me incredibly happy.
There was no longer any reason for me to feel afraid within his arms.
—Meanwhile, the Evans family had yet to understand the true gravity of what had happened.
The void left by losing Lydia was not limited to the confusion over documents and schedules that they were scrambling to fix.
Spring events, delivery contracts, joint business payments, and the trust between both families.
The cracks had already begun to spread quietly.
By the time they realized, they would have no choice but to understand what it was they had lost.