Chapter 1
It was a late afternoon with rain falling quietly when I received the letter. The endless rain over the past few days had already stacked up my worries as high as the laundry that kept piling up in the corner. When the postman first handed me the letter, I assumed it was from my sponsor. There was no one else who would write to me.
I had been feeling a little disappointed because I hadn’t heard from them much since I became an adult. So, when I got the letter, I felt a sudden, unexpected sense of joy.
Catherine Reynolds
That joy disappeared the moment I saw the name printed on the envelope. In its place came a wave of anger.
Catherine Reynolds was the name of my mother, the woman who had abandoned me at the orphanage ten years ago.
It felt ridiculous to receive a letter under her name. What was even more shocking was that it wasn’t just a letter. It was a funeral notice.
Not someone else’s. My mother’s funeral notice.
So she was dead.
I wasn’t sure what I felt. It wasn’t happiness or sadness. The emotions tangled inside me were hard to describe. It felt like something I had barely been holding together had suddenly fallen apart.
A sharp headache began to spread across my head. I crumpled the funeral notice in frustration and pressed my fingers to my temples.
“Why did they even send this to me?”
Whether that woman lived or died had nothing to do with me. I had no reason to go to her funeral. What would be the point of facing the person who had abandoned me? It would only make me feel worse.
But in the end, I was pushed into the carriage by the pressure from the director and the teachers at the orphanage.
After I arrived at the destination, I realized the address written on the letter was the house I used to live in.
I had assumed that my father had left me too. But he hadn’t. I was the only one who had been abandoned. Just me.
That truth, learned after ten years, was unbearable. I bit my lip so hard it bled. Since things had come to this, I promised myself I would laugh at my mother without holding back. With that thought, I climbed the rusted, creaking stairs with force.
At the very end of the second floor in a cramped building that looked like a chicken coop, I found my parents’ home. I had expected a funeral to be taking place for that woman. But it was quiet.
“What is this?”
Confused, I stepped inside the empty house. As I looked around, I saw some of the things I used when I was a child. They were still there. I let out a dry laugh.
She abandoned me but didn’t throw those away. It made no sense.
If there was no funeral, then there was no reason for me to be there. I turned to leave, but then I noticed a small box under the wardrobe.
Curious why it was hidden there, I pulled it out. When I saw the letter inside, I froze.
“This is something I wrote.”
It was not a letter to my mother. It was one I had written to my sponsor.
Why was it here?
As I looked through the letter in confusion, I found an old notebook tucked beneath it.
July 6, Year 1543 of the Empire
It was her diary.
She had written that she was happy her daughter had safely become an adult. She also wrote that next time, she wanted to send candy because her daughter liked sweets.
That alone was confusing, but what really caught my attention was the handwriting. It looked exactly like the handwriting of my sponsor.
“My mother was my sponsor?”
It didn’t make sense, but everything pointed to that answer. My thoughts became a mess. My heart raced. The same painful headache I had felt when I first got the funeral notice came rushing back.
I wanted to know the truth. If she really was my sponsor, then why did she leave me?
I read through the diary from beginning to end.
Nowhere did she say why she had left me.
But I found enough to know she really was my sponsor. The diary described the gifts and letters she had sent me.
Even when I was a child, I thought it was strange how my sponsor always knew exactly what I liked. Now I understood.
It was because they had come from my mother.
I felt like I had been struck hard in the back of my head. My mind went completely blank. I couldn’t even ask why.
Still staring at the diary, I heard the sound of a door creaking open behind me.
“Father.”
He looked much older than I remembered, but I knew it was him. He recognized me too. His bloodshot eyes widened with a wild look. I couldn’t breathe.
“I finally found you, you filthy girl.”
With a voice full of hate, he charged at me and grabbed my hair. The pain felt like my scalp was being torn apart. I screamed.
“Do you know how much trouble I went through trying to find you? But of course, now that your mother is dead and the funeral notice went out, here you are.”
“Let go of me.”
I scratched at his arm with my nails and struggled with all my strength, but it was useless.
“Do you know how much your mother ruined everything ten years ago? Old Maksim said he would clear all my debts if I gave you to him. He was even going to pay extra.”
Maksim was an old man who ran the biggest gambling den and pawn shop in town. Everyone knew he had a sick obsession with young girls.
“My life is a disaster because of you and your mother.”
His words came out with the strong smell of alcohol. They spilled out like venom. Only then did I finally understand why my mother had left me.
No. She hadn’t abandoned me.
She left me at the orphanage to protect me from the monster who tried to sell his own daughter to a twisted old man.
And all this time, I hated her. I resented her.
But the one I should have hated was someone else.
“Ha, look at those eyes. You look like you’re about to tear your own father apart. Go ahead, try it.”
When I glared at him, my father let out a mocking snort and lightly tapped my cheek.
“Just like your mother. You don’t know how to respect the head of the family.”
“Mom was the one who earned the money. Why would you be the head? She was the real head of this family.”
Slap.
The blow was so hard that the inside of my mouth split open and my ears started ringing. I fell to the floor, powerless.
“I turned into this mess because of your mother. The least you can do is take what’s coming to you.”
Without hesitation, he started kicking me. The pain was awful, but it was also all too familiar. I curled up and covered my head, letting him beat me like he used to when I was small and helpless.
“If she hadn’t hidden you, I would’ve paid off all my debts long ago. I would’ve started over with someone new.”
So he had been cheating too. He went on, blaming Mom for everything that hadn’t worked out with the other woman.
“When I told her we could sell the title, she refused. She clung to me until the end. I had no choice but to take care of her.”
That could only mean one thing. This man had killed my mother.
The shock hit me harder than when I first received her funeral notice. My vision turned white and then was consumed by pure rage.
“You filthy bastard.”
I shouted the worst insult I knew and grabbed whatever I could find, then threw it at him.
“Ah!”
With a crash, something shattered, and he let out a short scream as he stumbled back.
Only then did I realize what I had thrown. It was the sewing scissors my mother used. The blade had grazed just beneath his eye, and blood poured down his cheek.
“Is this what you’ve become, Bella? You little rat.”
Clutching his wounded face and screaming, he looked like a demon that had crawled out of hell.
If he caught me now, he would kill me. I knew it with terrifying certainty, and I turned to run.
“I’ve got you now, you wretched girl.”
But I didn’t even make it down the stairs before he caught me. A fear too heavy for words crashed over me, and I couldn’t breathe.
“Let go. Let me go right now.”
I used every last bit of strength to shove him away, and the force made me lose my balance. My body tilted toward the stairs.
I reached out to him by instinct, but he didn’t catch me.
I tumbled down the stairs, pain exploding through my body. I couldn’t move a single finger.
“Like mother, like daughter. Even the way you die is the same.”
He stood at the bottom of the stairs, smirking down at me.
“That’s what you get for acting like you’re more than you are. You were punished by heaven.”
No. That’s not true. Don’t say something so twisted. The one who deserves punishment is you.
You were the one who tormented us, the one who destroyed my mother, and the one who is truly cursed.
Anger and heartbreak rose in my chest, but I couldn’t speak. My vision blurred and the pain started to fade. Death was coming closer.
Please, God.
With blood-covered hands, I clawed at the floor and begged.
Please don’t let it end like this. Just once, give me another chance.
Take everything, I have. I don’t care if my soul ends up in hell.
Just give me the strength to take revenge on that monster and save my poor mother.
At that moment, I heard a bell ringing from somewhere. A clear and peaceful sound that didn’t match my suffering.
It was the last thing I heard before my consciousness sank into complete darkness.
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