Chapter 2
“What the…?”
The words slipped out in a moment of anger, and I instantly regretted it. He was alive and well—how could he have killed me?
It was absurd. I quickly scrambled for a more reasonable excuse.
“Noah Ashford destroyed my health—he killed every possibility I had to live a normal life. And yet I almost died without even knowing the name of the person who did this to me. Why didn’t you tell me? Just how much of a fool were you planning to make me?”
“How did you find out? Did Scott tell you?”
“What does it matter? Whether I dug it up myself or heard it from someone else—the point is, you lied to me. I had a right to know. Of all people, I should have known.”
Noah Ashford had hunted me. I ran, bleeding like a wounded animal.
Would she ever understand what it felt like to be brutally murdered by the same man who nearly killed me once long ago? Did she know how utterly humiliating that was?
“What else are you hiding from me? Are you even planning to tell me anything at all?”
Susan pressed her lips together, watching me with an unreadable expression. Her silence made it impossible to tell what she was thinking, and the uncertainty bothered at me.
“If you’re not going to say anything, then neither will I.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Oh? Because I wasn’t even born at the time? Or because I didn’t know our mother’s face? Ha. Fine. Just as I can’t fully understand what happened back then, you’ll never understand me. What could you possibly know? What do you know about a body that’s falling apart?”
Susan didn’t try to calm me. She just let me rage.
We were thirteen years apart—the only sisters among our siblings. Maybe that’s why the betrayal cut so deep.
“Don’t come see me for a while. I don’t want to see you. And don’t bother having me followed.”
That evening, after Susan left, Scott’s documents finally arrived.
Julia Ashford was from the Kingdom of Cersia, a lowly woman who had bounced from one man to another, playing the mistress.
Her final choice had been my father. The identity of Noah Ashford’s father had never been officially confirmed.
People said Noah looked just like his mother. Julia fiercely insisted that her son carried the White family bloodline.
My father also claimed Noah was his son—but that was just the kind of cheap lie a man tells his mistress to win her over.
“Disgusting.”
Even though my mother’s body had been weakened from premature labor, she didn’t back down.
She stripped my father of all his rights and transferred them to my older brothers. She made sure Julia Ashford couldn’t walk away with so much as a fork.
Julia, who had been living with my father in his capital estate, disappeared after his fatal carriage accident.
And now, years later, she’d resurfaced—right in front of me.
* * *
“So filthy.”
A garbage dump in the capital, overflowing with trash and waste—fitting, I suppose, for the final destination of a mistress.
But this was not a place someone like me should be.
I shut the carriage window and grumbled to Scott.
“If I come to a place like this one more time, my lungs are going to rot. They’re far too delicate to handle this stench.”
Still, I had no solution yet.
How could I make her suffer? How could I lure her son out?
Why had Noah Ashford disappeared so completely, even from Scott’s extensive information network?
“You’re not lying about knowing Noah’s whereabouts, are you?”
“I’ve always been honest with you. Don’t you trust me?”
“Let’s call it reasonable suspicion. Cravitz never misses a truth.”
“We’re just human, you know. Not gods. We can’t know everything.”
True enough. We’re all born human—but some grow up like beasts, while others remain fragile, weak.
“We’re here. Be careful. This area isn’t safe for anyone to walk alone. Stay close.”
I accepted Scott’s escort and stepped out of the carriage. It had been a while since I walked hand-in-hand with him, and the feeling was strangely nostalgic.
“It’s like I’m a child again.”
“Horrifying. If we’re talking about your childhood, I wouldn’t go through that twice. Honestly, even Abigail and Isaac together weren’t as bad as you. You were stubborn as hell. Crying and screaming all the time… Ugh. That’s why I decided to never marry.”
“Don’t blame me for your failed first love.”
“Well, you turned out alright, so I’ll forgive you.”
Scott gave my back a playful pat.
He was only thirteen years older, but he always treated me with the kind of care that warmed me, no matter how old I got.
If Father hadn’t cheated, would I have grown up with Mother? Or at least under Father’s protection?
Even John, the eldest, had only been twenty-one when our mother died.
None of us were ready. John, Aaron, Susan, Scott… even Andrew. We lost our home and our childhood.
And I—I lost my one chance at a proper family forever.
“Was it hard, raising me?”
“It was. But I managed.”
I looked up at him.
Scott was the tallest in our family, a full head above me. As a child, I always saw him as a towering adult.
But now I realized—back then, he was still far from grown up himself.
“We all shared the time, the effort, and the responsibility.”
“Yeah. I was lucky. I got five times the love.”
At my words, Scott gave me a soft smile. Just then, we arrived at 85 Dahlia Street.
“You’re not coming in?”
“I don’t want to see her.”
He pulled a candy from his coat pocket.
“Callie.”
“Yeah?”
“No matter what you do, I’ll support you. Whatever you want—I’ll help. Don’t forget that.”
His words—his blessing for whatever revenge I chose—settled my heart like a balm.
With a slightly trembling hand, I knocked on the door. There was no response. I knocked again, several times, until a faint voice called out:
“It’s open… come in.”
I recognized that voice—it had the rasp of illness. Tuberculosis often did that.
I pushed open the rotting black door and stepped inside.
It was a place devoid of light. Though it was too dark to see clearly, the heavy, dusty air reeked of neglect.
Cough. Cough.
A figure emerged slowly, lighting a stubby candle. Who even used candles in this day and age?
Her appearance was wretched enough to induce nausea. A sight both satisfying and revolting.
To die so pitifully without even the pleasure of destroying her first—what a waste.
“You’re Julia Ashford, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Who are you? Did the city send you?”
“You don’t recognize me?”
I stepped closer to the flame. As the candle flickered, the firelight revealed her hollowed-out face.
Her eyes—identical to Noah Ashford’s—sent a chill down my spine.
If I hadn’t taken a sedative, I might’ve had a full-blown panic attack.
“Who…”
I pulled a magic stone from my coat and activated it. A bright light filled the room.
“You’re not from the city, then… who are you?”
“Red hair is a trait of the White family. Don’t you remember the man you rolled around with eighteen years ago?”
“No…”
Julia’s sickening blue eyes trembled violently. Her wrinkled face, partially hidden behind her hand, bore the marks of a hard, miserable life.
Her lips twisted. I was disgusted that someone so insignificant had once controlled the course of my life.
“I’m Scarlett White. I’ve grown, haven’t I? I thought you might think of me every time you looked at your son—but maybe not. That’s a little disappointing.”
“Oh, my…”
Her face turned a ghostly shade of blue.
“My father may have lacked many things, but not money. Looks like you didn’t get much of that either. What a sight.”
“……”
“Well? I’m not just any guest. I came—Scarlett White. Shouldn’t you offer tea or fall to your knees or something? But this place… it’s too filthy to even sit.”
Julia Ashford swayed slightly, on the verge of dropping the candle.
I stepped forward and blew it out. Then, with a soft smile, I said,
“Careful. Wouldn’t want a fire to break out. My lungs are too weak to handle any more of this stench.”
“Miss White… I can’t believe how much you’ve grown.”
“You thought I’d be dead, didn’t you? Or hoped for it?”
“No, no… I’m just relieved to see you well—”
“Well? Well? Do I look healthy to you? Ha!”
Every breath sent my emotions crashing deeper.
Julia Ashford looked just as sickly as me—and the fact that we shared anything at all made me burn with fury.
Calm down. This isn’t the time to lose control.
Finding Noah Ashford—and killing him—came first.
I swallowed my rage and glanced around. The house was small and filthy. That was the end of my impressions.
“I don’t see your son. The self-proclaimed youngest of the White family.”
“He stepped out for a bit. He had something to do.”
A lie. Obvious.
If Noah had disappeared so thoroughly that even Cravitz couldn’t track him, then he certainly wasn’t just ‘out running errands.’
“Is that so? That’s too bad. I wanted to see how much we resembled each other. Does he have red hair like me?”
“Oh… no. He’s blond.”
“And his eyes? Grey like mine? Or blue like yours?”
“He looks just like me. But Noah is definitely Mr. White’s son.”
“…What exactly did you want from the White family, that you went after a man with five kids? The Senate seat? The noble title—that’s John’s. The railways belong to Aaron, the bank to Susan, shipping to Andrew… Oh, wait, I wasn’t born yet. Was it the mines, then? Or the cash? Real estate? Even the smallest speck from the White family sparkles, doesn’t it?”
The words poured out, leaving me breathless. My heart pounded in my chest from the strain.
Even as my head spun, I couldn’t stop talking.
Every word I spat was only a fraction of the pain boiling inside me.
“Miss White, it wasn’t as simple as you think. We really—”
“Nonsense. Cravitz’s records say you were already pregnant before you met my father. What did you want so badly that you became his mistress?”
Julia’s jaw trembled violently as she croaked out a response.
“……He is Mr. White’s son. He accepted him. He promised—he promised Noah would always be his.”
A promise? Even knowing he wasn’t his blood? Was she that special to him?
The thought that I was that man’s daughter made me sick. I wanted to drain every drop of blood from my body.
I didn’t have the patience to play nice anymore.
“Where’s your son?”
“Noah just stepped out—”
“I asked where you’re hiding him. I know he’s missing.”
Darkness fell across her face.
She knew where he was. And she knew I wasn’t looking for him with good intentions. Still, she had to tell me.
“If you don’t, I’ll erase his identity. He’ll never live as a proper person again. I’ll issue a warrant, and the moment he’s found, I’ll ship him off to the northern mines as a slave.”
“……”
“You know the White family has deep roots in politics, finance, and society. Crushing you and your son—it’s not hard. Just embarrassing.”
What a relief it is to have the power to be cruel.
I smiled, knowing I would throw him into the gutter with pleasure.
After a moment of hesitation, Julia Ashford fell to her knees before me.
“Please… please find Noah.”
