Chapter 66
Though what she intended to do had to be accomplished without anyone knowing, it wasn’t something she could do entirely alone.
She desperately needed an ally inside the mansion, not like Hans or the Third Prince who were outside.
Someone to monitor the fake’s movements and skillfully manipulate her.
As her throbbing head grew hot, Jane let out an elegant, long sigh.
Though they could make a machine that could inject poison secretly and make it look like an accident, unfortunately, it would be delayed beyond schedule.
“Perhaps I should consider it fortunate that I now have time to recruit someone.”
Jane handled a small bottle containing colorless, odorless, and tasteless poison.
Except for the initial ingredient needed to make the poison, other materials were relatively obtainable, so the poison itself was already complete.
“If I can’t use it, it’s worthless…”
Jane’s worries continued to deepen.
* * *
Around the time Hans was trudging out through the gate where various suppliers came and went at the Bolshevik residence.
-Knock knock.
“Father, it’s me.”
Riina was knocking on the door of Duke Bolshevik’s office.
“Riina?”
“I’m sorry to come without an appointment. Do you have a moment?”
Duke Bolshevik watched Riina asking with excessive politeness for a father-daughter relationship, then soon nodded.
“Yes.”
He even put aside the documents he had been reading, but the movement was so natural it looked as if he were just clearing away finished work.
Duke Bolshevik, known by the somehow familiar title “The Iron Duke.”
True to that nickname, he was extremely restrained in expressing emotions and appeared almost statuesque in his expressionlessness, and it was said that even the Emperor had never heard him raise his voice.
And that was an excellent quality as the most important pillar supporting the massive Bolshevik family.
But as a father with a daughter, it was absolutely not a good trait.
‘I will leave this duchy.’
His daughter, whom he cherished more than his own eyes, had said this.
The duke couldn’t misunderstand her meaning – not leaving the main house or stepping down as heir, but leaving the ‘family’ itself.
Probably the moment his daughter left, he would never see her again.
He might be able to watch her from afar without her noticing, but…
His daughter, who spoke calmly as if she had let go of everything, didn’t give any reasons, but seeing her genuine desire, he could only remain silent.
If he had been the type of father who openly doted on his daughter for all the world to see, might things have been different?
If he had selfishly pleaded with fatherly affection before his daughter, begging her not to go…
Dozens of times a day, he fell into solitary anguish that no one knew about.
Of course, since outwardly not even an eyebrow twitched on his expressionless face, Riina had no way of knowing his complex feelings.
“I have something I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
Riina skipped all unnecessary small talk and preamble, going straight to the point.
“By any chance, did you summon Jane – that is, the shadow – before bringing her into the mansion?”
And like daughter, like father.
Duke Bolshevik too gave only a precise answer without adding unnecessary words.
“No.”
“Then perhaps regarding the hunting competition, did you give any orders?”
“None.”
The barren conversation between father and daughter that left no room to breathe ended with the duke’s answer.
Just as Riina was about to move, having nothing more to say.
“Riina.”
“Yes.”
The duke who called her just looked at her for a while.
How long had this silence lasted – not uncomfortable enough to make one want to run away immediately, but not comfortable enough to draw out a lazy yawn?
The duke’s tightly closed lips opened.
“You said you would leave the family.”
At these unexpected words, Riina’s insides churned violently.
She had resolved it so firmly, decided it before anything else.
That for the sake of the family and herself, she would leave the family and live quietly somewhere no one knew.
Yet why, when hearing these words from her father’s lips, did it feel…
So heartbreaking?
The ‘misfortune’ that dominated her entire life wasn’t something she could control through her own efforts or ingenuity.
It was just a massive flow that had to be accepted as it came.
So she should have learned deep in her bones through experience that feeling wronged or angry would only burn her inside and cut her own flesh.
Yet she felt wronged and heartbroken.
Her blue eyes, which had been calm, wavered like a sea in a violent storm, but only briefly.
Soon, Riina’s eyes, after closing deeply and opening again, were completely still.
“Yes, if it’s about the next duke position…”
Her father, who until now had never called her separately about this matter or said anything else, had brought it up first.
Riina, who had derived a reason in the blink of an eye, couldn’t even finish her words.
“It’s not about that.”
“Yes.”
Silence fell again after her answer.
Like father, like daughter.
A father who didn’t ask and a daughter who didn’t ask.
Though they cared for each other, unable to express it, they just looked at each other.
Perhaps if the Duchess Bolshevik were still alive, she would have clicked her tongue at this sight.
Saying how could they both be so similarly frustrating.
But the duchess who would have said those words with a playful smile had long since left this world.
Due to an accident caused by none other than Riina’s ‘misfortune’…
Eventually, Riina parted her dried lips.
“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll go.”
Even after Riina’s figure disappeared as she turned away and the door firmly closed, the duke’s eyes remained fixed on her empty space.
* * *
Becky’s eyes widened round seeing Riina’s deathly pale face as she returned to her office.
She quickly signaled the other servants to leave, prepared everything within Riina’s reach, and silently disappeared.
Left alone, Riina collapsed onto the sofa, letting out intermittent breaths before laughing helplessly.
Facing Father is equally difficult before and after regression.
After staring blankly at the ceiling for a while, Riina soon straightened up and felt around.
-Click.
Picking up the pen that caught her fingertips, Riina fell into thought while habitually tapping the pen holder.
“So it wasn’t him.”
Now that it was certain that Jane’s appearance at the hunting competition wasn’t by her father’s order.
The answer to how Jane had entered that place with the identity of a Bolshevik servant…
“It was related to that big man after all.”
Otherwise, there would be no way for a Bolshevik permit under Riina’s own control to end up in Jane’s hands.
Riina started contemplating while tapping the pen holder with her finger.
She could just ignore what Jane was doing.
She at least knew that something was being plotted, and Jane surely wouldn’t do anything to harm the Bolshevik family.
A bitter smile spread across Riina’s lips.
“Right, Jane wouldn’t do that.”
Even when, before the regression, her hatred had peaked to the point of wanting to strangle Jane.
‘I don’t mind if you kill me. However, if word gets out that the family heir killed someone, it would greatly harm the family…’
What had she said to Jane, who spoke with her usual calm face?
Because she believed in Jane’s genuine loyalty to the family, Riina had resolved to entrust the family to her and leave.
It would be a lie to say she hadn’t felt the urge to cry out that she wouldn’t leave when she heard her father’s words.
But Riina had to leave.
Before the regression, she had struggled desperately to become the most excellent heir to succeed the family, but hadn’t it ended in miserable failure?
Having realized that was impossible, staying in the family would only be a burden.
Failure in anything was the biggest problem, but the negative influence that failure had on the family was truly painful to even speak of.
Hadn’t there already been an incident big enough to shake the Bolshevik family?
Moreover, that incident had happened long before Riina had lost her mind because of Jane, when Riina was still young.
Her mother’s death.
It was truly due to her ‘misfortune’.
‘Mother, Mother! Look at this! I found it!’
To young Riina waving a three-leaf clover with one leaf split that looked like the lucky four-leaf clover, her mother smiled gently.
‘That’s three leaves, not four, my dear.’
Mother picked up Riina, who had become dejected at the harsh reality.
‘Why so down? You’re the greatest luck in this mother’s life.’
As Riina smiled brightly like the sun at her mother’s whisper and was about to speak while hugging her tightly.
-Rumble!
With a deafening roar, a landslide swept in, and Riina lost consciousness as she was helplessly caught in it.
‘…ina, Riina. My treasure. Open your eyes.’
Young Riina barely opened her eyes at her mother’s whisper.
Though it was dark all around, she didn’t cry because she was in her mother’s arms.
‘Mo, Mother.’
‘Yes. I’m here. Now, listen carefully to mother.’
Though she couldn’t see her mother’s face and her cheeks were wet, Riina answered without hesitation.
‘Yes.’
‘I love you, my treasure. My life’s greatest fortune.’
Pushing Riina’s back out of the carriage that was about to collapse, isolated by the landslide, her mother was smiling warmly as always.
