By the time the gathering ended, the mansion was alive with laughter, the distant hum of cheerful voices seeping through the walls.
I stepped into the hallway just in time to see Carlos and Stephen, their hands intertwined with Tessa Cavendish’s, heading toward the bedroom at the far end.
Seven years had passed in the blink of an eye. The once-young daughter of the Cavendish family had grown into a woman—one who bore an uncanny resemblance to Evie.
That room had once belonged only to Carlos and Evie.
I had once entered it by mistake. My punishment? After three days of kneeling in the snow, my legs were nearly ruined.
When I finally collapsed onto my bed, my knees raw and festering, the agony eating away at me, Carlos came.
For a moment, I had foolishly thought he had softened.
But instead, his voice was cold, void of warmth.
“If it hurts, good. Maybe next time, you’ll remember not to step where you don’t belong.”
Now, Tessa, with a face eerily similar to Evie’s, had moved in effortlessly.
The servants barely concealed their disdain, their whispers cutting through the air like knives.
“Some people can struggle all they want to climb into this family, but it’s useless. Neither the president nor the young master cares for her. Imagine being married for years, yet she’s not even allowed to be inside a bedroom in her own home. Pathetic.”
“Of course. The president’s heart has always belonged to his late wife. She was nothing more than a glorified nanny brought in to raise his son. But now that the young lady of the Cavendish family has grown up and looks so much like the late wife, how could he not be swayed? It’s only a matter of time before we have a new lady of the house.”
I ignored their ridicule and turned to leave; a flash of silver streaked toward me.
A sharp sting followed.
The metal dart sliced past my skin, leaving a thin, burning trail. Warm blood trickled down, slow and deliberate.
Stephen toyed with the remaining darts in his hand, a mischievous smirk dancing on his lips.
"Just looking at you makes me sick! One day, I'll make sure you're disfigured. My aunt says bad women deserve to be ugly!"
The venom in his young voice should have stung, but all I could hear was an echo of the past.
I remembered when Stephen was three, burning with fever. I had stayed up for two nights straight, neither eating nor sleeping, just to take care of him.