Chapter 56
She quickly retraced her steps down the corridor she came from. Walking swiftly through the hallways searching for an exit, she found the estate was as vast as a palace. In her frantic search, a familiar maid came into view.
“Hello, we’ve met before, right? Back then, for the bedding.”
Aniella approached her with a friendly face.
“The young lady of the Mullier house?”
The maid, recognizing her, opened her eyes wide in surprise, then immediately furrowed her brow and scolded her loudly.
“You never get tired of coming, do you? No matter how many times you come, I can only give you the same answer. A person named Aniella Mullier is not here.”
She had recognized her as a Mullier, but it seemed she had mistaken her for another sister. Taken aback by the maid’s exasperated reply, Aniella hesitated.
“What do you mean, ‘no matter how many times you come, it’s the same’? Have people from the Mullier house come to the estate? Looking for Aniella Mullier?”
The maid snorted, thinking Aniella was playing dumb. From her perspective, she had no way of knowing what Paiki had done with Aniella. When Claudie came looking, causing a scene and calling them kidnappers, it was only natural she felt wronged.
“The Duke. Where is Duke Paiki?”
“I can’t tell you that. Your younger sister not returning has nothing to do with us, so please leave now. It’s troublesome if you keep coming here like this!”
Another troublesome woman from the Mullier family who just won’t listen. The maid pushed Aniella on the back, muttering that people from the Mullier house were banned from entering even as guests, and she had no idea how this one had gotten in.
“Leave now.” “No. I can’t. I can’t leave until I ask the Duke the truth!”
Aniella struggled with the maid. As the commotion erupted, the butler, who had been searching for the missing Aniella, came running.
The maid insisted to the butler that she didn’t know how the daughter of Viscount Mullier had entered the estate and that she must have sneaked in. When she urged him to immediately expel the Viscount’s daughter, the butler silenced her with a stern look.
“I apologize on behalf of the maid. Please forgive her.”
The butler bowed his head to the fuming Aniella.
The maid, sensing the unusual tension, turned pale. Belatedly apologizing, she begged for forgiveness, admitting her rudeness.
Aniella gave the maid a sharp glance, then looked at the butler.
“I need to see the Duke. Right now.”
The butler guided her to Paiki’s study. Along the way, he apologized repeatedly for the maid’s rudeness, but her expression remained unyielding. Of course. The target of her anger wasn’t the maid, but Paiki.
“So, having you here means they come looking for you after all.”
Paiki, who had been working, greeted Aniella warmly. However, as she drew closer, he realized her expression was strange. She didn’t look like someone who had come because she wanted to see him.
“Why did you lie to me?”
Paiki’s eyes slowly rolled. He couldn’t guess which lie she had caught onto that had made her so angry.
“You told me my family didn’t care about my well-being at all! That they never came looking for me!”
Finally, Paiki understood why she had come to him in anger. It was profoundly disappointing.
“Fine. They did come looking a few times.”
Paiki reluctantly admitted. Aniella, agitated by his casual tone, breathed heavily in excitement.
She had been so sad, thinking her family truly didn’t care what happened to her. But to learn it was all his lie made her fury boil over.
“Where does the lie begin and end? The man I saw… was that really His Majesty?”
“Aniella.”
“I understand that you still feel guilty for not being able to save the kitten.”
Paiki, trying to calm the excited girl, stopped short.
“What are you talking about, guilt?”
“You said the kitten died because of the girl who petted it for being cute and the mother cat who left, but you hate your own helplessness for not being able to help, don’t you?”
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