Learning the Ways of the Night from the Wolf - Chapter 45 - Change

“You know it too, Sis. That our brother wasn’t really such a bad person.”

Sophianne continued, trembling. Her bloodshot eyes were so dilated they looked almost like a beast’s. The girl in front of her seemed barely aware of what she was even saying.

“He was just… a bit rough with his jokes, you know that. So, Sister—”

“Sophianne, wait — ngh.”

The grip on her hand tightened further, and a pained sound slipped from Tina’s lips. Sophianne’s sharp nails were digging into her captured hand.

“Danian was the only blood sibling I had.”

When Sophianne said that, Tina caught a flicker of longing and grief passing through those wavering eyes.

“Sophianne….”

She knew this look well. When her own mother had left the estate, leaving only her behind — the reflection in the mirror had worn the very same expression.

“For my sake, at least. Please, just be honest with me.”

Sophianne pried her trembling lips apart with visible effort.

“What did you do to my brother?”

The gaze that finally met Tina’s burned with unmistakable conviction.

“……”

The pieces clicked into place at once, and Tina arrived at a single realization.

‘Mother didn’t show the letter to the officers.’

The letter from Marquess Gillion, the one ordering her disposal, promised a commensurate reward upon success, and had apparently never reached the investigators. If they had seen it, the one interrogating her right now would have been the officers, not Sophianne.

The reason the letter had been concealed required no great deliberation to guess.

‘She wants to bury it.’

Tina silently repeated what she’d just understood. The Countess must have deemed it a disgrace for the world to know what Danian had set out to do just before his disappearance.

But concealing the truth to prevent dishonor and suspecting her were two entirely separate matters, which was why Sophianne had ultimately come seeking answers.

“Sister, Mother… Mother believes you deliberately led him into a wolf den.”

By now, the tremor had left Sophianne’s voice, replaced by something that sounded like conviction.

“I know. I know how hard it must be to believe. But still, if there’s anything you know—”

“……”

Tina could see a single tear trailing down one of her half-sister’s eyes. That long, thin line of it told her everything about the turmoil Sophianne was feeling.

“Please, just tell me.”

“Sophianne, I—”

“Sister, we’re family.”

When Sophianne spoke those words desperately, too overwhelmed even to wipe the tears streaming down her face, Tina was surprised to find herself completely, utterly dry inside.

‘Family?’

Sophianne suspected her. The Countess was already certain. The “family” Sophianne spoke of clearly did not include her. If it had. If she’d truly been considered family, they wouldn’t have dreamed of harboring such an absurd suspicion, much less confronting her with it to her face.

Could something like this really be called family?

As the thought deepened, Tina felt her breathing grow shorter and shorter.

If even Sophianne, the person she’d considered closest to her, didn’t think of her as family, then no one in this house did. And if no one in this house saw her as family, then she had become utterly dispensable.