Chapter 288
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
So the ‘better thing’ my mother claimed to gain through her flexibility was a connection to the royal family. Apparently, Rupert had promised, in return, to recommend me for membership in the Crown Prince’s tennis club. I never wanted anything like that.
“You sold my first love for something like that, without even asking me?”
“It was only unrequited love. Saving someone’s life doesn’t automatically make you lovers. That sort of thing only happens in novels.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand. Dana and I…”
“Killian, Miss Loveridge was already in a relationship with Rupert.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“They were exchanging letters in secret, or so I hear. You should let go of this now.”
Exchanging letters in secret? With another man?
A sudden sense of dread hit me. I asked my mother to search the place where I had hidden the letters you’d written to me. When nothing was found, that dread solidified into a terrible reality.
“Did you ever let Rupert into my room?”
“He visited a few times while you were recovering.”
“And then, at some point, he stopped coming, I guess.”
“……”
“And that’s when he asked you to let him take credit for saving Dana.”
“So what if he did?”
“He stole the letters I received from Dana out of my room. He’s using them to pretend he’s her lover, he’s deceiving her.”
“……”
“Don’t you get it? I’m the one who exchanged letters with Dana. I’m the one she loves.”
At that point, I truly believed my mother would realize how serious this was, far more serious than she’d assumed. I expected her to change her mind.
“Killian, there’s nothing to be done now.”
As always, she shattered my expectations.
She stopped me when I tried to get up and go to you immediately to tell you the truth.
“It’s already too late. Rupert has proposed to Miss Loveridge, and everyone knows about it.”
“It’s not too late! Dana accepted because she was deceived. That makes the proposal invalid…”
“Let her be deceived.”
Only then did I understand. My mother had calculated this from the start. Handing Rupert the credit for saving you was never about convenience. It was about separating you from me.
“You can find a better woman.”
Of course. She had never liked you to begin with. Seeing me risk my life for you must have terrified her. And when Rupert offered to solve that problem for her, she must have been grateful.
From that moment on, my mother was no different from Rupert. She was his accomplice.
No, that’s not quite right. From the very beginning, she had never been on my side at all. No matter how many times I told her I hated Rupert, she forced us together and insisted we ‘get along’, dressing it up as friendship.
She harshly judged the friends I chose for myself, cutting them off at her own discretion, yet never applied the same standards to the friend she assigned me. Even when he crossed the line, she wouldn’t let me cut him off. She even defended him.
“Rupert’s just young.”
Wasn’t I young too?
“Just close your eyes and give in this once. You’ll get something much bigger in return later.”
One concession became two. Two became every time. And in the end, even my beloved was taken from me.
I lost everything, yet my mother insisted it was all for my sake.
Destroying me for my own good, how is that love? How could any parent do that?
“You’re not my mother anymore!”
She even ordered the servants not to help me leave my room. With my bones still unhealed, unable to walk, I was effectively imprisoned.
I needed to run to you immediately and set everything right, but my body wouldn’t obey me. It drove me mad. And I couldn’t give up. Not when I still had proof that could fix everything at once.
‘This is all I need to show her.’
Your forget-me-not necklace.
Rupert hadn’t stolen it because he didn’t understand its meaning.
But you would.
Even if you’d forgotten that I was the one who saved you, you couldn’t have forgotten giving that necklace to the man you loved.
That forget-me-not necklace was my last hope.
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