There is no happy ending

CONTINUED

The situation was quickly sorted out. Sir Nicholas returned to his seat, and the Marquis summoned his physician through his butler.

The consultation was swift. The Marquise and Jade, Bianca’s maid, were at his side. Their faces were colored with worry.

‘It’s getting worse…….’

Bianca had never cared about the atmosphere in her life. But now, she thought, she didn’t like the way everyone else was so on edge.

She didn’t want ‘this’ to ruin the mood.

Bianca wasn’t angry. Bianca wasn’t sad, and she wasn’t hurt.

She was angry, she was sad, she was hurt, but it was all in the past. It will be in the past.

I’m still feeling disgusted, but it will pass. So everyone else shouldn’t mind either.

But why does the Marquise look so downcast, and why does Jade look like she’s about to cry, just like she did when she faced Eugene’s death?

Bianca chewed on the soft flesh in her mouth, then laughed softly, like a joke. It was a warm joke as if she wanted everyone else to laugh too.

‘The scar is ugly, isn’t it?’

‘Ugly is an absurd word.’

‘It’s not a pretty sight.’

‘Neither does he.’

Fortunately, the Moening family doctor was quick on the uptake, and he realized that Bianca didn’t like the current mood.

A laugh with just the right amount of business in it thinned the air. The doctor’s eyes clouded for a moment, but he didn’t let it show. As he meticulously applied the medicine to Bianca’s hand, he added, ‘Thank goodness.

‘I’m glad to see that it’s not just the back of your hand that’s injured.’

For a moment, Bianca’s jaw dropped. Was she really lucky that Bliss had ended up like that?

Bianca wasn’t sure.

‘And the chest?’

‘It will remain ……, but it’s similar to a palm print, so it won’t be immediately recognizable.’

‘Is there any way to minimize it? Socialites have surprisingly good eyes.’

‘I can minimize the scar with sutures, but I’d have to use asarum essential oil for the procedure, and you’re not keen on that, are you?’

I do. Bianca nodded.

Asarum is a poisonous grass and has been used to make narcotic substances. So, no.

Bianca was strict about alcohol and drugs. She was strict about alcohol and drugs because they were the best things for others to pick on, and once they were picked on, they were the things that stayed with you the longest.

The Marquess of Moening’s physician was a former member of the Royal Household, but Bianca was taking precautions.

If you didn’t know when someone was going to change their attitude, it was better not to give them any leeway in the first place.

‘I’d rather be left with a …… scar.’

‘I’ve told you before, young lady. If you use it well, it won’t do you any harm. If you get into real trouble, you’ll just have to…….’

‘You don’t know how to catch a pod. If anyone knows.’

By his silence, the doctor sympathized. Bianca’s treatment ended with a thorough application of medication and a bandage.

She was told to keep her hands out of water and not to move them much for a while, and the doctor left. Bianca lost six years and gained a new palm.

After the doctor left Bianca’s room, the Marquise , a man of great distinction, sat down on Bianca’s bed.

His gaze was fixed on the bandages wrapped around Bianca’s hands.

She had never had a small cut on her hand; she was allowed to grow up that way, and indeed she did, but to come in with a disfiguring wound!

There’s no way he’s going to make it through …… alive. The Marquise paused for a moment.

‘What happened with the Duke of Winston?’

‘Nothing.’

‘Even ……if you say so!’

This was the part Bianca had already said she didn’t want to talk about.

Bianca looked at the Marquise with eyes that were far too cold to be those of a parent.

‘I’ve already told you that I don’t want to talk about that. Father.’

‘……was it negligence on the part of the Duke?’

‘Yes.’

‘And that you wish to break off the engagement?’

‘I spoke of breaking it off first; for I am not of a temper so generous as to put up with negligence.’

There were words of concern, of firmly drawn lines, and finally, the Marquise raised his hand once more. No parent triumphs over a child.

The Marquis could not break Bianca’s stubbornness, nor her pride.

‘If that’s what you want,’ he said.

‘Don’t worry about that, …… I’ll be looking for my next fiancé, too.’

‘Yes, Bibi.’

‘I love and respect you always, Dad.’

The words flowed from Bianca’s mouth in a way that seemed to soothe the Marquise, even though it was she who was hurt.

The Marquise nodded slowly. Now that Bianca has informed the Marquise of her intention to broke up with him, and has made it clear that it is her will, the lawyer will go without her having to do anything.

So what Bianca should do is obvious.

‘Here’s the contract: …….’

Bianca wrapped her hand around the Marquise’, who was still looking at her with concern. The Marquise’s thick fingertips twitched.

Bianca deliberately tugged at the corners of her mouth, trying to look as benevolent as possible.

‘A contract?’

‘Yes, a prenuptial agreement.’

The wealthy, the rising power, and the nobility usually drew up a prenuptial agreement before marriage.

It was often omitted during engagements, but Bianca and Bliss had drawn up a prenuptial agreement with marriage in mind, and it included a section on infidelity.

‘I’ll find the contract later today and give it to you.’

‘I haven’t heard anything about the …… contract.’

‘I didn’t feel the need to mention it because it was written when we got engaged, but here we are.’

‘…….’

‘I trust only my father.’

The Marquise nodded slowly. After a long silence, the Marquise added briefly.

‘……Don’t send a lawyer to Winston Street.’

Bianca only smiled like a daughter who still loved her father. The Marquise left the room, his face still sunken.

When the Marquis left the room, Bianca sighed.

The lack of sleep, the pain in her hand, the situation not going her way, and those damned Odette and Bliss that kept trying to come to mind.

It all made Bianca’s head hurt.

Bianca leaned back into the cushion propping up my back.

‘Nothing’s rolling right…….’

As she said that, I heard a sobbing sound.

Oh, Bianca had forgotten something. Jade was still in her room. Jade’s big, cow-like eyes were filled with watery tears.

Annoyed, Bianca asked.

‘What are you crying about?’

Jade did. Even at Eugene’s funeral, where no one else had cried, she had been the only one. She acted like she deserved it.

She still does.

Bianca thought…… that Jade was being a prude. A mere servant.

‘Jade. Stop acting like you’re something. It makes me feel bad even if you don’t.’

Jade stammered. That bluntness, that teary-eyed sentimentality. Moening doesn’t need that, and yet here he is, in front of Bianca, the most Moening of them all.

Jade had suffered from it for a while at Eugene’s funeral, and I guess that wasn’t enough to break the habit.

Jade asked.

‘Why are you acting like it’s nothing?’

My voice sounded like I was crying.

‘I’m short with words.’

‘Vivi, I…… I don’t understand why you’re trying to be so strong right now.’

‘Jade. This is the second time I’ve told you that you’re short with words.’

‘Who cares about being short with me right now, you’re hurt!’

Jade shouted, more of a scream than anger, as if in a seizure. Sobs ended her words.

But Jade’s sobs were none of Bianca’s business. Just as Jade’s voice grew louder, so did Bianca’s.

‘You’re yelling at me now? How dare you?’

‘Well, that’s not what matters now, why…… are you being the dullest while pretending to be the smartest.’

‘There’s a line you shouldn’t cross, Jade.’

‘I, I don’t…….’

The line. The line that divides what a servant can and cannot do. Something Bianca had and Jade didn’t.

At Bianca’s mention of her, Jade’s voice died away as quickly as it had risen. Jade’s eyes fluttered uneasily.

‘……why do you say that, you may not know the Marquise, but I, I do.’

You don’t have to care…….

She could do as Bianca said. But it’s not in Jade’s control. She has no choice.

Jade is only six years older than Bianca. Jade has watched Bianca grow up from the moment she was born. Jade’s upbringing had set her up for this.

‘This is …… crazy.’

‘I, I’ve seen you since you were born, yeah, huh, I know how you feel just by looking at your face.’

‘…….’

‘I know you, I know you cried.’

‘…….’

‘I, ……I’m your big sister, and I, uh, care about you.’

Finally, Jade burst into tears. Bianca is not good at comforting people. Nor did she want to comfort anyone.

Bianca looked at Jade’s trembling lips with cold eyes.

Bianca couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable that Bliss had put her in the position of being pitied, and so the wound she’d made in the carriage, the one that had stabbed her repeatedly, festered. Bianca’s pride sped it up.

Once the corrupted me begins to emerge from the wound, nothing can be undone.