Chapter 62: Chapter 62

**Trigger Warning: This chapter contains brushes on the theme of sexual abuse, which may be upsetting for some readers.**

DAHLIA:

It was already dusk when Lady Livia and I had a chance to speak.

“Go ahead and ask it,” she said.

True, I wanted to know her relationship with my husband. I think the term ‘friends’ do not quite fit them well. However, looking back at the relationship that Kaist and I had and how we almost married each other even though we were just friends made me feel that maybe such a relationship could exist for Tristan too.

“Lady Livia… Why are you staying here and not in your father’s house?”

Lady Livia’s face once again drew a surprised expression at my sudden question, but it went to being expressionless in a few seconds.

She sighed heavily before she spoke. “To ask what others shunned to ask… you really are something, Countess Abell…

“Father - Count Jeteris - isn’t really my biological dad. He registered my birth and gave me his last name, but he is more like my owner than my father,” she continued after a few moments of silence.

My heart sank when I heard her words. “What do you mean?”

“According to him, I was a ‘collateral’ based on an unfulfilled agreement, so my parents gave me to him. In simpler terms, I am his slave, but in public, he makes me call him ‘father’.”

“A slave?... Is that how he treats you?”

“What you saw in the banquet was more or less how he treats me… Sometimes, he’s even worse.”

“Does Tristan know about this?”

“I told him my father and I had a stormy relationship. He brought it up to my father once in a separate occasion. Because of that, my father became slightly conscious of his reputation, so he treats me a little better nowadays… except when he isn’t in the mood…”

“Then, why don’t you run away from him?”

“I did. I ran away here with nana when I was younger… I often stayed here, and I begged and pleaded him to just let me go. I said I didn’t want to come back, so he made sure that nana became poor enough to sell herself for slavery… I had no choice but to come whenever he needs me then...”

I looked at how heavy Lady Livia’s breathing had become. It felt like her words have an even deeper meaning…

I wanted to ask her further, but I think I shouldn’t just yet… I didn’t want her to feel more uncomfortable than she already was… I deliberately changed the subject.

“If you have no place to go, and you don’t want to appear in front of your father, why don’t you work at our villa?”

“Work? Do you really think I could work at the villa?”

“Yes… If you work there, you’ll have an excuse to avoid your father.”

Lady Livia smiled ruefully. “Count Abell has already offered to employ me. He said he’ll even help me if I wanted to continue studying, but I refused.”

“Well, why don’t you reconsider his offer? I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.”

She looked back sternly at me. “You… Don’t you even feel even the slightest inconvenience around me?”

“I actually do… You make me feel inconvenient, but what I feel has got nothing to do with what you need to do…”

I turned around and looked at the clear water underneath the bridge as I continued. “Like you, I know how it feels like to be in a place where I was trapped… Even if we do feel inconvenient around each other, just endure it… Besides, Tristan did say that you are friends. I’m sure he’ll help you out as much as he can if he knew your circumstances.”

“Yeah right,” Lady Livia snorted.

An awkward silent fell between us again. I looked towards her and down at the ground. It was windy, so her skirts would sometimes billow against the wind. At that moment, I was able to see a familiar dark blue colored thing on her feet.

“Lady Livia, please consider my husband’s request. You can move into the villa with us if you want to. Maredem can move there too. Count Jeteris won’t be able to lay her hands on you if you are there.”

“Countess Abell… Why are you doing this? Why are you acting like this?... If you only know who I am or what I am trying to do, I don’t think you’d want me to be near you at all!”

“Lady Livia, intentions do not matter unless you act on them. If you had bad intentions, you would have already acted on them now, won’t you,” I said back. “Anyway, I must get back now. My husband might come home soon. I won’t mention meeting you here myself, but you can tell him about it if you want to.”

How can I not think that she meant no harm when the shoes I gave her at the party were still on her feet?

******************************

SAMALAH:

That entire exchange by Livia and that Dahlia by the bridge - I heard all of that, and it made me feel repulsed.

Why did she seek Livia like this? Didn’t she see her on Tristan’s banquet on that day, just as Livia had told me? Didn’t she hear how Livia deliberately injured her with her words? If so, why was she still on friendly terms with her?

As soon as she walked away and I saw Livia still brooding over by the bridge, I revealed myself in the form of a mist that only Livia could see.

“Samalah, what are you doing here? Were you just spying on me?”

“It can’t be helped,” I said, a bit displeased. “I overheard it because you were talking too loud.”

“I-I didn’t think that was loud enough…”

I smoothened the top of Livia’s hair a bit. She looked so cute when she’s a bit frightened like this.

“You got it all wrong. That girl – I don’t like her,” Livia said nervously.

“Do you not really?... And here I thought you were beginning to like that b*tch. Your eyes actually seemed to twinkle when you look at her… Are you sure you haven’t fallen for that woman like your brother did?”

“My brother hadn’t fallen for her at all! In fact that was what he had asked me for help last time. It seemed like your potion did not work.”

“Did it not? Well, it served him right… He was the first to lie to me, so I just played a little joke on him and gave him a placebo.”

“Just as he thought, so you really played a trick on him? Do you know how inconvenient that was for him,” Tristan’s little sister said, pouting a bit.

“Why would that inconvenience him? Don’t tell me he really did fall for that girl? The girl whose father helped kill your whole family,” I said in an icy tone.

Livia did not speak.

Good… Now she remembered it again…

“Livia, no matter how kind that girl is, the fact remains that she’s part of those who killed your whole tribe and kidnapped your mother… She’s one of the reasons why you had fallen into that abusive count’s hands, and if you want me to keep that secret to your brother and to everyone else, then you must remain faithful to our cause…”

That’s right… Livia would never reveal to anyone the extent on how she had been abused by the man she called father, the person she hated the most but could not escape from…

When Tristan asked for my help to find news about the child her mother was bearing at the time of her kidnapping, I never thought it would lead me to a young girl whom her adoptive father had starved and had damaged beyond repair.

She was a broken angel. The depths of her wounds could not be found physically but rather internally.

In order to save the only one who had showed her mercy, she used her body to save her, and in the process, it broke her soul and her heart…

In a way, we are very, very similar…

“Livia, you and I are the only ones who can understand the extent of damage incurred by people like us,” I whispered to her. “You cannot expect a lady who had grown up with so much love and affection to understand our plight, wouldn’t you?... Besides, what do you think she’ll think of you once she begins to know how the count has really treated you?... She’ll simply think that you were a bad woman… A bad child. Would you be able to handle the shame and disgust in her eyes if that happens,” I continued to say.

The shocked look on Livia’s eyes was enough… I’m sure she’ll stop liking that girl and focus on her task again this time.

“Now then, go ahead and accept Tristan’s proposal. Make that girl’s life a living in hell in that mansion. Make her regret she had become your brother’s wife, and when the right time comes, make sure you break her spirits the same way ours had been broken when his father decided to participate in our families’ downfalls.”

Livia nodded her pretty head. My little revenge doll was a good girl after all…