Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 59
In a voice as gentle as if soothing a child, Guinevere clenched her fists, trembling, and bit her lip.
She wanted to tear Adam apart and throw a tantrum.
But it was impossible.
Adam was the head of the Lasphilla family, and she was now nothing in this place.
She had to return first, to a place where she could be acknowledged again… and wait for another opportunity.
Fortunately, there was still a reason for her to return.
Cecilia, that child would become a new bridge. As long as Adam doted on Lilith and Lilith wanted to make Cecilia a proud noble daughter.
“I will return to the Rosencrantz domain.”
“Do so, Sister.”
“Right now.”
“Yes.”
Adam did not even pretend to dissuade her.
“I will bill the Marquis of Rosencrantz for the effort of suppressing your unsightly rumors.”
“You… until the end…”
Guinevere couldn’t finish her sentence and bowed her head. There was nothing more to say.
Indeed, Adam had spared her for this reason. If she had not been the wife of the Marquis of Rosencrantz, she would have been executed long before being poisoned. Adam was a man of action.
“Ha, haha…”
She aimed to gain but ended up losing instead. Ulysses lost the inheritance rights of Lasphilla, and she lost one eye.
Even the engagement with Caroline was called off.
Although she wasn’t desperately eager to have Caroline as a daughter-in-law, the break of the engagement now seemed regrettable.
Compared to the lion cub-like Nigel Rosencrantz, Caroline Lasphilla seemed an easier target.
The day before, Adam had announced the annulment of Ulysses and Caroline’s engagement without consulting either of them. It was perhaps understandable since it was the child of a woman who had almost killed his own son.
“Understood.”
Ulysses was as calm as ever.
“Father, Father! Please think it over one more time, father!”
But not Caroline.
“Father, I can’t go on without Ulysses!”
“I had no other plan for my marriage!”
“If it’s not Ulysses, I’d rather die!”
Adam proceeded with the annulment of the two without even pretending to listen to Caroline’s desperate pleas.
‘Maybe if I play my cards right with Caroline…’
Guinevere held onto a sliver of hope, even as she bowed her head in misery. It wasn’t easy for her, as she was known for her impatience, to build trust from the bottom up through Cecilia.
Caroline had said she would die without Ulysses. If she could separately coax her now, maybe there was still a chance…
But at that moment.
A bird fell from the sky outside the window, too fast to see its shape.
THUD!
“What was that sound?”
Adam stood up and approached the window.
“It’s…”
It wasn’t a bird.
His child. His daughter.
Even Adam, who seldom lost his composure, was breathless at the sight.
Directly above the first-floor reception room was Caroline’s room. And the one who fell from there was…
“Cecilia?”
Lilith’s daughter.
***
One hour earlier, in the bedroom above the reception room on the second floor.
Caroline was in despair.
‘It’s my fault.’
She buried her face in her palms.
‘It’s because of me that Ulysses suffered.’
If only it hadn’t been for that sachet.
‘If only I hadn’t given him that sachet…!’
But the outcome was annulment.
“This is too much…”
With all her heart, Caroline hated Hannah for poisoning the sachet.
She hated Guinevere for ordering it.
She hated Mary for entrusting her sachet to Hannah, and she hated herself for trusting a child with her sachet.
And… she hated Cecilia.
‘If you hadn’t given me such advice in the first place, none of this would have happened!’
Really? But then, wouldn’t Nathan have ended up dead?
When her thoughts extended even to her younger brother, she collapsed under the weight of self-loathing.
“I must be crazy…”
Was she saying it would be okay for her brother to die as long as she could maintain her engagement? Was that all she amounted to?
“Caroline, you’re the eldest…”
“Yes, I am…”
Her father said so.
The eldest must always be able to embrace everyone. Always lead by example, showing only good and righteous behavior.
“I shouldn’t hate Cecilia…”
Cecilia was also her sister.
Though she was the daughter of a vulgar woman… No, no, that’s not right either. Such thoughts were wrong.
Check yourself, Caroline.
Think only good thoughts.
Don’t hate anyone, don’t blame anyone.
Just focus on what needs to be done now.
‘I don’t want to break off the engagement.’
Yes. Think of a way to avoid the breakup.
‘Should I try to persuade Father again?’
Caroline weakly shook her head.
‘It’s pointless. Father will push through with his decisions once made…’
Another way.
Was there a more intense and shocking method?
That’s when it happened.
A gentle breeze blew.
Her gaze naturally turned outside.
As soon as she saw the open sky beyond the balcony, a terrible idea flashed through her mind.
