Thought It Was 'The End', Only to Return to a Changed Genre - Chapter 219
Epilogue II:
Love, Pushed Aside to Prioritize Wealth
Before anyone knew it, the breeze had grown cool.
As Lloyd opened the window for ventilation, he absentmindedly glanced at the sky.
The bright blue sky was dazzlingly clear and high.
Itâs a perfect day for washing blankets.
He muttered without realizing it and chuckled to himself.
It had been nearly a year since he last washed any blankets, yet on a breezy day like this, that familiar thought still crossed his mind.
Ever since entering the Blanchard estate as a servant, Lloyd hadnât done any housework himself. His primary duties were to dress neatly in elegant clothes, feign proper manners, and serve others.
Occasionally, heâd take on investigative tasks for Lucian, and even more rarely, follow Shaneâs orders. Most of the time, however, he stayed by Adelineâs side.
Adeline tried not to give Lloyd any menial tasks.
She had been that way from the day she brought him in.
âThen whatâs the point of me being here?â
The pretense was that she had taken him in as an attendant.
Lloyd had been a typical street urchin.
He didnât know who his parents were or even how he had come to live on the streets.
By some twist of luck, or perhaps misfortune, he hadnât died at birth. Instead, someone had picked him up and raised him.
There were many children in similar circumstances. Some, like Lloyd, didnât know where they came from. Most had been abandoned by their parents, or their parents had died, leaving them alone.
âI miss my mom.â
âWhatâs a mom?â
âA mom is⌠a mom. How do I explain it?â
âYou can talk, canât you? If you know, why canât you explain it?â
âWell, sheâs⌠just warm and smells like something delicious.â
âThe bakerâs warm and smells delicious, too.â
âBut thatâs a manâŚâ
Lloyd had wandered with other children in similar situations until he caught Lucianâs eye.
There hadnât been any special incident. At the time, Lucian was simply starting a project to recruit urchins and train them into useful individuals.
Lloyd was soon put to work.
There were plenty of tasks that only children could perform. People naturally let their guard down around children and the elderly.
He didnât feel disillusioned by it, but one day, as a child might, Lloyd made a mistake. He failed to apologize for it, which led to him being kicked out.
Even then, he knew it wouldnât last long. Lucian had invested in him, and there was no way heâd abandon that investment entirely.
Thatâs when Lloyd met Adeline.
Whatever her reasons for extending a hand to him, Adeline had declared she would raise him as a servant.
âThen she should give me something to do as a servant, not take care of me like a stray dog.â
Lloyd needed a purpose by Adelineâs side. Without one, he felt he had no reason to exist. But Adeline often seemed to forget she had taken him in as a servant.
Lloyd didnât forget. To him, it was the new sense of pride that Adeline had given him.
When they lived alone together, they had to do all the household chores themselves.
Five years was enough time to turn that into a habit.
âI wasnât good with my hands, but housework wasnât too bad.â
He did think that she oddly looked too familiar with such tasks, and as it turned out, it was because of memories from a previous life.
A previous lifeâŚ
Who would have thought such a thing was possible?
Even Shane, who seemed to have no limits when it came to Adeline, couldnât have imagined that secret.
And it wasnât just that. She said they were characters in a novel.
Adeline knew everything about their lives, their emotions, and their endings.
Because of that, much had changed.
At least for Lloyd, the life Adeline had given him was a stroke of luck.
Without her, he would likely have been living in a cold, damp underground space, surviving by taking other peopleâs lives.
He would have died without ever knowing the slow, sunny happiness he now enjoyedâwithout even realizing he had been standing in a sticky pool of blood.
Unlike Shane, Genevieve, or the family members who had abandoned Adeline, every moment was a blessing for Lloyd.
The thought that he might have taken Adelineâs life with his own hands made his spine shiver and his stomach churn. He would have taken his own life first before committing such an atrocity. The mere idea of it was horrifying.
Adeline had said she had died at least hundreds of times in her dreams.
Neither Lloyd, Shane, nor anyone else who knew the secret could ignore that fact. Not a single one of them dismissed it lightly.
Adeline had a tendency to talk casually about the most difficult and painful things.
The more indifferent she sounded, the longer and harder it had weighed on her.
For a very long time.
And by a great deal.
Lloyd knew that all too well.
