Chapter 108
‘If the prince’s bill passes, will this boy have a chance to achieve his dream?’
She briefly thought about the optimistic prospects of the bill, but she held back the urge to tell him about it. In fact, it was only a few days before the prince announced the new law officially, which would open the way for commoners to get key positions in the government.
‘Can his bill make a difference and bring about changes in the Benyahan Empire? Will there be a day when I can give him the right advice?’ she thought to herself.
“Wow, the rain stopped!” Benfork shouted, looking up at the sky. The sunlight spreading through the dark clouds were already all over the place.
She left the house after saying goodbye to the boy.
Her cork-coated dark brown leather shoes carefully tread on the wet soil. The mud stained the edge of her shoes, but it wasn’t visible due to the dark leather color of the shoes. She walked down the street with her hem in her hands to keep the muddy water from fouling her dress.
Today her shop was closed because it was a regular off day, but she was heading to the shop to prepare flower decorations for a customer’s wedding ceremony tomorrow. Her floral decorations became popular among brides, so there were lots of orders coming in, as her work was promoted through word of mouth.
She felt good that her flower decorations were popular, but she didn’t feel happy about the fact that she had to give up her off day to do extra work. Nevertheless, her great mood like the fine weather outside was not unrelated to what happened between her and Lard yesterday.
The flower shop door was wide open when she saw it at a distance.
It looked like Sir Dowain had already arrived at the flower shop before her. Most likely he would be cleaning the shop by now. She felt sorry for being late because of the rain, so she quickly stepped in. She washed her feet gently in a pool of water, so that the muddy shoes should not not soil the shop.
“Oh, I’m late, right?”
She smiled a little in embarrassment and greeted Pascal quickly, but noticed that his expression was not as bright as usual.
“Wendy, a guest is waiting for you. She insists on buying flowers from you… ” He said silently, as if he was at his wit’s end.
She soon cast a glance at somebody behind him. Sticking her head over his shoulder, Wendy discovered a woman hidden behind his tall height.
Her green eyes popped up when she discovered the woman. Her peach-colored face turned white at once. She had thin bloodshot eyes. There stood a woman who she had no reason to see, or she should never see.
“… What the heck? I wonder if i’m seeing something wrong now,” Francis spat out, frowning a lot. There was intense hatred in her frowning eyes when she discovered the shop owner was Olivia.
Wendy confronted Francis’ red eyes, revealing her indescribable confusion. Her eyes, mixed with all sorts of emotions, were trembling hard. Francis was obviously as shocked as Wendy.
However, Francis’ shock made Wendy stay calm. The agitation of the other party was the basis for one’s overcoming the crisis. Wendy stared at Francis with slightly subdued eyes. Francis looked more mature and slender than before, somewhat different from the woman Wendy used to know.
“Why are you still in the capital? Why?”
The moment Francis shouted at her, however, Wendy quickly realized that she had not changed at all.
“Why… … ! ” Francis shouted again with a shrill voice. Wendy stood without any reply, with her eyes fixed on Francis’ wrist. She could see the lace ornaments on her wrists trembling when she clenched her fists firmly.
Wendy was well aware that what made her tremble hard was her uncontrollable anger. As far as she knew, Francis always found herself consumed by anger that she couldn’t control.
It was always Francis who got upset first when she engaged with Wendy. But Wendy, who was always the subject of her anger, never showed generosity in dealing with her. She responded to Francis’s anger with sharp criticism as well as enmity. She didn’t know when she started to treat Francis like that.
“I’m sorry but… Would you please leave us alone for a moment? ”
Wendy asked Sir Dowain to get out instead of replying to Francis. Pascal nodded with an awkward look, presuming that the two had something to talk about. When he closed the door of the shop, the bell jingled.
“… Why did you come here?”
“What the heck are you staying here for? If you want to disappear, go anywhere else, not in this capital! Why are you hanging around here? ”
“It’s none of your business! Don’t be way out of your line, okay?”
“So, you opened a shop here to earn Dylan’s sympathy? Are you going to tempt him by trying to be pathetic to him like this?”
In the end, Wendy lost her composure at her provocative remarks. Her subdued eyes began to glow sharply. Francis should not have mentioned Dylan Lennox before Wendy.
“How dare you say that to me? ” Wendy yelled, raging with anger. “You ruined my relationship with him by playing a dirty trick on me. How could you…”
Wendy stared at Francis with a disgusted expression.
“Did you say I ruined your relationship with Dylan?” Francis asked, mocking her as if she had never heard any more absurd things than this. Francis continued, “If your relationship with Dylan was supposed to have ended at that point, you should rather think it fortunate that it ended earlier than later. I understand you just believed what you saw, but never thought of believing what he said. It’s you who disappeared even without giving any chance to clarify his position, right?”
Francis’s outrageous sarcasm distracted and angered her. She didn’t know how to calm her trembling shoulders because of her surging anger.
“I think that’s the farthest your relationship with him could go. Don’t blame me for your ruined relationship. You never changed! You are trying to justify yourself in a ridiculous manner, and your damn conclusion mixed with sophistry also never changed. Did you feel comfortable after doing that? So, did you get Dylan’s sympathy by running a shop here? Could you earn his love that you wanted so much?” Francis shouted.
Wendy could no longer tolerate her blatant behavior.
Wendy yelled, “Don’t shoot off your mouth! I didn’t act imprudently as you thought. As you know, I loved him before you did. I had known him for a long time even before you came to know him… Don’t you know it was you who took him away from me? Even though I was born as an illegitimate child, you and I still had the same last name Hazlet! But Francis, you brutally shattered my love, though you’re my sister. How could I have put up with that? Are you going to say you didn’t know that you asked your father numerous times to arrange my marriage?”
She continued, “… You and I are sisters? Have you ever shown me you are my sister by blood? Or have you ever treated me as your sister? Never! You have always despised me. It wasn’t just you. Everyone at the Hazlet family despised me! In such an atmosphere, how could I know you secretly begged your father to arrange my marriage? Even if I had known it, nothing would have changed. I wasn’t falsely dreaming of my future with him! ”
“Shut up! Don’t you know that your misery began when you dreamt of a future with Dylan without knowing your place? Do you know how terrible life I’ve lived until now? The day your biological mother died, you should have died, too. If you had died, neither Dylan nor I would have suffered this kind of agony and distress. I hate you! ”
Francis spat out cruel words, as if they would cut to pieces animals at the slaughterhouse.
Looking at Francis’ red face, she tried to calm down her throbbing heat. Francis reminded her of the indelible scars of her past, which she had never mentioned before.
‘How dare you mention my mother? How dare you…!’
Wendy felt the strong urge to break Francis’s heart as much as she could, like she had done. Her indignant facial muscles moved freely.
“So, the only reason you found me and visited here was to question my past relationship with Dylan? How childish you are to talk about it when you and I make such a dramatic reunion!
Do you still think you can revive any romantic relationship with Dylan? Just look at your terrible figure! I’m so sick and tired of you. I can guess he feels the same way, too. You aren’t begging for his love, right?”
Slap!
Francis, who was shaking with anger, slapped her in the face.