The atmosphere in the room turned cold. Luca didn’t care. He clung to my waist and wailed like the world was ending.

“Ahem,” Ruediger coughed lightly as if he were struggling to collect his thoughts. “Miss, I believe you told me you were Luca’s aunt?”

Sure enough, he’d now clearly gotten the message that I was Luca’s mother.

“That’s because I am,” I said under my breath with frustration.

“Mom! Mom!”

At the mention of the word aunt, Luca set to chirping the word mom over and over like a little baby bird. At this rate, denying that I was his mother would just make me look like a callous parent trying to abandon her child. Great, my reward for trying not to be a heartless aunt was to become a heartless mother.

Luca, how could you do this to me?! Haven’t you ever heard of biting the hand that feeds you? I looked down at him with a futile sense of resentment. Just then, our eyes met as he stole a glance at my face. His blue eyes burned with stubborn attachment. Why in the world? Could he possibly be trying to bring me to Winterwald with him by insisting I was his mother?

Ha! Surely not. He was just making a big fuss because he was still in shock about his surprise uncle. We just needed to explain everything a bit better and he’d understand. We weren’t even that close. It was ridiculous to think he’d go so far as insisting I was his mother to take me to Winterwald with him.

Utterly ridiculous. Things didn’t go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Ruediger was still staring at us with a sour look.

“I’m not entirely sure what’s just happened, but if you really are a mother to him—erm, even if you’re just his aunt—it wouldn’t be right to take him to Winterwald on his own. How could we separate a mother and child? Why don’t you accompany him?” he said.

What? No! Why would I enter center stage in the revenge play? I felt sorry for Luca, and I’d miss him, but I didn’t have the slightest thought of following him to Winterwald. I’d have a target on my back the moment I got there.

My sympathy and pity only extended to the borders of Emden Town. I shook my head and waved my hands desperately. “Oh no, I much prefer a pastoral setting.”

“You said you wanted to live in a castle like a princess,” Luca interrupted, suddenly capable of rational rebuttal when he was bawling uncontrollably only a moment ago. His sparkling blue eyes gleamed precociously.

I ignored his objection and urgently rattled off reasons I had to stay in Emden. “I’m satisfied with my humble life—”

“You said you wanted a diamond ring for every finger.”

“My tastes are plain. Rich food hurts my stomach—”

“You said your only wish in life was a bite of veal steak.”

I looked at him without a word. How did he have a retort to every excuse I could come up with? He sure did remember what Judith said surprisingly well. Judith herself couldn’t remember any of that.

Earlier I was on the fence about whether he was calling me mom on purpose, but now there was no doubt. It was intentional. You could see it from a mile away. If I wasn’t careful, I really would be on my way to Winterwald. I mustered a stern voice to convince him.

“Luca,” I said, “everyone wants to have it easy sometimes, but I’ve lived in Emden my whole life. Twenty-seven years. All my friends are here. I don’t want to move somewhere else.”

Shameless lies. Actually, I was planning on running off to the capital the moment Luca left, but no one else knew that.

“But you don’t have any friends, Aunt Judith— I mean, Mom,” Luca said.

Luca! How could you read me to filth like that? What in the world? Of course, he was right. Judith didn’t have any real friends. As I stared down at him in frustration, he stuck out his chin triumphantly and said,

“Besides, I’ve lived here ten whole years too. Everyone I know is here. If you’re staying, I’m staying.” After that crushing rebuttal, he immediately went back to whimpering, like flipping a switch. “You’re sending me away so you can get married, aren’t you? I’m too much of a burden, so you’re selling me off to some strange man that came out of nowhere. I know it! I’m not going! Never! I’m staying with you forever, Mommy.”

He was quite the actor. Such a handsome boy and so talented. If he had grown up in my world, he could’ve been a famous child actor in Hollywood and wowed audiences everywhere. Too bad this was the way I had to find out about that skill.

He seemed as desperate as I was. It was a clash of disparities. However, it turned out there was a third desperate person in the mix, and that was Ruediger. He had to get Luca to Winterwald no matter what.

The second Luca said he’d stay in Emden Town, Ruediger’s gaze shifted. His eyes met with Luca’s for a second. In that brief moment, they seemed to come to an unspoken agreement and I was excluded from the negotiations.

You can’t team up on me like that! I see you!

Ruediger cleared his throat and spoke. “Well. If you do plan to marry, wouldn’t the House of Winterwald’s help in matchmaking be preferable to looking for a partner in Emden on your own? You’re not in any rush to be married, by the look of things. And the child appears quite anxious. Why don’t you come along as well?” he said.

Luca’s face twisted at the mention of a matchmaker, then spread into a wide smile at the final suggestion. “Great! That’s perfect! Good for Mom, and good for me,” he said.

Except it’s not good for me! But there was no objective reason I could offer as to why not. It would just look like I was messing things up on purpose. I wouldn’t have any recourse if they mistook me for trying to get some money out of the deal.

Overwhelmed by the gloom of my gradually approaching death sentence, I pleaded with Luca in a teary-eyed voice. “What if they mistreat me? What then? I’ll be an intruder there. Just think about it. I’m the younger sister of the mother of their dead son’s child. Why would they take me in?”

“Because you’re my mother,” he said.

Oh my god. How long was he going to keep that up? At this point, it was a battle of wills. Who would bend first? But as anyone could see, it wasn’t a fair fight. They had the numbers and the moral high ground, and they were even being more practical. The only reason I couldn’t go to Winterwald was that I knew the future, and that wouldn’t pass as evidence.

My other opponent, Ruediger, spoke up in a serious voice, “Caring for one extra person wouldn’t even put a dent in Winterwald’s wealth.” And before I could reply, he calmly added, “If you prefer a quaint and pastoral setting, we can find you a place on our land. If you’d like to live in a castle like a princess, we can do that too. You may eat the richest of meats or a healthy regiment of vegetables. All of this can be provided at Winterwald.”

He had the utter confidence that his family’s wealth could remedy any of my objections. There was nothing else for me to say. Tears formed in my eyes as I succumbed to the pair’s unyielding arguments.

Well, off to Winterwald it is then, I sobbed inwardly.