Remember what I said about the dark secret that Sophie learned about the mistress? Well, fasten your seatbelts and listen to the Arch Mage findings because things are about to get more messy. Of course, that man caused a scene for the findings of the Arch Mage was very interesting.
"That mage is lying, Your Grace! You're lying!" he yelled at the Arch Mage while pointing at him. Suddenly, the Arch Mage raised his hand and moved it gracefully, and then that man clasped his heart. He was breathing aggressively and as if he was having a heart attack. It was magic, he was using his magic against him. The mistress and his children ran towards him and was assisting him. He looked pitiful and his complexion was even pale for he wasn't breathing anymore. The mistress and the children cried and asked for help but the maids and guards just stood there and weren't lending them a single help.
The Arch Mage stopped when the Grand Duke patted his shoulders, "My dear friend, don't go killing someone in my dining hall. That's not very proper of you." said someone who just cut off someone's hand in my bedroom.
The moment the Arch Mage put down his hand, that man regained his normal complexion and was breathing hard. He was now afraid of the Arch Mage and took a few steps back away from him.
"As I was saying, Your Grace, these children are not from Rosewood lineage. And also, that man who claimed to be the Grand Duchess's father is INFERTILE." the Arch Mage just dropped a bomb.
We all stood in silence. I was stunned to hear it, on the other hand, the Grand Duke looked like he had the idea of it. The most shocked one was Sophie's said-to-be father. He was in a state of shock and the mistress was now even scared. The children however were also surprised and didn't know how to react. Looks like they didn't know it too.
I for one, didn't know that. All I knew was these children of the mistress were not his. That was the only thing that was stated in Sophie's journal. Sophie investigated the mistress and turns out that the woman was indeed cheating on him. Sophie gathered all the evidence, but I don't know where she hid them. She planned this because she was aiming to cut off her connections with them for they were being leeches in her life. They were always asking for money and were threatening her.
If he's infertile, then who's Sophie's biological father?
"Well, now this is settled." the Grand Duke said as if he was ending a tea party.
"If I'm infertile, who's that wench father? DID YOUR MOTHER CHEATED ON ME TOO?!" the man yelled and pointed at me.
I shook my head and said, "Listen, I don't know anything, this is also a surprise!"
"YOU LIAR, YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW! I WILL KILL YOU!" he yelled.
The man didn't listen to me and he stood up. He pushed his mistress and children away who were assisting him and then for a moment, time went slow. I saw how he slowly grabbed the meat knife at his table and charged at me. He went up to the table and ran towards me, pointing the meat knife at me. Any second now, I was going to be stabbed with a meat knife. I closed my eyes and waited for it to happen. But to my surprise, I heard a loud thud and I felt someone hugged me tightly. I opened my eyes just to see the Grand Duke embracing me and was supposed to be protecting me from that man.
The Arch Mage raised his left hand and pressed it down with his right hand, I looked at that man and he was pressed against the table. The meat knife flew away from him and he struggled so hard, but the force was stronger. He tried to use his magic, but the Arch Mage suppressed it immediately. The mistress and the children tried to escape but they were immediately captured by the guards. All of them were tied in chains and were sent to the dungeon.
"You can let go of me now, Your Grace," I said to the Grand Duke. He cleared his throat and released me from his embrace. He took a step back away from me and said, "It is finally settled, Grand Duchess."
"What do you mean by that, Your Grace?" I asked because it was out of the blue for him to say that.
"I have the revenge you wished for. The ones who killed our child are connected to the ones what has been bullying you. I investigated it for months and traced the people who were behind all of this maltreatment."
"So you knew about the child?"
"Yes, I did. You said it the last time we had our last dinner before the Royal Ball and the accident."
"I don't remember." my brows furrowed and I tried to remember in her memories if that happened, but still no memory of it.
"I know, but still I'm doing this for you and our child," he said with a sad smile.
"So all this time you were gone, you were investigating the people behind this?"
"Yes, your said-to-be-father was one of the culprits. They were leeching off your magic crystal mine, every penny that was in that was stolen by them. They also conspired with the culprit behind the maids and the doctor." he explained and suddenly with a flick of his fingers a bunch of files appeared from his hands. He gave it to me and I glanced at it. It was pieces of evidence and a list of names that I was unfamiliar with.
"I don't understand, why are you doing this now?" I was even more confused than I was.
"Because I want to make it up to you- -" I immediately cut him off because I now realized what he was doing.
"And you're doing this now?" I slightly raised my voice because anger was slowly getting me.
"Yes, I know it's too late but I want to ask for forgiveness. For everything that I've done, you were right I was too neglectful of our marriage even if it was contractual." he looked at me with his golden eyes and I felt my anger slowly dissipate, but when he was about to grab my hands I immediately shove it away from him.
"Your Grace, it's too late. They've already done what they want, revenge is meaningless at this point. From the moment I've lost the child, you have lost me too." I said those words and left.
I mean, I am right. It's too late for him to ask for forgiveness because the real Sophie is gone. I am not the Sophie that he wanted to ask forgiveness for. She's gone, he's too late.
After the dinner fiasco, I immediately went to my room and took a rest. The events that happened took a lot of energy out of me. It was all a lot to take it in. That man wasn't Sophie's biological father, which means I need to know who Sophie's father is. I need to find Reagan because he's the only person who could answer all of this. I hope Sassanico already finds him. There's this CRAIGS too, these people are also after Sophie. They helped her in assassinating the Grand Duke, so I guess their goal is to kill him. The question is what is their connection with Sophie and who are they?
All these questions made me dozed off and I finally went to sleep. Or so I thought.
"Hey there, Grace!"
I woke up to find myself floating in mid-air in a white void. A familiar face was in front of me, and my eyes widened as I saw her.
"Sophie?"
"Close but no, I am not Sophie, even though I look like her." She folded her arms and smiled. She was wearing a long white dress and her hair was floating in the air like we were in space or something. I looked at myself in the reflection and saw that I was still in Sophie's face, meaning we looked alike in this white void.
"Then who are you? And where are we?" I turned to her as I waited for her answers.
"I am Sophie's last consciousness and this is inside your head." She pointed at my forehead.
"So, technically you're Sophie?"
"No, just a remnant of her consciousness."
"I don't understand, why are you here in my mind?"
"I am here because Sophie asked me to."
"She's still alive?" It was a lot to take in with all of these consciousness details. I was in doubt that this would be just a dream or some kind of illusion that my mind made. I hoped that Sophie was alive or in another world living her life well. She deserves better.
"No, I didn't say that. I said she left me here to help you," she said cheerfully. I was taken aback by how cheerful this variant of Sophie is. From Sophie's memories, she was a sad woman who rarely smiled. It was kind of refreshing to see Sophie's face smiling and quite cheerful.
"Help me of what?" I asked.
"Retrieving her memories! So that you can go on living as her." She slapped my shoulder and giggled. I narrowed my eyes at her and rubbed my shoulder.
"Why me? Out of all the souls in my world, why chose me?"
She shrugged her shoulders at me and replied; "I don't know, Sophie didn't tell me anything about that."
"Wow, you're so helpful," I said sarcastically.
"No problem! So, here is the last spell that scattered and it's like a video record from your world. It's her last will to you!"
"Video record, how did you know that?"
"I looked into your memories!"
"What? Don't look into my memories without my consent!"
"Alright, fine! Just watch this so that I don't have to explain to you, okay?"
With a wave of her hand, an image of Sophie flew in front of us. She was so thin and looked so depressed. Her eyes were reddish from crying and she looked like she hadn't been eating for days. What I'm more concerned about was she was coughing while preparing herself to talk. She looks weak in this state. I couldn't help but feel sad for her. She was sitting in her room and she started to compose herself and let out a sad smile.
"Hi, I'm Sophia Grace Rosewood." she bowed her head, "First of all, the consciousness I left will be your guide to my memories. She will help you unlock my memories one by one. So I locked my memories for a reason, a reason for you to discover in the future. It was locked because it was all too much your consciousness could handle. Your memories and my memories are clashing with one another and they need space, so what I did was lock mine to make way for yours. As you unlock my memories, one of your memories from your past life will be erased. I'm doing this for you to slowly adapt to my life. I know what I'm doing is escaping and giving up, but I'm not. I'm saying this to you now, Grace, to LIVE AS ME. Live this life like you wanted it to be. Although, you must forgive me for giving you a husband. If you want to divorce him, you can. All you need to do is to find my secret library. There you will find the answers that you need and the things you need to understand my life even further. It must be a burden to be living as me, right? But I advise that you stay in the Duchy because the Grand Duke can protect you from- - "
It was suddenly cut off and the image of Sophie was gone into thin air.
"What happened?!"
"That's it, that was all she could record with her mana." said the consciousness nonchalantly.
"And what does she mean, I will lose my memories? Is she crazy?! I don't want that!" I yelled and grabbed consciousness on her shoulders. She shoved my hands away and took a step back away from me. She looks at me with a frown and flips her hair.
"Well, it already happened. The last memory that was erased was from your childhood."
I tried to remember my childhood and indeed it was already gone. All that could pop out was Sophie's childhood memories. I barely even remember my past life parents.
"This can't be, this is quite unfair. I never said I agreed to this agreement yet!" I yelled at the endless void and the consciousness just looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo.
"Oh, looks like a memory has been unlocked, Grace. Byeeee~" she waved her hands at me and then suddenly I was somehow sucked into another void before I could retaliate to her. It was another void but this time it has a powerful force sucking me into it.
"No- - wait!" my voice echoed as I was slowly being dragged into this void and the last thing I saw was Sophie's consciousness waving at me with a grin.
I opened my eyes and suddenly I was back in Sophie's body.
"Your Grace, you have been summoned by the Grand Duke. It's time for dinner." it was the butler knocking on her door.
I opened my mouth because I wanted to speak but I realized that there was something wrong. I wasn't controlling the body. It was Sophie. I was in her memory. It looks like I'm just an audience in this scenario. Sophie went to her closet alone. It looks like Mary isn't here yet. She practically dragged herself to dress into something and as she went to her vanity, I saw her face. It was horrible. Her once beautiful skin was paler than ever and her eyes were sunken and reddish as if she was crying her eyes out. She was so thin and her eyes lost their life. I guess that this was after her miscarriage because she looked so depressed right now. And she looks like she hasn't been eating properly. She fixed herself by putting makeup on and she covered her pale skin and sunken eyes. But even with makeup, she still looks thin. She was brushing her hair and she was almost done with fixing herself. Sophie paused for a moment and glanced at a paper on her vanity. It looks like a letter but I couldn't manage to read it. It was all a blur. Sophie shifted her attention to the mirror and there she just stared at herself.
She looked at the sight of herself and muttered; "I want to kill them, Reagan. I want to kill them and make them beg for their lives, but I know it's not the right time. But I lost, I lost my child. It's too late for me."
For a moment there I was afraid of Sophie, it wasn't like her. She was gazing at the mirror then suddenly her eyes filled with rage and then she threw the brush at the mirror which shattered into pieces. She yelled in frustration and there were already tears in her eyes. She fell on the floor and then cried again. I couldn't understand what was happening or the kind of pain she felt. I wished I could touch her and hug her because she needed it. I just watched her sobbing on the floor and was practically lying with the shards of glass.
"Your Grace, what in the world happened here?!" It was Mary. She hurriedly grabbed Sophie out of the floor and wiped her tears. Sophie hugged Mary tightly and sobbed. Mary immediately knew what was going on. She patted her back as Sophie cried her heart out.
"Mary, I don't know what to do anymore." she said as she buried her face on Mary's shoulder. She sobbed while Mary was stroking her crimson hair. "Your Grace, I know it's hard right now but I assure you everything will get better."
Words were useless now to Sophie, it looked like she was lost in her depression. She didn't need those words, what she needed was someone who could help her escape this hell. I somehow understand why she's gone now. If she needed me to escape from her suffering, then I would do it now. I once fell into depression, like fell into a cliff. We were in a different situation, but we ended up dying because of our messy lives. Somehow, seeing this memory of her suffering has made me empathize with her and got me to a conclusion. What I needed to do was to remove the people who made her suffer like this and then divorce the Grand Duke and pursue my dreams here.
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