Chapter 11: The Past

(Tana's POV)

The Duke's house consists of three large mansions. One for the Duke, one for the wife, and one for the guests, but I didn't want any of them.

If I were to stay here, I didn't want to see a single hair of Camellia even by accident.

So I chose a small abandoned house near the back gate, which used to be an old house for the live-in servants.

For the servants, I only asked for 5 because if there were too many, Camellia could easily put a spy among them.

A cook, a personal maid, a gardener, and two guards, that's all I needed.

I just wanted to be as far away from them as possible and raise my child alone.

For now, I had to stay in the guest mansion until the renovation of the mansion was finished.

At first, the Duke didn't approve of the idea of ​​staying in that old house, but he eventually agreed on the condition that it be renovated.

Most of the time, I stayed in my room and thought about how to raise my child in a way that would make him happy.

After a while, because of  the maid's constant nagging, I decided to walk down the corridor just to see the Duke waiting for me.

It seems that he gave the idea to the maid so that he could talk to me since I refused most of his visits.

I passed by him and continued walking. But he kept following me from behind. While walking I asked

"How did your father do it? Did he convince your mother with money too?"

“No… he just didn’t tell her anything”.

“My mother loved my older brother very much.

At the time I didn’t know why my father forced me to take the succession lessons as well even though my brother was alive

But when I was thirteen my uncle who I didn’t know existed in the tower died and the curse finally passed on to the first born of the new generation

The curse turned my brother’s life upside down and destroyed my mother along with it

My mother began to hate my father because he lied to her and refused to see him, she spent her days taking care of my older brother and little by little her mental health deteriorated

She would neglect herself, skip meals and cry every night.

My brother’s condition began to deteriorate too, at first he refused to accept the curse as his new reality.

He couldn’t understand why he could no longer go out anymore.

He couldn’t understand how someone could live a normal life one day and the next day he couldn’t recognize his reflection in a mirror.”

“I remember hearing that your brother died in a boating accident.”

“That’s what we told everyone, because in the past few years his condition had gotten so bad that we had to lock him up in the tower.

No matter how much research I did, there was no cure for the curse.

But my father treated the whole situation like it was normal.

I still remember that night in his office, when I was begging him to do something before I lose what was left of my brother.

He simply put his pen on the table and told me that it had been like this for hundreds of years and when my time comes I would have to do the same.

And you know the rest of the story… My mother died a few years ago, even before my brother did.

So at least give me a chance to do right by you.

Even if the way we started was wrong, please let me protect you.

I don’t want to see the same tragedy again.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not like your mother, and I would never leave my child.”

But I want to do it alone, I don’t want you to be in the child’s life because you’re guilty in my eyes too.”

Then I turned around and took a good look at his desperate face.

“One last question.” I said to him in a cold tone.

“Does it hurt? i mean the curse”

“No-, it only affects the appearance, apart from that the child will be completely normal.” He said looking down with a sad expression.

“That’s good to hear.”

“I don’t think we need to talk face to face from now on… If you have anything to tell me just send a message or tell my maid.” Then I left.

The Duke doesn’t understand me because he doesn’t know Camellia’s true color yet.

The reason I want to raise my child alone and as far away from these two as possible is because Camellia might stay put until I give birth.

But once I have the child, I’m sure she won’t mind killing me and locking my child in the tower.

I won't let that happen. I have to protect my child.