Note:
Thank you, Thank you, Maude Fluckiger, for gifting a gachapon to this book. I wish you a wonderful week despite the cold. ^^
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"It's funny you say that I cannot even prove it to be true? Dear cousin, do you have the receipts from the merchants that proclaim the jewelry as yours?" Valerie raised a brow. "I'm sure that you have stolen that for your bastard child."
"Bastard?" A murmur came from the carriage driver.
Valerie smiled brightly and nodded. "Yes, a baby conceived and will soon be born out of wedlock."
The carriage driver looked at Sophie in surprise because he thought that she was a pure maiden, virgin and untouched. She didn't look like the type to have a baby and have premarital sex which was seen as ill by the church and its people.
"My cousin here is a bit of a lunatic, you see," Valerie added with a shake of her head. "She thought that when a man asked you to sleep with him in bed that it means that he loves you but, she's utterly a fool. Now she wants to escape with her bastard child."
Sophie felt something within her snap.
It was an inhuman rage that filled her and she barely managed to step forward to throw an attack against Valerie, throwing a hand to slap the girl for the shame she brought to Nick's child, but found herself held back aside by Richard Lancanster himself.
He blocked her with an arm to prevent her from reaching Valerie and he narrowed his eyes. The man once admired Sophie for her beautiful looks and was charmed by her but when he heard of what happened to the woman?
Ha. Apparently, he was disenchanted and disillusioned.
If she was going to end up sleeping with some random man, it could have been him and then he might have been able to marry her and salvage her worth. However, now that she had a baby?
It was impossible to even consider.
Richard spoke coldly at her. "I always thought that you were a virtuous, long-suffering woman with goodness in your heart, but it seems I was mistaken. You're nothing but a… hah, just get out of this town. I don't want to deal with the likes of you."
Without another word, Valerie and Richard headed away from Sophie and left her standing alone outside of Hastings while the spectators found themselves moving away because of how much Sophie was shaking.
It was as if they didn't want to see such a pitiful sight and turned away. However, those people did not realize that Sophie was not trembling because she was ashamed or afraid of what had happened but because her blood was raging.
Every part of her had wanted to reach out and slap Valerie into oblivion. Angry and furious tears stung her eyes and she knew that Lucia and Valerie had actually attempted to eliminate her in the river.
It wasn't just a quick decision done because they were annoyed. Lucia probably knew that if there was no longer any heir from her father's side, Jack Hansley, then it didn't matter if Sophie didn't reach twenty-one years of age… Aunt Helga would truly inherit everything.
Perhaps that was what they were trying to do all these years, slowly but surely pushing her to the edge until Sophie no longer found the will to live and took care of herself…
The corner of Sophie's eyes started to dampen with tears and she brushed at them furiously.
They tried to kill her and, while a part of her didn't care and wasn't surprised any further, it was Nick's child inside of her womb… and they dared even actually hurt her while being aware that she was pregnant?
It was so frustrating and the rage within her finally turned icy and settled into a cold anger that refused to die down. How could Sophie be even happy after all of this? Was it only naivety that led her to try and find the good in life?
The truth was that her life was miserable and other people might have had already given up if they were in Sophie's shoes. However, Sophie persevered and decided to be strong even after the death of her husband because of their child…
But now she had enough. She was so sick and tired of the mistreatment of her relatives that the idea of being happy again seemed like a faraway dream.
No.
Sophie had to apologize to Nicholas within her heart because she couldn't just find it within her to forgive this time or even find happiness in her heart for her child. The pain that had accumulated so long, day by day, had finally reached its limits.
As long as the Limbergs were happily living and scot-free from their treatment of Sophie for all these years and the final act of trying to kill her, Sophie could never be happy.
Did they really think that she could let them go after this?
Did they think Sophie would only bow down her head and then return to Hauntingen?
If they thought they could break her by casting her out of Hastings, utterly humiliating and slut-shaming her, and finally…. calling her precious child a bastard… then they were wrong.
Dead wrong.
***
Even though Sophie made a decision to leave the castle of Duke Romanov and return to Hauntingen because of the man's proposal to marry her for convenience, now she was quickly making her way back.
She no longer cared if she had to kneel down and ask forgiveness for offending and shaming Duke Romanov earlier by refusing him. She would bow her head to him as long as it meant that she could get what she desired.
Gone were the thoughts of returning to Hauntingen and living a peaceful life with her child. She would think about it later once the flames of anger within her were finally consumed at last.
However, right now was different.
Revenge was what Sophie wanted so bad that she didn't care about herself any longer.
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