"Charlotte, I've been so tolerant of what you're doing --------"
However, Fred couldn't finish when Charlotte interrupted him. They were now in the Duke's office. The Duke was already seated while Charlotte stood in front of the Duke's desk.
She didn't bow her head like any woman who had done such bad things, and Charlotte just looked at her father gravely
"You think I've done something wrong again, father? You can see with your own eyes that I only talked to them and never did anything wrong! Why am I always the one that pops into your head when there's trouble inside? Don't you think I have feelings too? Don't you think first of your daughter's feelings and if I'm better than any other person who wasn't even related to you?! Do you know which father? Forget it all I just said today and put all the blame on myself. I don't care anyway!"
Charlotte exclaimed, she never thought she'd be disciplined by her father—yet the kind of discipline she always mistakes for the mistakes in the household when in fact, as Charlotte had said, Fred never spoke to her daughter whether she's fine with it or whether she's fine with what happened before.
All Charlotte heard from her father was a slap in the face of harsh reality, causing her to flee the Duke's office without even hearing what the Duke was going to say next
'If that's the case, I wouldn't mind just saving the household I've lived in for so long. However, this kind of discipline, which I first received from my father, made me think that reality had made me open my eyes. He never cared about how I feel. All he cared about was the people around him and whether they were okay. Not once have I heard from him if I'm fine or if I'm scared or if I'm happy!!'
Silent tears streamed down her face as she closed her eyes and ran as fast as she could until she bumped into something so soft.
At first she thought it was foam when she heard a little boy's high-pitched voice - she immediately opened her eyes to see the place and a figure pushing her on the other side of the place - but she couldn't even see the person or place as her eyes were blurry enough to look around.'
'I'm not in the mood to bully anyone, so that person must be happy by now'
Without hesitation – she immediately ran to the place where she could calm her mind, and that was the place they had left earlier, after the servants came to fetch the lady and take her to her carriage, Shiela - the lady before - had requested it for her mother to be healed in her household instead.
Currently, the lady had been running non-stop after colliding with someone, only to cry again as she leaned her back against the tree when she was already in the garden.
There she knew exactly how the cool breeze made her emotions sway, and as she swayed her hair and caressed her cheeks, she suddenly calmed down, finally having somewhere to rest her head and her emotions.
'I think if it wasn't for the cool breeze I would still be crying now.'
With these thoughts she sat down on the green grass around the place and waited for the sunset until night fell.
'As expected - Father will never find me, even if I ran away from his office. That's the kind of person he is. If someone walks out of their life - they will just let them go, but for me - I can't. I'm not the kind of person who accepts things as easily as he did. That's why I sometimes - I hated his guts for that. I hated that I was doing everything in my power to get his attention and discipline myself, but all I wanted to hear first were the words if I was okay and the words if I had any reasons . I guess he was blinded by people like that just because of the facade they showed him.'
Deep thoughts again - she was crying so hard she wasn't even able to, there was a shadow behind her and behind the tree.
"Rest for a while. I think you only did that because you had reasons, right?"
When she hears these voices, Charlotte's eyes widen. She felt chills on her spine and goosebumps on her body and when she looked around - she had only seen that the earlier dawn had now become night
'Maybe I just heard something from my imagination. Can you imagine such wild thoughts, Charlotte!'
She shook her head and let out a sigh just as she was about to get up when she heard another voice somewhere near her that made her immediately jump from her position and look around only to see nothing at all. Nobody and no people.
'Who would dare to say such a thing to me! I'm Charlotte Carlile, the villainess every lady thinks of! So there's no reason-----'
But again - Charlotte wasn't even able to finish her thought when she heard another voice again
"Rest assured, I will never hurt you because I have seen you before. I now know why you did such things. At the very beginning - it wasn't even your fault. So I guess I can get to know you better"
Such a sweet and tender voice that made Charlotte's heart beat faster. It was the first time she had heard a voice like that make her feel that way.
But instead of finding the source of the voice, Charlotte felt like she finally found someone to talk to and didn't even care where the voice came from.
There she leaned her back more against the tree and smiled instead of crying now. There she said things to the voice that she thought she could never say to anyone
"You know what? I've already concluded that the Countess had some bad motives for continuing to visit our household, and it all started with a maid named Anna. It all happened so quickly that I can never rely on anyone but myself."
For once, whoever owned the voice already understood where Charlotte's position was, and it's never fair for society, and even for her father, to judge her by what they saw.
"Well, if you know what's right, then there's no point in stopping you. But wouldn't it be easy to direct things in a good way instead of a bad one? As you know, nobody knows what you're feeling inside, right? Then let me elaborate, you don't know what they're feeling inside either, right?"
Hearing a voice so soft trying to persuade her, her heartbeat seemed to beat louder than before, and her concentration on the sound of the leaves swaying as the breeze touched her seemed to falter as she first all she could hear was all the noise her heart was making.
It was more infamous than ever, like her heart was beating on a battlefield. This kept her silent for a moment, until Charlotte finally decided to speak again after finding some courage.
"Wait, w-who are you-----"
Once again, Charlotte wasn't able to finish what she was saying as the soft, soothing voice interrupted her with the chuckle that followed
"You'll know later, so I guess I have to leave you now. For now, you should also return to the household. It's getting cold out here and as the saying goes - the night is the most dangerous time"
After hearing those words, Charlotte's heart felt like it couldn't calm down. This gave her the courage to see where the voice she was thinking was and go there, only to find something there that wasn't even a human being
She found some leaves left over from the exact spot behind the tree where she had heard some voices. But for reasons unknown - she also found one of the roses in her garden, it was the yellow rose that she knew her father treasured so much
'What's with that yellow rose in here? Is the voice from here? Can a yellow rose speak?! Huh?'
Noticing such a thing, her hand unconsciously picked up the yellow rose from the ground and slowly put it in her nose to smell that scent while all she could hear for the moment was the calming of her heart
"Then I must be imagining it - those voices must all come from my head."
Charlotte tried to understand something she had experienced before. That's because what she said had been hers all along. She knew she would never rely on anyone just to justify themselves when most people knew her attitude
"Even if anyone knows what I'm doing - it's not enough to justify my image in society, which has already portrayed what kind of lady I am to them - even to my father, who should be the first to believe in me."