"Please, help my mother!"
With a voice and gaze full of childlike earnestness, Alan bowed his head deeply.
"My mom is in jail right now! She didn't do anything bad, but she got caught, and I can't even see her at all...!"
With each blink of his violet eyes, large tears spilled onto the floor one after another.
Moved by the pitiful sight of a beloved character, Gloria could almost feel A-ko's presence in her mind, her eyes moist with emotion.
The maids, visibly distressed by the sight of the crying child pleading for help, furrowed their brows. Watching this, Gloria's feelings remained cold and detached.
Just as Alan referred to the man before him as "Father," Gloria had once called him "Father" as well. It was clear to her that the man Alan called his father was also her own.
And yet, he had ignored Gloria all this time.
Alan had seen Gloria glance toward their father as if prompting him to speak, and for a fleeting moment, the man's gaze met hers. A wrinkle formed on the bridge of his nose in irritation during that brief exchange.
That expression alone made it abundantly clear—he found Gloria's presence bothersome.
Though the room was enveloped in an atmosphere of sympathy for the sniffling Alan, the father's expression remained unchanged.
"So what?"
His tone was cold, and he made no effort to hide his irritation as he crossed his arms.
"Why should I have to help your mother?"
The biting chill in his voice and the lack of any sense of parental responsibility left not only the maids but even A-ko speechless.
Gloria tilted her chin slightly, her narrowed eyes blinking slowly.
"Your mother has nothing to do with me."
"But you're her husband, aren't you?!"
The boy's high-pitched voice roared in protest, only to be met with his father's dismissive, gravelly retort.
"Husband? To a lunatic who would attack nobility? Ridiculous!"
Gloria had made arrangements to suppress any details about Cindy's crimes, ensuring that neither her father nor Alan would know whom Cindy had attacked, how, or why.
Thus, her father was aware that Cindy, his former mistress, had assaulted a noble, but he remained ignorant of the specifics. Alan, too, seemed unaware of why his mother had been arrested.
In any case, her father had no interest in a former mistress who had fallen to the level of a criminal. Investigating further was likely the last thing on his mind.
"I don't even know who you are. Stop calling me 'Father.'"
He had broken off his relationship with Cindy in defiance of his brother, and the news of her crime had only solidified his disdain for her.
Averse to inconvenience and fiercely protective of his own interests, he had always been this way—even in Gloria's past life. It was for these same reasons that she had been abandoned and left to die.
"Why?! You used to be so kind! You even invited us here often, saying my mom was better than the lady of the house! You said I was more important than her children, that someday you'd give me this house and your title!"
Desperate and unable to believe his father's cold gaze, Alan blurted out everything the man had once told him.
Apparently realizing that this was not a conversation to be overheard by his daughter, the father cast a quick, panicked glance at Gloria before returning his attention to Alan, who continued pleading fervently.
"You even gave me this and told me to study hard so I could become the next head of the house. Don't you remember?!"