Chapter 113 – Final Plan (5)
Not long after Isabella instructed Jennifer, she soon heard a knock on the door of her office.
“Come in.”
The door opened and a familiar face, Germaine, entered.
Isabella has been managing the mansion since she was young, and before that, she was an old butler who served her father.
Tak-
Closing her door behind herself, Germaine faces her with her disheveled posture. Isabella looks at him coldly. She knew who she truly was, so there was no need for her to wear a mask or any other unnecessary introductions.
“I heard an interesting story, Germain.”
At her words, Germaine asked back with his usual light smile.
“What should we talk about, young lady?”
“The story is that you blocked Jennifer from entering my room in front of my room.”
“That’s right, because she doesn’t like anyone entering her room.”
It was a meaningless remark, and Isabella did not know this.
“I don’t think you don’t know what I mean just now, Germaine. “You are smart.”
Jennifer sat closer to her desk, waited a moment, and opened her mouth.
“So, why did you kick Jennifer out in front of my room?”
“…”
Germaine did not open his mouth easily. He touched the tip of her own chin with her gloved hand, then sighed and answered.
“I wanted to give Miss Mason some peace of mind.”
Of course, she could sense that she did not believe Germaine’s answer. Isabella continued her words while glaring at him without any change in her expression.
“That’s a shameful meddling.”
“It was also a time when it was necessary.”
The eyes of the old man who met her gaze were silent. Like a giant tree that doesn’t shake even in a storm.
Isabella must not have been used to being looked at like that, and it seemed like boiling anger was visible through her eyes.
“… What does it mean?”
To her retort, which she suppressed as much of her anger as possible, Germaine did not answer immediately this time either. He just quietly looked at her with accusatory eyes for a moment and then spoke in a heavy voice.
“I have known Miss Mason and Miss Lucia since I began taking care of you. After a while, I got to know Miss Becky. It has been a great pleasure for me to watch her and others grow as a child.”
Without realizing it, Germain was immersed in her memories. It was as if it were yesterday when she was a child and felt happy watching Isabella playing with Mason and Lucia.
In particular, he felt sympathy for children who had all lost their parents at a young age. He smiled slightly as he remembered how he treated them as if he were his own children or grandchildren, and that the children followed him like a grandfather.
At that time, no shadow could be found in the children’s faces, and the innocent girls who spent their days giggling and playing with each other were happy as if they had the whole world.
“Even when I found out that the young lady was a little different from others, I didn’t treat her any differently.”
At some point after Mason left, Lucia started hanging out with Isabella more often, and later, when she came to her mansion every day, she just thought that Lucia was suffering from her loneliness.
However, when he gradually realized that the distance between them was very small, and also when he felt a strange current between Becky and Isabella, he was surprised, but did not say anything.
A butler sees more and hears more than others, but it was a virtue to keep secrets about his master secret.
“… But when she got to know Miss Sianna, and she started staying at her mansion, I realized too late that something was wrong with her.”
When she noticed that Sianna was being abused.
When the smile gradually disappeared from the mouth of a beautiful woman who was smiling brightly, and her eyes were filled with pessimism.
“But I remained silent and watched.”
He neither opened his mouth nor acted. Because his owner was Isabella and the owner of this mansion, Mr. Gordon.
“What the young lady is doing to Miss Sianna is getting worse day by day. Moreover, I have seen Mason and Miss Lucia’s pensive faces over and over again whenever they enter or leave the mansion.”
Mason is gradually withering away, and Lucia is gradually losing vitality.
Even as the expressions on the faces of the children he felt were his granddaughters darkened, he did not act.
“Gradually, things went beyond my expectations. Not long ago, the scars on the young lady’s face, and the deception that Miss Sianna in the basement was Miss Mason’s old cousin. “I couldn’t understand, but I kept quiet.”
Because that is virtue.
Because that is the correct behavior of a servant who serves his master.
“… But I didn’t know that my neglect was wrong.”
In the face of the master-servant relationship, he excused his actions. In the end, he reminded himself that he was just an old butler, and that his only role was to manage the mansion, and he thought that he only had to move in a direction that benefited Mr. Gordon and the young lady’s actions.
“Now, I have decided not to seek forgiveness for my actions. That’s just it.”
He ended the story like that. Isabella, who heard the whole story, snorted.
“Ha.”
She got up and approached Germaine. Germain quietly looked down at the face of the young lady she had served so far,
When she was young, her child’s face, which was filled with soft tears after losing her mother and a bright smile every time she saw her friends, showed only fierce anger.
“Now it sounds like you are saying that you will no longer serve me. Is that an illusion?”
Her words were a heavy threat. Germaine was clearly a talented person who had graduated from a professional training institute, but at the same time, she was an old butler and had served only one family for a long time, so it was unlikely that she would be able to find work elsewhere.
Also, she couldn’t ignore the fact that he was also responsible as he had ignored her evil for a long time. She was not only aware of her ethical responsibilities, but she also knew that if she did this, she would not be able to avoid punishment under the law.
“… That’s not true.”
Germain answered with all her sincerity, but Isabella’s expression was still cold.
Seeing her like that, Germaine felt her complicated heart. It wasn’t easy for her to reveal her feelings to Germaine. His training was to always suppress his emotions and handle work and deal with people without changing his expression.
However, the sight of the young master, whom he had seen for so long, was enough to make the old man feel pity and regret.
Maybe there was a way before things got like this.
When she ordered drugs to administer to Sianna.
When Sianna started staying at her mansion in earnest.
Maybe when the young lady started to become a little obsessed with Lucia and Becky.
Perhaps even before that, when she lost her mother.
I would like to advise you to give this young master a little more affection and attention as a father.
If only she had experienced true, unrequited love for once before she craved her infinitely twisted obsession that pretended to be blind love.
“… Lady.”
No matter how much wealth, intelligence, or good looks you have.
“… “You are such a terrible person.”
Miss. I am finally telling you the truth.
But still, I couldn’t forget the times I helped you since I was young.
Because I couldn’t erase the moment when I regained my smile while running around with my kids.
Because I saw you standing there with your mouth shut even after losing your mother, overlapping with me at a certain moment in my life.
Moments like that made you a person who couldn’t be let go.
“But more than that, I feel sorry for you.”
Love blinds our eyes, blocks our ears, and makes our tongues unable to move.
I pretended not to know what you had done, pretended not to hear Siana’s voice, and kept my mouth shut so that the great master would not hear the young lady’s secret.
Maybe that’s what made you like this.
I am tied to you.
“Please, I am speaking to you as someone who served your father with great care, and now you.”
Now is the time to stop you somehow.
It’s not a lame excuse that I’ve realized my mistake now.
It is time to ask the cause and effect of my having ignored and remained silent about your actions.
“Please stop now.”
It is harder to bear the sight of yourself being destroyed and the sight of you continually throwing yourself beyond the line you should not cross, than it is to tear down others.
“…”
Swallowing the countless words he couldn’t say, Germaine looked at the master he served.
A silence that is so cold that it is almost painful lingers in the office.
Isabella looked at Germaine, who was looking down at her before her eyes. The emotion visible between his wrinkled eyes was very clear pity.
In an instant, she felt her boiling emotions cool down. But this calmness was not because Germaine had persuaded Isabella with her words, nor because she had made her look back.
It’s just that the anger that gripped her made her feel so cold.
For a moment, she frowned without realizing it and was lost in her thoughts.
Am I even dreaming?
Why is everyone suddenly so anxious to not be able to disturb others around them?
Isabella was far from being a dreamer who enjoyed nonsensical delusions. She was someone close to a planner, always watching and planning everything. She was like an artist perfecting a piece of art, someone who took pleasure in letting her devices work organically and achieve the intended results.
By the way.
Following these days, continuously, one by one.
Is it something that keeps causing trouble?
You keep sabotaging yourself.
If you defeat Siana, you get Mason.
After defeating Mason, a woman named Grace appeared.
And now to Germain.
Isabella hoped that someone would bring her something that would make her happy.
She wanted an event that would bring her pleasure after a period of breathtaking tension, and now that her wish had begun to come true, she realized.
The fact that her game, which does not promise her own victory, and which continues to disturb her at every moment, does not make her feel any better.
Tinnitus rings in my ears, and my eyes focus on one place. The edges of objects in my field of vision became clearer, and the contrast between colors became stronger, making my eyes feel itchy.
Her breathing is weak but shaky, and she feels the blood rushing to her face in real time.
Isabella suddenly realized.
That there is anger that she cannot handle, anger that really makes her want to turn everything upside down.
Nevertheless, Isabella managed to block her anger from bursting out. She knew very well that if she lost control here, everything would be in vain.
Now that she was so close, she couldn’t have given in to this much of an obstacle in order to complete her masterpiece.
“… Get out.”
She noticed that her voice was lower than she had thought it would be, that she sounded more like an animal’s growl than a human’s, but she no longer had the luxury or false courtesy to extend to Germaine. There was nothing like that.
“Get out and leave the mansion. “Don’t come back again.”
