Everything changed.

The man, that man. Aiden, with his painfully familiar build, dark hair, and brilliant golden eyes. Belviana barely put a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. It was hard to tell if what she was seeing was a dream or reality. Aiden came in her dreams so often, sometimes as vividly as this one, but the piercing sense of reality was instinctual. A sense of shared breath, a sense of being in the same room, a warning that made her fur stand on end. Belviana let out the breath she’d been holding, then drew it back in. After five breaths, she finally recognized him.

The man was Aiden.

At first, she was elated. But soon her emotions were so jumbled that she couldn’t tell which were positive and which were negative. What started out as a flurry of excitement and joy quickly turned into a mess of colors. She was torn between wanting to run up to him and hug him and wanting to punch him in the face. The part of her that felt like she could forgive him for everything if she saw him one more time was, hypocritically, nowhere to be found.

She gritted her teeth and glared at Aiden. Her jaw and lips began to tremble. It spread to her entire body in an instant.

Betrayal. How could he be alive and well and not tell her, how could he leave as soon as her life was in ruins?

She hadn’t doubted Aiden’s death for a moment, believing so firmly that if he were alive, he’d come for her-an obsession, that is. But he was alive, and now she knew he had abandoned her completely.

Love? What had seemed like the world’s only truth when she believed he was dead, now felt like a terrible lie. Of course, deceiving a naive nineteen-year-old girl must not have been the least bit difficult for him. How stupid she must have looked, Aiden, cunning as a snake, cruel as ……, and gorgeous enough to make her teeth quiver.

Suddenly, she felt Aiden’s eyes on her with the keenness of an animal. Just as their eyes were about to meet, Belviana barely ducked her head. She clasped her sweaty palms together tightly. Did he see? Did he notice? She felt his gaze on her, insistent, but she stubbornly kept her eyes on the floor. Footsteps were coming straight at her. When heels appeared at the edge of her vision, the butler ducked his head as if to block her path.

“Mr. Winston. Welcome.”

“…….”

“I would have prepared more thoroughly if you had given me a heads-up, but I’m afraid you’ll find me disorganized in more ways than one, and I apologize.”

The man was silent for a moment, then the corners of his mouth pulled up gently into a smile.

“Certainly, after all the money I’ve sent you, it still seems incomplete.”

The tone was flat, but the content was a clear rebuke for negligence. The butler stammered out a stammering excuse through reddened lips.

“My apologies, sir. I will have the mansion refurbished at the earliest opportunity…….”

“Of course you will, is the study in order?”

“O, of course, if you’ll just come this way.”

As the butler bowed, Aiden brushed past him and entered the mansion. The atmosphere, frozen as mice before a snake, thawed as soon as he disappeared into the mansion. The maid, who had bowed deeply, clapped her hands and raised her voice.

“You heard him, didn’t you? From this day forward, you will be on your best behavior. Dismissed, everyone, back to work.”

The maids scattered in unison, letting out volmen breaths and mending admiration for their master. As Belviana walked after them in a daze, one of the maids, who had exchanged a few greetings along the way, tugged gently on her arm.

“What’s wrong, what’s wrong?”

“…….”

“You look pale, Scarlett, are you ill?”

“……No. Just, a little…… dazed.”

“Are you okay? You’re on the third floor today, and if…… you want, I can cover for you.”

Belviana finally opened her eyes and looked at the maid. The maid’s face was flushed red. It wasn’t hard to guess what she meant. On the third floor was the bedroom that was supposed to be Aiden’s. The maid whined again.

“You’ll never be able to properly support the butler in your current state, and besides, my duty station today is quite comfortable…….”

“Sure.”

Belviana replied, not bothering to listen to the maid’s long-windedness. Not expecting a straightforward yes, the woman’s voice took on a more familiar tone.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

The maid clamped both hands over her mouth and stomped her foot, then quickly disappeared up to the third floor, as if she thought Belviana might change her mind. Belviana looked up at the maid’s back, her eyes cold.

Aiden had clearly been walking toward her, right up until the butler had blocked his way. Whether he hadn’t recognized her after all, or whether he’d been pretending not to, she couldn’t tell. The mysterious nature of her old lover was still hard to fathom. Belviana paused for a moment as the word “old lover” came to her mind, unexpectedly.

An old lover. It was a luxury to call them that, her and Aiden. She’d be lying if she said they hadn’t had their share of regrets, but he’d been the one to break it off, the one who hadn’t sought it out. Even when she’d been miserably buried in the mud, he’d been so gracious and……. She bit down on her lip. It felt like all the days she’d spent alone with him, reminiscing and wrapping herself in fond memories, had been trampled on in an instant.

She didn’t want to be tethered to this tiresome bondage any longer. Not that her life had ever been good because of her entanglement with Aiden. Yeah. It was too old. So much so that she was embarrassed to rekindle it.

Belviana let out a tired breath. Aiden, of all people. The time she’d thought she’d had was quickly dwindling to nothing. If she was going to stick to her plan, she had to hurry. Maybe she needed a more surefire, stealthy method. Whatever it was, she didn’t need to run into Aiden right now.

Belviana brushed the dust off her clothes and headed down the stairs in the opposite direction of the maid who had come up.

* * *

“Scarlett, wait.”

Belviana reacted half a beat too late due to the heavy laundry basket. It was Ellen.

“Your waist ribbon came undone.”

Ellen set aside the needlework she was holding and hurriedly grabbed Belviana’s waist ribbon. She quickly tied a deft knot. Belviana glanced over her shoulder.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. It’s no big deal.”