CHAPTER 33: APOLOGY

After Rubiella resolutely expressed her open protest to her mother, a tense silence hung in the room. Magrit stared at her daughter with a look of frenzied anger. All her life, the girl had been submissive, quiet, and humble. She never allowed herself to contradict her mother, always obeying her orders without a word. And suddenly — this unexpected rebellion.

The duchess’s word, once weighty and indisputable, seemed to have lost its power over the child. It took only a few months for Ruby to stop obeying without question. For Magrit, this was tantamount to betrayal, and the thought flashed through her mind: the girl was completely out of control.

"You...!" she blurted out, her voice trembling with anger. "How dare you talk to adults like that?!"

Her gaze was a mixture of rage and incomprehension. Without hesitation, Magrit stepped forward, intending to grab her daughter by the arm and drag her away by force. But I stood in her way.

"I think Ruby made it clear that she doesn’t want to go with you," I said coldly.

Looking at my serious expression, the woman laughed maliciously.

"What do you know? Suddenly pretending to be a caring aunt?"

Magrit knew what kind of life Grace had led until recently. She couldn’t even take care of her own life, let alone a child. It would have been no surprise if she had abandoned her niece on the very first day. But to her great surprise... that didn’t happen.

The duchess couldn’t understand: when had these two managed to get along so well?

"You and Ruby have nothing to discuss," I said, "but you and I do."

"What?"

Without further ado, I grabbed my older sister by the hand and dragged her along with me. She resisted and was clearly stunned by this turn of events. But I was stronger. I ended up bringing her to the hall, where there were no people now, and finally stopped.

The woman rubbed her sore wrist and glared at me angrily.

"What? What do you want from me?" Magrit said defiantly.

"I want to hear your explanation."

"What?"

"Tell me what you did to Ruby!" I said bluntly.

I was more serious than ever. The duchess froze.

"What are you talking about? What nonsense are you talking about?" she asked indignantly.

"Don’t pretend!" I exclaimed. "I know you’ve been tormenting her all this time."

Magrit Weinstein rolled her eyes, as if she genuinely didn’t understand what I meant. That only made me angrier.

This woman... Was she really not remorseful at all?

Of course, I knew that there were unwanted children in this world. It was more than obvious that Rubiella was one of them. But even so, Magrit had given birth to her and had to take responsibility. Even if she didn’t love her child, she was obliged to fulfill her basic parental duties.

I sincerely couldn’t understand: how could anyone be so cruel to their own daughter?

Magrit was only more outraged by my accusations.

"You dragged me out here just to say this nonsense?" my older sister said angrily.

"You’re not leaving here until you confess!" I started yelling too.

"You crazy bitch...!" she spat out. "Admit what? What kind of mockery is this?"

Well, I decided to speak my mind directly to her.

"Something is wrong with Ruby," I said. "She is afraid of the dark, of strangers touching her, she constantly has nightmares... A child her age can’t behave like this for no reason. You definitely did something to her."

The woman’s pupils dilated.

"You..." the duchess gasped in indignation, "Are you implying that I beat her?"

"Exactly. Unless you did something even worse."

When I openly accused her of mistreating her daughter, the duchess stared at me in shock. I grabbed her by the arm.

"Come on. Today I’m going to make you apologize."

She immediately started to pull away.

"What?! Are you crazy? Why should I apologize to her?" Magrit yelled.

"For assault."

Unfortunately, in the current situation, it was the only thing I could do. There was no law against domestic violence in the country. Among the aristocracy, it was common practice to "discipline" children physically. Besides, Magrit’s status was higher than mine. Being only the youngest daughter of the family without any rights, I had no way of influencing her.

Unless... I took advantage of Duke Dickens’ position. But I didn’t want to involve him in our personal family disputes.

It still wasn’t enough, but at least Magrit would offer Ruby some kind of apology.

Meanwhile, the duchess remained firm in her stance and refused to let me take her away.

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing?" she exclaimed indignantly. "I didn’t do anything!"

I wasn’t even going to listen to her pathetic excuses.

"Ha... Seriously. Do you really think I have nothing better to do?"

I involuntarily let go of her hand. Magrit looked at me angrily.

"That little brat..." she muttered, "Who needs her? I was hardly ever home at the time."

"What?"

I was confused.

To finally get rid of me, the woman said that she had hardly participated in Ruby’s upbringing. The duchess spent all her free time at parties and banquets, trying to find herself a new husband. In other words, the girl was left to fend for herself.

The servants didn’t touch her either. As the main heiress, Rubiella still had some authority in the house. Without the duchess’s permission, no one could lay a hand on her just like that. The main villain was indeed an abandoned child that no one cared about, but... that’s all.

When I heard about this, at first I didn’t believe it. It can’t be... Then why? Why is everything like this?!

"You’re lying!" I exclaimed involuntarily.

I refused to believe that the theory I had constructed meant nothing. Maybe Ruby was born that way from the beginning? Otherwise, I simply couldn’t find an explanation.

While I was frozen in shock, Magrit decided to put an end to this conversation once and for all.

"If she has any problems, it has nothing to do with me," the duchess continued to deny. "How do I know what you did to her, since she started acting strangely..."

"....."

"I repeat. I didn’t lay a finger on that girl."