CHAPTER 309: TELL ME SO I WOULD UNDERSTAND

Before Lucille and her family could leave, Arabella asked to speak with Lucille alone.

Ferdinand frowned at this and only agreed if both Rendell and Alwin were to be with her. Arabella agreed and so did Lucille.

"Lucille, I did not know you liked Andrew too. However, even if I knew, that doesn’t mean I would have given him to you. It was his choice to be with me, not mine. He pursued me and I fell for him," Arabella narrated to Lucille how Andrew had pursued her for almost a year before Arabella finally agreed to go out with him.

Lucille was shocked since she didn’t know. She thought Andrew had been looking at her all those times after all.

"But I believe you have already gotten over him. Or perhaps trying too. I know it’s hard. It was for me too. But maybe he simply wasn’t the one meant for you. I wish you can also find happiness with someone who truly loves you," Arabella wanted to settle this once and for all.

"Thank you. But I don’t need your consolation," Lucille bit her lip. Alwin frowned and Arabella gave him a sign to calm down.

"I know. That wasn’t why I asked you to be here. But I wonder, it seems you have been too focused on me that you did not even notice people who treasure you much more than you think."

"I don’t have anyone like that. You are blessed to have parents who adore you and a husband who seems to worship you," Lucille was bitter.

"I once thought my parents sold me to the worst man in Eliora. Who in their right mind would give their daughter as the wife of the Dark Emperor? I once thought they were so selfish and crazy. I hated them all for a long time. But one day, I realized I was wrong. And my husband who was said to be nothing but a murderer was actually kind and gentle to me. My reasons had their own reasons to have married me off to Valeria as well."

[I am sure they do. They love you after all. But me, I wasn’t loved. I was simply a tool to beat you. Lucky for you, you were treasured.]

"You have your father. He cares about you deeply. If he didn’t he would have chosen to surrender you to us and keep Obrusca safe. Keeping you in Obrusca despite what you have done is a double-edged sword. My husband can attack the instant you did something. But your father still chose to keep you there because you were his daughter and he cherished you. And even if your mother was like that, she at least doesn’t want you to be executed as a criminal."

[She knew about my mother?!]

"She’s only concerned because she doesn’t want me to ruin her reputation," Lucille seemed to have grown to hate her mother.

"I had a clue just recently. I learned that my father broke off his engagement with your mother, and he was truly sorry about it. But he loved my mother and chose her. That was all there was to it. King Neville, your father, loves your mother too. But it seems your mother has failed to notice it despite all these years because she was so fixated on something that had long passed. I hope she gets over it someday and truly cherishes you instead."

[That won’t ever happen.]

"And it wasn’t just your father, your guard too. He is in line to be the next Duke of a powerful household in Obrusca and yet he chose to help you obtain the drug despite the risks it had for him. It seems you have failed to notice, he wasn’t going that far for you for nothing. He had always been following you with his gaze. You were so fixated on defeating me that you didn’t notice his love-lorn eyes. He felt sad when you did something wrong but he understood your pain since he was with you the longest."

Lucille was wide-eyed at this. She wasn’t expecting this.

Arabella wasn’t either. But she heard it from Samuel’s thoughts earlier. He was in love with Lucille.

No wonder in the previous life, he never got married until Lucille did. He waited for Lucille for a long time but Lucille never noticed and married a king from another kingdom who was crooked and vile. Samuel was so much better for her.

Arabella decided to give Lucille a heads-up since Lucille was craving love. Maybe she would find it in Samuel. After all, the king she married in the previous life didn’t love her and had a lot of concubines, It was why Lucille kept blaming Arabella for everything even when she grew old. She became a bitter woman just like her mother.

Maybe, if Lucille found the love and attention she needed, maybe she would have a better future too.

Arabella was once a villainess and was given this second chance at life. Maybe, Lucille needed a second chance too.

"Samuel likes?! T-that couldn’t be," Lucille glanced at the door where Samuel was waiting for her outside.

"You can verify it with him later. More importantly, I am here to ask why you had been competing with me so much to the point that now you tried to harm me. I understand it’s your mother’s fault at first. But why would you keep doing it until now? Isn’t it high time you stop following all her orders and live for yourself?"

"You don’t understand. You will never understand because you were raised with love. That woman raised me to be the thing that would redeem her from her wretched life," Lucille said bitterly. She had lost all respect for her mother a long time ago.

"Then, why won’t you tell me so I would understand," Arabella coaxed.

Lucille then began her tale about her childhood days and how her mother whom she thought loved her so much, changed in the blink of an eye.