CH 8

“Please, Reinaldo. Make yourself happy.”

My sister told me this as she reached out her hand from behind the bars.

“I can’t, sister.”

I took my sister’s hand and put my mouth on her slender fingertips.

There is no way I can be happy without you.

“Reinaldo, please.” With a shaky voice, my sister said

My dear sister.

“Father will be judged soon. Don’t get involved in this.”

I don’t care what happens to father. I don’t care what happens to that man.

Just thinking about my father, the man who treated my precious sister so terribly, makes me want to spit.

“I will stay by your side, sister.”

“Please. Please don’t do this.”

The sobs of a bereaved sister.

I wanted to fulfill whatever my sister wished, but I could not accept that.

If my sister abandons me, I’d rather die with her.

She tried everything she could to stop me because I had such strong feelings.

My sister is my only family and my only support.

My sister, from a different mother, loved me more than anyone else, having been abandoned by my mother as soon as I was born.

My father used my eldest sister as his heir, his eldest daughter as the crown prince’s fiancée, and treated me as mere insurance. Insurance in case something happened to my sister.

The only person who reached out to me was a young girl who wanted affection, my older sister, Rosemary.

My sister was being used by father, betrayed by her fiancé, and locked up in a cold prison.

I hate myself for not being able to even rescue her.

“Reinaldo.”

My sister touched my tear-stained cheek.

“It’s okay. I will always be with you.”

Those were the words my sister used to say when I was always crying at night.

‘Good night Reinaldo. Your sister will always be with you.’

She always stroked my cheeks when I spent nights crying from loneliness while saying this.

“… Hmm … no … my sister …”

I can’t stop the tears from flowing.

Please don’t leave me.

I love you more than anyone.

Sister. Sister Rosemary.

Tears run down my cheeks.

I had a dream of my sister for the first time in a long time.

Reinaldo got up, held his aching head, lifted a water bottle from the side table, poured a glass, and drank the water.

The memory of more than ten years ago still haunts Reinaldo.

He got up, put on his gown, picked up the bouquet prepared by the butler every day without fail, and left the bedroom.

An old castle in the north employed only a few servants.

It had been several years since Reinaldo had established his estate.

He lit a candelabra in the castle’s basement, which bears a rose-patterned coat of arms, and proceeded.

A chill enveloped Reinaldo.

Rosemary’s body lies in the basement.

Reinaldo always put flowers at the grave, where no one who worked at the castle knows who he is every day.

“Good morning, sister.”

Underneath the stone statue of his sister, her body lies.

The flowers that were offered yesterday were moved to the side, and new flowers were placed.

For Reinaldo, seeing his sister was both a routine and a ritual.

“Sister. How do you want to punish those who killed you?”

This was his question every day after greeting.

“Shall we hang them in the same way? Or behead them? It wouldn’t hurt to put them in forced labor as prisoners.”

Reinaldo’s expression was as innocent as a child’s as he proposed his method of revenge.

Anyone who knows Reinaldo Rose, known as the Duke of Ice, who usually gives the impression of being cold-hearted, would be astonished.

“I’m finally ready to go. Now I just need to decide how to ……”

Hmmm, Reinaldo put his hand on his chin.

“I can’t think of what method would please my sister. Above all, it would be dull to do it all at once.”

Even if the person I plan to lay my hands on is royalty.

It took me twenty years to get ready.

I want to make him suffer for a long time anyway.

I want to bring my sister to justice for the sins that have tormented her for so long.

From far away, the sound of a bell tolling the hour can be heard.

“It’s time. I will be back.”

After bowing, Reinaldo left the grave.

The bells rang in Reinaldo’s ears.

The sound of the bell announcing her execution was still stuck in his ears and never left.

The image of his sister being executed while staring at Reinaldo with tears in her eyes was a scene that will forever be repeated in Reinaldo’s memory.

Even so, he could not understand what his sister, smiling in her final moments, had in mind, even though he tried to recall it all over again.