CH 81

I couldn’t think of anything.

My mind went blank, as if I was in a dream. My mom definitely told me stories, but I didn’t think they were true.

It turns out my mother made up my memories. She said my memories were fake.

“No, Mom, come on. There must have been a dad… Daddy… Daddy…!

What was my dad like?

“My dad… definitely… loved Bebe. He loved and cared for me so much. So… it can’t be.”

“How did your dad love you? How did he love you?”

My mother, who looked at me with moist eyes, looked exceptionally sad, as if she had just left.

“So… So…”

I couldn’t say anything to my mother like that. I really didn’t remember anything. I used to remember how my dad played with me and loved me, but now I couldn’t think of anything.

“It’s all right. I don’t remember either, baby… Bebe…”

“No, no… I-I… I’m sure I was happy when I was young…”

“We weren’t happy. He… abused us.”

I still shook my head. In the meantime, the Grand Duke took a chair next to the bed and sat down.

“I did some research on the previous emperors, Bebe.”

The exceptionally friendly voice of the Grand Duke penetrated my ears.

“About Dad? I’m sure he’s…!”

“The previous emperor had a problem in an accident when he was a child, so he could not have children. He had an empress and several other women, but not one child was born.”

Oh, my tears dropped at the sound.

“Ah.. no… I’m here. Does that mean I’m not your daughter?”

My reality was falling apart.

It felt like my memories were pouring down too.

“Then… you’re a fake… Mom… Mom…”

But I didn’t want to let go of my mother. As my mom said, I held my mom’s hand tightly because I wanted her not to be a fake even if she was fake.

I raised my head and made eye contact with my mother. Tears kept coming out of my eyes as my vision got blurry.

“Mommy is…”

“Mom, are you serious?”

“Bebe… the previous emperor… He was worse than the current emperor, who beat and tormented us.”

But there was not a single memory about it. I tried to remember, but I didn’t have any kind of memory about my dad, or someone I believed to be my dad.

“He was… a woman collector. Bebe doesn’t know this, but sometimes there are people who do such crazy things.”

“Collect women…?”

“Yes, and the former emperor… liked to put everything he liked in one place. It didn’t matter who had a husband. He was crazy about desire.”

I didn’t quite understand what my mother was saying, but I was sure something was wrong.

“And there, I met a woman who was in a similar situation to me.”

“Similar?”

“I was eight-months pregnant at that time, and she was pregnant too.”

After seeing my mom look so serious, I wiped off my tears and sat up straight. However, my mom looked at the Grand Duke with a strange gaze as he sat on the chair next to the bed.

“Mom?”

“The difference was that she was the only one forced to be dragged away, whereas I witnessed him kill my husband.”

I didn’t understand, yet I urged my mother to continue.

“Yes, we can talk about this later. Anyway, we became close friends since we were to be mothers. In the meantime, we both had children. I gave birth first, and then she gave birth. I had a pretty girl, and she had twins.”

Mom’s eyes turned to the boy in the room. Naturally, both my eyes and the Grand Duke directed in that direction.

“The kids… it was you two, Bebe and Alphius.”

“…That’s ridiculous. I… I am my mother’s child. I have no memories of that.”

“My child… died shortly after she was born.”

I turned my head back and forth in denial, but my mother’s eyes were firmer than ever.

“So… I needed a way. I was just someone who was there because the Emperor liked me, but the twins’ mother was different. Her… Her children were special and the Emperor was preparing something else for it, so we had to decide.”

None of my mother’s words reached my ears. Maybe I was tired. I couldn’t believe I had such a terrible dream. This was ridiculous.