She remembered why her father had loathed her so much.
Because she had never been his daughter. Because she was the bitter fruit of her mother's betrayal of their marriage. She also remembered the place her mother had taken her before selling her to those people. Her mother had brought her to that court noble, hoping he would let them stay. She had said the girl was their daughter, but all they had received was cold indifference.
She remembered everything.
Because she was a child who should never have been born into this world, much less appeared in this family.
She gazed blankly at the father before her.
At that moment.
His hand seized her hair and dragged her out of the corner where she had hidden. Her mother rushed over, sobbing, and clung to his legs to beg for mercy, only to receive a vicious kick. The father said nothing, his face grim. Like a puppet, he held on to her and, leaning on his cane, dragged her out of the basement one step at a time.
In her empty, lifeless eyes, she saw the gloating disgust on her brother's face.
She saw her mother sobbing desperately, clawing and tearing at him.
But it seemed everything had already been decided.
Beneath the pitch-black night sky, she was dragged roughly into the plantation outside the house. No matter how her mother cried and tried to stop him, it was useless. That rough hand threw her hard onto the ground before the great tree. Grim-faced, he picked up a shovel and dug into the muddy earth, one shovelful after another.
She, too, sat there like a puppet, silently awaiting the fate that was coming for her.
When she raised her head.
She seemed to see moonlight behind the dark clouds.
At