Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 82
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Evelyn Lasphilla.
Adam’s first wife and the biological mother of Caroline and Margaret.
Cecilia couldn’t remember much about her.
As Cecilia remembered, she was always ill, avoided going out due to sunlight allergy, and seldom left her bedroom.
If Lilith and Cecilia were the guests of Lasphilla, she was like the ghost of Lasphilla.
Even her steps and tone were quiet. Her personality was…
‘She was often described as gentle.’
Whether that was true or not, she didn’t know. She had no memories of directly conversing with her.
Considering that Lilith could roam around freely and she merely watched, in that sense, she might be considered gentle.
If being gentle meant enduring and tolerating an unjust reality, then perhaps she could be viewed that way.
But to Cecilia, she still remained an unknown entity.
She neither openly criticized Cecilia nor offered her help.
Just as she let Lilith be, she also left Cecilia alone, whether she lived in the attic or had a decent room. As if she had no relation to this place.
A woman who wouldn’t even glance her way when Lilith threw a tantrum.
A strange woman.
A strangely gentle…
‘…And pitiful woman.’
People described Evelyn that way.
Gentle and pitiful…
Evelyn Lasphilla.
Like a flower that withered because its owner didn’t water it on time,
A woman who gradually fell ill and eventually died.
‘If only Adam hadn’t wandered outside, she would have lived grumbling until eighty.’
Guinevere often expressed such spiteful malice as if it were sympathy in front of me.
‘I would have become a vengeful spirit. Does that woman have any resentment at all?’
These words came from the second wife of Marquis Rosencrantz. She wondered if the countess slept well every night, stretching her legs.
Recently, Cecilia pondered Guinevere’s words differently.
If, indeed, Evelyn Lasphilla had become a ghost after dying.
She wouldn’t be lingering in this mansion, at least.
She would have flown far away, never to return.
The role of the ghost of this dreadful Coffret Manor ended along with her life.
‘Go far away. Far, far away.’
That was all the daughter of a mistress, who had no right to pity her, could offer as a eulogy.
She couldn’t bring herself to say ‘rest in peace’.
Because of me, her life was never peaceful.
Though she was distant in life, her funeral remained vivid in memory.
The tragedy of that day, greeted while only able to look at the ground…
A procession of black clothes.
And now, her dazzlingly white dress caught Cecilia’s downcast gaze.
The contrast between past and present made her retinas sting. Cecilia sighed deeply and asked again.
“Miss Lilith, why is this in your room?”
“…”
Lilith fidgeted, nervously biting her nails. Unable to even manage her expression, let alone make an excuse, Cecilia felt her patience waning.
“Miss Lilith.”
Her voice, calling her biological mother, grew even lower.
“If you continue to be silent, I will have no choice but to tell Father everything.”
What really could be gained by telling this fact? Nothing. Even if it meant burning it to make it as if it never existed, this dress must never be discovered.
But Cecilia deliberately mentioned her father. She intended to intimidate her into giving an answer.
“No, just, wait!”
At the mention of taking it to Count Lasphilla, Lilith reacted as if someone had grabbed a hot kettle barehanded.
“Ceci, it’s not like that. Really, it’s not.”
What exactly is not?
Frustrated by the childlike, contextless denial, Cecilia was about to press Lilith for an answer again.
Lilith, clutching the hem of her clothes, opened her mouth.
“I didn’t steal it!”
“…Did you really not?”
It was unimaginable that her mother would do such a bold act.
As expected, she quickly shook her head.
Her trembling gaze finally met Cecilia’s. She said,
“It was, I mean… the former Countess gave it to me herself.”
