Welcome to the Rose Mansion - Chapter 148
She reached out, gripping his wrist. Rose gazed down at her with a face of calm benevolence.
Even under the gaze of a being so overwhelmingly beyond her reach, Richelle didn’t stop resisting.
“Alan and Madam Otis both said you had marked me as the next lady of the house. At first, I thought the same. That you killed my mother to sever my ties, that you treated me kindly just to mold me as you wanted. That’s what I thought.”
“And?”
“But I was wrong.”
“……”
“Your goal wasn’t to make me the next Madam Otis. If you really intended that, you wouldn’t have let me enter the fourth floor or discover your secrets.”
The tension eased in his hand, and Richelle quickly put distance between them.
Separated by the tea table, now in disarray, Richelle and Rose looked intently at each other.
Rose’s expression remained inscrutable as he tilted his head slightly.
“Well then, what conclusion did our clever Miss Richelle Howard reach?”
“Rose, you…”
Richelle clenched her shaking hands into fists.
“You wanted to turn me into another Edgar Otis.”
The air around them chilled. She fought the instinct to recoil and straightened her stance.
“Seeing me with the same green eyes as Edgar’s, you must have seen a potential in me, just like you did with Charlotte Otis.”
“……”
“You’ve been observing and evaluating me all along, haven’t you? Eventually, I must have met some kind of ‘criteria’ you set. Since you even offered to take me away with you.”
“……”
“Entering the fourth floor was the final test, wasn’t it? Were you curious what conclusion I’d come to after learning about Edgar?”
Rose did not react.
His face, still as a doll’s encased in glass, gazed forward blankly, expressionless.
A suffocating silence tightened around them. The sunlight creeping in through a crack in the window slowly moved, casting a faint line across Rose’s face.
As if the light had breathed life into him, Rose finally parted his lips.
“Edgar Otis. My foolish boy, the most foolish of them all.”
“……”
“Yet my time with him was… utterly captivating. Those green eyes, shining like sunlight, were dazzling enough to blind me.”
His fingers brushed the edge of the tablecloth.
“I wanted to feel that pleasure once more…”
Empty eyes fixed on her, and he smiled—a smile as vibrant as a flower blooming amid the pitch-black poison of a marsh.
“And Richelle Howard, you might just be able to fulfill that desire perfectly.”
Rose stood up. With a wave of his hand, the tea table vanished. Another wave, and somewhere, the sound of a waltz began to play.
He extended his hand toward Richelle.
“You are naturally kind and compassionate, and you know how to share love. Yet, with those spirited eyes, you never surrender yourself.”
Without realizing it, Richelle found her hand moving to his. Her posture slipped instinctively into a flawless waltz.
“With you, I won’t be disappointed…”
Rose took the first step, gliding gracefully, drawing her along.
“With those small hands holding everything, I wonder… how far can you go?”
“Rose.”
“Come with me, Richelle. I’ll grant you everything you desire.”
“Rose.”
“We’ll have such a splendid time together.”
“Rose!”
The shout broke the music’s spell. Richelle, breathing hard, glared at him.
“No. I have no intention of going with you.”
“……”
“And you have to leave Bertrand. You lost the wager. That was the deal, wasn’t it, Rose?”
The simple name, ‘Rose’, fell like a heavy weight between them.
He stared at her silently with his red eyes.
“Oh.”
Then, finally—
“Ahahahaha!”
A frenzied laughter burst from Rose. Richelle’s face hardened.
“Oh, my Richelle. How wonderfully naïve you are.”
“What…?”
“Richelle. My poor, beloved Richelle.”
He leaned in close, their hair mingling, the tip of his nose almost brushing hers.
The breathless whisper slipped into her ear.
“Did you really think I’d keep that promise?”
