Evelyn reveals the truth

Selene began to practice the piano diligently from the very next day after fighting with Theron at the art museum and returning.
After winning the competition, she had been too lazy with her practice, using excuses like needing a break, the mental shock from Theron Cox, and deciding on her study abroad period.
If she continued to make such excuses, she might end up as a mediocre pianist without the satisfaction of having gone to study abroad in that distant place.
However, even knowing that, the reason she couldn’t fully concentrate on her piano practice was probably because the emotional residue from her conversation with Theron Cox was still stuck in her mind.
Theron’s hurt expression and his back were that impressive.
And not in a good way.
It wasn’t the first time they had argued, but he hadn’t had such sad eyes then.
Still, it wasn’t that she wanted to forgive Theron Cox and go back to a time when nothing had happened, or that she wanted to hug him.
Because she coolly considered this to be Theron Cox’s karma.
If their relationship had flowed peacefully, she would have withdrawn her study abroad plans, and then she wouldn’t have had to go to study abroad with Logan.
But it was Theron who had twisted all of this.
He was the one who had made her decide to study abroad again, and the one who had made Logan tag along.
So, regardless of how much she was bothered by Theron’s hurt face, Selene had no intention of contacting him first as she had before.
This was just a period of ‘watching’ him, and her assessment of Theron Cox, who had gotten angry and disappeared on his own, was leaning towards the side that he was in the wrong.

“Is that how noble ladies who have never had anyone say anything unpleasant to them are? Always self-centered, with no regard for other people’s feelings, and their word is law and rule.”

‘I’m not that kind of tyrant.’
‘I’m just not very interested in others, and I don’t do what I don’t want to do.’
‘And thanks to my grandmother’s strict education since I was a child, I also really disliked causing trouble for others.’

“You probably didn’t care about someone like me from the beginning.”

In particular, that statement from Theron had made Selene quietly angry.
He, who had deceived her in the first place, had no right to say such a thing.
If she really hadn’t cared, she wouldn’t have given Theron Cox, who had deceived her by pretending to be a virgin, another chance.
Even without that incident, Theron Cox had been many exceptions to her.
So much so that she would endure and wait and believe, even if there was something that bothered her a little.
‘Yes, I believed you.’
‘And Theron Cox had made a fool of me.’
Not only that, but he was making her out to be the world’s most selfish person just because she was going to study abroad with Logan, who was no different from a brother to her, so she couldn’t maintain a peaceful mind.
Selene, who had been continuing her thoughts, finally took her hands off the keyboard.
Her heart was churning with anger, like the shimmering sun today, so she couldn’t continue the calm performance.
“Selene!”
‘Was it a good thing, after all?’
Just then, a person who would make her so busy with miscellaneous talk that she wouldn’t be able to think of Theron Cox appeared.
“Evelyn.”
It was Evelyn, who was still out of her family home and wandering around.
Evelyn was staying at her fiancé Rupert’s house, but lately, as if she felt self-conscious, she had been staying at a hotel in the city.
“Good. I was worried you might be playing the piano, but it seems you’re on a break.”
Even though she was the one who was worried, Evelyn, who had burst into the piano room without permission and picked up a pipe as if it were her own, was not cared about by Selene.
Hmph.
Evelyn, who had put a cigarette in the pipe, exhaled smoke.
Selene also thought about smoking for the first time in a while, but she gave up, thinking it would take a long time to air out the piano room if they both smoked.
“When are you going back home?”
Selene, who had sat down in the chair opposite Evelyn with empty hands, asked.
Evelyn’s brow furrowed in an instant.
“What do you mean? I’m not going back for the rest of my life.”
“You don’t have to do that because of me.”
Selene replied nonchalantly.
Although Evelyn had accidentally gotten involved, in the end, it was a matter between her uncle and her.
If anything, it was closer to a headache with Evelyn involved.
In addition, she now understood a little why her grandmother had seen her uncle and Evelyn as separate.
It was probably because an innocent person would get involved and complicate matters, just like now.
“Selene. This isn’t just because Dad did something terrible to you. I’m also greatly disappointed in Dad as a person. How can he do such a thing while wearing a human mask?”
As she spoke, her anger seemed to rise, and after catching her breath for a moment, Evelyn continued.
“I will never understand, so don’t even think about trying to persuade me. I will never go back home until Dad formally apologizes to you.”
Evelyn seemed determined.
“Honestly, it doesn’t matter if I don’t go back home anymore. I have enough money since my business is doing well, and my house will be sorted out soon since Rupert suggested we move up the wedding. After we get married, I’ll quit my hotel life and go live in Rupert’s house.”
“Uncle has to come to your wedding.”
But unlike him, Evelyn’s flawed plan very easily revealed its limitations.
“To come to the wedding, you have to make up with uncle before that, and for that, you have to go home and ask for his permission…”
“Stop! I know…! So please stop telling me about that realistic future, Selene? I’m just so frustrated with this situation!”
Evelyn, who had been proudly reciting her plan, finally put down her pipe at Selene’s remark and hugged the cushion on the chair.
“…I really don’t know. Why on earth did Dad do that? And why isn’t he apologizing to you!”
“…”
“It’s not just anyone, but the fact that he did that to you is truly terrible! Aside from our relationship, you’re his only niece, so why on earth…!”
Evelyn complained out of frustration, but in fact, she must have known.
The reason why Uncle Orlando had done such a thing to his only niece.
Even without being a member of the ducal family, one would not have difficulty recalling the ducal title that was left without being succeeded by anyone.
Evelyn’s eyelashes trembled slightly, as if she had also pointed out that fact.
“I don’t know why the title is so important to Dad… What’s so great about a title these days… Anyway, Dad is a war hero, so people revere him wherever he goes.”
“Everyone values different things.”
Selene would sometimes imagine.
If her father and mother had not died so futilely on the battlefield and were still alive, would her uncle have resolved this issue with them well?
It wouldn’t have been smooth as long as her grandmother was involved, but since her father, as she remembered him, was not very greedy for the title, it might have been resolved peacefully.
Because, as she had just said, everyone values different things.
As the problem, which had been wandering in her mind like a cumulonimbus cloud, shifted from Theron to her uncle, Selene naturally picked up the pipe Evelyn had set down.
Although she was not the type to rely on anything, the strong smoke helped her to temporarily forget her frustrating thoughts.
Evelyn, who had quietly started to speak, slowly lifted her two eyes, which were shimmering with a gloomy light.
“I… and I recently found out.”
“What?”
“The reason why Dad, who was the eldest son, did not receive the title.”
Selene, who had languidly exhaled a puff of cigarette smoke, twitched one of her eyebrows.
Evelyn continued with a gloomy face.
“I wasn’t trying to do a background check, but I was curious about his relationship with Theron Cox, so I secretly went through Dad’s study and found out. There was a letter that he had exchanged with grandmother a long time ago.”
“What did it say?”
“I don’t remember the details, but it was incredibly agitated for a letter from grandmother. It’s understandable, though; Dad seems to have discussed changing the company’s management direction with the president of Saint Sa on his own. To increase the company’s sales in earnest.”
That was a somewhat surprising story.
If it was Saint Sa, it was the largest shipping company in the empire, where the Ashcombe family was a sponsor and the largest shareholder, and in the past, it had been a social enterprise that helped immigrants.
But one day, it had completely changed its management direction to be commercial and had received a lot of criticism, and to think that the reason for that change was her uncle.
Selene suddenly recalled the time Beatrix had clicked her tongue.

“My husband did not invest so much money in Saint Sa to build cruise ships.”

Only now could she understand her grandmother, who had frowned so much at the mention of the Saint Sa cruise ship.
Evelyn let out a small sigh.
“That was when Dad was at the military academy, and because of that, he had a falling out with grandmother, and she decided to pass the title to her second son, Uncle Nicholas.”