Sitting in the chair directly opposite the door, legs resting comfortably on the oak desk, leisurely smoking a cigarette. He cast a cold gaze at his niece who suddenly appeared.

“Didn’t you learn how to knock?”

Miss Pendleton silently approached the desk. She stood right in front of it and bent her knees slightly in a curtsy.

“Forgive my rudeness. I came to see you because I have something to ask.”

“I also had something to say to you, fortunately. If it’s not urgent, I’ll speak first.”

Miss Pendleton nodded, but Gerald seemed uninterested in her opinion as he glanced to the side. He placed his cigar on the ashtray and lowered his legs. Then he leisurely rested both arms on the armrests of the chair.

“Tomorrow, Tom will attend the Lance family’s ball. There, accept that friend’s proposal.”

Miss Pendleton bit her lip.

“You’ve declined enough. You’ve sufficiently maintained your dignity as a lady. No one will say you hastily accepted as soon as a marriage offer came. Now, marry Price and start a family.”

“Uncle, I gave you my answer on this matter last time. I refused and I have the freedom to refuse, and you have no right to force me. Even if you promised me to Mr. Price, it wasn’t with my consent, so it can’t influence my decision.”

Gerald frowned one eyebrow.

“Did you hear from Miss Jensen?”

“I don’t think that’s very important in the current situation, Uncle.”

The uncle’s other eyebrow furrowed as well. He stubbed out his cigar. Then he looked Miss Pendleton up and down. Miss Pendleton endured his contemptuous gaze. He clicked his tongue.

“The problem was that you grew up too pretty.”

Gerald looked at Miss Pendleton with displeasure.

“I always wondered why a daughter of Dolores Pendleton, who should be quite beautiful, hadn’t married yet, but now I understand the reason. You couldn’t give up measuring yourself against that face you see in the mirror every morning, could you? This is no situation to be proud, Laura Pendleton. Know your place. Your age, your blood, your fortune. Not one of them is without flaw. Tom Price is just the right match for you. You should rather be grateful to me.”

“What should I be grateful for?”

“For bringing you a suitable groom. I thought you would surely accept the proposal, realizing you’d have nowhere to go when your grandmother passes away. I didn’t know you’d be this ignorant of the world and vain.”

Miss Pendleton bit her lip.

“I’m not measuring myself by my looks or any other condition. I’ve spent my whole life trying not to forget my place. I had no choice, as the world wouldn’t let me forget it. I’m a lacking person. I’m lacking in many aspects.”

“Then why are you refusing Tom’s proposal? If you haven’t forgotten your place, why? A man has appeared to save you, so why? Isn’t this proof that you still have pride left inside you?”

“Uncle, no matter how lacking and flawed I am, must I sell myself to a man I don’t love, to a man who wants to buy me like an object? Am I not human to begin with, Uncle?”

Gerald Pendleton’s jaw tightened.

“I know you’re human. Disgustingly human. If you were an object, I would have thrown you away already. It’s truly regrettable that you were born human.”

His words were full of contempt.

“I know. How much you hate me, Uncle. I’m the family’s disgrace, made from my parents’ shameful union. You made me realize this when I was very young, and I’ve never forgotten it since. If I were really an object, you would have thrown me away hundreds of times by now.”

His gaze was changing from contempt to murderous intent.

“I should have secretly taken you to an orphanage when my mother said she’d raise you. No, I should have drowned you in some ditch so you couldn’t function at all. If I had known you’d grow up to be so ungrateful…!”

“Please don’t mention gratitude in front of me. Strictly speaking, I’ve received nothing from you except mistreatment. I grew up with grandmother’s love and fortune. I may owe gratitude to grandmother, but not to you, Uncle.”

Gerald’s other eyebrow furrowed as well. He glared at his niece standing before him and grabbed the nearby ashtray. Then he threw it.

Crash!

Miss Pendleton bent her body down. It was a close call. If she had been a moment late, the ashtray would have hit her face directly.

Her crouched body stiffened. For a moment, an intense sense of déjà vu overwhelmed her. It was a memory from the past that had faded over a decade. A memory of Gerald Pendleton, who had always been the stronger one in front of her younger self.

“Living on Grosvenor Street, in the most elegant townhouse, adorned in silk clothes and lace, riding in luxurious carriages – do you really think you’ve become some kind of countess? You’re a disgrace to the Pendletons. A dirty stain on the Pendleton family. All the life you’ve enjoyed until now is just thanks to your grandmother’s obsession.”

Miss Pendleton listened to her uncle’s words while remaining crouched. These were the self-reproaches she had repeated countless times to herself. A disgrace to the Pendleton family. A dirty stain. Luck undeservedly obtained through her grandmother.

Hearing these words again from Gerald, she could clearly understand. The origin of her long-standing self-reproach came from Gerald Pendleton’s mouth. In her very young days, he had said the same things to her young self, and her young heart had remembered and repeated them to herself for a lifetime.

She stood up. Though her body, remembering Gerald’s violence, was trembling uncontrollably, she opened her mouth instead of running away.

“I once thought, as you say, Uncle, that I had tainted the family. People said that children must live paying for their parents’ sins. I lived carrying my parents’ mistake as if it were my own burden. But now, I’m not sure what my parents’ mistake was.”

“What did you say?”

Gerald Pendleton gritted his teeth.

“Are you daring to say there’s no sin in that bastard of a vagabond who seduced a Pendleton lady and ran away, and your wanton mother who bore a child without being married? It seems your morality has been corrupted like your parents?”

“My parents held their own wedding ceremony before a priest and witnesses. And on their way to Gretna Green for the marriage registration, they had to stop due to my mother’s severe morning sickness. They intended to marry but couldn’t. Father told me everything before he left me with the Pendleton family, as he put a necklace around my neck. He said your mother truly loved him. That our marriage was without shame before God.”

“Like parents, like child indeed. Fine, let’s say that’s true for your mother, but what about your father? Are you going to defend that damned bastard who dared to seduce a noble lady he couldn’t even look at, trying to change his fate with a secret marriage?”

Miss Pendleton looked at Gerald fuming in front of her and poured out the truth she had carefully hidden inside.

“The reason you insult my father isn’t because he ran away with mother. If he had run away with a duke’s daughter, you wouldn’t have been this angry. It’s not because he’s American either. If you were angry for so long just because he’s American, you wouldn’t be trying to please and watching out for your American daughter-in-law.”

Gerald Pendleton’s face turned white with anger. Miss Pendleton delivered the final blow.

“You just dislike our father because he was poor. You talk about honor, but you only care about money. You’ve always been about money from start to finish. The reason you could never forgive my mother is probably because you couldn’t sell her for a good price. Just like you’re trying to sell me now. What tainted the Pendleton family wasn’t my parents, but your miserly nature, Uncle.”

Silence enveloped the study. Gerald Pendleton stood frozen, staring at his niece, Laura Pendleton.

This little brat. This worthless worm, what did she say to me? What did she call me? A miser?

He repeated his niece’s words and soon fully understood. She had called him a miser. Gerald Pendleton suddenly realized how much his niece had grown.

The last time he saw her, she was a little brat who would turn pale and tremble just meeting his eyes, but now she’s standing in front of him with her neck stiffly raised, acting impudently.

This is how frightening environment can be. A change in environment can make one forget their place and situation. Gerald Pendleton thought. He needed to discipline his niece again.

“I’ll say this for the last time. Laura Pendleton. Accept Tom Price’s proposal tomorrow.”

Miss Pendleton shook her head.

“I cannot accept Mr. Price’s proposal, Uncle.”

Gerald Pendleton grabbed his niece’s thin arm. Then he threw her to the floor.

Thud!

Miss Pendleton collapsed in the corner of the study. Her body ached from hitting the floor. Miss Pendleton tried to lift her body with difficulty, but she couldn’t move naturally due to the tightly laced corset.

The shiny toe of a shoe approached before her sprawled eyes. Gerald Pendleton had already come and was standing in front of her. Miss Pendleton looked up at him.

“Say it. That you’ll return the Pendleton name and take Price’s hand. And that you’ll quickly get out to America, your father’s homeland.”

“You have no right to do this, Uncle.”

She gritted her teeth.

“When grandmother passes away, I’ll leave empty-handed. Without taking a penny. I’ll give up the name too. I’ll live with father’s name. Forcing me to marry is an unreasonable act… Ah!”

He stepped on Miss Pendleton’s fingers with his shoe. Miss Pendleton screamed and reflexively grabbed her uncle’s leg.

“You dirty, disgusting worm. Did you learn that impertinent tongue while rolling around in high society?”

He pressed down on Miss Pendleton’s fingers with even more force, as if in contempt.

“Ah, Uncle, please…!”

Miss Pendleton clung to her uncle’s leg.

“You dare to act impudently after living off and gradually depleting the fortune my son should inherit? Apologize now. Apologize with that tongue that dared to insult the head of the family.”

Miss Pendleton burst into tears. It felt like her fingers would be crushed. She desperately cried out to survive.

“Uncle! St-stop…!”

But the foot crushing her fingers didn’t weaken at all. He looked down at his niece trembling under his foot with contemptuous eyes.

“Accept Price’s proposal.”

Miss Pendleton looked up at her uncle. He was looking at her as if she were a bug that needed to be stepped on and killed. It was a look that wanted to crush not just her fingers, but her entire body.