There Is No Paradise Where I Ran Away To (14 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 46

Charlotte, who had been carefully counting the days, felt utterly defeated upon realizing tonight was already the third.

Her sole reason for wanting to attend the royal event was this: there, she could officially be Edwin’s partner, and thus become the envy of every noble young lady.

Standing together with the one she loved at the center of everyone’s attention was worth more than any title or fortune.

But Susanna’s presence as his companion had ripped that dream away entirely. Though her love for Edwin was deep, her fear of Susanna was far greater.

Had Susanna not sent Edwin that letter inviting him to accompany her, Charlotte would never have stepped foot into this dreadful mansion. At least here, thanks to the awkward presence of Vivian—and Susanna’s obvious dislike of Vivian—she managed to avoid becoming the main target.

She recalled the first time she had taken Baron Beitnes’s hand and gone to his house.

Her biological mother, unmarried, had given birth to an illegitimate daughter and eventually fell ill after drowning herself in alcohol.

Though she’d known her mother’s death was near, as a three-year-old, she couldn’t grasp the depth of sorrow death brought.

A few days before her mother passed away, Baron Beitnes himself came to their shabby, unlocked room. Even now, grown to adulthood, she couldn’t forget the shadow he cast, standing with the sun blazing behind him.

Her mother, looking as if she might stop breathing any moment, shed tears of joy.

The last thing she saw of her mother was her face, telling her to go play outside with a clatter. By the time she returned home after sunset, her mother had already breathed her last in the baron’s arms.

“Little one, this gentleman is now your guardian. So come along with me. We’ll wash you clean, feed you delicious food until you’re full, and dress you in pretty clothes.”

Her mother’s death turned everything upside down. She gained a guardian whose meaning she didn’t yet understand, no longer slept in a bed infested with rats, and moved into a house where the ceiling didn’t leak when it rained. But then—

“Get that demon away from my sight this instant!”

“Just watch closely what kind of monster stands atop whose soul.”

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