There Is No Paradise Where I Ran Away To (14 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 87

As per yesterday’s instructions, the forest path had been cleared well enough to make the climb effortless. The small clearing they reached, treading gently over the lightly layered snow, resembled a picturesque painting graced by beautiful snowfall rather than the aftermath of a heavy storm.

Unable to bear the weight of the snowball—now grown as tall as her knees—Vivian finally collapsed onto the spot, no longer able to roll it. Panting heavily, she looked toward Charlotte and saw her deftly rolling a snowball significantly larger than the one Vivian had made.

“…I thought I was making the body.”

Vivian murmured in dismay, utterly deflated. In response, Charlotte burst into laughter.

“Really? I thought you were making the head way too big, so I was trying to grow the body.”

Thanks to their miscommunication, they nearly ended up with two bodies—but it didn’t matter; the smaller one could simply become the head.

Charlotte, having stopped rolling snow, sat down beside Vivian and then reached her hand toward the gently falling snowflakes. A large snowflake landed delicately upon Charlotte’s black leather glove.

“Look at this. Isn’t the crystal beautiful?”

When she offered the unmelted snowflake to Vivian, her ash-gray eyes—like today’s sky—sparkled brightly.

“It’s so beautiful I wish it wouldn’t melt.”

Vivian smiled more beautifully than anything in the world. With that smile, Charlotte’s uneasy feelings began to melt away, little by little.

The secret that should have remained buried in the shadows had now emerged into the world. Though the revelation that she was the baron’s illegitimate child had shocked Charlotte, the knowledge that Edwin’s wife was originally meant to be her stirred up feelings of greed.

That was precisely what she had dwelled upon during the time she’d been locked away in her room.

If it truly was the baron’s dying wish, then perhaps finding his will could serve as grounds for her to marry Edwin?

Yet she never truly believed Edwin—who desired Vivian and had already consummated their relationship—would obediently marry her just because of a will. Perhaps, despite Susanna’s fierce opposition, Edwin had only taken her on as his ward to honor just one part of the baron’s final wishes out of a sense of duty.

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