Chapter 15
Prinel was holding a freshly baked piece of bread.
As the warm smell came up with steam, Layla stood up like she was hypnotized and went closer to him.
“I’m sorry… You were hungry, right?”
Prinel looked sorry as he walked in with her. He also had a cold bottle of milk in his pocket.
He spread a clean handkerchief on an old nightstand and placed the bread and milk on top.
“I wanted to bring fruit too… but I couldn’t.”
“I like bread.”
When talking to Prinel, Layla didn’t stutter. He was the only person she loved.
The adults didn’t love her, but Prinel was different.
She didn’t know yet what it meant to be half-siblings, but he was the only one who helped her when she was always hungry.
“Thank you, oppa.”
“Did Mother hit you again?”
He looked at Layla’s torn dress. Under the ripped cloth, he saw a big blue bruise.
“It’s okay.”
She smiled and shoved a piece of bread into her mouth.
“There’s milk too. Eat slowly. You’ll get a stomachache…”
Prinel looked at her with sadness. She was still a child and very thin because she never got to eat properly.
But even as the Duke’s first son, Prinel didn’t have an easy life either.
“Prinel!”
The door opened with a bang.
Duke La Rose was standing there with a cold face.
“Who told you that you could come in here whenever you wanted?”
“F-Father! But she hasn’t eaten since yesterday…!”
Prinel stammered in panic.
“I’ve told you again and again. If you stay near a stutterer, you’ll start stuttering too. That’s a disease, Prinel.”
“Layla doesn’t stutter when she’s with me, Father.”
He tried to speak bravely.
But his words only made the Duke angrier.
“Hmph.”
The Duke laughed bitterly and walked toward Layla.
“So, she only stutters in front of me, huh?”
Layla stepped back in fear and fell onto the bed behind her.
“Go on, speak. Layla.”
His red eyes looked right at her. They were a deep, dark red—so dark that she couldn’t look at them.
“I said speak. Didn’t you hear what Prinel said?”
His voice was calm and kind.
“Layla.”
But his hands were not kind. He grabbed both her shoulders and shook her hard.
The more he did, the more she shut her mouth.
Layla knew herself well. If she opened her mouth now, she would stutter even worse.
“You won’t speak?”
A flash of madness passed through the Duke’s eyes. He knew how to make her talk.
“Ahh!”
He suddenly grabbed Prinel’s hair.
“O-Oppa!”
Layla finally opened her mouth.
The Duke twitched his eyebrow.
“So you lied, Prinel.”
“Father…”
“You said she didn’t stutter in front of you. How dare you lie to your father? Such a bad boy.”
He laughed like a crazy person and dragged Prinel out by his hair.
“D-Don’t do this…!”
It was her fault. Layla grabbed the Duke’s pants with both hands.
“P-Punish me instead…”
“Did you just touch me with your dirty hands?”
He shook his leg hard to kick her off.
The maid who came running closed the door quickly.
“Hic… No, oppa…”
Through the gap of the closing door, Layla saw Prinel being dragged away by his hair.
He was trying to say something with his lips, but Layla couldn’t read it through her tears.
She sat down and cried quietly.
“Aaah, it feels so good not to see that thing in the house anymore.”
A few days passed.
The Duchess of La Rose used the excuse that the heir, Prinel, had been sneaking into the attic because of Layla.
She finally convinced the Duke.
Layla was sent to the countryside, where they didn’t have to see her anymore.
The Duchess threw Layla’s small bag near the carriage and said coldly,
“You’ll be better off there. At least you won’t go hungry like you do here.”
Yes, it was better that way.
Rather than growing up near her father, who didn’t care, and the Duchess, who got angry just by seeing her—being far away in the fresh air was better.
This was how the Duchess erased her guilt.
“I’ve paid for all the sins I did to you.”
She turned around and went back into the mansion.
Layla picked up the bag herself and put it into the carriage.
But she didn’t get in yet. She kept looking behind her.
“Oppa…”
She missed Prinel. He had gotten in trouble because of her, and she hadn’t seen him since.
Maybe this would be the last time.
Layla kept looking at the mansion entrance.
Just then, the door opened—and Prinel came out.
“Oppa!”
She ran to him and hugged him tightly.
But Prinel looked at her with a cold face—one she had never seen before.
“I’m not your oppa.”
“W-What…?”
Layla’s pink eyes shook with confusion.
“You must be confused. I never once thought of you as my sister. I helped you only because I felt sorry for you.”
“O-Oppa…”
“Don’t ever come back. Don’t contact me. Just live there forever.”
He pushed her hands off of him.
“You understand what I’m saying, right?”
“I… I don’t understand… Oppa…”
She was still just five years old. Everything was too hard to understand.
Layla cried and looked up at him.
“Understand already, you stupid girl!”
For the first time, he shouted at her loudly.
“Don’t come back. Never! Never again!”
He took out a small jewel from his pocket.
“No one here will take care of you or love you. Don’t come back.”
It was a red ruby—just like his eyes.
“Take this.”
“What is it…?”
“Use it to run away when you grow up.”
“What’s ‘run away’? How do I do that?”
She didn’t understand the words, so she asked again through her tears. But Prinel had no time left.
“Go now.”
He put the ruby in her hand and gently pushed her small back.
“Go.”
“Oppa…”
She was scared to be alone. Even if she stayed hungry, she wanted to stay with Prinel.
But she only made him get hurt.
So she had to go, even if being alone was really scary.
“Goodbye… oppa…”
Layla wiped her tears and smiled brightly. Then she climbed into the carriage.
Right after she got in, she opened the window and stuck her head out.
The carriage began to move.
Layla waved at Prinel, who was still standing there.
‘When I grow up…’
He didn’t wave back, but he stayed there until the carriage disappeared.
‘I’ll come back to see you again.’
She thought that as she sat up straight.
The only sound inside the carriage was her sniffles.
But little Layla didn’t know—
That was the last time she would ever see Prinel.
