My Sister’s Man - Chapter 34

“I hope we don’t run into each other even by accident. It’s hard to sort out my emotions.”

After Leandro left, Larne muttered  while seeing Aria come to her room.

“I know you sent him to the conservatory because you thought of me, but he doesn’t know anyway. And I hope he’ll never find out that I was the one he met at the masquerade.”

With her face buried in her pillow, Larne couldn’t tell what expression Aria was looking at her.

“Don’t be too sorry for me… Anyway, if it wasn’t for your invitation, I wouldn’t have known his face. And, if it wasn’t for me, he would have fallen in love with you, sister.”

Trying hard to organize her emotions, Larne faced a shocking truth less than three days later.

Deron, who was working as an Imperial Palace Knight to succeed the title, returned to the mansion. At the same time, his parents prepared to leave for the estate.

They had already suggested Larne to go to the estate several times before, but she refused, thinking that the time she would meet Leandro at the masquerade ball would last forever.

Also that day.

He became her sister’s fiancé, but it occurred to her that she might see him coming and going from the mansion.

In addition, she wondered how Leandro would react if he found out that she was the one he met at the masquerade.

‘Because sometimes you fall in love and change your engagement partner. He might be fine if it’s my sister he’s engaged to.’

Such thinly veiled true intentions were also in there.

It was the same refusal as usual, but the answer that came back was a bit different.

“I’m sorry, Rene. But, you…”

What she heard was shocking.

“You’re going to die soon. Debutante is a nuisance to the family.”

After the conversation, Larne lost her temper and destroyed the greenhouse. She fainted a few times as her strength drained from her body.

When Deron inherited the title, Larne was sent away. As if he had no interest in Larne’s feelings.

Today, she was angry and only trampled on the flowers. When he came to the 4th floor, Deron was looking at her with pity.

“What is the real problem? If you don’t like it here that much, why don’t you go down to the manor?”

What the hell do you know? Larne didn’t even have the strength to respond to Deron. She just broke  down and slumped on the floor in the greenhouse, breathing heavily.

Larne wanted to ruin everything. You hoped that the beloved son of the family would grieve and despair over her death, but she was not confident.

Would Deron suffer if she died?

He hated her, he didn’t know her, and…

Because she hated him as much as he did.

What’s more, he firmly believed the rumors spread by their parents to be true.

Spending all family fortune… Doing nothing, coveting only her sister’s things.

Frankly, if he knew everything, it was questionable whether he believed it.

“Am I not your sister? Why are you so cruel to me?”

“I didn’t know you would live this long.

At first, I wanted you to live somehow… They said your illness could not be cured.”

Even if she died at a very young age, it would be a disgrace to her family, and she couldn’t die after her debut date.

“I couldn’t help it. I wouldn’t have acted so cruelly if you had gone down to the manor.”

Until the end everything was her fault.

His savagely returning words choked her.

“If I had known you had a fatal disease, I wouldn’t have enrolled you into the family’s tree.”

All Larne could do was destroy the greenhouse that had been given to her as a gift.

“Rather, it would have been better for you… to marry the Marquis of Cartel, but Aria was interested in the Marquis.”

Something seemed to snap in her head at those words.

“Wasn’t it sister who was appointed to marry the Marquis of Cartel?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, but I wanted you to marry that man and die there. Without knowing the truth.”

You didn’t feel sorry for me at all. She swallowed the words that rose to her throat. She didn’t need to ask to know the answer. Larne jumped up. Deron grabbed her arm.

“Where are you going?”

“Never mind me, get out of the way, go away.”

Larne shook off Deron’s grip and rushed to search for Aria. She thought her sister was getting married to a man she didn’t want to, but she did it herself.

No, it didn’t matter. Aria had many chances to come clean when she had to her she loved Leandro, when she told her she developed her feelings for him since the masquerade ball.

But her sister didn’t tell the truth. Perhaps…her sister also had feelings for Leandro…

Thinking that far, her heart seemed to collapse.

‘… I’ve been punished.’

She had always been bad and bitter towards Aria. So she was punished. She couldn’t compare to her.

The same with other people’s behavior.

She deserved that punishment.

She entered Aria’s bedroom door without knocking.

“Oh, I’m sorry, sister. It’s my fault.”

As if she was preparing to go somewhere, Aria was dazzling in her fancy dress. Unlike Larne, who was thin and shabby. Larne was envious of her.

“R-Rene?”

Aria seemed taken aback by Larne’s sudden apology.

“Sister, I’m really sorry, but can you help me just once? Before I die… ”

“Why are you dying? Do not say that.”

“Oh no, I’m dying. So, help me just once, sister doesn’t like him anyway.”

Her mind, dazed in an instant, made it impossible for her to know what she was saying or what she was doing. Not knowing why Aria had chosen the Marquis of Cartel, she also shamelessly coveted her sister’s.

She cried and cried and begged her to give up her man like an object.

“Sister,…… Originally, the Marquis proposed to marry me…so please….”

Her reasoning left her, she retreated her sister as someone else.

The only thing left for Larne now was the affection from that time.

Was that why it hurt her so much?

“I… what can I do for you?” Aria, being kind, could not ignore Larne’s despair.

Larne was both happy and sad about it.

****

Aria and Leandro’s wedding preparations went smoothly.

Her parents thought Larne would leave the mansion after seeing the engagement ceremony.

But Larne had no intention to leave. Because she was planning things that people would condemn abominable.

‘…They will despise me.’

Leandro would hate her even more after she did what she had planned.

Larne didn’t know how to fix the situation. All the love she had received so far had been a fake, and everything she thought was real was a lie. She felt like being abandoned on a remote island.

But she couldn’t confess that it was her who had shared feelings with Leandro at the masquerade. Because he would think he had been deceived.

Was it right to decide to change the bride?

Every time the day of the engagement approached, she felt a stranglehold on her throat.

The desire to remain as a good memory and the ambivalence of wanting to be together even a little bit crossed each other.

That was until the engagement day dawned. She hesitated for a while with the dress her sister was supposed to wear.

‘Anyway… . He still thinks badly of me.’

It was a rationalization of its own. Larne wore the dress that didn’t fit her body. The dress made for Aria’s size was a little large for her thin frame.

Larne’s heart thumped under her veil. What if she got caught before the ceremony? But contrary to her worries, no one noticed that the bride had been changed.

Even when exchanging rings, Leandro did not know that they were made to fit Aria’s hand and could not fit hers.

It was probably because of the trust that would never cross his mind that they would switch the bride.

After the ceremony, Larne fled straight to the terrace. As she threw away her veil, which she could not bear to take off, she felt that at least she would live. Her pounding heart felt like it was about to burst.

‘… it’s okay.’

Soon, Leandro came in with a knock. She didn’t even have time to pull the veil over her face again. She met Leandro’s gaze. Despite her panic, Larne acted calmly.

“Look at your surprised expression. Why, are you disappointed because I’m not Aria?”

Her heart raced terribly. The ringing in her ears was loud.

“What are you trying to do?” (Leandro)

Despite Leandro’s wrath, Larne gracefully ate the fruit on the table. Her hands were shaking, and there was no taste in her mouth, but she acted effortlessly.

“Don’t be angry. It’s a good day.”

She stretched out her other hand and showed him the ring on her finger and smiled. The loose ring seemed to remind her that it wasn’t hers. Every time she moved her hand, she worried that it might fall to the floor.

“You had it fitted. Even though it was a little loose, you didn’t know it at all? No matter how much I was veiled, how could you not recognize your fiancée, whom you claimed to love?”

Even she herself couldn’t figure out what she was saying.

“… Why are you doing this?” (Leandro)

****