CH 9.1

I was an obedient niece. And Janice was a well-behaved maid.

The noisy alley quickly became quiet.

My heart, which was beating fiercely, also found its beat.

I was also surprised when the sharp iron touched my neck.

As soon as I came to my senses, I went straight looking for Zoe’s whereabouts and saw beforehand that she might not recognize me, but I didn’t expect that she would point a knife at me.

Because before my death, Zoe was very affectionate to me, her niece.

I knew I had an aunt in my past life, but I didn’t know where she was and how her life was.

Then, I visited Zoe only after I was 20 years old. Since then, we have often met on a few occasions.

Zoe would worry about me and ask me to tell her whenever I needed help whenever I met her.

So I thought she would listen to me as soon as I revealed that I was her niece.

‘That’s how it became clear. I’m the only one who returned.’

A few days after my return, I suddenly thought if I was the only one who returned.

Returning to the past was a gift to me.

Thanks to Janice, Zoe, and Cassion, I was able to return. So I thought maybe they’d have returned too.

Wouldn’t they at least recognize me?

However, Janice had no idea, and neither did Cassion. And Zoe as well.

I was the only one who had returned, and they had no idea how my past was.

“Did Sana send you?”

When I lost in thought for a while, Zoe asked.

I thought she would be angry for trying to impersonate her niece but seeing her mentioning my mother’s name; I guess I looked like my mother.

‘To the point where it’s hard to doubt.’

“No, my mother died.”

“What? Sana died? Don’t lie!”

When Zoe tightened her grip, the knife cut me in the neck. Blood trickled down along with stings and pain.

“S-Stop it!”

Janice shouted.

Then a mouse rushed into Zoe’s leg.

“What’s this?”

Zoe swung her leg.

Looking at the wide-eyed mouse that fell from the kick, I looked at the panicked Janice and suddenly recalled she often said something like ‘I heard it from a mouse.’

I remembered what she was saying.

Was Janice the one controlling the mouse?

“Lady, even if I die, I will save you!”

Was meeting my aunt something serious enough that she mentioned dying?

I was a little flustered, but calming Janice was the priority.

“Jenice, I’m fine. So, calm down. Please.”

Janice chewed hard on her lips and exhaled loudly. The alley was again engulfed in silence.

“Did Sana really die?”

Zoe stared at me.

I nodded my head.

My mother’s death has been a long time for me, who returned from my previous life, but it still broke my heart every time I talked about it.

My mother was a benevolent and wonderful person. So wonderful that I couldn’t even imitate.

“Sana… died.”

Zoe’s knife fell off, and she stumbled away from me.

It was strange that she, who was well informed, didn’t know the situation going on in the Irenberg family.

“I lived without caring about all of you on purpose, and I couldn’t even keep my sister from her deathbed. I was planning to go back after I build my own success.”

Zoe’s words solved the curiosity.

The woman who ran out because she didn’t fit into the noble life wanted to make herself big and returned after that.

She deliberately closed her ears from hearing news about her family in case she would feel weak from missing her family.

Then, her one precious person died while covering her ears like that.

Sadness washed through Zoe’s face.

I should have said something to comfort her, but Janice grabbed my wrist and pulled me in a hurry before I could do it.

Janice hid me behind her and lifted the board like a shield to block the front.

“I know who this person is, s-she is······.”

“Diana Viola Irenberg, you said? My niece.”

Zoe cut me, who was trying to introduce Zoe to Janice.

While Janice was mumbling, ‘is that so?’, I pushed her away and stepped forward.

“Lady, it’s dangerous.”

Janice whispered from behind, but she didn’t stop me.

“That’s right. I’m your niece.”

“You look a lot like Sana. Your face is. Why did you come here? Did Sana ask you to go find me?”

“My mother missed you a lot during her life. She has been looking for you for a long time.”

I said both lies and truth.

If I, who made up my mind, could find Zoe, why couldn’t my mother find her?

I didn’t know until I met the young Zoe.

Zoe smelled like the wind.

She wasn’t someone to be tied up in one place.

That’s why my mother didn’t try to find or contact Zoe.

She missed her only sister, but she didn’t want to tie Zoe’s feet.

That sounded just like mother.

‘I’m sorry, mother.’

But I was nothing close to her.

I wanted Zoe to be by my side.

Even if it was only her heart, not her body.

Leave your body to the wind but your heart to me.

“Mother told me to visit Aunt Zoe if I had any difficulties.”

‘I’m sorry I keep lying, mother.’

I looked up at the sky for a while and apologized to myself.

“How long has it been since she died?”

Zoe, whom I thought would try to dig into my lies, made a complicated expression as the news of my mother’s death was quite shocking.

“It has been one year.”

Cho’s eyes shook.

“Did Sana leave in peace?”

“She… It was complicated.”

I wished she died in peace.

But the truth behind my parents’ death was full of questions.