Chapter 76

Lia walked back into the murky, endless darkness.

What Carl had just shown her was reminiscent of her own childhood—when she was genuinely happy, despite the poverty and the cold. He'd told her that her mother had walked everywhere looking for her.

Then why didn't she come to Corsor?

No, she probably visited the Manor but was turned away. But by whom? The marchioness? The guards?

Maybe they used me as leverage to force Mother to return to Louver…

In the end, Louver was the only place that accepted her broken soul.

Lia's thoughts branched out and began to tangle with each other in knots, coiling around her body. The shame she felt coursing through her turned the knots into thorns, which left gashes and cuts.

She'd never taken initiative. She believed—no, she willed herself to believe—that happiness would be her reward if she followed Lady Bale's directions and disappeared to live as a nobody.