Spring in My Grasp - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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(10) The Great Hat Collision

“Don’t tell me the Butler is embezzling the allowance meant for you?”
At those words, I nearly choked on my boiled meat. Ugh—I shot Alexis a glare.
“How could that be? That Butler wouldn’t have enough lives to spare!”
“Then what?”
Alexis, still bewildered, pressed further. His face was clouded with confusion.
“What do you mean ‘what’? Your household simply doesn’t provide enough living expenses!”
Shocked into silence, Alexis quietly set down his utensil. His mouth hung open.
“Our family… that is to say….”
He couldn’t even finish his sentence. I glanced at him while spooning my soup.
What was this? Had his tongue frozen? Then another thought occurred to me. He truly hadn’t known.
“You’re saying you only provide enough living expenses for me to survive at this level?”
“Ah, yes. Well, I suppose so.”
When I thought about it, I wasn’t even the “real Rowan,” and technically I was freeloading here. I felt embarrassed for bringing up money so openly, and my voice came out flat.
“Not even enough to buy a single new dress?”
“Barely enough to survive by selling off the things here one by one!”
I shot back at Alexis, who looked flustered. Since we’d come this far, there was no point in holding back now. Besides, when I thought about it—
“You don’t even treat me like your wife and you’re always out, so how would your family see me as a daughter-in-law? I’m nothing but an unwelcome guest!”
Wasn’t it because of his neglect?
If he’d only made some effort to appear close to me, I wouldn’t have been banished to the Annex like this. Though truthfully, I preferred it this way. I rather liked how remote it was—remote enough that I could slip away in the dead of night whenever I needed to leave.
“…!”
With a loud bang, Alexis suddenly stood up. I flinched, reaching for my utensil again.
“You startled me!”
I gasped dramatically.
“Even dogs shouldn’t be disturbed while eating!”
But Alexis had already turned away and left. He walked out with heavy footsteps and slammed the door shut behind him. I blinked in surprise, then slowly opened my mouth.
“What kind of manners is that, mixing rudeness into his rice….”
Just then, Lea waved her hand to stop me.
“Please, Miss Rowan. I’ve never seen Master Alexis show this much restraint even when the mistress talks back to him like this. They say his temper is truly fierce. He’s quite sharp-tongued too. I’d say it’s fortunate he left at all.”
“So being handsome excuses everything? Just because he’s good-looking, he can live like a complete brute?”
Lea coughed awkwardly. I huffed indignantly while eating.
“If that’s how it is, why did he suddenly barge in while I was eating? Ugh, he’s ruined my mood. Lea, remember that wine we bought at the Market last time? Let’s have a glass now. I can’t swallow this without some wine.”
“Oh, I was just thinking the same thing.”
And so we resumed our meal, sipping wine.
‘Ah, so satisfying and fragrant.’
But what was that presence I felt when he lingered beside me just now? There was always something unsettling whenever I encountered him—that dissonance that clouded my mind. What on earth was it?
‘Don’t dwell on it. Handsome men just naturally exude that kind of aura.’
And today, as always, I found myself content. Alexis’s troubles were nothing compared to the drunken nuisances I’d dealt with during my part-time work days.
***
The moment Alexis stepped into the Glister Mansion, a terrifying aura radiated from him. He fixed the Butler with a glacial stare as the man greeted him. The Butler flinched and immediately retreated. With menacing strides, Alexis headed straight for the Countess’s chambers.
“What brings you here? You’ve been searching for me.”
The Countess, sprawled languidly across a sofa in her private room while Maids attended to her hair, greeted him with a listless voice—utterly devoid of warmth, a tone as dry as parchment.
“Surely, no matter how displeased you are with me, this crosses a line, does it not, Mother?”
Alexis spoke. One of the Countess’s eyebrows arched sharply.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Her expression darkened instantly.
“I’ve said it before, but you are truly disrespectful, Alexis.”
“I have nothing to say in my defense on that point. You bear considerable responsibility for it yourself.”
At Alexis’s words, the Countess could no longer contain herself and rose from her seat. The Maids attending her hair startled and stepped back. With a dismissive wave of her hand, the Countess sent them from the room, then fixed Alexis with a frigid gaze.
“Are you blaming me for your problems? Yes, that’s exactly like you.”
“Regardless of what anyone says, I am the legitimate child of the Hartwood Marquis and yourself. I cannot control your hatred toward me, your own son, but surely you must uphold your duty as a mother, must you not?”
“What have I failed to do as a mother?”
“Very well. Such words are pointless, so let us abandon this line of discussion.”
Alexis clenched his teeth, his fists tightening. It was always like this. Conversations with his mother were like silent blades exchanged between them, each cutting and wounding the other.
That was precisely why he had taken to wandering outside the Mansion, avoiding her as much as possible. But this matter was something he could not simply overlook.
“No matter how the family forced me into marriage with her as though grafting a beast, she is unquestionably my legitimate wife. You cannot treat my wife with such contempt.”
“How dare you speak such words!”
The Countess Glister shot to her feet. She glared at Alexis with savage intensity—a gaze utterly devoid of maternal warmth, cold as winter frost.
“You are truly vulgar, Alexis!”
The Countess pointed an accusing finger at him.
“You treated your wife as though she were invisible! And when she was cast out to the East Annex, you merely stood by and watched!”
“I may have accepted her being sent to the East Annex, but that does not mean you should leave her to languish in poverty, does it?”
Alexis matched her fury with his own fierce retort.
“This is a blatant affront to me. Regardless of the circumstances, a woman who has formally become my wife should not be left to live more miserably than a servant. What is your intention? It is as though you spit upon my face!”
He showed no sign of backing down on this matter.
“Whether I neglect or disregard my wife is a matter between us as a couple. Both families forced this marriage upon us, did they not? Do not meddle in our marital affairs. Grant her the rights befitting the wife of a Count’s son. If you continue to disrespect her in this manner, and moreover attempt to disrespect me, mark my words well, Mother!”
As Alexis stepped closer to the Countess, his voice carried a dangerous edge, like a low, rumbling growl.
“I will bring shame upon the Glister name itself.”
With nothing more to say, he spun on his heel and strode from the room. The force with which he slammed the door was so tremendous that the very frame seemed to shudder.
“This ungrateful wretch!”
The Countess, momentarily cowed by her son’s ferocity, finally gave vent to her rage. She seized a vase and hurled it to the floor. It shattered with a deafening crash, scattering across the marble. The startled Maids crept in with bated breath to clean up the debris.
The Countess could not quell her fury and seethed with indignation. She tore at her hair, undoing all the careful work the Maids had done. Alexis’s words echoed in her mind.
-I am the legitimate child of the Hartwood Marquis and yourself.
It was true. He was undoubtedly the blood of Count Glister and herself. Her own son, born from her own womb. And yet she could not feel it. Alexis seemed to her like some alien creature, a monster that had merely borrowed her body to enter the world. The reason was simple enough….
‘Because he resembles that woman!’
He was her son, yet he bore no resemblance to her. He was the child she had carried for ten months, yet he had been born bearing the likeness of the woman she despised most in the world.
After giving birth, she had briefly lost consciousness, but when the maids brought her newborn son and she laid eyes on him, she lost consciousness a second time.
Silver hair and violet-blue eyes. There was not a single feature that did not resemble her. My son, born as her spitting image, seemed to mock me. He appeared as the very embodiment of that woman who had used only my womb to be born, as if to insult me. I felt a chill run down my spine.
‘I simply cannot bring myself to love him!’
He was my own son, yet I felt no affection for him! Moreover, just moments ago, he had confronted me because of the existence of that wife whom I did not particularly favor. His very existence was nothing but unfilial ingratitude to the Countess Glister.
‘Cursed child!’
Yet I could no longer refuse his demands.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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