Chapter 159

Broken (6)

“No, Sister, what are you doing!” Dandelion jumped up and his chair tumbled over. His clenched fists trembled. “Even if my sister hadn’t put my brother in jail. Even if my sister usually just flattered her husband…”

Lily felt a burning sensation wherever she breathed, as if she had vomited gastric juice from an empty stomach.

Despair struck Dandelion’s face at his helpless sister’s reaction. He was resentful. “Brother told me to like you. Brother has a slightly different personality, but you know it too. Brother really loves you… So I’m asking you to do something!”

“Sorry, Dandelion.”

His shattered heart jumped out in prayer.

She lifted her head, suppressing her feelings of wanting to give up. He had the same face as her. She saw her younger brother standing as if he was about to burst into tears.

Poor child. A child as if his heart was being ripped apart just by looking directly at her face.

She had to speak now. “Because I’m not enough. Because I’m your sister. I’m sorry, Dandelion, for ruining your life…”

Dandelion swallowed.

Lily’s lips trembled.

She clasped her face with trembling hands. She couldn’t face him. “You were in a mess because of me, but my life is also ruined. Let’s stop now. Dandelion. No more… I can’t.”

Dandelion was sweating profusely and trembling. After making a muffled sound as his mouth stiffened, he managed to catch up, “I do not know what you mean. Sister, what did you…”

“Now, I… I hate you so much. I don’t think I can continue this. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Do you hate me? Sister?”

The words echoed like the ringing of tinnitus.

Now, to me… How dare you say that.

“Yes.” Lily raised her head from her hands, pained but not tearful. Green eyes that looked alike stared at each other. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

That their father sent Rocus. And…

“What did Tristan do? As you know…”

She couldn’t ignore it any longer.

The prostitutes that Vlad had ordered Talin to handle were seized in Cadis. The women who were maids of the former marriage…

Those words Rocus said in prison.

[If that was the case, Dandelion should have been put in prison. He did many bad things too. Huh? Are you going to punish him here?]

Dandelion’s reaction changed as if he knew everything.

[Unlike Brother, I really just went out to play.]

The whole situation grabbed his head and forced him to look straight ahead.

Dandelion’s head went white and his breath stopped. He seemed to forget how to exhale, and his lungs seemed to be broken.

“How could you do that….”

His thinking was completely hardened. Without a doubt, his head was spinning. “N-no. When you first got married, I was very worried. But Father and Rocus said it was all right, and the Isles said it was a good thing. Therefore…”

The dam that her hand was stopping eventually collapsed inside Lily.

Her resentment exploded in her stomach and boiled down. “You know, Dandelion…” She thought that all misfortunes were self-reinforcing, so she shouldn’t have dared to embrace those feelings. She pulled her words out as if possessed by her resentment, “I was like a worm. Twice in my marriage… I was like a worm that only deserved rotten food.”

The low-pitched voice was even more terrifying.

“I thought it was because I was a commoner. That attitude of people that turned cold without warning…”

She was married and treated like a dirty commoner.

“I wanted to take responsibility. You, more than anyone else. It was me who made you unhappy.  I…”

A relationship in which resentment and guilt were half-melted so that they could no longer be distinguished.

A relationship that had become even more irreversible.

Lily had to end the relationship now. “I really loved and cared for you. That…” She stopped the tears that were about to pour out and swallowed them. She knew the pain would make her suffocate. Rather, she chose to cover it. “I’m sorry.”

She turned her head away from Dandelion.

“N-no. no!” Dandelion ran to her. He knelt down in front of her sister and gripped the hem of her skirt. His eyes were all blurry. “You can’t do this. If you leave me, I, we have nothing! Father only hates the two of us. We must not abandon each other, Sister. I mean…!”

Lily slapped his hands away.

Dandelion stiffened as if his cheek had been hit. The cruelty of his older sister he saw for the first time cut his soul to pieces.

“I don’t have anyone from the Isles anymore. There is someone who needs me more than you, Dandelion. For me… It looks like it.”

She turned her head and got up.

Her chair wobbled, and then it fell to the floor relentlessly.

“I will forgive you for what you did with Rocus. This is the last thing I can do.” The cold, insensitive green eyes looked down at her bewildered brother. “Goodbye. Dandelion.”

Lily let out a small sigh and turned around.

The door shut behind her with a finality.