episode_0087

[Episode 87] – Choice

Looking up at my mother, her smile seemed a little bitter.

The mother, who said she would sort out her thoughts before the ‘prom’, seemed to have sorted out her thoughts to some extent, but she still seemed to be wandering between her wishes and greed.

Elise watched Trisha, conflicted between her mother’s ‘wish’ for her and her sisters to get married and have children and her mother’s ‘greed’ for not wanting to leave us.

I feel sorry for my mother who is in conflict, but even if she chooses ‘Wish’ after much thought, I have no intention of following it. This thought was the same for me and my sisters as well.

When I first talked to my mother, I clearly told her that I wouldn’t just wait around. I would try to make my mother ‘greedy’ and choose us.

‘It’s a wedding… dress.’

Elise blinked as if it was a good idea. While Lily and Sylvia came out to measure the dress, Elise lay on Trisha’s lap, lost in deep thought.

Something like imagining yourself in a wedding dress roughly licking the inside of your mother’s beautiful wedding dress. Yeah, that sounds good. No, it sounds really good.

“Elise..? What are you thinking?”

“…It’s nothing, Sister Lily.”

Lily looked down at Elise, who was lying on Trisha’s lap with a sinister smile on her face. Honestly, the smile on Elise’s face just now was a little too unpleasant for Lily to see.

Elise, who had been sitting up awkwardly at Lily’s strange gaze, cleared her throat loudly. Then she jumped up from the sofa and headed towards Bobby, who was talking to Catherine.

Then, muttering, Elise started telling Bobby and Catherine something, and Bobby was startled and screamed as if he was going to jump up at any moment.

“This is impossible! There’s not enough time! There’s not enough materials! You know there’s only two weeks left until the ball, right?! You don’t even have enough time to make the dress you were originally planning on making?! But that..!”

“Catherine? You really can’t do it?”

“Excuse me?! I’m the one making the dress?! Why are you asking Catherine?!”

Catherine stroked her chin as if she was thinking after hearing Elise’s story. Then she just rolled her eyes and looked at Trisha, who was talking to Sylvia. Trisha in a wedding dress…

Honestly, I had no choice but to admit this. Elise was the only one who was superior to me in this kind of perverted aspect. I felt like applauding myself for being able to imagine such things while looking at my mother.

Catherine couldn’t help but stick out her tongue at Elise’s imagination, not only in the ‘plan’ that Elise had suggested to her, but also in the last minute when she suggested Trisha’s wedding dress.

“Can you do it?”

Catherine smiled with the corners of her eyes wide, then grabbed Bobby’s shoulders and said, her tone soft, but it was almost like a threat. Upon hearing the threat, Bobby jumped up and screamed.

“It’s impossible!! It’s impossible!! It’s impossible!! You know that right?! It usually takes half a year at the longest to a month at the shortest to make a dress!! It’s hard enough to be ordered to make it in two weeks, but how can you make that dress…! Ugh! Ugh-!”

Catherine covered Barbie’s mouth as she tried to say ‘wedding dress’, then met her eyes and smiled faintly. It was a quiet threat to Trisha to be careful with her words in front of her.

“If there’s anything missing, just tell me and I’ll fill it in right away. Okay?”

“Everything is lacking…”

Catherine smiled faintly and took her hand off Bobby’s mouth, pretending to listen to Bobby’s sobbing voice. If you’re short on manpower, you can just gather people, and if you’re short on materials, you can just buy them.

‘This is what money is for.’

Realizing that protesting would be useless, Barbie hung her head and trudged into the store. The employees who had been secretly listening to Barbie and Catherine’s conversation had similar expressions on their faces.

The despair of having to make up to five wedding dresses in two weeks, the agony of not being able to sleep at all, the agony of having to work and live in the store for the time being…

“Of course, if we finish this job properly, we’ll give all employees a bonus. The amount I’ve thought about is… about three times your regular salary? Plus, I’ll give you a long vacation after the ball.”

“I’ll really work hard! Catherine! Really, really!”

The moment Catherine finished announcing her bonus, the atmosphere in the store instantly heated up. Even the employees who had been staring at death until just now began to move their bodies in a hurry after hearing Catherine’s words.

Trisha, startled by the sudden loud shouts and excitement from the staff, looked at Catherine as if asking what was wrong, but Catherine just smiled and shrugged as if nothing had happened.

“Suddenly the store… What’s going on?”

“Nothing, I just thought… This is what money is for.”

“Yes?”

Trisha looked at Catherine as if she had no idea what she was talking about, then quickly turned her attention away, thinking, “Catherine said it was nothing.”

“Come to think of it, is there nothing more for kids to do?”

“Yeah, I measured the numbers too… I’m done with today’s work.”

“…Thank you.”

When Trisha expressed her sincere gratitude, Catherine waved her hand, saying it was nothing. This time, she worked hard to get the materials for a week, and it cost more money than she thought, so it was nothing…

Catherine turned her head and looked at Lily, Sylvia, and Elise sitting on the sofa talking. The children looked happy and Trisha looked happy, so it felt like the fatigue from the week was melting away like bubbles.

As I watched Trisha chatting happily with the children, Trisha smiled brightly and clapped her hands once, drawing everyone’s attention to her.

“Then, shall we all go out to eat together today? This is the first time we’ve all been downtown together. Let’s eat something delicious and then go home.”

“Is that okay?”

“Well, today is a good day.”

Trisha patted Lily’s head as she looked at her with sparkling eyes. Come to think of it, it really didn’t seem like the whole family had ever gone out to eat together before.

Although there was a skilled chef dispatched from the count’s family waiting to be served at the mansion, eating out still had its own pleasures. Especially in this day and age when eating out was not common.

Trisha sat up on the sofa, straightening her hunched back and raising her arms to the top of her head. Her body was stiff from waiting for the kids.

“Okay, then, shall we start?”

Then, he first held out his hand to Sylvia and told her to get up. Sylvia gently placed her hand on Trisha’s outstretched hand and smiled slightly.

It was a smile full of respect and love.

Then the second time, he held out his hand to Lily and told her to get up. Lily let out a hehe laugh and placed her hand on Trisha’s outstretched hand, holding on tightly and getting up.

It was a smile full of affection and love.

Then the third time, he held out his hand to Elise and told her to get up. Elise smiled leisurely and intertwined her hand with Trisha’s.

It was a laughter filled with obsession and lust.

And then, finally, he held out his hand to Catherine and told her to get up.

“Me too?”

“Aren’t you going? I’m going to buy it today.”

Catherine smiled, arching her eyes, and took Trisha’s outstretched hand.

Thank you for reaching out.

It was a smile filled with love that said she would never let go of this hand again.

*

After that, things went on as usual in the mansion.

As if nothing had changed, just as usual.

Every day, I laughed and ate with everyone, and lived with everyone.

The children continued to attend Catherine’s classes in the mornings on weekdays, and continued their Lover’s Day in the afternoons. Despite Trisha’s desperate pleas that it be okay to stop, Catherine shook her head.

When Trisha asked Catherine why she continued to do Valentine’s Day, Catherine simply said it was for “fairness”, saying that if they didn’t do it, the kids would definitely fight each other.

Trisha was speechless at that answer. It was an answer that made sense to her for some reason, so she just sighed and accepted Valentine’s Day.

Life continued as usual.

Mondays were spent with Lily, Wednesdays with Sylvia, Fridays with Elise, and one day during the weekend with Catherine. But it wasn’t like every day was full of dirty deeds.

I read books with Lily, walked in the garden with Sylvia, cooked with Elise, and even learned a musical instrument from Catherine to take up a new hobby.

It was truly a life no different from usual.

A life so enjoyable that you don’t even notice how time passes.

Time passes and passes like that.

Eventually, that day came quickly.

A day when Trisha must choose between her ‘wish’ and her ‘greed’.

The long-awaited day of the palace ball has arrived.