“I never thought I would have to ask this, but you’re not secretly mistreating Mel, are you?”

In the coldest part of the middle of winter, the day after her older brother Patrick’s birthday party, Melissa was called along with her brother to their father’s office. There, her father asked her with a voice as cold as the air outside the window.

When their father mentioned “Mel,” he was referring to Amelia, not Melissa.

“Towards the end of yesterday’s party, Miss Jacqueline privately came to me and Patrick to talk about Mel and then left,” their father said. “She mentioned that sometimes when talking to Mel, she suddenly becomes despondent and withdrawn. Even when asked what was bothering her, Mel wouldn’t answer. Mel talks about me, father, and grandmother, but avoids talking about Melissa. Miss Jacqueline also mentioned something about the first time she met Mel at a tea party. There were rumors that Melissa might be losing her engagement to Prince Christopher, and Miss Jacqueline was concerned, wondering if Mel was being affected by something.”

With sharp questioning from both her father and brother, Melissa was unable to think clearly.

“I’ve never mistreated Amelia.”

Later, Melissa regretted not having said that Amelia was the one isolating her behind the scenes, but at the time, she could only respond with a trembling voice.

“We questioned Mel’s maidservants and they said there was no such thing,” her father continued. “As for the tea party incident, mother said it was because Mel was nervous. Mel has only been with us for less than a year after losing her parents. She’s doing better now, but when she first arrived, her emotional state was unstable. Miss Jacqueline’s concern about Mel’s instability is probably due to the loss of her parents.”

So her father said. But why, even though they knew Melissa was innocent, were they still questioning her like this?

“However, grandmother said that Melissa spoke ill of Mel.”

At these words from her brother, Melissa regretted consulting with her grandmother after the tea party. She had trusted her and confided in her, only for it to come back like this. Her father continued to question her, his expression still cold.

“What is it that you dislike about Mel?”

It wasn’t that she disliked Amelia. What angered her was her own inability to handle someone like Amelia. It was heartbreaking that her father, brother, and grandmother no longer paid attention to her. It was unbelievable to Melissa that they saw Amelia—who only resembled her mother, Vanessa, in hair and eye color—as a replacement for her beloved mother.

True, Melissa agreed that Amelia was bright and always smiling, just like her mother. But her mother was someone who would actively speak to anyone excluded from a conversation and change the topic to something they could understand. Her mother never changed her opinions depending on the person; she was always vocal about what she thought. And if someone dear to her did something wrong, her mother would point it out, thinking of that person’s best interests.

Melissa couldn’t help but notice that Amelia’s inner self was completely different from her mother’s. But still, her father, brother, and grandmother—who doted on Amelia as if she were a replacement for their mother—made Melissa question if they truly loved her mother after all.

Her father and brother glared at her without a word, and the conversation ended there.

From that day on, a clear rift was formed between Melissa and her father, brother, grandmother, and Amelia. They stopped talking unless it was absolutely necessary.