<CHAPTER 01>
“Please don’t drink, Father.”
The girl lying on the bed spoke with a pale face.
“I’m alright.”
Those who watched the child, who continued speaking slowly with a faint smile on her lips, let out sorrowful sighs.
Among them, the man called her father, Duke Mayfield, asked the doctor.
“Albert, is there truly no way?”
“……I’m sorry.”
Noticing his father’s eyes growing redder, the child stretched out her pale, thin hand toward him.
“I really am fine. I won’t die from something like this. Cough, cough!”
Her voice, soft and gentle like an angel’s, eventually scattered into light coughs.
“Leila, my child. You don’t have to try so hard to reassure me.”
Leila, who had been coughing repeatedly as she raised her body, asked as if she didn’t understand.
“………………What do you mean?”
“I know you’re trying to ease my worries. But Leila, it’s alright for you to act as you usually do.”
At the sorrowful voice, Leila’s brows twitched.
“As usual? What was I like usually?”
“……When something displeased you, you would often throw things….”
“Excuse me?”
Though her voice lowered as she asked back, the Duke failed to notice and continued tearfully.
“You would lash out at your playmates, telling them never to show themselves before you again!”
“You would ask the kitchen for snacks, only to send them all back saying you didn’t like them! And because you’d act prickly even when making eye contact, you were called the ‘little devil of the ducal house’!”
The surrounding servants, who had been subtly nodding, rolled their eyes nervously while watching the Duke.
They hadn’t known that the Duke was aware of the nickname used for Leila.
Because of that, the corners of Leila’s lips, which had been maintaining a smile, trembled.
“Even if you throw a tantrum saying you hate this father… it’s all alright! ……………It’s all alright.”
The Duke crouched down to meet Leila’s eye level and held her small hand.
“Even so, my love for you—my only daughter—will never change, Leila. Rather, I just wish that at least in the end, you can be at ease….”
Among the servants watching the Duke, who couldn’t continue due to the tears welling up, the sound of sobbing spread.
In particular, Phoebe, Leila’s personal maid, was crying loudly with a handkerchief in her mouth.
In such a sorrowful and warm atmosphere, the only one remaining cold was Leila.
As if holding something back, she wore a subtle expression before gently pulling her hand away from her father’s grasp and speaking.
“I’ve told you again and again. I’m really not that sick… Cough, cough!”
However, her words, like a small act of defiance, failed to finish once again.
Blood flowed down beneath the hand she had raised to cover her mouth.
“Albert! Do something at once!”
At the sight of blood staining the sheets, the Duke was horrified, and the room quickly became chaotic as the servants moved in unison.
Having lost all persuasiveness once again, Leila simply lay back down on the bed with a resigned expression.
‘Even if I cough up some blood… I’m not going to die!’
Pulling the blanket tightly up, she rolled her eyes around to observe her surroundings before secretly letting out a deep sigh.
Leila Mayfield, the only daughter of a ducal house, suffering from an incurable disease at the mere age of eight.
She had only tried to become a kind child… yet she was being treated like someone terminally ill.
Not long ago, I had a dream.
To be precise, a prophetic dream.
An ordinary child would cry after having such a frightening dream and soon forget it, but I am not such a foolish child.
It must have been a lesson given to me by God.
“Get out! I don’t even want to see your face!”
“Do you think you’re some kind of saint? Don’t be mistaken, Isabella. That’s hypocrisy.”
In the dream, I had grown into an adult not much different from now.
A frail woman who could die at any moment, irritable, vicious, and incapable of expressing emotions properly…
In that dream, I pushed away my father’s affection and personally tormented the friend who had once been precious to me.
Even the husband who had remained by my side was treated carelessly as well.
‘And in the end, I was poisoned to death by the husband who had grown sick and tired of me.’
If there was any silver lining in that misfortune, it was that I didn’t die from illness but was killed.
Being murdered is still terrible, but at least it proved that I wouldn’t die from the disease.
‘There’s something else that bothers me, though…’
There was someone who faintly came to mind.
I didn’t know who it was, but golden eyes looking at me lingered vividly.
‘Since I forgot about that person right after waking up, they must not have been that important.’
In any case, after waking from that long and vivid dream, I was certain.
‘If I grow up like this, I’m doomed!’
If I don’t fix my personality and start living kindly even now, I’ll face the future I saw in that dream.
I would grow into a typical villain and die as if paying for my sins.
‘I don’t want that kind of future.’
So from that day on, I decided to change.
But… was my method wrong?
“Phoebe.”
“Did you call for me, Miss?”
“How do I become a kind child?”
“……Pardon?!”
Phoebe’s face, unable to hide her shock at my question—
And.
“Thank you for taking care of me all this time, Father.”
“I’m sorry for being mean just because I was sick. I couldn’t say it before, but I’m always grateful… I love you.”
My father’s stunned expression as he spilled his tea while staring at me was still vivid.
‘Ever since then, he’s been treating me like a terminal patient who has realized something…’
Was the change too sudden?
Embarrassingly, I had been a child who never cared about others’ opinions at all until now.
If I were to make an excuse, I truly believed I would die soon.
A frail constitution resembling my late mother’s.
And a disease with neither known cause nor cure…
Recently, my condition had worsened, and even my physician said he couldn’t guarantee how long I would live.
‘But now it’s different. I have a future.’
In the dream, I had clearly become an adult.
Whatever the illness was, it hadn’t driven me to death.
So I will change.
I will become a kind and ordinary daughter, not the ‘little devil of the ducal house.’
And I’ll survive, do everything I want, and grow old before dying!
As I clenched my fists and made that resolution, a knock sounded from outside the door along with a voice.
“Leila, it’s me. Joshua. May I come in?”
At the slightly trembling voice, I slowly lowered my fists and looked at the door.
The one calling me was my future husband who would kill me—and for now, just a young boy, Joshua.
He was the son of my physician, Albert Benson, and if I had to define our relationship, he was my childhood friend.
‘Though he’s the one who follows me around unilaterally!’
Anyway, to put it simply, he was Target Number One in my plan to eliminate my bad karma.
I don’t know why Joshua married me or why he ended our relationship in such a way.
I had only seen the future with my eyes; I couldn’t read hearts.
But at least I know clearly what I must do.
‘Treat Joshua kindly so he doesn’t hate me, and don’t marry him when we grow up!’
All I have to do is act the exact opposite of the worst situations I saw in the dream.
“Leila? Is something wrong?”
While I was making my resolution, the door carefully opened.
A boy with sunlight-like golden hair and blue eyes appeared, holding a bouquet as big as his face.
“Thank goodness… You didn’t answer, so I thought something had happened.”
As if he had been worrying alone, tears were already welling up in his eyes.
“Sorry. Did you wait long? Come sit over here.”
I smiled brightly and patted the spot beside me.
But then…
“Leila… are you… are you really very sick?”
Startled, Joshua trembled before bursting into loud sobs.
What on earth did I do to make him cry already?
‘Living kindly really isn’t easy!’
