The Unpleasant Past

She was close with only one person who was blood-related to her.

— her mother.

As a young child, her father seemed too cold, strict, and scary. He cared more about grades and what she had accomplished physically more than her feelings.

He only seemed to show emotion when he was with Mother.

Mother was a warm and caring lady. She smelled like fresh grass and loved irises. She was strong-willed and never backed down when she wanted to do something. She was like a heroine from the fairy tale stories, and Eyrie adored her.

She wanted to be just like her mother when she grew up.

So when she died, Eyrie had been devastated. She cried for days and shut herself in her room. 'It was an inevitable death' was what the doctors said, and even in this life, she couldn't stop her mother's death no matter what she did.

On her mother's funeral, she had desperately grabbed ahold of her father — who had just given an emotional and touching speech — for some much-needed comfort, only to be met with an icy cold gaze.

"Why are you crying? It is useless."

Without another word, he shook off her arm and walked away, as if the person lying under the tombstone wasn't his wife, as if he wasn't the one that gave that passionate speech just moments ago.

At that moment, Eyrie only felt confused.

But when she saw how he worked like he usually did, without any changes; and saw how he acted the same way he did before without any emotion, she began to slowly develop an intense hatred for her father.

If people didn't know for a fact that Mother died, then those people would've never guessed that Mr. Rochester had recently buried his wife.

Eyrie realized later on that the emotional speech given at the funeral was for political goals; and this just fueled her loathing even more.

He didn't care about her or Mother.

He didn't care at all.

The only things he cared about were the profits.

Eyrie could not seek comfort from her other family members either. Carol, her younger sister, was too young to understand the impact of Mother's death. To this day, she only had blurred memories of her.

As for Carlos?

Eyrie hated him.

He was the second most hated person in her life.

From the very beginning, if it weren't for his existence, Mother wouldn't have died. It was because of giving birth to him that she died.

Why did Mother have to die? It wasn't fair.

And Carlos was completely oblivious to his role in her death. He always laughed so innocently and happily.

It annoyed her.

Father made sure that no one was to talk about Mother's death in front of his precious child.

Eyrie truly hated this pair of father and son. Hated them.

Since then, Eyrie withdrew herself from her family and solely focused on developing connections outside.

She rarely came home before ten into the night, and even when she did, she refused to see her family members.

Eyrie understood that this line of action is childish and rude, but she couldn't help it.

She decided to move out as soon as she could, right after she came of age.

At that time, Eyrie had fallen in love with a man two years older than her, a person she met in university. He was the only person she felt understood her, and she tried her best to bring him happiness.

Not even a year into their relationship, she brought up the topic of marriage. To her delight, he readily agreed. Eyrie immediately bought a townhouse for them in joy on the opposite side of the city, where some of her best friends lived.

Eyrie never told her family about her secret marriage; only saying to her father that she would move out since she is officially an adult. Her father agreed with the condition that she would visit home at least once every year.

She imagined at the time that even if he knew about her secret endeavors, for sure he would not speak of them.

In the marriage, it was agreed that Eyrie would act as a housewife while her husband worked. Despite what they agreed on though, Eyrie received over 10 times the amount of money than her husband did — from her allowance each month. She would often go partying with her friends or attending other popular events in the area.

Everything was calm for the following two years; Eyrie visited the Rochester family twice and experienced a passionate romance on the other side of the city.

The third year after marriage, however, was full of misfortune.

In that time, Eyrie had birthed a child who had green eyes, to her horror.

Eyrie was constantly reminded of her family whenever she saw those eyes. Why couldn't the child have her gray eyes or her husband's brown eyes? Why did he have to have GREEN eyes? And such a vibrant green at that, she always thought this whenever she saw the child.

As a result, although she raised him dutifully, she always made sure to keep her distance from the child and treated him with as few emotions as possible.

But that was only the start.

In that year, her marriage with her husband was exposed.

The scandal of how General Rochester, one of the most influential men in Country, had a daughter that secretly married a poor man and even had a child with him, blew up overnight.

Eyrie and her father had a huge fight later that night. It turned out that he didn't know about her marriage. He only thought that she had been in a regular relationship with him.

It was a matter of the reputation of the Rochester family and the humiliation he suffered. It was also about the uselessness of the marriage. He didn't care about how his daughter loved that man and openly denounced him.

Now, Eyrie winced as she remembered that night.

Though it wasn't exactly all bad either. When she ran out crying from her father's office, she had bumped into Fei and Carlos. At first, Eyrie had wanted to avoid the pair, but Fei had reached out to her with a handkerchief.

As she recalled the past, Eyrie smiled.

In her past life, perhaps it wasn't her husband that had saved her from her loneliness. Instead, it was probably Fei.

In this life, would it be the same?

No, Eyrie shook her head.

The future has already changed paths. I didn't fall in love with him in this life. In fact, I haven't even seen that bastard yet.

I will build a stronger relationship with my family, though it is a little late.

Now that I found a source of hope, I won't ever make the same mistakes that I made before.

Never.