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"Dolores!" Empress Cayetana cried out. "I told that I would take care of everything if you just sat still! Why were you so impatient?! That was a disgrace!"

"Please leave," said Dolores. "Ever since I was little, you have told me countless times to be patient. So I waited, like an obedient daughter, taking your word as scripture, Mother... So how could I have possibly known that you had been covering my eyes and ears, questioning how anyone could dare reject your beautiful daughter when, behind my back, you had made sure that my name would be looked down on and trampled by countless worthless men?"

"There was nothing I did not do for you, Dolores. You do not know to what lengths I-"

"I could not be more humiliated at being so unaware! I have to laugh at myself hundreds and thousands of times every day. Do you know how awful that feels? Could the noble daughter of Admiral Calderon possibly imagine what it is like to crawl along the lowest, dirtiest level of society? You are too good to know how I feel!"

Who in the world-which rotten wretch told this weak-hearted child such things?! Gritting her teeth, Empress Cayetana crossed the messy room to grab a hold of Dolores's trembling arm. Her daughter jumped and pulled away, looking appalled. Cayetana was speechless.

Dolores had recently found out that the matter of her marriage had been floating around the seventeen houses of the Grandes de Ortega for over ten years now, and that, to her utter humiliation, every one of them had immediately rejected her as a daughter-in-law. She had also realized that the only reason for this was her shameful surname. There was a curse upon her name whenever it was recorded anywhere, which was an unthinkable fact in the comfortable world her stepmother had created for her.

She was a Signorelli-a child cursed by God. Dolores had always laughed at the unfortunate souls who were illegitimate children such as herself, but who had never been blessed by fortune themselves, thinking that she did not share a name with them.

"Oh! It wasn't just Miguel Escalante, it turns out. All those sly wenches who admired me and envied me, as if I were a real princess, and kept their eyes on the ground like obedient dogs whenever I spoke. Even those pathetic men who always treated me like I was royalty! They all knew. They all knew that I was so far beneath them that I did not even deserve to lick their boots."

"You are not beneath anyone, Dolores..."

"Just look at me, Mother. Look at me! I could not even compete against that pathetic girl Viviana, already dead and gone. She was such a nobody that

I did not want to spend any time with her, but I could not even become a replacement for her when she was suddenly gone. Are you aware of that?" Dolores grabbed and threw down the bracelet that Cayetana had gifted her in the past. "That worthless Miguel Escalante who is nothing if his hero of a brother does not die at war-he drove me away because he prefers Viviana's ghost over someone like me!"

"Miguel was just-"

"And look what became of me! The whole world thinks that I jumped at the chance to marry the man as soon as that pathetic girl died, clinging onto that madman and waiting for him to choose me, only to be cast aside. All that after telling everyone about it, as if it would prevent him from rejecting me."

"Yes, that was my mistake. I was too impatient and thought it would be a good opportunity for you..."

"A good opportunity?! It isn't just Viviana and Miguel. All those young ladies I looked down on, who I did not think worthy of presence, went and married the young lords I also considered far beneath me." While Dolores tried to sound arrogant, her angelic face was drenched in tears. The trembling that had started at her fingertips now spread to her whole body.

Empress Cayetana looked at her with pitying concern, anxiously chewing on her inner lip.

"I am utterly humiliated by all those times I strutted before them, thinking myself the emperor's only daughter... I am so ashamed that I want to die. I feel like I am the world's greatest fool. Even the lowly attendants of the courts I ordered around are better than me, a Signorelli. Even the maid who washes my underwear does not bear such a cursed name!"

"Who dared to say such things, Dolores?! Who was it -Who dared to call you by that name to your face?!"

"Someone much more honest than you, Mother. They told me so that I would no longer live like an oblivious fool."

"Stop covering for them and tell me their names. I will have them punished immediately. Dolores, please..."

"Everyone must have mocked me all along. They all bowed down to me only to laugh at me behind my back..."

"They bowed down to you because they knew you were my daughter."

"You mean the empress's authority they all forgot about as soon as marriage was on the table?"

"Dolores!"

Dolores shrieked in dismay and ran over to the window as though she could no longer take it. Her ladies-in-waiting blanched and scrambled to chase after her.

Cayetana had a hand at her own throat to try and help her stifled breathing. She then lowered her head for a moment when the ladies-in-waiting managed to grab Dolores, halfway out the window, and drag her back into the room.

"Signorelli! Dolores Signorelli!" Dolores wailed. "Why did you keep it from me? Why did you not tell me early on so I would know my place? Why did you treat a lowly bastard child like your own daughter?!"

"Are you doubting my love for you now?"

"I may have received your grace, but I was born with such a lowly status that I ought to live accordingly. If it were not for you, who knows whether I might have been sold off to a brothel, giving my body to scoundrels? I did what I did because I no longer wish to lean on you, Mother, and because I do not want to be so greedy anymore. I wanted to find a husband for myself before I turn too old, so that I can sell myself for the highest price to a drunkard who isn't decrepit..."

"I raised you like my own daughter, despite the fact that we do not share even a drop of blood. How dare you speak to me that way?! After the disgrace you committed against Count Almenara in such a drunk state!"

"You raised me like your own daughter and cherished me, you say! But you were the one who doomed me with the name Signorelli!"

Unable to control her anger any longer, Cayetana slapped Dolores's cheek. "It was your damned birth mother who made you a Signorelli and threatened the imperial family to throw you out into the streets!

It was the fault of your father, who constantly copulated with women like an animal in heat! Not I!"

"But you were the one who could have saved me, Mother... I am not a son and would not have threatened Oscar in any way. You said that you grew to love me when I was just a babe. That you treasured me as though you had given birth to me yourself. If you loved me that much, why did you leave me at the very bottom of society?"

Cayetana did not reply.

"You were everything to me, Mother... His Majesty never treated me like his daughter. You were the only one I could trust... But if you were not going to recognize me as your own, why did you take me in? You should have left me to starve out on the streets!"

"I did not think I would grow to love you so. I never expected to cherish you so much. How can anyone know the future? I regret it all myself... so please, Dolores..." Empress Cayetana gently caressed Dolores's reddened cheek.

"Please leave." Dolores pushed away her mother's hand.

As Cayetana stood there in shock, unable to believe that her stepdaughter would regard her with such hostility, Dolores shattered a vase on the floor and cried out.

Only then did the empress's hand fumble in the air for a moment before grabbing hold of her lady-in-waiting's arm and leaving Dolores's room in a hurry.

She gasped when she found Inés standing outside the door with an awkward expression on her face. "Oh... I called for you earlier, didn't I. Things did not go to plan."

"I do not mind, Your Majesty. But you seem pale..."

Cayetana held back a bitter smile. She realized Inés had kept anyone from announcing her arrival because of the commotion she must have heard from outside; unable to leave after being summoned by the empress, she must have stood by the door all this time. In other words, she had to have overheard the whole humiliating situation: the noble Cayetana Valenza who had raised her husband's illegitimate child being treated so terribly by the ungrateful girl.

The empress staggered a little, unable to hide the shame on her face. Inés dismissed the lady-in-waiting who had been steadying her and took her place as if it were her duty.

Empress Cayetana grasped her arm with a trembling hand and said, "I wished for that girl to finally receive some help from you today, but... she is in such a fretful state that she cannot speak with anyone."

"That does seem to be the case."

"I could not be more humiliated... Please do not tell anyone..."

"You know that I would never divulge such things to anyone, so please, try to breathe easy." Inés stroked her back with a nonchalant expression and threw a glance at the ladies-in-waiting following them. "Regina will return to the room and look after Dolores. Do not worry about her." 

Regina Merillo quietly slipped away from the other ladies-in-waiting and returned to Dolores's room.

"As if I would worry about that ungrateful girl," Cayetana grumbled.

"You do sincerely feel guilty about her, don't you? Even though, from an outsider's perspective like mine, all you did was to kindly take in the poor illegitimate child of your husband. The child that her father did not even cherish, I might add. You protected her with your sense of responsibility and a love that awed the whole world." Inés smiled faintly as she felt the empress weakly lean against her.

"At first, simply looking at her felt horrific, but slowly she began to make me smile. I pitied her too... Her own father did not care a lick for her, after all."

The fact that she had elicited pity from the Empress Cayetana for the very first time meant that baby Dolores had achieved something remarkable. But she had then paraded around for over twenty years based on that achievement alone, and now that she was no longer as cute as a baby, she needed to act her age. And as much as Cayetana pitied the daughter that the emperor cared nothing for, she would have, in turn, driven her away at once if her husband had shown the girl even a hint of love. To her, Dolores was a piteous girl only she could save, and who also happened to be useful.

"Who on earth could have whispered such useless words in her ear? I must find out who dared to tell Dolores such things..." The empress ground her teeth.

"She resembles you, Your Majesty, so she is always surrounded by people. As old as Dolores is now, it was only a matter of time for her to find out."

"But she is completely ruined! My Dolores..." Cayetana covered her face with her free hand. She could never have imagined that among those who dared to tell her daughter the truth was her loyal lady-in-waiting Regina and behind her the kind-hearted Inés.

"She is not ruined at all. Dolores has simply lost her way temporarily," Inés consoled her.

"After all I have done for her... how could she be so ungrateful? God is heartless... who else can I rely on? I am simply exhausted, Inés. Really..."

"I understand."

Inés had driven apart this ridiculous pair much sooner than she ever had. She had made the subordinates they trusted or even treated like dogs hear their story one by one. It was a more reliable method, and would be much more humiliating for them once they found out.

The empress, who had always looked so beautiful, had begun to look so haggard when someone had presented evidence that her brother, Duke Escalante, was plotting a rebellion in order to make her son ascend to the throne sooner. The evidence was all very weak, but the fact that rebellion had been mentioned was significant, and his name had already been dragged through the mud. The fact that the crown prince was his nephew only made it all sound more plausible.

The despicable emperor had then gathered the Imperial Council and raised this issue, meaning that the empress had to suppress her faction she had been wielding so confidently before. She was worried that her imperious actions would reflect badly on her son. She had then endured the test her side of the family was put under along with them, and her solution to not letting the eldest son of House Escalante die at war had been to force her wicked stepdaughter on Miguel.

In Cayetana's eyes, Dolores was not wicked at all, of course, so her sincere wish to help her family could not be downplayed. However, just as Isabella had said, the empress was unwilling to admit that her brother might cherish someone other than her precious son. That was why she had tried to wield her heartbroken nephew like a piece on a chessboard. But in the process, she had achieved nothing but an unprecedented rift between her and her cherished daughter. In the end, with Cárcel going to war, the marriage talks were canceled and the relationship between mother and daughter only deteriorated.

Regina Merillo really had a knack for causing chaos. Just as Inés, who had at first ordered her not to do anything stupid, felt that it was the right time and gave her approval, Dolores had begun to break down. The girl was losing her mind beyond their wildest expectations, even displaying an incredible obsession with Miguel Escalante.

The war that had seemed to be nothing but a ploy to destroy the successor of House Escalante had turned into a miracle. The world now praised the name of Escalante, and no one expected the empress to have any worries now. She was incredibly fortunate for having such an amazing nephew, after all.

However, her reality was a series of days like this one. She did not have the time to invite her people and enjoy herself in luxury. At the opening ceremony, she had nearly lost her one and only brother, and as he still was not recovering, she fought with her husband every day for treating her brother so poorly. The time she had spent quietly enduring his tests was over.

The lover that Cayetana had cherished most had been arrested for breach of trust and taken away from her as soon as she had managed to get him a position in the court after years of him begging her to. Her brother, who had worried her for so long and was now finally recovering, refused to see her for some unknown reason, making her as anxious as a child who had suddenly lost its parents, now that her reliable sibling who had always defended her no matter what, only ever sighing to show his disapproval, was no longer there for her.

She had not gotten anywhere despite the countless favors and gifts she had sent to House Escalante, keeping a wary eye on Isabella. Cayetana had given Miguel all kinds of good positions and continuously praised Inés as if she were afraid that her brother might cut her off entirely, but it never lasted long. At the same time, her beloved son was acting like a broken carriage, unable to move on, and her only refuge, her lovely stepdaughter, now threw a tantrum every day and despised her after finding out the secret of her identity.

Ironically, Cayetana was more concerned about Dolores than her precious son Oscar. She could not believe that the child she had raised to practically become a younger version of herself had gotten drunk and publicly proposed to the elderly Count Almenara. Because of all this, the empress had no time to notice what was happening to her son.

Oscar's madness was the most unproblematic issue going on in her life right now. He was overshadowed by Dolores's hysterics, which made him look almost sane. Things were going exactly as Inés had hoped.