Chapter 52
“What? You will not take responsibility for what you did?” Catarina scoffed. “Who else is the cheap sister of mine who stared longingly at my blue sapphire necklace last night?”
Sydnee’s brow raised at what Catarina said. She just wanted to grab snacks in the kitchen, but Catarina blocked her and accused her of stealing a blue sapphire necklace that the second prince gave to the girl.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she flatly denied and walked pass by her. She just took a step forward when her hair was grabbed from behind. “H-Hey, let go!”
“You deny it, huh? Thief! Give me back my necklace!”
Sydnee’s scalp went numb from Catarina’s tugging. She pushed the girl away, but she yelped when Catarina held her hair tightly, not letting it go even for a second. A mouthful of curse came out from her mouth and she held Catarina’s hands.
Then, she twist the girl’s wrist. Catarina yelped and jumped away from her. Sydnee huffed and arranged her hair. She had started her swordmanship training since the other day, and her body had became more firm that she could take a maid off the ground by slapping her hard. Of course, it was all due to the basic self-defense training she took prior to swordmanship training.
Catarina glared at her hatefully but Sydnee did not mind it at all. That girl could hate her all she want, and Sydnee did not have plans to change the girl’s perspective of her. Being the only heiress for years, Catarina would never take another candidate for the inheritance. And Sydnee was not dumb to notice the slight killing intent that Catarina was showing to her.
That killing intent started since last week, when the second prince visited the Duke’s mansion. Sydnee was introduced to the prince and Catarina was angered by the look of astonishment in the prince’s eyes while staring at Sydnee’s face.
She might not understand Catarina’s jealousy, but she knew that the girl had a thing for the second prince.
“Sydnee!” Catarina yelled but she did not stop nor look over her shoulder. What an arrogant bit**! Catarina cursed.
Meanwhile, Sydnee was happily eating some night snacks in the kitchen. She was hungry because she locked herself in the room to study the lessons she missed when she stopped attending school, when the duke first brought her to Obando.
But while munching snacks, Lady Geneva entered the kitchen with Catarina. Sydnee stopped munching and drank a glass of water before facing the mistress of the house.
“Lady Geneva,” she greeted and did a salute. It was one of the things that she learned from her etiquette teacher.
Lady Geneva’s face turned sour upon facing Sydnee. Nonetheless, she maintained her composure and cleared her throat. “I don’t need your pretense. You know why I am here,” she said.
Sydnee stood straight and looked at the mistress. “I don’t know,” she sighed and looked on the floor. “I’m just having my night snacks here,” she mumbled under her breathe.
Lady Geneva pursed her lips. Even though she wanted to punish this brat, there was no reason for her to do so. She could not find anything wrong with how Sydnee speak, stand, nor walk. She could see that Sydnee learned everything the etiquette teacher had taught her. Unlike Catarina who was still acting as a spoiled brat.
She scorned and looked away. “The second prince gave Catarina a sapphire necklace as a gift last night. But this morning, the necklace was gone. Catarina said that it was you who looked greedily at the necklace. Tell me, are you the one who stole it?”
Even though she believe that Catarina would not lie to her, still, Lady Geneva knew that she could not accuse Sydnee directly without an evidence. If she accuse Sydnee and then it was revealed that the accusation was false, then she would never raise her head again because of shame. As a mistress, it was one of the things that was needed for her to know in order to maintain order in the Duke’s household.
But Catarina was not thinking like that. When she heard what her mother said, her anger surged. “Mom! She stole my necklace! I know it! She wants the necklace because it was given by the second prince!”
Lady Geneva’s lips twitched. She gestured Catarina to remain calm. “Enough. Don’t make a scene here.”
The maids and butlers were standing at the side. Their heads were bowed but they were listening to what Catarina was spouting.
“But Mom!”
“I said enough, Catarina! Do you hear me?” asked Lady Geneva. Then she turned to Sydnee. “If you say that you did not steal it, then let the maids check your room.”
Sydnee nodded and led the way. There was no way that the necklace would be there inside her room because she stayed inside since this morning.
When they entered Sydnee’s room, Lady Geneva brows raised. She did not expect that this brat was a clean freak. Her things inside was neat and in order. She secretly snorted. She wanted to scold Sydnee if her room was untidy, but seeing the brat’s room, she could not say something bad to her.
“Check every corner,” Lady Geneva ordered the maids.
The maids nodded and started searching. Catarina scorned and crossed her arms against her chest, while Sydnee stood by the corner and watched the maids turned her room upside down.
Sydnee pursed her lips. She put her time cleaning and arranging her room, only to be tossed aside by the maids. If she knew better, Lady Geneva was doing it to mess with her. She looked away.
After a few minutes, the maids stood in front of Lady Geneva and bowed their head. Their leader spoke, “We found nothing, Lady Geneva.”
The Mistress narrowed her eyes and snorted. “Since it’s not here, then let’s go.” The Lady turned around and left the room. Catarina followed.
But before the maids could go out of her room, Sydnee stopped them and scorned at them. “You tossed my things around and you will all leave it be?”
The maids looked at each other and immediately cleaned and arranged Sydnee’s things. She stood by the door and watched them busy themselves with the cleaning. After awhile, they finished and stood in front of her while bowing their heads. Sydnee sighed.
“Go,” she said and gestured for them to go out.
“Thank you, Young Miss.” Then they all went out. Sydnee was left alone inside her room.
Catarina and Lady Geneva were clearly messing with her. But she was trained by the duke himself to stand up above everyone. She could remember how the duke warned her firmly not to succumb to anyone who dared to look down on her.
She did not know but if felt like she was raised by the duke as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
IT WAS a fine day but the students’ faces were unsightly. Sydnee sneered and looked at the girl who just finished bullying a scholar.
Why? She clearly knew that bullying system was denounced. She thought that students only bullied her because of jealousy so she never imagine that scholars would be bullied again.
“You dare to bully the weak but fear the strong?” she mocked the leader of the bully group.NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.
The girls looked at each other. A few moments later, they all had a resolved expression on their faces. Then the leader faced her and smirked at her. “Who is strong? You? You’re just an unworthy daughter of the duke. You don’t have noble blood in you so why should we bow our heads to you?”
“Oh?” She licked her lips and took a step closer to the leader. “I don’t have a noble blood?” she asked and then smirked.
Before the girl could utter another insult, Sydnee’s palm went straight into the girl’s cheek. The girl went dumbfounded as she slammed into the hard ground.
Sydnee snickered. “I don’t have a noble blood, but I have the title. Don’t you all respect anyone who have the title? What noble blood? Does it matter?”
Being a noble themselves, they knew what she meant by it. In the kingdom, having a noble blood would not matter if one did not have any title. Why did it matter if a noble is disowned and is stripped off their title? Nobody would respect a fallen noble much less someone who was stripped out of their titles.
They were all silence by Sydnee’s words.
Just then, they heard someone clapped. They turned their heads to the brave student and saw the transferee, Selena Clarize.
Selena had watched how Sydnee punished the bullies and she was amazed by her courage. She thought that this girl was easy to bully because she did not fight back her classmates who bullied her.
But she was wrong. Sydnee was eloquent enough to make a nasty truth seemed dignified.
“You always surprise me, Young Lady.” Selena smirked at Sydnee. “Making a scene in the school ground, are you not afraid of consequences?”