"Why...? Brother, weren't you the one who promised me that you'll always be here for me and protect me!? What happened to that!?" The duchess was consumed with despair as she let the drops of tears stream down to her chin. She moved her hand and directly grabbed her brother's coat.

"Don't bring the past into this! We're both adults now, we're no longer children so get yourself together and stop acting like a child! With you like this, it's no wonder the duke looks for other women!" He slapped her hands away and scolded ruthlessly, not considering her feelings at all.

The duchess's heart shook and her legs trembled. Her face was still as pale as a corpse. She couldn't believe those words just came out of her blood related brother...

"You've changed, brother. You used to be so much nicer..." She looked up at him with eyes full of pleading and a longing for affection.

"When mother and father died, who do you think was the one they left to take care of everything? Me! And now our family's power is slowly draining away and I have debt piled up on my back! Now you want to divorce a duke!? Are you insane!?" The silver haired man restrained his tone from being too loud to avoid a commotion.

"..." The duchess felt that she couldn't even recognize him anymore... Is this really her doting and gentle brother?

The man sighed and massaged his forehead before speaking once again.

"Beatrice, you can't divorce the duke. You're our family's last hope." He tried to coax her but was met with a difficult question.

"So you only think of me as a string to connect our family to the duke?"

"..." He couldn't answer and his hesitance was clear to his tearful sister.

"You know... I never wanted to marry him in the first place! I only did it because you two forced me to! And now that he no longer has any interest in me, you blame me!? The one you forced to marry!?" She screamed, disregarding any fear of being heard by others. She just wanted to vent. Vent all the grievances she had endured all this time!

After finishing, she turned around and left in tears. Fortunately, she didn't discover Angelina's presence.

Angelina stared at the sight of the Duchess's departing lonely figure with pity. In her eyes, the duchess was a fragile young lady stuck in a woman's body. She would imitate how a duchess would act on the outside but as soon as you find a crack, she breaks.

Angelina sighed before leaving carefully.

"Miss, your back! Did you find a solution for tomorrow?" Angelina was greeted with Marie as soon as she opened the door to her room.

After a moment of silence, Angelina sneered, "I do have one idea..."

"Hm?" Marie tilted her head with curiosity lingering in her round innocent eyes.

"Tell the servants to prepare me a carriage. I will be paying the imperial palace a visit." Angelina passed Marie and strode towards her closet to take out a small but bejeweled chest. Once she had opened the chest, a ruby necklace was shown.

***************

"A carriage is approaching!" One of the gate guards announced to another guard who then walked to the side of the grand carriage and spoke with a loud tone, "State your purpose!"

A slender white hand pushed aside the curtains covering the windows and revealed a silver haired young lady with a piercing beauty.

"I'm here to see her highness, the princess." The young lady claimed with a gentle and friendly smile which showed no trace of hostility or spitefulness.

"The princess doesn't seem to be accepting guests today." The guard raised one of his brows and said with suspicion. Just as he finished his words, his gaze landed on the beautiful ruby necklace around the young lady's fair neck...

His pupils shrank and his body stiffened due to the surprise, the hand holding a spear tightened. He quickly adjusted himself to a more submissive and obedient manner.

How could he not know who this young lady is? Who else has been bestowed the necklace of the late empress dowager by the emperor!? Only one young woman has received such honor.

Angelina sensed the guard's changes and soon guessed his thoughts. She played with the necklace around her neck and repeated her previous words, "I'm here to see her highness, the princess."

"Y-yes! Of course!" The guard responded quickly and shouted to the other guards to open the gates.

"Thank you, sir." Angelina nodded.

Once Angelina had entered the palace, she asked a servant about Elizabeth's whereabouts. The servant told her she was in the imperial garden. Angelina thanked the servant before leaving to find Elizabeth.

Due to all the visits she made to the imperial palace in her past life, she was able to get to the imperial garden quickly.

In the garden, Elizabeth sat on a wooden bench as she let one of her maids clean her hand with a wet cloth.

"Ugh... That Leon! Dragging me to dig up ants with him. Now my hands are all dirty..." Remembering how she was forced to help her second brother seek out ants by digging the ground and getting dirt all over her hand, Elizabeth clenched her teeth. They didn't even find any!

' I'll remember this Leon!' Elizabeth vowed to settle her score with him.

"Your highness, this one greets you." Suddenly a pleasant voice of a lady sounded.

Elizabeth turned her head and saw Angelina bowing to her. She was surprised and quickly told Angelina to rise.

"This princess wants to spend time alone with her. You may retreat." Elizabeth ordered the maid. The maid understood and left obediently.

"Sit! Sit!" Elizabeth patted the spot beside her with a big smile plastered on her face.

"Yes princess." Angelina let out a soft chuckle and sat down beside Elizabeth. ' The princess is as energetic as ever. '

"What brings you here lady Angelina?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Has your highness heard of the recent news my older sister has announced this morning?" Angelina responded to the princess's question with another question.

"Indeed this princess has. But this princess doesn't understand why it has caused such a commotion." Elizabeth didn't know the full situation. All she was aware of is that Angelina's older sister moved the date of her birthday celebration a day earlier. Why make such a fuss?

"Well because my sister has moved the celebration a day earlier, her birthday celebration will be held on the same day as lady Rienne's birthday celebration." Angelina informed Elizabeth.

"Lady Rienne? Oh! Isn't that sister Arianna's friend? I've met her before, she's very fun to be around." Elizabeth raised her brows after hearing Angelina's explanation.

Sister Arianna? Angelina was dumbfounded for a second before her mind made sense of it. Arianna was Elizabeth's cousin. It wasn't strange that Elizabeth called her that.

"Indeed she is. I feel quite distressed for her. She has been looking forward to her birthday celebration for weeks. But now that my sister has changed the date of her birthday celebration, it's likely that more nobles would choose to attend her celebration over lady Rienne's..." Angelina played the act of a deeply concerned friend carefully.

"What!? That's ridiculous! How rude of your sister to do so! Why did she even change the date of hee celebration anyway?" Elizabeth was appalled. If it was her in Rienne's place, she would be terribly upset! She could never tolerate anyone who would ruin her birthday!

If Evelina did that on her birthday, Elizabeth would've already beat Evelina out of her mind!

"My sister wanted to celebrate her real birthday with our family alone. Thus she made the decision to change the date of her celebration." Angelina explained with mist of conflictedness in her eyes, causing Elizabeth to feel for her.

"Hmph! This princess has never heard of such a thing! If she wanted to celebrate her birthday alone with her family, why couldn't she just not host a celebration in the first place? This princess doesn't understand!" Elizabeth pridefully crossed her arms and pouted before she continued.

"And what was her name again? Lady Emily? Lady Aveline? Adelina?" Elizabeth couldn't quite remember Evelina's name...

"It's Evelina, your highness..." Angelina laughed awkwardly at the young princess's multiple wrong guesses. This princess is really...

"Whatever! This princess will not let such impudent and misbehaving ladies such as that lady Emily person roam freely and have her fun in my empire! Therefore I, the great princess Elizabeth, shall attend lady Rienne's birthday. Let's see if those people dare attend her birthday..." Elizabeth raised her chest proudly as she grinned wickedly. This appearence of her's truly amused Angelina.

Very good. Angelina didn't even need to work hard on luring the little princess. The princess fell into her net willingly...

After achieving her goal, Angelina left satisfied. All she needed to do now was wait and sit back to enjoy her favorite show. She expecially couldn't wait for the scene of Evelina's face turning pale with fury.

*************

"Don't worry sister. I'm sure everything will be fine." Adrian tried to console his weeping sister but it was to no avail. Weeping. That wasn't quite right. To be precise, it was more of rampaging.

Rienne crazily threw her pillows to the ground. Whenever she recalled the scene of Evelina's delicate front, she would fly into a rage! She really felt that her mind was about to explode from anger.

"Stop your futile attempt at making me feel better, Adrian. Because it's not working! That shameless Evelina is simply too hateable! I can't stand her! I can't believe they all just fall for her tricks so easily!" Rienne cast her younger twin brother a glare with her red swollen eyes.

"..." Adrian shuddered when he met her frightening stare. His older sister is really hard to appease...

Once her fiery temper was freed, it was hard to contain...

*************

"Haha! That Rienne is so stupid! Does she have no brain? She actually behaved so impulsively in public! It's no wonder how she earned such a horrible reputation!" Lia mocked whilst carefully brushing Evelina's silky blonde hair.

"Shut up. You're ruining my mood." Evelina scoffed with disdain. Lia quickly shut her mouth according to her master's order. She didn't dare to offend her...

Evelina stared at her beautiful, charming self in the mirror and felt a twisted sense of achievement overtake her. She couldn't wait for tomorrow.

And so did Angelina.