The servants of the mansion busied themselves in preparation for greeting the young lady, having learned that Odette had returned after completing her tour of the relief missions. Even the secluded annex, usually cut off from the rest of the world, buzzed with unusual activity.
Odelliana’s heart raced at the news of her return. She felt a powerful urge to rush out and meet her immediately. The very thought of the woman who had been the source of such painful memories made her feel disgusted to the point of nausea, yet the longing to meet her, to finally face her, was overpowering.
The dazzlingly beautiful mistress of her husband.
Despite the resentment and hatred that clung to her every thought, Odelliana couldn’t deny the strong curiosity that surged within her. Odette was a woman she had never met in her past life, a person with no connection to her before death. She knew a great deal about Jocelyn, but all she had heard about Odette were the public details—her affair with him, and nothing more.
“Will she come to see me?” she wondered aloud.
The thought of being confined here, unable to leave, gnawed at her. She was so close, yet so far. She couldn’t even go to meet her.
“I heard you were quite close as children… so…” Malena trailed off.
Blair’s words echoed in her mind. He had always said that Odette was a kind-hearted girl. She would likely be pleased to return to the house. If that was true, perhaps Odette wouldn’t be like her parents, who never showed their faces.
“Are you that excited to see the young lady? I suppose you really like her?” Malena asked.
“Not at all,” Odelliana replied flatly.
“Then why do you act like you can’t wait to see her, constantly watching her every move?”
“Just because I want to see her doesn’t mean I like her.”
“You couldn’t even stand to look at your older brother.”
“That bastard doesn’t matter in my life. But Odette is different.”
Yes, she was very interested in Odette. There was so much she didn’t know, so much she wanted to learn. She wanted to understand what kind of person Odette truly was.
“You have to know your enemy to win a fight,” Odelliana muttered quietly.
Malena blinked in surprise. “You plan to fight with the young lady?”
“Eventually.”
To be honest, she hoped they weren’t the kind of sisters who couldn’t live without each other. She hoped Odette was the type of person who deserved every ounce of hatred and resentment Odelliana had carried with her from her past life. She wished Odette wasn’t the perfect, kind-hearted sister. She didn’t need a sister who was also her husband’s mistress.
The internal battle she would soon face—torn between the woman she once was and the one she was now becoming—was one she wanted to avoid at all costs. Of all her family members, Blair was the only one she could trust.
Odette, the woman Odelliana had been waiting for, finally appeared before her exactly one week after her return. But she wasn’t alone.
“The young lady… went straight into an empty room with a male servant. She ordered that no one enter,” Malena reported.
“She barged in, didn’t even look for me, and just took over the room? And brought in a stranger?” Odelliana’s voice tightened with disbelief.
Her fleeting hope that Odette might be a kind sister evaporated instantly. No, Odette had been born a wicked woman—just as Odelliana had suspected all along.
