My Charlotte Hates Me

Chapter 38: Family

At first, I loved Eli because he was the child of my most beloved person. He was pure, represented everything good and innocent in the world, and mostly because he resembled Arielle. I tried my best to be a good mother to Eli...or someone who could at least fill the void of him losing both his parents.

After Arielle died, I began to resent him. I blamed him for being the reason as to why I could not go back in time to rewrite the past. Arielle refused to be saved by me. She wanted me to watch over her son in this life instead. Arielle herself said that she would not forgive me if I left Eli all alone. Denying her wishes would be equivalent to denying all of my feelings for Arielle.

In the end, it was all for naught since I was neither able to save the person I loved the most nor become a good mother to Eli...

"Have you adjusted well?" Kyros asked me.

I ran into Kyros after my altercation with Eli. He offered me a haven in his home without asking any questions. I found this part of him is particularly quite nice.

"Thank you for letting me use your guest room last night," I said.

"It was a pleasure having you over," Kyros said.

"...I was not myself last night," I said. "Now that I have regained a little composure, I will prepare to leave as soon as possible."

"You can stay as long as you like," Kyros said.

"...I do not mean to impose," I said.

"Lady Charlotte, stay as long as you like," Kyros repeated with an even more gentle tone than the first. "If you are pleased by the end of your stay, a simple word of thanks would be enough for me."

"...Thank you for everything, Kyros," I said with a smile.

"Now that is over...would you like to tell me why you had to run away. Is it because a certain someone confessed their feelings to you?" Kyros asked.

"Someone confessed? To who?" I asked.

Kyros let out a deep long sigh.

"...What is the issue then?" Kyros asked with his usual smile.

"I had taken care of Eli...His Majesty ever since he was an infant. Arielle had to stabilize her position for herself and her son, so I understand why she could not have kept him close in a place where he could easily die at any moment," I said.

"You took him under your wing ever since he was he was young, so of course he would rely on you most of his life. I am sure that His Majesty will come to his senses and apologize to you soon," Kyros said.

"...You are mistaken Kyros. His Majesty is not at fault at all. I am the one who should apologize to him," I said.

"Have you done anything to be at fault?" Kyros asked.

"Of course, I have," I answered with a forced smile. "I am a terribly selfish person who just has to have it all. I tell myself that 'I raised that boy' just because I tried giving him the best education, the most stable diet, and the most love and attention I could offer. I thought by doing all of those things he could one day recognize me as his mother. In the end, it was all for naught...He said that he could never recognize me as his mother. Those words really threw me off the deep end. I guess that I...was the only one who hoped that we could be family, yet he rejected me. Was it too much to ask to be a part of his world?"

It is almost as if I was doomed to the tragic fate of being rejected by this family over and over again. My sadness from last night came back again as I had found myself crying deeply into my hands.

The doors to the parlor bursted open. I lifted my head from my hands to see Eli rushing through them with a panicked expression on his face. I jumped out of my seat to prepare myself to run away again.

"Charlotte! I...I am sorry!" Eli said.

I froze after hearing him apologize.

"...Why are you apologizing?" I asked.

He quickly walked towards me and grabbed both of my hands without letting go.

"I finally caught you. You cannot run away before I finish speaking again like you did last time," Eli said.

"Run away? Have you not felt uncomfortable having someone call themselves as their mother to your face all of the time? Right...you have always been a good boy, so it makes sense if you could not voice your complaints with me to save my feelings," I said.

"...I cannot think of you as a mother. I have only had one mother in my entire life. She was a kind and respectable person whom I am proud to have called my mother," Eli said.

"Eli..."

"I am proud to have been born from Her Majesty the Queen Arielle Ira Maddox...I am even more proud to have been raised by Charlotte Vera Castile herself! Although I cannot call you my mother, you are a special existence to me whom I cannot live without," Eli said as he squeezed my hands. "After all of the time we have spent together, there is no way that I would reject you. You are...have been my family from the very start, Charlotte."

My eyes widened in surprise for a moment.

"...You are not rejecting me as your family?" I asked.

"No," Eli answered.

"Is our relationship really all pretend? Can we really be a family?" I asked.

"...Even if others call our relationship fake, we just have to make it real by ourselves. For now, I consider you as my family. Is that not enough?" Eli asked with quivering eyes. "Ch-Charlotte, I have been...I have always...I love you. Please be my family."

"I love you too, Eli...Please let me be your family," I answered happily.

My tears came smoothly out of my eyes. This time, they were not shrouded in pain but in happiness. They soothed my scarred heart for a moment.

Eli brought me into an embrace. I wrapped my arms around his large body and squeezed him lightly. I refrained from hugging too strongly to avoid enough to not wrinkling his clothes too much.

"...Please come back to the castle. I am too lonely without you," Eli said.

"Certainly...I need to sort out your fiancée candidates after all," I said.

"...Come again?" Eli said as he released me from our hug.

"I need to sort out your fiancée candidates," I repeated. "I cannot wait for our family to grow. The fastest and most efficient way for our family to grow is through having you marry and bearing children of your own."

"Charlotte...you are...so thickheaded!" Eli said with an annoyed expression before leaving.

"...Did I do something wrong?" I asked Kyros.

"...This time, you were certainly at fault, My Lady" Kyros answered.

"...Teenage boys are too difficult for me to understand," I said with a sigh.

Back to those parenting books...

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