Chapter 2
I’m sorry. Your father is just like that.
When she came to her senses, she was a baby—and the most beautiful people in the world were called her parents.
“Goodness! The baby opened her eyes!”
“Aruru, peekaboo! Smile for us, Zenith!”
She felt as if she had been born again. Even though her mind was hazy like fog, the despair of being abandoned and the hatred toward Min Kyung-tae were so vivid that Zenith could not trust her new “parents.”
People say if you do good deeds you’ll be rewarded in the next life, but she had never done anything particularly good. And more than anything, her life had been so miserable it was enough to make even a stray dog spit. There was no way she would be blessed with good parents in another life.
So Zenith doubted them. She distrusted them.
Whenever they tried to touch her, she would cry as if the world were ending. She threw anything she could grab—bottles, rattles, anything.
She expected them to get tired of her. To get angry. To hit her.
But they never changed.
It wasn’t a luxurious life. As archaeologists, the house was filled only with mold-scented books. But they kept her alive.
Because of them, she was able to forget her horrifying past father—and her past mother, who had been left with nothing but tears.
“My daughter, when you grow up, marry your dad!”
“Honey, I actually love you more than your dad. I could live without him, but I can’t live without you. So let’s be happy forever, okay?”
Zenith sometimes wondered if her miserable past life had been the reason she was given such parents now—and she felt nothing but gratitude.
There were no expensive clothes or jewels. But every morning began with kisses and warm greetings. And whenever she got even a mosquito bite, they would act like the sky was falling.
That—she thought—that must be happiness.
Before she knew it, her emotional age had regressed, as if she were truly a baby now, laughing and crying over candy and cookies.
And so, she forgot her past life little by little.
Then, when she turned seven, she heard the news: her mother and father had died.
A man named Fernando, a longtime friend of her parents, came to her.
“Your father is ill right now. That’s why he doesn’t remember you. He might say hurtful things. But once he regains his memory, I’m sure he’ll come to love you.”
“You can live with me too. I would be happy to raise you as my daughter.”
“But Zenith… could you meet your father just once? I think… he may care about you more than you think.”
Zenith didn’t really care either way. She half-listened and let it pass through the other ear.
So she went.
And the man who appeared as her father looked strangely familiar.
For a brief moment, she even thought: maybe she would have one more person like her late parents.
She wasn’t trying to forget them. She was just lonely. She needed someone to lean on.
How foolish she was.
“Fernando, you idiot! You’ve definitely been scammed. Let’s do a paternity test first. Then you’ll believe it.”
“I swear I’ve never been with a woman!”
Her past-life father had also said nonsense like that.
And when paternity was confirmed—
“Father? Father? Maybe I’m not your daughter—maybe I’m your father’s child instead.”
He avoided responsibility.
Zenith frowned in disgust.
But her rejection of Garen peaked at the conversation happening right in front of her.
“I acknowledge he is of the Roman bloodline. But what matters is the environment he was raised in. Who raised that child? They don’t seem particularly wealthy.”
“Money isn’t everything. They’re good people.”
“That’s not the point. It’s about education and proper upbringing. We cannot allow someone unqualified to carry the Roman name.”
He was insulting her parents.
Zenith clenched her teeth.
She didn’t care if he said she was unworthy. But her parents? They were perfect people. Far better than this irresponsible man who couldn’t even acknowledge his own child.
It reminded her of Min Kyung-tae.
“That’s the problem with poor people. So what? If the child is mine, I have to take responsibility?”
“You only liked me because I had money, didn’t you? Be honest. Yes, I lied about being married. But if you were smarter, you wouldn’t have gotten involved. Why should I take in that child from a woman like you?”
Min Kyung-tae’s voice overlapped with Garen’s. His face overlapped too.
Zenith’s expression twisted.
“Hey, uh… sir? Or should I call you half-brother instead?”
“Half-brother?! Hey, you—!”
“So what? You said I shouldn’t call you father. Maybe your brain is broken? You don’t even remember what you just said.”
She deliberately provoked him.
“Why are you acting like this? Oh. Brother. I’m just calling you what you told me to. You’re so strange. Maybe money and intelligence can’t exist together.”
“Ha!”
“It would be nice if you were even half as good as my mom and dad… ah, sorry! Comparing you to them is insulting them. My parents were amazing people. Unlike someone else!”
Garen’s face turned pale, as if he might collapse.
Meanwhile, Zenith felt oddly satisfied, as if she had avenged her parents. She only regretted not being able to do the same to Min Kyung-tae.
She had no intention of accepting Garen as her father.
Even if I had to beg on the streets, I won’t live under you.
Money? Power? Fine. But she knew something more important existed.
They had been biting at each other even before introductions were finished. Naturally, things did not become harmonious afterward.
Two men in their twenties and a seven-year-old girl sat in silence, chewing on the awkward tension. Fernando seriously wondered how to fix this.
That was when Bianca, Garen’s mother and former duke’s wife, arrived.
“Madam!”
“Open the door!”
The commotion outside grew, and the door to the reception room swung open.
A gorgeously dressed elderly woman entered.
“Mother!”
“Auntie!”
Due to the tangled noble family ties, Fernando was also a distant relative of the woman.
All three of them stood up in shock and instinctively moved to shield Zenith.
“Move aside.”
Bianca brushed Garen and Fernando aside like paper dolls.
She looked at the small girl sitting on the sofa and gasped.
“My goodness!”
She whispered as if she might faint.
“Mother, it’s not like that, let me explain—please calm your blood pressure first!”
“Auntie! Just a moment—!”
But Bianca ignored them.
She walked straight to Zenith.
Zenith, bracing herself for punishment, squeezed her eyes shut, expecting slaps or blows.
Instead—
A warm, gentle embrace.
“My precious child… lift your head. Let me see your face.”
“…?”
“…!”
Fernando and Garen were shocked. So was Zenith.
Hesitantly, Zenith looked up.
The woman with platinum-blonde hair and violet eyes—who bore almost no resemblance to Garen—smiled warmly.
“You look just like Garen. Though I hope you don’t inherit his temper. Don’t worry—I’ll teach you how to hide it.”
Her words were oddly affectionate, yet strange.
Garen suddenly snapped back to attention.
“Mother! We don’t even know if she’s really my daughter—”
“You did a paternity test, didn’t you? It matched yours. Or did I hear wrong?”
“It only confirms blood relation, not that she’s my child!”
The test only confirmed blood bonding through a herbal mixture—it couldn’t precisely distinguish close relations.
Bianca tilted her head.
“So she is your father’s child?”
“No, that’s not what I meant—”
But Bianca ignored him, gently patting Zenith’s cheek.
“My dear child… I’m sorry. Your father is just like that.”
