Edgar had always taught that the employees who served customers in his establishments stood as his representatives. Because of that, he paid them better wages than most employers—and had it written directly into their contracts that anyone who violated his guidelines or damaged his company’s reputation would be dismissed without hesitation.“You’ve had a hard time, haven’t you?”Seeing the worry glimmering in Mark’s brown eyes, Angela hurried to reassure him.“I’m all right. Really, I am.”If that clerk had been left unpunished, Angela might have believed that Edgar, too, saw her as an insolent witch who had tried to crash his party.Knowing that wasn’t the case was enough to make her feel at ease. The humiliation of that day was, after all, nothing new—just another episode she was long accustomed to enduring.“You must be running low on supplies. I’ll open the shop late today—show me that list right now.”As Mark looked ready to head straight out to the market, Angela hid the note she’d prepared in advance and tried to stop him.“There’s no rush. You can open the shop as usual. I only came out because your letter made me think you were worried, and I wanted to reassure you.”“How can there be no rush? You’ve probably been living for weeks on whatever scraps were in your house!”“Honestly, I’ve been fine. I still had plenty of dried fruit left from before…”“Fruit? Don’t tell me you’ve been living off dried fruit for meals?!”Mark’s eyes flared like sparks. Angela shrank back under his glare, fumbling for words that wouldn’t come.“That’s it. We’re going to see Michelle right now!”Angela flailed her hands beneath her cloak, panicking.“No, really, I—”“No arguing! Come along, young lady!”With every escape route cut off, Angela had no choice but to be pulled along.Unfortunately, Mark’s wife Michelle was even more relentless than he was—and obsessed, almost to an alarming degree, with making sure Angela ate properly.“Dear! Michelle! Angela hasn’t eaten properly in days!”“What?!”Michelle burst from the adjoining house—where she had been cooking meat soup—brandishing a ladle.“My word, Angela! That toothpick of a body—what happened to the little bit of flesh we managed to put on you?!”And so, once again, Angela would not escape until she had filled her stomach with every kind of food they could force upon her.For someone who didn’t enjoy eating, it was pure torment.***While Michelle had Angela captive at the table, piling food before her, Mark hurried off to buy the supplies Angela had requested.“Sweetheart, have some of this too. Honestly, how can you even walk around when you’re this thin?”“I don’t think I’ve lost that much weight…”“Oh, gracious, I nearly forgot! I bought some wonderful meat yesterday. I’ll grill it right now—just keep eating what’s there, and don’t you dare leave a bite.”Michelle completely ignored Angela’s meek protests and rushed back to the kitchen.“There’s already too much…”Angela looked helplessly at the table groaning under food.Where did I put the leftover digestive tablets from last time? I should’ve added them to the note I gave Mr. Mark.She sighed, but despite everything, she was grateful for how much this couple cared about her. Because of them, she wasn’t entirely alone in the world.“Angela.”In the midst of her slow, penitential eating, she lifted her head at the sound of a voice.“Bianca?”It was Mark and Michelle’s daughter.“I heard what that Veronica bitch did to you at the boutique.”“Bianca, language—the baby can hear.”“You went through worse than that, and that’s what you’re worried about? The little one in here’s tougher than you are. A few harsh words won’t hurt. Our sturdy baby would just laugh and say, ‘Is that all?’”Bianca, a year older than Angela, had married the son of a nearby tailor and moved out not long ago. She was seven months pregnant now.“You should only hear good things, though. Pretty and loving things.”At Angela’s soft admonition, Bianca came over and wrapped her in a hug. Because of her rounded belly, it was more of a gentle press than an embrace, but Angela still leaned into her warmth with quiet pleasure.“Even now, all you do is worry about the baby. You could stand to act a little wicked, like the rumors say. Aren’t you even angry?”“I’m fine.”“Fine, she says. Silly girl.”The truth was, Bianca hadn’t liked Angela much until recently. Her parents’ kindness toward the “witch girl” had brought them plenty of trouble, and Bianca had resented that.As a child, she’d thrown tantrums, treated Angela as invisible, even hated her a little. Even now, she couldn’t claim they were truly close.“Angela, you’re here? Oh—Bianca! What brings you over?”“I heard Angela had come by. What’s all this?”But as she’d grown older, Bianca had begun to see clearly the unfairness and cruelty this fragile girl suffered. And now, carrying a child herself, she found she couldn’t turn away anymore.“Since you’re here, sit down and eat too. You need to eat well if you want a healthy baby.”“Don’t tell me all this food was meant for Angela? If she eats that much, she’ll burst.”“But just look at her! Those arms and legs—do they even count? You’d have to stack three of hers to make one of ours!”“She’s just built differently, Mama. You can’t compare.”The warm, cozy chaos made Angela smile without realizing it.There had been times, long ago, when she wished she’d been born into this family instead. She knew it was a foolish dream, but the thought of having a family of her own had always lingered.“Angela, don’t force yourself to eat everything. Just what you can manage. I’ll bring you some digestive medicine later, all right?”How could she not be grateful?The girl who’d once avoided her now treated her with shy warmth. For all her childhood resentment, Bianca had never truly hated Angela, nor called her a witch the way others did.“Thank you, Bianca.”“Oh, stop. Eat this one next. It’s good for you—you have to finish it, no matter what.”Bianca, daughter of Mark and Michelle, was just as unyielding about meals as her parents. Angela had thought she might be rescued from overfeeding for a moment, but the reprieve vanished as quickly as it came.No matter how pleading her eyes, the /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ mother and daughter remained firm. With a sigh, Angela picked up her fork again.***“She finally showed up?”“Yes, sir. It’s confirmed.”“You checked with the shop owner?”“He denied everything. It seems impossible to place an order through him.”“And her residence?”“We trailed her discreetly and found it.”“Good. Well done.”Timothy bowed neatly, placed a note with Angela’s address on the desk, and left the room.“Hmm…”Edgar tapped the tabletop with his finger as he studied the note. The idea of tailing a lady to discover her address left a distasteful feeling in his chest.But there was no other way. The only person who had any contact with Angela was the doll shop owner, and that man had clearly resolved never to connect them.That left only a direct meeting—and somehow, that was proving more difficult than charming Baron Pierre, the most notorious libertine in Portigios.Still, he couldn’t give up. The contracts for the electricity enterprise and the Oricto Mine depended on her.“Well, since when have I ever let conscience get in my way?”A businessman, after all, sometimes had to be unscrupulous to succeed. Shoving aside the faint pang of guilt, Edgar picked up the note.The profits to be gained from the mine and the power venture would be immense. Compared to that, conscience was a small price to pay.

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