Chapter 2: 2

“Oh! Seriously, I don’t know who this Young Lady Bright is, and I’m not her!”

“Hicc?”

I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t hold in my irritation. So I ran out of patience and shouted, causing the surprised man in front of me to hiccup. A single tear slipped down his sunken eyes.

“For God’s sake! Listen to me! Shut up!”

Listen to me… Listen to me…

A loud echo reverberated through the detention hall. The man stopped crying and looked at me with startled rabbit eyes.

“Whoa…”

I took a deep breath, after seeing the man looking like a startled chicken in front me. Part of me wanted to turn everything upside down, but I had to suck it up because I might go to jail again if I do that.

“Listen to me… Young Lady Bright’s… Father.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and strained my eyes. It was uncharacteristic of me, but I didn’t know exactly who this man was, so I couldn’t help it. When our gazes met, the hesitant man broke off and his shoulders shook.

“My name is Iris Sabrina.”

The man’s eyes immediately widened after I spoke my name, and enunciated each and every word and syllables properly. He stared back, mesmerized, and dumbfounded.

“Iris? You’re Iris?”

“Yes…”

“Ohhh my god!”

The man gasped when he heard my answer. He shuddered like a man who had just witnessed a miracle. Then, without warning, he pulled me into a hug.

“Iris.”

“Ugh, what the hell are you doing?!”

‘I’m not your daughter! Sh*t, I don’t even know you.’ 

It’s all a mess at this point. Whether I’ll become a criminal or not, I couldn’t take it anymore. The moment I couldn’t hold back my irritation and clenched my fist to grab him. He immediately spoke in a sorrowful voice.

“Oh, Iris, it’s me! It’s Daddy!”

“Huh?”

‘Daddy? My Dad? What kind of a dogsh*t excuse is this?’

I shrugged off the unexpected response, and kept my distance stance. After I took a step back, I saw the man was looking at me with tears clinging to his eyes.

“As I said before, I’m Iris. Sabrina.”

“Yes, Iris! My daughter!”

‘Your daughter’s name is Young Lady Bright! Not me!’

I frowned as I watched him exclaim with excitement.

“Please don’t tell me Lady Bright’s name is also Iris?”

“No, her name is Archie!”

The man said with a snort of excitement. I couldn’t bring myself to curse at the rabbit-like figure, so I used my eyes and glare at him instead.

‘Should I throw him out now’ 

I tightened the grip on his clothes, and was still thinking whether to hit him, “Wendy!”

He exclaimed urgently, as if he knew what I was thinking. “That’s your mother’s name.”

I was so startled by his words that I unknowingly loosened my grip on his clothes.

“Your mother’s name is Wendy, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is, but…”

“Also!!!”

The man squealed with delight, his eyes glowing with something close to conviction, and his green eyes searched my face with longing.

“You really do look a lot like Archie. No wonder people get confused.”

“I’m sorry… I’m trying to make sense of what’s going on,”

I muttered, my voice cracking with emotion. I pressed my temples together to calm my nerves.

“That’s understandable, the last time we met was when you were six years old.” He said.

‘What, we’ve even met? We met when I was six? No way…’

No, no, no. I couldn’t believe it yet. The butler warned me before that there were a lot of scammers in the capital and that I should remain vigilant.

“You’re surprised, right? Of course you are..”

I gave the man a suspicious glance, and he made a small cough and held out his hand.

“This is going to be a long story, so… Let’s get you home first, okay?” I looked at his outstretched hand. I was a little hesitant but I realized that I didn’t have a choice. My immediate priority right now was to escape this foul-smelling holding cell.

So after making my decision, I expressed my intentions to him by gently grasping the man’s fingertips.

He immediately smiled broadly.

✤

‘Mother . Where is my father?’

I remembered, when I was very young, I asked my mother where my father was. It wasn’t that I missed him or anything, I didn’t even know what he looked like. I just wanted to know, because all the children I played with had a father.

But at my innocent question, the nanny beside me wiped away her tears with her sleeve, and the butler bowed his head with his face having a sorrowful expression. And my mother… looked very sad.

‘Iris, your father is in a very distant place. He’s very far away.’

‘How far away is he?’

‘Well, he’s in a place you can never reach with your feet.’

‘Then I can’t meet him?’

‘I don’t know.’

You are reading story Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! at novel35.com

My mother stammered vaguely at my question. I was staring at her blankly, I couldn’t really understand what she meant so I was really confused. She held my shoulders with an uncharacteristically serious expression and said,

‘I’m sorry.’

‘Iris’ 

‘Yes, Mother.’

‘I’m very sorry for you, but… it’s not like you have a father.’ 

‘Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean Mother…’ 

‘You don’t need to know now. You’ll find out when you’re older.” 

‘…Okay.’ 

Mother, why didn’t you tell me then? I sent an angry telepathic message to my mother, who was probably wandering around somewhere in the Empire. If my rant didn’t reach her, I hoped it would at least make her ears itch, though she’d probably just scratch them away. After all, I’d thought my father was dead all this time.

The word ‘Father‘ was a taboo on the estate. Given the atmosphere, I could only assume that my father had a sad past. They couldn’t tell me, his own daughter, anything so I didn’t dare to ask.

I couldn’t believe he was actually still alive and kicking, and he was living well with my older twin sister who I didn’t even know existed. The more I thought about it, the more I felt sick and my nose scrunched.

Of course, my mother was a great person who, if I asked her why she didn’t tell me about it, she would brazenly say, ‘I never said they were dead.’

And My father, by the way…

I stared at the man in front of me with a complicated expression. He was smiling from ear-to-ear. I hadn’t confirmed yet if he was really my father, but he was more than I imagined him to be.

Chancellor of the Empire, Marquis Hermoso Bright.

Imagine my surprise when I heard the man’s real identity a few moments ago.

That kind of person… I can’t believe I was wanted to throw throw him away! One wrong move and he could have me decapitated, not jailed.

To think that such a famous person could be my father, the unexpected secret of my birth was disturbing to me.

‘No, it’s not. Not yet. I’m not sure if he’s really my father yet, so I must remain vigilant.’

The butler told me that the capital is full of treacherous and suspicious people! This is why I need to stay alert!

“Iris, we’ve arrived.” Whether he knew what I was thinking or not, the man still said it in a very friendly tone.

At the end of his speech, the carriage immediately came to a gentle stop.

“Wow!”

I exclaimed as I stepped out of the carriage, my eyes glowed brightly at the sight before me. The mansion was huge and imposing, it was more ornate and beautiful than the palaces I’ve seen in my fairy tale books.

“Marquis, Young lady Bright,”

A Wrinkled man approached us as we stepped out. He was dressed like a butler.

“Welcome back.”

“No, I’m not— I’m-”

He seemed to have mistaken me for that Young Lady Bright too. I was about to correct him, but the self-proclaimed father next to me beat me to it.

“Ethan, this is not Archie, this is Iris!”

The butler’s eyes instantly widened at my self-proclaimed father’s words. He looked at me with two disbelieving eyes.

“…What?”

“Lady Iris?”

“Yes! It wasn’t Archie who was in the detention Hall!”

My self-proclaimed father exclaimed with excitement.

“How can you… Are you really Lady Iris?”

The butler, who called himself Ethan, asked me in disbelief.

“Hmm.”

Instead of answering, I nodded lightly, and the butler clapped his hands over his mouth in surprise.

“Now, now, don’t stand here like this, please show Iris to the parlor first. It seems Wendy didn’t tell her anything.”

“No way… I can’t believe it… No wait.. if it’s Wendy, It’s quite possible.”

The butler’s eyes narrowed at my self-proclaimed father’s words, but then he nodded with a knowing smile. Seeing him mention my mother’s name naturally made me feel… A bit refreshed…

‘Am I really their daughter, then?’

What happens now? Even the butler acts like this? I’m starting to feel like my self-proclaimed father’s words were true…

“I will show you to the parlor. Lady Iris, please.”

This Ethan was a seasoned butler, even though you can see the wrinkles all over his face, he somehow managed to compose himself and ushered me in with a polite demeanor.

“Oh, my God, she’s alive?”

I felt stares everywhere as I entered the mansion. I pretended not to hear the chattering of the people and walked quietly behind Ethan.

He seemed to be the only one who knew about my current situation apart from the Marquis, so to them I must appear to be the young lady bright that they knew. I wanted to correct them right away, but I had to put out my curiosity first. It’s only a matter of time before they realize that I’m not really the young lady Bright that they knew.

So there’s no reason to do all these troublesome things.

“Are you sure it’s the young lady?”

“Shhh, hush, she’s looking this way!”

The reaction of everyone was the same. No one showed any signs of relief or gratefulness at the return of their young lady who was missing for several months now. Most of them actually frowned or avoided eye contact with her. After what she had been through today, it seemed that this Young lady Bright had offended a lot of people.

“His Excellency will be changing his clothes.”

The parlor was decorated with an assortment of ornaments and antique furnishings that were as luxurious as they were beautiful. It was so spacious and opulent that the drawing room at Sabrina’s Manor seemed like a stable by comparison.

“Please wait a moment.” The butler said, after disappearing to fetch some tea.

“What’s taking him so long to change his clothes…” I pouted as I wandered around the parlor, then slumped down on the couch, waiting for my so-called father to arrive.

I stared at the colorful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, then I suddenly heard a commotion outside.

You can find story with these keywords: Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!, Read Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! novel, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! book, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! story, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! full, Mistaken for a Wicked Woman! Latest Chapter