The expensive glazed cup was casually smashed on the floor, its fragments scattering like flower petals.
Kian Keller loved drinking tea, and his display cabinet used to be filled with antique-grade teacups, each so exquisite it could have been in a museum.
Mia Grant, however, disliked tea, finding it bitter. To cultivate an interest in her, Kian Keller had bought a series of exquisitely shaped glazed cups from various auctions for her use.
There were twelve in all, each of a different shape and color. No one else was allowed to so much as touch them, let alone use one.
They were for Mia Grant's exclusive use.
A cold sweat broke out on the butler's brow, but he was also relieved that Miss Grant hadn't taken a closer look at the shattered cup.
The last time, a new maid had used one to brew tea for Serena Grant, and Sir had been so angry he had smashed it to smithereens.
Then he sent someone to Portia overnight to buy a similarly shaped replacement at auction.
The very one Mia Grant had just smashed today.
At the time, he had told Sir there was no need to find a matching one. Miss Grant disliked tea; she wouldn't care about a change in the teaware.
But Sir had said, "You don't understand her. She acts like she doesn't care about anything, but deep down, she remembers it all."
"She doesn't like Serena Grant. If she finds out, she'll just get angry with me again."
"But it wasn't your fault, Sir. It was an accident."
"Do you think she cares whose fault it is?" Sir had replied, fingering the Buddha Beads on his wrist. "She's probably just looking for an excuse to get rid of me..."
——
"Miss Grant, be careful! Don't step on the shards!"
Mia Grant was still on a rampage, smashing everything in sight in the living room. When she was tired, she simply collapsed, sitting down to rest amidst the pile of debris.
"I'm not getting up! Don't touch me!" Mia Grant glared at the butler. "You lied to me, too."
"I didn't lie to you! Sir really is busy!"
Panting heavily, Mia Grant demanded, "Is he at the office right now?"
"Yes..." The butler nodded.
"Swear on it." Mia Grant's gaze was piercing.
"Yes..."
Mia Grant gritted her teeth. "Swear on Kian Keller!"
"..."
Silence.
Heh. Mia Grant laughed in exasperation.
"Where the hell did he go? What is it you can't tell me? Don't tell me he went to assassinate my big brother, Silas?"
'Aside from that, Mia Grant couldn't think of any other possibility.'
'If it were anything else, given the scene she was making, the butler wouldn't be stammering and trying to hide things.'
"No, no! Of course not!" The butler waved his hands frantically, insisting that his master was a man of great compassion who would never do such a thing.
'A man of great compassion, indeed.'
Mia Grant sneered.
'Could he even say that with a clear conscience?'
"If you don't tell me where he went today, I'm going to sit right here and wait all night. Once I've rested, I'll start smashing again! I'll smash every single treasure in Kian Keller's cabinet!"
"No, wait, I'll chop down the Podocarpus tree in the courtyard!"
'Good heavens, she was an absolute terror.'
The butler kept wiping the cold sweat from his forehead as he tried to reason with her.
"It's no use. I'm not negotiating."
The butler was at his wit's end. 'She's so delicate,' he thought, 'she'll probably get up on her own in a little while.'
But who would have thought she would hold out until the sun was about to set.
"Miss Grant, it's getting late. You haven't eaten anything since you woke up this afternoon. The kitchen..."
"Forget it. I'm on a hunger strike."
"..."
She had a weak stomach, a fact all the servants knew. Helpless, the butler had no choice but to back down.
"Sir will be back tonight, truly. He was called back to the old family estate for something important."
Mia Grant rested her head on her arms and stared at the ceiling, ignoring him.
The butler gritted his teeth and conceded even further.
"The Grant Family proposed a marriage alliance with the Keller Family... so Sir really did go back to the estate. And while he's there... he's having dinner with the Grants tonight."
"A marriage alliance?" Mia Grant's focus snapped back.
'Her intuition told her it couldn't possibly be with her, the family's fake heiress.'
'And it obviously couldn't be with Silas Grant.'
'Which left only...'
She shot upright, her eyes wide. "Him and... and Serena Grant?"
The butler silently lowered his head.
It was a silent admission.
"..." Mia Grant sat there in a daze, her mind unable to settle.
After a long moment, as if finally accepting reality, she slowly stood up.
As she rose, her slender frame swayed. In her white nightdress, she looked like a delicate gardenia, trembling in the wind.
Fortunately, a maid was quick to support her.
She waved the maid's hand away, tossing out an "I'm fine" before heading upstairs, looking utterly devastated.
Watching this, the butler opened his mouth to speak but then closed it. In the end, his unspoken words dissolved into a helpless sigh.
"See? Miss Grant really does like Sir after all," a maid remarked, sighing at what she perceived to be a beautiful and tumultuous love story.
"Miss Grant looks so heartbroken..."
The butler said, "It can't be helped. She was going to find out sooner or later. It couldn't be kept a secret forever."
"Do you think Miss Grant is hiding in her room... crying in secret?"
"With her delicate constitution, what if she cries herself unconscious?"
"Should we inform Sir?"
——
「Meanwhile, upstairs.」
Mia Grant stepped out of the elevator, went to her room, opened the door, shut it, and slid the bolt lock, all in one smooth motion.
The System saw her with her head bowed, her shoulders trembling slightly. She looked so utterly heartbroken that it, too, began to worry.
[Host, are you...]
It was about to offer words of comfort and had even decided how large a bonus it would give her as compensation.
But to its surprise, Mia Grant threw herself onto the bed, hugged the comforter, and burst into hysterical laughter.
'Has she gone mad?'
[Host, please calm down.]
[I know you're very upset right now, Host, but...]
Mia Grant laughed until she was cramping. "Upset about what?"
She lifted her head from the comforter, her eyes crinkling with mirth. She didn't look like she had just been crying at all!
The single tear at the corner of her eye was from laughing so hard!
[You weren't crying?]
"Why on earth would I be crying? I couldn't be happier!"
Mia Grant hadn't expected happiness to arrive so suddenly. If not for her excellent self-control, she would have burst out laughing downstairs just a moment ago!
"Didn't you hear? Kian Keller is entering a marriage alliance with Serena Grant!"
[...So?]
"So, I'm finally going to be free!"
"He can't be in a marriage alliance with Serena Grant and continue to keep me imprisoned at the same time, can he?"
The System was silent for a long moment. [That's hard to say.]
"..."
The laughter died abruptly.
Kian Keller was already on his way back when he received the call.
The moment he walked in the door, he saw the living room in complete disarray, with the staff still cleaning.
"Where is she?" Kian Keller paid the mess no mind, his searching gaze landing on the butler.
The butler reported what had happened.
Upon hearing that Mia Grant was heartbroken, Kian Keller paused mid-motion as he was taking off his jacket. He looked up in confusion. "Really?"
"Yes, Sir. We all saw it. We went up to check just now. Miss Grant has locked her door, but we could hear soft whimpering from inside."
In reality, Mia Grant was just muffling her laughter with the comforter.
"Right now... Miss Grant is probably still crying in her room."
Kian Keller frowned, handed his jacket to the butler, and strode quickly up the stairs.
Mia Grant was afraid of the dark, so the lights in her room turned on automatically as soon as dusk fell.
And so, the moment Kian Keller entered, he immediately spotted the lump huddled on the bed.
Her back was to him, and her shoulders were still shaking gently, presumably from crying.