Chapter 18: Daddy's Narcissism
Lady feels a chillingly crisp gust of wind blow her way just as she sees a glimpse of how Fallon tries to keep a bitterly cold expression from showing on his face.
She noticed how his brow slightly twitched and how his frown got deep. Still, for a child, he sure is good when it comes to schooling his features. If she was not looking at him intently, she would probably fail to observe that.
"Whether you believe it or not, it's the first time they showed that sort of interaction in front of everyone – Grandmother and Grandfather, I mean…" Fallon began again, suddenly changing the topic.
"They are usually strict, and they notice even the smallest mistakes. To be honest, I thought for sure that you were going to get scolded since you kept on stuttering. You looked like a mess."
"Why, thank you for reminding me…" Lady muttered through gritted teeth, blushing a little in embarrassment.
"I'm just not good with that kind of thing. I mean, how can you possibly stay calm when everybody around you is watching? I could hardly do it back there. It's embarrassing. I must've appeared like a bundle of nerves."
"Yeah. No kidding."
"You're pretty blunt yourself, huh?"
"That's not really my point, though. Rather than how you did it, I wanted to comment on how our grandparents reacted to you. That says a lot since you're Uncle Max's child."
"Oh, that again? Just why do you keep saying that?"
She crosses her arms and raises a brow at him, confused as to why he always brings up the fact that she is Maximilian's daughter. He shrugs in return, apathetic, before he averts his gaze. Right when she thought he was starting to get chattier and chattier, he went back to being reserved.
Lady narrows her eyes at him, refusing to say anything until he answers her question. With an aloof look, Fallon soon shifts his gaze back at her and finds that she is still not letting up.
"Fine. I'll tell you…" he then sighed, finally giving in.
"In case you didn't know, Uncle Max had always wanted to have a daughter. Yet, why would he rather have a female as his child? Most of the members of the family are males. Grandmother Penny said it herself. All she had were sons and grandsons until you came."
"Well, ummm..." she blurted out, unsure of what to say.
"Why wouldn't he want a female? Do the Mireille's have some kind of gender-related rule when it comes to getting a child?"
"Not really. It's just simply because he knew that our grandparents would treat you differently if you're a girl. Even if you didn't do anything special or noteworthy, they'd still pay attention to you, at the very least. Think of it as a strategy on Uncle's part. Since he's able to have a daughter, unlike his four elder brothers who all had sons, he, once again, had stood out from the rest of them despite being the youngest."
Lady goes silent then, thinking that what Fallon just said does make sense.
She secretly knew that Maximilian had decided to take in a daughter with the plan to marry her off to the future heir of the family business – who, apparently, would be neither of his nephews. He would be choosing the son of one of his closest acquaintances to be his successor, and through her marriage to whoever this was going to be, he would still have the highest position in the family – only after Benedict, of course.
"Now, you see...?" Fallon deadpanned, and Lady blinked.
"Uncle Max is a narcissist."
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