The Stand-In Villainess's Contract Marriage: I Was Divorced After a Year, But For Some Reason, My Ex-Husband Seems to Be Looking for Me - Chapter 2

Count Tweed was an acquaintance of my father, and his age was about the same as my grandfather, who passed away before my parents.

He was a business partner of my father and a very wealthy man.

He owned a large mansion in the royal capital, with more than twice the number of servants compared to the Count Carlotta family when my parents were still alive.

However, his personal life was lonely. Around thirty years ago, he lost his wife and daughter in an accident, and since then, he had lived alone without remarrying.

I’ve heard that, due to his immense wealth, many women sought him out for his money, even as he aged, which made him quite misanthropic.

And yet, there was a reason why he reached out to help Esrie and Liana after our parents passed away.

It wasn’t just because he was close to our father; my sister was the same age as his late daughter, and they both had the shared tragedy of losing family in an accident.

He supported us financially, and in return, my sister began to keep him company, listening to him talk.

She would go to his mansion and quietly listen to stories from his past.

Count Tweed was a grumpy old man, but he seemed to see his late daughter in my sister, treating her very kindly.

His late daughter, like my sister and Liana, had beautiful silver hair. And so, as my sister spent time with him, he often found himself reminded of his daughter.

Seeing the loneliness that had plagued Count Tweed for so long, my sister seemed to want to comfort him.

One day, she came up with the idea to wear the clothes of his deceased daughter while listening to his stories.

His daughter’s name was Lana, and she was reportedly a flashy and strikingly beautiful woman.

The portrait of Count Tweed’s wife, displayed in the mansion, was also of a beautiful woman, so it seems that Lana must have resembled her mother.

That’s why all the dresses Lana left behind were lavish in design, and for my quiet sister, wearing such dresses was initially a bit embarrassing.

But while our relatives turned their backs on us, Count Tweed, merely a family acquaintance, was the only one who helped my sister and me.

Out of gratitude, my sister wore Lana’s dresses and stayed by his side.

Even so, my sister and his daughter Lana looked nothing alike.

Moreover, the extravagant dresses didn’t really suit my sister, who had a more modest appearance.

Seeing the count sigh sadly at this, my sister, wanting to comfort him, began to apply heavy makeup, asking about his wife’s and daughter’s portraits and consulting with the maids, trying to resemble Lana as much as possible.

Seeing my sister looking just like his deceased daughter, Count Tweed was delighted. He even started calling her by his daughter’s name and taking her to evening parties.

This might have also been for my sister’s sake, as she had lost our parents and could no longer attend social events.

However, when a wealthy old count, who had long kept his distance from people, began appearing with a young, flashy woman, most people assumed she was his mistress.

Moreover, it had been almost thirty years since Count Tweed’s daughter passed away.

No one remembered her face, let alone her name.

Thus, my sister came to be known as the “wicked woman Lana,” who had cunningly ingratiated herself with the wealthy old count.

Count Tweed was unaware that the woman he thought of as his daughter was being scorned as a “wicked woman.”

No one dared say such things to his face, given his influence, and the count himself was not very sociable and unaware of public gossip.

He might have even thought he was parading my sister around to help her find a good marriage match.

Each time, she wore a different lavish dress, adorned with beautiful jewelry.

With bold makeup and a willful, spirited personality that could even exhaust the count, my sister was merely acting the part of Lana, whom she had heard about.

Count Tweed’s indulgence toward her stemmed from his regret of only harshly scolding his late daughter.

However, those around them didn’t know the backstory, calling my sister the count’s mistress and the wicked woman who seduced the wealthy old man.

Such heartless rumors hurt my sister deeply.

There were times she would return from the evening parties and lock herself in her room to cry.

Seeing her like that was painful for Liana, who pleaded with her, saying she would start working herself, so she begged her sister to stop going to Count Tweed’s.

“I can’t let young Liana work. And besides, when you’ve received kindness, you must always repay it,” she said.

That was our father’s motto.

Perhaps my sister saw those words as his final will, something he never had the chance to tell us before he passed.

And so, five years passed since our parents’ death.

During that time, my sister continued to play the role of Count Tweed’s daughter.

The rumors of the wicked woman Lana had spread throughout the royal capital, to the point where Count Tweed himself was the only one who didn’t know.

At this time, thanks to the heavy makeup and flashy dresses, no one realized that she was actually the eldest daughter of the Carlotta family, who had dropped out of the academy after our parents’ death.

Because of her quiet personality and the fact that she had attended the academy for less than half a year, not many people remembered my sister.

That might have been one of the reasons.

Liana was now sixteen.

My sister had tried to get Liana enrolled in the noble academy, but Liana refused her offer.

With her sister suffering so much, Liana had no intention of living a carefree academy life by herself, and there were still plenty of debts to repay.

Besides, attending the noble academy wasn’t mandatory.

She could study on her own, continuing to help with the household chores and work from home as she had been doing.

My sister was somewhat clumsy and wasn’t good at housework or embroidery, but Liana excelled at both.

That’s why, after our parents passed, she helped the only maid who stayed with us by doing the laundry and cooking.

During the day, she assisted the nuns at the convent or worked on embroidery, and at night, she borrowed my sister’s textbooks and studied alone.

Liana was also grateful to Count Tweed.

If it weren’t for him, Liana wasn’t sure if she would have been able to continue living with her sister.

But it pained her to see her kind and sincere sister scorned as a wicked woman.

She worked hard, determined to pay off as much of our parents’ debt as possible and free her sister from the label of “wicked woman Lana.”