I Will Abandon My Family! - v2 Chapter 13, Chapter 14 (Patreon)

v2, Chapter 13

My Own Mother's Distorted Love (1)
It was a heavenly feeling when my oldest son, Shepherd, got engaged.

Shepherd, who was brilliant from an early age and looked like me, was truly intelligent and a genius.
In contrast, Marie, my eldest daughter, was a failure who did not resemble me much.

She was plain, dull, and not cute at all, just like my husband.
If she had been a little more beautiful, she would have been useful, but she really was no good at anything.

A woman is all about beauty and charm.
I was proud of my beauty even within our fief, but unfortunately, I was forced into a political marriage with my current husband during the great famine 30 years ago.

Originally, I would have liked to be a married to a Count or higher, but the Ranford family chose a man of a lower ranking baronet as their son-in-law.

He was a brilliant but boring man.
He was not worth my time, and I felt that he was an unsatisfactory husband.

He would not disobey me, though.
I thought that since he was a live-in son-in-law, I would be the head of the family and he would only be my assistant.

But then, my Father passed away.

“Why did the position of the head of the family pass to my husband!”

“The former head of the family left his last will.”

“Then why is it, Diaz? He’s not even his biological son?”

Father liked the mediocre but diligent Diaz.
He was more affectionate to me than him, so why is the son-in-law receiving special treatment!

Why!?

“By law, you do not have to be a biological child to inherit a household. If you adopt a child..."

“I haven’t heard anything about this.”

“He had no need for your permission, Madam.”

No matter how much Mother pleaded, the hard-headed lawyer would not listen.
Father even wrote that if she declined his last will, he would donate the entire estate to the state, so I was forced to agree.

But from then on, the Ranford family's money was to be managed by me and my Mother.
There was no need to have Diaz, the son-in-law, hold onto it in the first place.

However, even though the business got on track little by little, we were still only a Viscount’s household.
I could not stand in line with the high nobility.

That is why I didn't want Shepherd to lead a life as trivial as my husband's.
I had to make sure that all of the Ranford family's wealth went to Shepherd.

After my Mother passed away, I thought only of Shepherd's happiness.
I thought that the talented Shepherd could get engaged to a high-ranking noble's daughter if he went to the Capital.

But...

I applied him to the Royal Academy, ran by the royal family themselves, but he failed the first test and then the second.

I thought it was impossible.
He managed to get in by filling the vacancy, but Shepherd wasn't the only one nominated for the free slot.

So I did some backdoor work.
Shepherd was able to pass the exam, but he didn't do well in the general curriculum, so he had to repeat the class.
Marie, on the other hand, passed straight through, was chosen as a special student, and became a staff of the student council.

I couldn’t forgive her, who bribed her way through, to look so self-important.
She is a ruthless woman who thinks nothing of humiliating Shepherd.

But Diaz spoiled her and she got carried away.
Something must be done.

I will feel sorry for Shepherd if I don’t do something about it.

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v2, Chapter 14

My Own Mother's Distorted Love (2)
The sensitive Shepherd had a high fever after Marie got enrolled at the academy.
No wonder.

I wonder how he felt because of the disgraceful rumors Marie spread around about him being an older brother inferior to his younger sister.

Shepherd was better than her.
At first, I thought she might have cheated.

“Even His Majesty the King can't interfere in the examinations, okay? Are you trying to insult me?”

“However... isn't it strange that Marie could pass the exam?”

She didn’t study anywhere but the church.
Shepherd, on the other hand, had several tutors, you know?

“Do you know who Miss Marie’s teacher is?”

“She’s a sister of the church…”

“She used to be a tutor of the royal family, and she's a rough-and-tumble one. That person helped her study every day, you see?”

“Huh?”

What?
I did not hear about this.

“One of the best royal tutors in the Capital has a different teaching style from tutors sent to the countryside. I was told that Miss Marie was very talented, so I recommended her to take Miss Marie in as an apprentice.”

“Who asked you to!”

“Oh my? If you're going to work for our family, you need to have some academic ability.”

But that doesn't mean I, the mother, don’t have any say in this.

“I sent you a letter that day. And you accepted… well, it seems that you had someone write the reply letter on your behalf.”

“That’s…”

“Who do you think is to blame for not confirming it? Or have the Viscounts of nowadays become so great that they can defy the Counts?”

“... I apologize.”

This woman.
She is a useless woman who can't even have children, what’s up with her sarcasm.

“Still, will your son, Shepard, be all right?”

“Huh?”

“If he repeats another year, his school expenses will increase… because the tuition at the Royal Academy is very expensive.”

As she said, the cost of the supplementary exams and repeating a year was very high.
But it was not an amount that I could not pay, and I thought that I could get Diaz to work more.

Then I received unpleasant news.

Marie had been awarded first place at the Royal Academy.

First place among the girls is no big deal.
Marie must have been lucky to get into the special class, and many of the daughters of high-ranking nobles were probably idiots.

Boys and girls are different.
But she got carried away and said she wanted to marry a guy she met at the academy, who looked like a commoner to me, after graduation.

If Marie leaves, our family will be even more impoverished.
We need her to earn more money.

So instead of allowing her to marry him, I told her that I would take him in as my son-in-law.
Of course, I would never adopt a child, and I would never give him a single copper coin of our family's property.

I asked a lawyer I know to help me with the family register, and I deceived them.
All of this was just a stopgap until Shepherd could bring me a good fiancée.

And now the time has come for my wish to finally come true.

How pleased I was with the news that he had decided to marry a young lady from a Count’s family.

Next chapter: I Will Abandon My Family! - v2 Chapter 15, Chapter 16