: Death
I floated in mid-air, watching the four of them sitting together in blissful harmony, but my heart was filled with despair.
I wanted to go to them and ask why. If they never loved me, why did they bring me home? Why did they do this to me?
But they couldn't hear my voice anymore.
After all, I was already dead.
I died in that sunless wine cellar.
Only at the moment of death did I finally break free from that cramped wine barrel.
From the outside, I watched as the vessel once filled with red wine was now stuffed with my tiny body.
Even the barrel's only air vent had been maliciously plugged, as if to trap the person inside for all eternity.
For all of eternity, never to be reincarnated.
So even as a soul, watching this scene unfold, I couldn't stop myself from trembling.
And my brothers, separated from me by only a single floor, were whispering softly, coaxing Elara Vaughn to take another bite.
"Didn't you say yesterday that your stomach was bothering you? Hurry and drink your soup, or you'll be in pain again tonight."
Elara Vaughn ducked coquettishly behind Second Brother, Julian Vaughn, her expression reluctant as she spoke.
"But I don't want to, Eldest Brother. I'm really full. I can't eat another bite."
But Second Brother simply pulled her out in front of him, patiently coaxing her with the promise of buying her the latest designer dress.
Even Third Brother, who was always so cold and aloof, was smiling at the scene.
Only I stood behind them, my heart already in ruins.
But perhaps because of the immense grief, an ache actually began to spread through my otherwise empty chest.
The wine barrel was small, so to stuff me inside, they had deliberately shattered my limbs with a hammer.
The broken bones dug into my flesh, making every second an unbearable agony.
But in their eyes, all the pain I had endured was nothing compared to Elara Vaughn's hangover from a banquet.
But I was the real heiress of the Vaughn Family, their true sister, connected by flesh and blood...
Even in the very last moments, as my life slipped away.
I was still hoping.
Hoping they wouldn't actually hurt me, hoping they still loved me.
After all, I was their real sister.
So, in the final moments of my life, I kept trying to defend myself, to prove that I had done nothing wrong.
But the only answer that came was...
"Butler Cole."
"Get some men to stack all these other barrels on top. When Second Miss Vaughn finally learns her lesson, you can move them."
At that moment, I pounded on the side of the barrel in utter despair,
until the barrel was hoisted up and countless heavy objects were piled on top, the weight so immense I couldn't even breathe.
That's when I heard them say.
"If she still won't behave, turn on the cellar's refrigeration. Let her cool off for a while."
In that moment, despair flooded the small space.
Leaving me alone to stare into the endless darkness, completely and utterly hopeless.
Until the pain in my body slowly faded, until my life finally came to an end...
