TRAPPED BY THE SECOND MALE LEAD
PROLOGUES
“Do not embarrass me in front of the guests!”
“Go all the way, don't stand here! Don't let you make others suspicious!”
“Rather than you keep hearing hurtful sentences, you better just get out of this party. You ruined my happy moment.”
Believe it or not, all of those words came from his own biological family. No one in the house thought of it as something worthy of being called human. They don't want his presence. Instead, it was his family members who were most eager to get rid of him.
It all started many years ago, before stepping into adolescence, long before Ziel Emerald who incidentally is Meridia's real father married his beloved woman, Ziel's mother took him for a walk to her hometown.
One of the places that entered into the ranks of the Marchioness' favorite locations is the harbor, the port, where he could see the vastness of the ocean that was out of nowhere the water flowed and enjoyed a gentle breeze that not only refreshed his skin but also his heart.
There, the mother and son meet a mysterious fortune teller. The middle-aged woman asked Ziel to show her hand line and started reading something with just that. From where could he read the future just by looking at the hand lines? I don't know, it's still a big secret.
“Hm, this is interesting. Son, you really have an unusual future.”
Curious Marchioness then asks “can you explain how it means?”
The woman glared at Ziel's future after finishing reading Ziel's hand and face lines. He certainly said that in his future marriage, he would be blessed with two very different twin daughters.
One daughter will be as bright as the sun (bringing blessings and holy power) and the other as dark as the moon on a dim night (bringing destruction and curses).
Both Ziel and his mother seemed hesitant to fully believe the prophecy of the foreign woman.
But a strange coincidence occurred.
A dozen years later at the age of Ziel 25, the woman's prophecy was true. Ziel and Zoya are blessed with two uniracial twin daughters, whom they name Marigold for brother and Meridia for sister.
After Zoya gives birth to two healthy babies that match the old woman's prophecy, Ziel becomes a complete believer.
Marigold was born with blond hair shining like a shiny strand of gold thread when struck by light. It also has a bright blue netra that looks like a sapphire diamond. She grew up to be a very cheerful and warm-filled girl, as well as giving happiness to others.
In contrast, Meridia was born with blackish blue hair that was shiny like an onyx stone. Her irises are almost the same as Marigold's, but Meridia's is dimmer and more slender. Not only the characteristics are contrasting, Meridia also has a different personality with her brother. Meridia tends to be cold, indifferent, and less empathetic to its surroundings.
Despite the many differences, Meridia was not born with any defects or curse marks as predicted. Unfortunately, Ziel's view oxidized well to the rest of the mansion. Not only his family members, even the servants there also did not appreciate him as one of their employers.
No one wants to see his whereabouts. Meridia was even placed in the most corner room near the servant dormitory which was originally a storage warehouse for unused goods again.
That's how Meridia lived her hard life as a child of the Marquess, not treated like a noble.
In any case Meridia did carry a destructive power within her. Whatever thing he holds will end up dead or damaged. Maybe that is also what makes people hate and stay away from it to avoid bad luck of course.
The incident that made Meridia realize that she had something unusual in her began in the Emerald family garden.
One day, little Meridia who had just been scolded loudly by her father hid into the back garden to cry as well as calm down. At first Meridia felt very frustrated at the difference in affection between her and Marigold.
Her sadness peaked, but her little hands were curious and eager to pluck the fresh red rose. One touch of a finger is able to destroy a rose plant that is as vast as the tapestry of the world. Everything withered and died down to its roots. Plants that had been fresh suddenly all over the stem became dry lifeless wrinkles.
It was certain that he would not escape severe punishment. As soon as Zoya learns that her favorite flower garden is dead, Meridia is sentenced to seven days of imprisonment without being fed and drunk.
A very heinous punishment for the size of a six-year-old, isn't it?
As time goes by, Ziel and Zoya's twin daughters have become stunning teenage girls. But as a result of her childhood, Meridia grew up being ignorant and like to be troublemakers just to get the attention of people around her. Not infrequently also Meridia prank Marigold to make her sister was frightened.
Meridia's attitude is not hard to understand. Meridia was envious of Marigold, not only of the received treatment aspect but of Marigold's overall comfortable life.
All the love poured out for Marigold alone. Dozens of beautiful and luxurious dresses are directly sewn by famous tailors, dolls and jewelry of many kinds, tea parties, birthday parties, parties of maturity, etc, all of them were only experienced by one daughter Ziel.
Until one day when the anger was stirred up, Meridia deliberately drowned Marigold into a deep fish pond just as the sun was scorching and caused Marigold to run out of breath and pass out until he had a fever for two days.
Ziel was furious at Meridia's life-threatening foolish actions. The leader of the Emerald residence decided to completely disown Meridia as his biological daughter. His attitude became even more cruel to Meridia.
Marigold's luck didn't stop there. For love, Marigold is still the luckiest. Even the man Meridia loved preferred Marigold.
Though Meridia hopes that someday there will be one person who is able to accept all his shortcomings, pay attention, and will never leave him. It was a pity that hope was shattered into pieces when the man said “saf, Meridia. I can't be with you, so I'm going to live my life with Marigold. This decision is unanimous. I hope you forget me.”
That rejection was well embedded in the depths of his heart. Sick? It must have hurt a lot. It feels like all of Meridia's efforts to continue to survive despite always being overwhelmed by sadness and disappointment are nothing at all.
No one walks a lancer in his life. Not with family relationships, not with romance, all Meridia found was failure. Meridia never tasted what affection was.
Until whenever he will still be a shadow of Marigold, there is but not looked at even though because of how shining the real figure of Marigold.
Meridia finally decided to end her life by drinking a bottle of poison from her own concoction and died after years of fighting for something that could never be achieved.
Really, how ironic…
