Ruby wasn't sure if she should take the call.
She wondered what the esteemed Madam might be calling her for, more so when it was already this late at night.
If the Madam was calling her for something important, she might risk exposing her mission through their conversation. After all, there was no guarantee if the phone hadn't been sabotaged by the prince.
As Ruby hesitated over whether to answer the call or not, her fingers suddenly moved by themselves to slide across the screen as if acting on her instinct. Her heart nearly leapt out as she nervously held the phone with both hands.
"Hello? Is this really you, Bella?"
The call was instantly connected, the Madam's tone a rare mixture of concern and heartache. Ruby pressed her lips together, unsure of what to say.
"Mo-ther."
Her voice came out stiffer than she had expected. Ruby reprimanded herself for the blunder. It was no wonder that Julien had recognized her as a fraud this fast. In one way or another, everything about her seemed to be full of faults.
"It's already so late. Why have you called?" Despite the stiffness of her tone, Ruby kept going as if she was reciting a script she had just pulled out from the internet, her mind screaming at her to end the call asap.
Suddenly, Ruby heard a sigh from the end of the call, which was soon followed by a muffled sob.
Ruby's eyebrows twitched. This… had the Madam been weeping for her wellbeing? How absurd! Ruby laughed at herself for even thinking that.
However, no sooner than a second, the Madam's words verified her doubts.
"I have been worried about you."
Ruby's mouth hung open, dumbfounded. Her tongue moved faster than her mind did.
"You don't have to–"
"You are my daughter, Arabella."
The Madam suddenly cut in, sending a numbing shock through her mind. Ruby's heart skipped a beat.
Right. How could she forget that this was just an act to fool the possibly eavesdropping prince? After all, the Madam didn't know that they had long been exposed.
And for as long as this status quo remained, she would have to play the role of a pampered daughter for both the Montclairs and the Prince to see.
A snobby little princess who should be sobbing out her misfortune to her cold and detached mother like a baby who could never grow up, that was the kind of role she had to take.
"There is nothing to fear, for no matter what, your father and I will always stand by your side."
Ruby should've picked up some clues from the Madam's deliberate words. The Madam might mean that she and Master Montclair will be watching over her closely. She might be warning her not to attempt something funny or else, she'll come to regret it.
There were so many directions to interpret, and yet…
Ruby lowered her gaze, tears pooling at the corner of her cloudy eyes.
"Mother, I am scared." She finally whispered out, her nasal voice breathy and trembling. "I thought… I would die back then."
A bead of tears fell down her cheek, before more followed like a shower of petals. Ruby saw her own reflection through the mirror near the dressing table.
She was just like an abandoned little cat, her face pale and her narrow shoulders shivering as if she had withstood a whole night of heavy rain and depression. She almost couldn't recognize herself in that reflection.
For as long as she remembered, she had never been this miserable. This heartbroken. This… sad.
She sniffed, the burning pain in her chest too fervent to be ignored. Her initial life had always been simple. Born into an ordinary family of four, Ruby spent her entire childhood assisting her mother and father in their various odd jobs.
Her father, Robert Hillington, was an honest fisherman who had struggled to bring enough food to the table his whole life while her mother, Margaret, worked as a housewife with many more households to look after to help support the family.
Life had been hard for the impoverished Ruby, and although taking care of her younger sibling who was eight years younger than her had robbed so much time and joy from her childhood, Ruby had loved her family as dearly as her life.
Ruby was willing to do anything if it meant that she could help relieve her family of their burdens, working hard from a young age and honing her skills until she was finally noticed by the respectable Montclairs, and even obtaining this golden chance to strike rich.
There was nothing to regret, that went without saying, but… Ruby couldn't help but feel lost and empty.
Turns out, she was not all that strong after all. She could break as well, and this was the moment where she couldn't even force the smile that she had long honed to perfection.
"Mother, can you… accompany me to sleep?"
Madam Montclair wasn't her true mother, that was for sure. But, now that they were acting on their respective roles, Ruby couldn't find any fault in her request.
Be it her own selfishness or something else, Ruby just wanted someone to accompany her for the night, where even the moon was all alone with no one to lean on.
The Madam had unexpectedly agreed, surprisingly sounding amicable at that. She had hummed in response and not long after that, Ruby laid on the bed with the phone by her side.
"Mother, can you tell me some stories? Just like the time we used to do when I was a child."
Ruby shamelessly requested, blaming it on the roles they needed to play to fool Julien, which they didn't even have to since Julien had known everything. But that's not for the Montclairs to find out.
Her eyes slowly fluttered close, eyelids heavy as if countless invisible weights had been piled on top of those flimsy tissues.
Somehow, it was good to know that someone out there was worried for her. Even if all the affections were just for show, the warmth worked just as fine. She slowly drifted to her sleep.
In fact, Ruby had lied. Margaret never told her bedtime stories, the older woman simply never had the time and energy to do so. She had conceded a few times for her younger sibling, which was only achieved after relentless coercion, but that job was soon passed on to Ruby, which she had eagerly accepted to relieve her mother's burden.
Raising a child wasn't an easy job after all, and Ruby had to practice harder to handle her younger brother's tantrum better. But that's life and she was happy enough for that. As long as they could stay as family forever, that's enough.
"I don't know much about bedtime stories." Half-stepped into her dreams, Ruby heard the Madam admit albeit embarrassedly.
"How about I teach you how to prepare some fish maw soup? Having one during hard times has always been a mood booster for me. Bella, you should try them too…"
Ruby half-consciously hummed out in reply, the Madam's cold yet soothing voice working better than the best bedtime stories she had recited with difficulty.
Even as a soft snore drifted out to the end of the phone, the Madam's calm voice never halted, her instructions clear and coherent until she had finished explaining each step she should take to cook the fish to perfection.
Fortunately, the Madam's efforts hadn't been in vain as unbeknownst to her, aside from the snoozing Ruby, someone else had been listening to her careful instructions so meticulously like the perfect student in a class.
And that perfect student… was none other than Julien and his stubborn shadow, Mario.