# 21
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Before Elinor lived her new life, her previous life was full of loneliness.
Her mother gave birth to her at a young age, alone.
The girl's father, a schoolmate, had lost contact with him after running away to study abroad.
It was not easy for a young student who could barely support herf to take on the responsibility of another life.
Eventually, when Elinor was five years old, her mother abandoned her in an orphanage.
She said she would come back for it in ten nights, but it was a lie.
"If you were going to abandon me, why did you have me? Or should you have abandoned me when I didn't remember anything."
The abandoned child blamed her mother.
At the same time, she somehow tried to understand her mother's cruel decision.
"There must have been circumstances. Circumstances that prevented her from coming back to me."
Despite her young age, Elinor felt that the world was not kind to single mothers.
She herf suffered endless discrimination because she was an orphan and grew up in an orphanage.
“It was not ten nights... but hundreds of times longer.”
However, if her mother came back to look for her, she said she was sorry for being so late.
Then, perhaps, Elinor would have hugged her.
“Maybe my mother doesn’t know where I am, so she couldn’t find me.”
To meet someone she had long separated from, the quickest way seemed to be to become famous.
Therefore, she did her best to succeed.
Her rise from starting out later than others to becoming a well-known young CEO was no accident.
In fact, her plan worked.
Her mother came to look for her.
"I got cancer. Make me your beneficiary. Think of it as your last duty to the mother who gave birth to you, okay?"
Her mother, who was terminally ill, was covetous of the inheritance and insurance money she would leave behind.
It was a moment when Elinor felt empty.
All her life she had hoped to meet her mother again.
But in the end, it was really deserted.
She did not feel any remorse from her mother, who returned after abandoning her.
On the contrary, she was secretly happy.
Because if Elinor dies, she will be able to seize her vast wealth and assets.
Was her encounter with her mother so traumatic?
Her health, which was not already good, deteriorated rapidly.
She could not last more than a month and died, and when she opened her eyes again, she became Elinor Winston.
“I won't expect anything anymore.”
When she realized she had been reincarnated into a novel, she decided to keep her distance from her new family.
Elinor Winston was a character who harassed her younger sister Charlotte and met a horrific end.
Maintaining an appropriate distance was best for everyone's safety.
“Eleanor is truly amazing.”
"She hasn't graduated yet, and yet everyone is vying to hire her. They talk about her as a genius like Winston."
Therefore, she lived quietly after joining the academy, preparing herf for independence from her family.
"child…?"
She never expected to meet the child that Charlotte gave birth to when she temporarily returned to the palace after graduation.
A child who was abandoned by his mother at a much younger age than Elinor.
The moment she saw the baby crying alone on the bed, Elinor knew she could never ignore him.
She felt that the child she had just met looked like her.
To project her failed life onto a child who is just starting out.
She felt sorry for her nephew, but she couldn't stop associating herf with him.
If this child survives safely and meets Charlotte again.
And if Charlotte regrets her mistakes and truly loves the child.
Then, maybe the deep wound in her heart would heal a little.
“I shouldn't have done that.”
In the midst of the rising flames, Elinor blamed herf.
“Instead of waiting for Charlotte to come and look for the baby, I should have gone and found Charlotte with the baby.”
If she wanted, she could have found Charlotte first.
Elinor had the information about the original novel.
But she didn't.
She hoped that Charlotte would regret her past actions and come back herf to take the baby.
The child is not me in my previous life.
Because of her fish desire to heal her wounds, she put an innocent child in danger.
Fshshh.
The fire rose violently.
Elinor gasped.
“My little one!”
She looked around and screamed at the top of her lungs.
But no matter how much she searched, she couldn't find the five-month-old.
“Oh! Oh!”
All I heard was the sound of a desperate crying man searching for his mother from somewhere.
The sharp smell of burning stabbed her nose.
Her heart was beating hard.
"My little one! Where are you!"
Elinor ran through the blazing flames.
The hem of her dress gradually burned, but she didn't care.
She had to find the baby quickly. The child crying alone in the middle of the fire...
“Oh!”
“My little one!”
Elinor discovered the child trapped between the rising flames, unconsciously ran towards him and quickly hugged him.
At the same moment, a red wave crashed over her head.
"no!"
In a moment of terror, Elinor hugged the child deeper to protect him.
“Hah!”
I finally woke up from a deep dream.
“Ha-ha, ha-ha.”
Elinor breathed heavily.
She saw a strange ceiling.
It was not the marble ceiling of the academy's dormitories that she had seen daily for seven years, nor the old wooden panel ceiling of the hostel.
Where am I now?
Most importantly, where is the child?
"Yes."
Elinor tried to force her stiff body to stand up.
The room was not big.
The furnishings were the bed on which she was lying, a small tea table, and only one chair.
It was striking that the furniture looked luxurious, but Elinor did not notice it.
She couldn't see her nephew anywhere in the room.
“Hey kid, where are you…! Ugh.”
When she tried to get out of bed, she lost her balance and supported herf on the bed with her hands.
Her head was spinning.
She had no strength in her body, as if she had woken up after a long time.
Does inhaling fire smoke cause a problem?
She tried hard to raise her body, groaning.
At that moment, I heard a click and the door opened.
“Oh mother of the child?”
Matthias entered the room with a surprised expression, his left arm wrapped in a bandage.
And behind him...
“My little one!”
Her sister's son, whom she was anxiously searching for, was in the arms of a woman who looked like a maid.
Elinor flapped her arms.
She wanted to run to get the baby back, but her body wouldn't obey her, which made her angry.
The woman in the maid's uniform turned to Matthias as if to ask him.
Matthias nodded.
“Hail the child.”
With his permission, the child finally returned to Elinor's arms.
The child hummed as if he knew her.
“Baa-”
“She was not injured, thank God. Thank God, really...”
If the child had been in the hostel during the fire, what would have happened?
A child who cannot speak yet, in the middle of the fire...
Hot tears rolled down Elinor's cheeks.
Elinor hugged her nephew tightly.
“I will never make that mistake again.”
I will get you safely to your mother. I'm so sorry for falling short, your aunt.