After Matthew left, Harper slowly walked into the hall. As soon as she heard the footsteps, Catherine wiped her tears and pretended nothing had happened. She turned around and discovered it was Harper. "Did you see everything?" she asked.
"No, I was worried, so I decided to check up on you. I know how wayward Princess Diana is," Harper said as she approached. "Your Grace, did you cry?"
"No, I didn't. I just had something in my eyes," Catherine said, her voice as gentle as ever. Her tone didn't give away any of her feelings. There was no trace of sadness on her face now.
"Your Grace, do you want to hear a story?" Harper turned around, sat down on the stairs, and looked at the scenery outside. When Catherine didn't move, she patted the place beside her. "You've told me so many stories about the South Kingdom today. Now let me tell you a story."
Catherine walked gracefully to Harper and sat down next to her as Harper started telling her story. "I remember when I first came to the Starry Palace, I enjoyed sitting on stairs like this and looking outside. I wondered when my family would come and visit. However, as the days turned to years, they never showed up. Later, when I realized that they would never visit me, I stopped sitting here and waiting for them," Catherine said sadly.
"Your Grace, once upon a time, there was a little girl just like you. She spent years hoping that her father could pay more attention to her. That girl did a lot of things in hopes of that happening. Instead, her father ended up hating her more and more. Things escalated to the extent that he'd even wanted her to die," "What happened to that girl then?"
Catherine asked in a clear but angry voice.
"She lived a good life while her father lost everything. He ended up living in pain for the rest of his life."
Harper told Catherine the entire story of the little girl. When she explained how the father didn't hesitate to take the girl's life for the promising future of his concubine's daughter, Catherine's face turned grim.
"That damn father!"
"Yes, such a father really deserved nothing but death," Harper intoned. "It is said that even a vicious tiger would never eat its cubs. He was worse than a beast. He tried his best to secure personal gains all his life and used his children to strive for a brighter future. But in the end, he found out that the son and daughter he loved most were not his biological children. It turned out that he had raised another man's children for almost twenty years, which he had treated as the apples of his eye."
"Karma got him then," Catherine said forcefully. "He deserved it. He toyed with his own child's life to pave the path for another man's children. It had to be karma."
"That's precisely how I feel. God is always watching what humans do. Evil people will eventually pay for their deeds, and it's only a matter of time." Even though Harper's tone was devoid of any emotion, Catherine felt a chill from her words.
"Is this your personal story?"
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