Saving the Villain

As Cosette prepared herself to do grocery shopping with Conrad, she noticed Lucia had been smiling a lot lately. She gazed at her nanny while Cosette was putting a clip on the side of her hair in front of the vanity mirror.

"Nanny Lucia, are you in love?" she asked out of nowhere, making her nanny flinch. "You've been smiling a lot lately."

Cosette turned around to face Lucia, who was cleaning her room. "Who is it?"

"Young Miss, how can you say that?" Lucia chuckled awkwardly. "I'm just happy that the young miss and the master are on better terms."

"Ohh…" Cosette's lips formed an O shape as she rocked her head. "That's the reason you've been happy?"

Lucia studied the young miss briefly before she let out a shallow breath. "You've been distant to the master in the past, so seeing that young miss is slowly opening up, everyone is relieved."

'Right…' Cosette cringed internally, thinking that the servants endured the stifling atmosphere in this place because their masters had a very distant relationship with his daughter. Now that she thought about it, the servants had been a bit more at ease around her than when she first came into this world.

Not that they bore hostility towards her in the past. It was more like there was this obvious line between the servants and Cosette. They still served with a smile, though. 𝗳𝘳𝐞e𝙬𝙚𝚋𝗻𝚘𝚟𝗲l.𝑐𝑜ｍ

"I'm happy too, Nanny Lucia." Cosette smiled subtly, making Lucia's eyes dilate before they softened. "If only I know Father isn't that difficult, I wouldn't have to jump to assumptions."

"Young Miss…"

Cosette turned around as she stared at herself in the mirror, huffing as her eyes flickered with determination. Although she shouldn't have this particular feelings regarding Conrad, as he was practically a stranger to her, part of her heart was genuinely satisfied with her healing relationship with her father.

Were these feelings a part of the real Cosette's emotions? Or was she relieved because she thought she was making a good deed? Either way, she would stop at nothing to improve her relationship with Conrad and Maxen.

"My new school is always in chaos, but somehow… I'm liking it day by day," she confessed and Lucia smiled while staring at her back.

*****

"Papa!" Cosette yelled as she jogged her way down the stairs. Conrad was already in the mansion's foyer while talking to the head butler.

"Careful, Cozie." His words naturally slipped past his lips, but now, he didn't feel like he should restrain himself from saying his genuine concern. He then turned to the head butler and muttered a few words.

"I'm here!" Cosette announced as soon as she stood an arm's length away from Conrad. Her eyes scanned the servants around and they were smiling, standing in a line to send the two off.

'They are always grand.' She thought, thinking that whenever she would leave and come home, the servants would always welcome her home. It had become a daily routine that she was slowly getting used to it.

"I brought a list we should buy, Papa." Cosette shrug the distractive thoughts away, raising her to-buy list and showed it to Conrad.

Conrad carefully took her long list and skimmed through it. He couldn't help but chuckle seeing that, unlike the list of projects she had been presenting to him in the past, this list was rather… normal.

"Then, let's go." He nodded and glanced at her before he turned and walked away. Cosette glanced at the head butler and saw him smile and bow.

"Laters!" she waved, following her father. As she did, Cosette pursed her lips and picked up her pace to catch up to him. Conrad froze momentarily when his daughter hooked her arm around him. He gazed at her, wide-eyed, and Cosette just smiled.

He didn't say anything as he resumed his steps with his little girl clinging to him. This time, he couldn't hide the subtle smile on his lips as they headed towards the car parked just right in front of the portico.

Meanwhile, the servants who witnessed this gasped and then smiled in relief. Cosette and Conrad's relationship was surely improving, and they were all happy about it.

To them, watching the father and daughter go to do grocery shopping together was something they never thought they would see in this lifetime. Now, they looked like they were family and not just strangers living in the same house.

******

Cosette was surprised that Conrad personally drove her to one of the luxury malls, where there was a supermarket inside. It was more like a day out for the two of them, and she was quite pleased about it.

She glanced at Conrad, who was pushing the cart. 'My father is really good-looking. No wonder sister Cozie is super pretty.'

Conrad was one of those fathers that readers would usually call DILF. If she wasn't her daughter in this world, she would surely seduce him. She had soft spots for those types of characters, after all.

'Gosh… that's my father!' she scolded herself for having such immoral thoughts. 'Anyway, where are the lunch boxes?'

Cosette roamed the supermarket until she found a section for lunch boxes. Her father didn't complain despite her unplanned, random route.

"Oh, this looks good!" she picked up a pink lunch box and a black one. "A matching lunch box?"

Her eyes darted between the lunch boxes in her hand that had the same design but were different in colors. She liked the color pink and the black one suits Maxen's personality. She grinned at the thought, but before she could decide, she turned to face Conrad.

"Papa, what do you think?" she asked while raising the lunch boxes.

Conrad studied the lunch box and actually didn't see the beauty in them. But he still nodded, as it seemed she really liked them.

"They're cute, right?" a giggle slipped past her lips as she carefully put them inside the cart. But before they could move on, her eyes caught a green lunch box that had the same design.

"Oh…" her father's brows furrowed as Cosette picked up another lunch box. "… right. Hehe."

Cosette grinned sweetly as she put the green lunch box in the cart. Conrad didn't ask her reason for an extra lunch box as he thought she was just buying a spare, just in case. Little did he know that the lunch box would be something he would also treasure.