Walking through the long and gorgeous halls of her mansion Julia past some gossiping maids who fell silent at the sight of their mistress. Not that she minded what the ladies were talking about, but when they stopped talking each time they past her bothered her. Even though it wasn’t this version of Julia they were talking about, it still bothered her. She could feel her heart pounding and her breathing becoming heavy. She knew it shouldn’t bother her but that couldn’t stop the tears from forming and all she wanted was to run away to the first room she could find Which she did, she came to a room at the end of the hall that seemed to be abandoned for a while. 

The entrance didn’t look like the rest of the house, it was made of a much darker wood and clashed with the rest of the house. When she opened the door it let out a loud creak. The hinges were old and hadn’t been used in a few years. The room itself was also a little worse for wear, it had only been a few years but Julia could tell that the maids don’t even take the time to clean this poor room. Julia looked around at the furniture of this room, it looked like it was her mother’s study. It was really the main study of all the Raventós matriarchs as the crest was hanging on the wall behind the desk. The Raventós family has always been run by the mothers, sisters, and daughters. If there was an absence of girls in that generation it would pass to the son and so forth. But the boys were always well taken care of, more often or not they would become vassals for the large amount of land the family-controlled. In this generation's case because Ingrid is not in a state to run the duchy her duties have fallen to her husband, the duke. 

Julia walked to the desk, she saw all the papers scattered about the surface and the smell of old ink was faint but there. Clearly, the desk was just left as is. Th only other thing Julia could think to do was find any information to help mend her relationship with her mother. The novel didn’t touch on Julias mother too much aside for the information of her being sick and had a close friendship with the emperor and the two acted like brother and sister and she was much smarter then him.

Julia opened up many of the drawers only to find nothing of a personal note, all just papers on finances and stuff on the peoples well being. Nothing of any interest to Julia. She had searched around for a little while longer but nothing of value came up. Then she turned her attention to the bookshelves in the room. She made a quick glance at all the books, a few were novels and others records. Julia at that point was a little annoyed and tired. She slunk down onto the floor leaning on one of the bookshelves. As soon as her back leaned up against the bookshelf she heard a little click and a large drawer in the self opened itself up.

Julia sprung up from her spot and rushed over to see the contents. It was all Ingrid’s personal letters to Ian, dated about 20 years ago. While Ian was still a knight. From the looks of it they had been secretly courting for a while, all the letters were all so polite and sweet on Ian’s side while Ingrid was wilder and teasing. They were all so sweet to read, it warmed Julia's heart when one of the letters stated that Ian would be coming back from his long campaign and would properly court her. But there was one letter that broke Julia’s heart. It was a letter from her mother to her now-husband while he was on another campaign for the empire.

To My Dearest Ian,

I am over the moon to announce to you that I am with child! I only just found out today and I am about five weeks along, now I know why I was sick a few weeks ago (thank you for taking care of me darling(. But I am so excited to meet our child! I cannot wait to see what it is, I don’t really care if it is a boy or girl I just know I am happy that we will be having a little family. I know we talked about names a while ago when we were joking. But I really do like the names Julia (named after my late mother) for a girl and Tobias (named after your late brother) for a boy! I know it's more likely that you won’t be home to meet it, and I know you can’t respond to these letters. But I love you very much my darling. I pray for a safe delivery and that our hearts won’t break again, this time I know with my whole heart our baby will make it. We are a family of fighters after all. I hope you are safe my love and can come home to the both of us.

~ With love, Ingrid.

Julia could feel her heartbreaking as she read the letter, but there was a whole stack more. She franticly went through the stack to find the next letter.

To My Love Ian,

I am so happy to tell you that in the middle of the night on September 17, we welcomed a beautiful baby girl! Julia Hera Raventós and she came out as healthy as an ox! She also had a full head of hair (now I know why I had so many heartburns). But she looks so much like you darling, her hair is a dark brown like yours. But I have a feeling it will lighten up. Oh, Ian I just love our little girl so much. I did have a rough delivery and it brought up some bad memories from long ago, but as soon as little Julia made her way into my arms all my worries just vanished. At first, it made me very worried when she didn’t cry but when she made her way to me her little movement was everything to me. Oh, I cannot wait until you come home and meet her. I am sure she will just love you!

~ With All Our Love, Ingrid and Julia

Julia's heart truly broke. All this time her mother had loved her and all this time she bore the pain of one-sided love. What could have happened for this to occur? All she did at this moment was cry, only just a little. Julia fell back down onto the floor again just weeping, the letters clutched tightly in her grasp. She let herself stay there for only a little while longer before getting up to leave. 

As she put the letters back into their spot she spotted a small children's book. It was not one with pictures, but a large one containing little fables for children. Julia traded out her letter for the book. As she picked it up it did have a smell. It wasn’t overpowering but only a faint scent of almonds. Julia wasn’t too concerned with the smell as she just chalked it up to being an old oil her mother must have left out, so she took her book and left the room to find her mother.