“All-out child-rearing to avoid execution! …Or so I thought — but somehow the entire family is all-out showering me with love?!” The protagonist possesses Arcelia, a wicked stepmother condemned to be executed on a false charge. Her condition for survival: “Protect the family name and the children until the eldest son comes of age.” Three step-children who make no secret of their hostility. Relatives scheming after the family’s fortune. And the most terrifying knight commander — her husband’s former subordinate. In a duke’s household swirling with conspiracy, she throws herself into a life-or-death mission of child-rearing and reform. …At least, that was the plan. But she ends up being loved so deeply that a “quiet retirement” becomes completely impossible. “Those two are fighting over you again! But you can’t go with them — Mother belongs to me.” From despised villainess to the object of smothering, overprotective adoration from her step-family and knights alike — escape is no longer an option.
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