Helene looked at the Dowager Duchess with a face pale with betrayal.
“Was that why you wrote the letter of request? Pretending to encourage me while drawing the line, intending for me to handle everything?”
The Dowager Duchess’s green eyes began to sink with a chilling glint.
“We are in a position where even a kindness offered carelessly carries responsibility. It means we must always consider the weight and impact of our words.”
The Dowager Duchess’s stern voice continued.
“I wrote the letter as you requested, but now I only receive resentment. Does that not tell you something?”
“In the end, it’s all about shifting the responsibility to me, isn’t it? You may be the Duke’s wife in name, but you’re as cold as a stranger.”
“If there hadn’t been problems with Brigadier General Vicente and his wife, you wouldn’t be in trouble, nor would you be brazen enough to blame me after tarnishing the Ducal House’s name.”
The Dowager Duchess’s finger pointed to a section of the letter of formal demand.
“Considering all possibilities and being cautious is only natural as the elder of the family. You brought all of this upon yourself.”
Helene’s gaze reached the tip of her finger.
There, the sentence ‘For your information, we know a lot about the Duchess’ was written.
The Dowager Duchess did not question her deeply about this.
“1.8 billion and a weakness. That is the price for the kindness you extended using your position.”
She was merely informing her of the responsibilities she would have to bear from now on.
“This is your last chance. Consider it alimony the moment the Duchy repays it.”
The Dowager Duchess’s chilling warning pierced her like an awl.
* * *
Helene paced around the room, biting her nails in anxiety.
She couldn’t afford to lose her position as the Duke’s wife, not if she wanted to achieve her ambitions.
The real head of the Dukedom was not the Duke, but the Dowager Duchess.
If the Dowager Duchess decided on a divorce, Count Queensguard would surely deem his divorced daughter worthless and send her to a convent.
He never hesitated to dispose of anything useless.
‘What on earth should I do…’
Raising such a large sum of money was not an easy task.
She couldn’t inform Count Queensguard of this fact, and asking the Duke for help would only result in ridicule.
Moreover, if she were caught dealing with the organization, it would be the end of her.
‘Because I secretly used the trading company’s promissory notes, I can’t embezzle any more than this.’
After much deliberation, Helene hurriedly prepared to go out.
‘Cynthia is my only hope now.’
Now that she had a weakness, she would have no choice but to obey her.
Helene went straight to the official residence.
A butler with a hideous scar on his face led her to the drawing room.
After waiting for about an hour, the door opened and Cynthia appeared.
Helene, who had jumped up from her seat, approached her with a very indignant expression.
“Knowing full well why I’ve come, how dare you make me wait?”
“Why did you come?”
Cynthia asked back with an innocent expression, as if she knew nothing.
“I’ve been saddled with debt because of you. A whopping 1.8 billion.”
“Why is that because of me? It’s because you did something you couldn’t take responsibility for.”
Helene’s lips twisted with anger.
“You should have considered the priorities. That money should have been repaid by Brigadier General Vicente, not me, who’s keeping your identity a secret.”
“Brigadier General Vicente has no obligation to repay it in the first place, you know? And my top priority is to play the role of the wife well.”
‘Is she taking some kind of debate training?’ Helene thought inwardly and got to the point.
“You killed Anna, didn’t you? I heard you met her in the village.”
“No. If you’re so suspicious, you can report me.”
Cynthia shook her head and drank her milk tea.
Helene, who saw a fleeting serious expression, asked again to pressure her.
“Where’s Anita?”
“I can roughly guess why you’re asking me that, but you can’t use it as blackmail.”
Cynthia smiled brightly and continued.
“The only card you have is to expose the fraud and die together.”
She didn’t even call her ‘sister’ anymore.
‘Is that the attitude of someone who killed a person? She must be a psycho.’
Helene clenched her fists at her attitude, which was more than confident, even brazen.
Cynthia, who was tilting her teacup, only rolled her eyes to look at her.
“By the way, how did you know Anna died? I only know she disappeared.”
At the unexpected question, Helene flinched.
‘Damn it, I’ve been caught by that cunning snake’s tongue.’
“I’m asking because I thought she might have been killed. Either by you or by my father.”
Seeing Helene vaguely glossing over it, Cynthia put her hand on her cheek with a sad face.
“In the end, you need money, right? But I don’t have any right now. Can you wait until the development of Nox is all finished? There’s not much time left until it generates profit.”
“It’s been a while since Nox was found to have nothing. Trying to scam the Medea royal family on top of a fraudulent marriage, you’re no different from your father.”
At Helene’s sarcasm, Cynthia shrugged with an unaffected face.
“We’ll have to see what the results are. More than that, you’re talking in a threatening tone, but in reality, I’m the only one you can ask for help.”
That was true. Whether it was blackmail or begging, Cynthia was the only place Helene could get money.
However, Helene did not give up her pride and tried to maintain her superiority until the end.
“Listen carefully, if I’m finished, you’re finished too.”
Unlike Helene, who warned in a serious voice, Cynthia mumbled while crunching on a cookie.
“Okay. I’ll ask Brigadier General Vicente if he can lend you some money. He’s passing by over there.”
Cynthia, who stood up from her seat, threw open the window. And before she could stop her, she called out to Masera, who was visible outside the window.
“Brigadier General! Helene says she needs some money!”
At the loud shout, the gazes of the high-ranking officers who were walking with Masera in the distance all turned this way at once.
“Or else her life will be over- mmmph!”
Helene quickly covered Cynthia’s mouth and closed the window.
“Can’t you shut up!”
Cynthia removed the hand covering her mouth and grinned.
“Money is really dirty and mean. You have to throw away your pride no matter who the other person is.”
‘What a crazy psycho.’
‘Is she just bold or does she have two lives?’ Helene cursed inwardly.
* * *
After Helene left, it was dinner time.
“What did you say earlier when you opened the window? I couldn’t hear you well.”
Masera asked as the meal was coming to an end.
She seemed to have opened the window wide and shouted something in a very excited voice, but he couldn’t hear it well because it was far away.
“Isn’t it a passionate confession that she’s dedicating her life?”
“It also sounded like she was asking for something.”
Because of that, a heated debate had broken out among the officers.
Cynthia poked at the beans with her fork and shook her head.
“It’s nothing.”
Judging from the shape of her mouth, it seemed like she was asking her sister to borrow something.
And it was the expression she made when teasing others.
‘It seems like she was teasing the Duchess.’
He already knew that the two were in a competitive relationship. Masera, who had seen Helene belittling Cynthia several times, decided not to ask any further.
‘……!’
Then, he was surprised to see Cynthia’s plate and widened his eyes.
‘She left food…?’
The person who used to scrape off even the decorative vegetables?
This was a serious matter. She must be sick or worried about something.
Cynthia, who was picking at her food with a listless face, said to him.
“Go to bed first today. I have something to do.”
“Is there anything I can help with?”
“It’s okay.”
Cynthia shook her head with a somewhat subdued expression.
Suddenly, he remembered that when he confessed that he would be a kind husband, she only gave him a strange expression and didn’t give him a proper answer.
Masera stared at her with worry and anxiety.
‘Could it be because of me?’
She was just being humanely kind, but did I misunderstand and take it to heart, making her feel uneasy?
Masera rubbed his face as if washing it.
* * *
After dinner, Masera saw Cynthia heading to the study with a worried face.
He had recently received a report from Diego that she had secretly brought in books.
“That person also has a private life, so there are times when they cover up some of the titles and put them on the expenditure list… Was it ‘How to XXX Your Husband’? Something like that.”
Husband? What is she trying to do to me?
What kind of books did she buy in secret? He felt uneasy for some reason.
