Chapter 42
#42
“I think you’re mistaken about something.”
“Mistaken?”
It was the first time I’d ever heard a word of just three syllables sound so twisted and contorted.
No, this whole situation was a first for me.
Someone looking me straight in the eye, glaring with such burning hatred, showing me their animosity so openly, right in front of me.
Having been raised preciously, living a life of only adoration and praise, Maria’s raw hostility was unfamiliar and frightening.
“Yes, a mistake.”
But I didn’t show it.
I simply looked at Maria calmly and composedly.
“You’re saying I’m mistaken?”
“Yes.”
At my short answer, Maria trembled like a small bird just pulled from cold water.
And she glared at me as if I were the culprit who had drowned her.
“So, you’re saying you didn’t poison my mother?”
“That’s right.”
“Then you weren’t the one who visited my mother that day either?”
“……”
It seemed Maria had found out that I had looked for Meggy.
Either the director of the hospital hadn’t managed to delete the Visitor Log, or one of the hospital staff here had gossiped, one of the two.
“And you didn’t bring those cupcakes as a get-well gift, the ones you ate with the children, the ones from your so-called favorite bakery?”
I didn’t know where she had heard it, but Maria knew exactly what had happened.
“No. That’s right.”
So, there was no need to lie.
I had never lied to Maria in the first place. I had only slightly concealed the truth and delayed the timing of telling her.
“It’s true that I met Maria’s mother. I took the cupcakes you mentioned as a get-well gift.”
“You’re leaving something out.”
“What am I leaving out?”
“You put poison in those cupcakes.”
Still glaring at me, Maria spoke in a venomous voice.
And the moment I heard her words, I finally realized how Meggy had died.
She had eaten the cupcakes I gave her and died.
“It’s a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding? Didn’t Bianca just say it herself? That you met my mother and gave her a poisoned cake.”
“It’s true I gave her the cake, but it was just a cake. I gave it to her exactly as I bought it from the bakery.”
“Really? Then who put the poison in it? Did a kind patissier suddenly decide to commit indiscriminate murder? Or did a hospital nurse suddenly decide to become an angel of death?”
“I don’t know, but…”
“You wouldn’t say that my mother committed a crime that deserved her to be murdered by someone, would you?”
“Of course not.”
The Meggy I met wasn’t that kind of person.
Even if she had unknowingly caused someone to harbor resentment towards her, it wouldn’t have been in the capital. She had stayed here for too short a time for that.
“Then why would a mother with no fault eat poison? Unless she became a victim of a madman who suddenly decided to commit murder one day, as you said earlier, it’s right to assume that someone killed her, isn’t it?”
“……”
“To the person who gave her the poisoned cake.”
Maria’s words sounded logical at first glance, but the most important thing was missing.
“Why would I do that?”
I didn’t have the motive that a murderer should have.
“What would I gain from killing her? Why would I kill her?”
I gained nothing from Meggy’s death.
Rather, I was the one who tried to keep her alive and make Maria indebted to me.
No one knew my purpose, but I wanted Meggy to live as long as possible and Maria to be happy for my purpose.
“What you gain is revenge on me.”
Finally, Maria spoke in informal language.
She wasn’t thinking of me as Marquis Crofort’s Young lady or the grateful Bianca who had helped her.
The person in front of Maria now was just a cruel murderer who killed her mother.
“You hated me, didn’t you?”
“Why would I hate Maria?”
“Because I liked Ricardo. Because I tried to take him away from you.”
At Maria’s words, my mouth opened slightly.
“Take… him away?”
That wasn’t true.
It wasn’t that Maria was trying to take Ricardo away, but that I was willing to give Ricardo to Maria.
Even if I had to take on the stigma of being a woman who had her engagement broken, I was willing to do it if it meant she could be happy.
But it was Ricardo who refused.
Maria could never have taken him away, as he refused to be yielded.
“Are you saying that you tried to take Ricardo away from me, Maria?”
“Maybe I could have. A cruel murderer doesn’t suit such a noble person.”
Maria, who didn’t know that she couldn’t take Ricardo away from me in the first place, wasn’t shaken in the slightest.
Rather, the repeated conversations with me seemed to be fueling her anger even more.
My reason was telling me that it was time to retreat.
That Maria wasn’t in her right mind right now, and it would be better to talk when she had calmed down a bit later.
But I couldn’t take my eyes off Maria, who was glaring at me.
How could I back down when I was seeing someone glare at me, defy me, and express anger for the first time in my life?
I couldn’t meekly lower my tail to a half-blooded noble who dared to speak informally to Bianca Crofort.
Even if the fate of death was waiting for me, I couldn’t do that.
“Are you prepared to take responsibility for everything you’re saying right now?”
“Responsibility? You’re the one who should take responsibility! For killing my mother!”
“I clearly said that I didn’t harm your mother.”
“That’s a blatant lie. Just like you’ve been deceiving me all along.”
“Whether it’s blatant or not, I didn’t do it. I can’t stand still if you keep framing me like this, Maria.”
I said to Maria in a low voice, with the meaning that this was my last warning.
But instead of backing down after hearing my warning, Maria looked resentful.
“If you don’t stand still? Are you going to use the power of your noble family to cover up the truth again? Do you think I don’t know that you threatened the hospital director to erase the traces of you visiting the hospital?”
“I didn’t threaten him.”
“Then? Why did you tell him to delete your name from the Visitor Log? You wouldn’t do that unless you had something to hide, would you?”
“It’s because I thought you might misunderstand.”
“Do you think I’d misunderstand that anyone killed my mother? You must know that you’ve done something terrible to me all this time, enough to know in advance that I’d have this misunderstanding.”
“Something terrible? Don’t you know better than anyone how well I’ve treated you all this time?”
“Yes. You treated me well.”
Maria nodded as if she admitted that much.
“You treated me well in front, and you laughed at me behind my back.”
And she gave a cold smile.
“Did you think I’d never know anything because I’m from the countryside and don't know anything? That you pretended to care about me so much in front, and gossiped about me behind my back?”
“When did I ever gossip about you? I even saved you from those people. Don’t you remember?”
“Yes. You saved me in front. Because you’re the kind and good Bianca Crofort on the surface. But behind the scenes, you hung out with the young ladies who gossiped about me and laughed at me. Wasn’t that all planned from the start?”
“When did I ever…”
In an instant, I realized when it was.
The Countess of Cornwall’s tea party.
Her tea party where she ridiculed Maria, who had come from the countryside, and warned Maria by talking about Ricardo and my relationship in order to look good to me.
And those words that I agreed to, even though I didn’t know what they meant.
And one more thing.
The Viscount’s Young lady who seemed to have not yet found her place in the Countess of Cornwall’s group.
“Judging by your expression, it seems like you’re finally remembering it now.”
Maria sneered coldly as I stopped talking and hardened my face.
“Why did you do that to me?”
Maria said quietly, as if muttering to herself.
“I trusted you.”
The anger was gradually subsiding from Maria’s eyes.
“Even when you hid the fact that Ricardo was your fiancé, I let it go, thinking it was for my sake. Even when I heard that you laughed at me with the other young ladies, I thought it was a misunderstanding.”
What took the place of Maria’s anger was resentment.
The betrayal of someone she trusted.
The pain of betrayal.
Resentment for it.
All those things combined, transparent droplets flowed from Maria’s eyes.
“But this is the price I paid for trusting you.”
Maria opened her hand and pointed to the back, as if to show me.
There, a dug-out grave and a coffin were placed.
“You can still trust me, Maria. I’m on your side.”
This was sincere.
And it was the truth.
“No.”
With tear-stained eyes, Maria glared at me clearly.
The anger that I thought had subsided was burning again in Maria’s eyes.
The flames of anger were burning fiercely, devouring everything else.
Having devoured pain, resentment, and even sadness, it existed only on its own.
“I don’t trust you anymore. Not just you, but anyone else.”
Before I knew it, the tears had dried in Maria’s eyes.
“My mother was everything to me.”
I knew.
And I also knew that Maria was everything to Meggy.
“But you took her away.”
I realized that it was no use saying anything more.
No, I had realized it earlier. I just couldn’t accept it.
“So, I’m going to take everything from you too. Your position, your honor, your power.”
Maria had changed.
The innocent and kind Young lady I knew was gone.
The Young lady who smiled shyly, saying that I was her ideal type, was also gone.
“Even your man.”
Slowly, the ground beneath my feet was collapsing, and reality was crumbling.
And what remained in front of me was Maria, who had changed like a book, and the reality that was flowing like a book.
The goddess of death was smiling coldly at me from afar.
