Chapter 58
“Bad guy. You bad, sob.”
The betrayal hurt as much as she had trusted him, and the tears wouldn’t stop. She felt so wronged and wished someone would hold and comfort her, but it made her even angrier that the first face that came to mind was Paiki’s.
That man said he would make her a lazy, good-for-nothing human, and in a different sense, he had indeed made a mess of her.
Her eyes were swollen, and she finally arrived home in the late afternoon.
“Aniella!”
“Aniella, you’re back!”
When Holly and Claudie hugged her, Aniella felt as if the tears she had stopped were about to fall again. When their mother came running upon hearing the commotion, she finally burst into tears.
She thought she had cried so much that no more tears could come, and it was surprising to find there were still some left to wring out. If Jacques Mullier saw this, he would have scolded her for being unladylike, but fortunately, he had gone out to meet a friend since yesterday and hadn’t returned yet.
Holly laid the tearfully exhausted Aniella on her lap and gently patted her arm. Soothed by the affectionate and familiar touch, she drifted into a half-dazed state.
Thinking Aniella was asleep, the sisters began talking in hushed voices.
“Claudie, since the Duke returned Aniella as promised, shouldn’t we cancel that article?”
“It’s already being printed; how can we cancel it now?”
“Wasn’t the agreement that he had until this afternoon?”
“That’s right. It was until afternoon, but the editor-in-chief said this issue would sell well and ordered production to start early. It will start selling tonight.”
“Claudie, that’s breaking the promise! Is that okay?”
“I don’t know. But what can I do? This is the biggest story of my life. I can’t miss it.”
Hearing their conversation in her drowsy state, Aniella blinked and suddenly sat up. The sisters, who had been talking quietly, were startled.
“What article are you talking about? What did you write?”
When Aniella asked, Claudie initially tried to brush it off, saying it was nothing. She suggested Aniella must have misheard because she was tired and tried to get her to lie down and sleep more.
Aniella pushed Claudie’s arm away. A deep frown formed on Claudie’s brow where her arm had been struck. As the sisters stared each other down in silence, Holly didn’t know what to do and shifted her feet anxiously.
“You two were just talking. What promise did you make with the Duke, and why are you trying to break it?”
Under the continued interrogation, Claudie finally threw her hands up in surrender. She confessed everything, from how she had been visiting the Duke’s residence to see Aniella, to how she had eventually resorted to her final method when Paiki wouldn’t budge.
Aniella’s face turned pale, and she tried to persuade Claudie to cancel the article immediately. There was no way Paiki would let Claudie, who had stabbed him in the back, get away with it.
“Something terrible will happen.”
“You can’t blame me. It’s his fault for not returning you sooner.”
Claudie refused firmly and instead took out paper and pen.
“Tell me instead. What did Duke Paiki do to you all this time he kept you there? Don’t just say he treated you well; there must be something. It’s okay, tell your unnie everything.”
What did he say to take you to the Duke’s residence? Where in the residence did you stay? All the servants at the residence claimed they never saw you; were they lying?
Claudie questioned her intently.
The person who had been crying tears of joy at her sister’s return was gone. Aniella realized that Claudie’s eyes were filled with the greed of not wanting to miss a scoop.
“It’s not too late even now, so withdraw the article quickly.”
After saying just that one sentence, she firmly closed her mouth.
Claudie didn’t listen to Aniella. The weekly magazine, which normally started sales on Saturday morning, began circulating as an extra from Friday night.
“We’ve never sold so many copies in such a short time in our magazine’s history! This is a record!”
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