CHAPTER 96…………………………………
Adelaide bowed her head and slid down onto the bed.
“Try saying you don’t know again. I’m asking you, please.”
She leaned in toward Noella as if whispering, but her eyes were alight with a burning fire.
“So you were having fun by yourself, were you? Selling off the company’s secrets.”
Noella’s mouth moved as if she was about to stammer some answer — then at last she seemed to realize.
Even in that moment a flash of involuntary relief crossed her face. Adelaide drew even closer, as if she’d expected exactly that.
“At least your eyes are more honest than your mouth.”
“What are you saying! I don’t know anything! I really don’t! As you know, I’ve been so shaken by what Caiden did to me I can’t even sleep properly—”
“Xerox stood guard at your side.”
“…….”
“What did he say? ‘If even my brother isn’t here when I’m like this, what am I supposed to do…?’ Something like that?”
Adelaide smiled faintly and shook her head, warning Noella not to step back.
Even with both cheeks red and swollen, the razor-sharp edge in her voice found the still-sound skin and cut all the deeper.
“To have taken out two people at once — I suppose that’s something remarkable. I wonder what Caiden said to provoke you. From the way you went about it without thinking twice, he must have brought up my name, right?”
“Sister! I’m innocent!”
“The ones who have reason to feel wronged are my countless employees who look only to me and their families. Because of someone like you, greedy beyond your means and blinded by it, their livelihoods are now at risk.”
Her voice was calm and deliberate, each word measured but full of cold.
Ugh.
Noella, gnashing her teeth without meaning to, hurriedly covered her mouth with both hands.
“Take your hands away, Noella. If you don’t, I’ll knock that out.”
“Ugh!”
“This is your last warning.”
“Kyaaa!”
Adelaide grabbed a flower from the vase and struck Noella’s face with it. Noella, unable even to cry out properly, collapsed and burst into tears.
“Why are you doing this?! Why are you taking out your anger on an innocent person like me?!”
“You’re the one who’s childish. How dare you turn your back on the family?”
“—What is all this?!”
From behind the sisters came the Count’s furious voice.
He kicked the door open, aghast at the scene in the room, unable to hide his outrage.
“Adelaide!”
“F-Father! Please save me!”
Seeing her chance, Noella crawled on her knees toward the Count.
With petals still stuck in her hair, her pitiful state was enough to tug at any parent’s heart.
“S-Sister made me— sob… something bad happened outside so suddenly and she— sobs”
“…Noella, look at you.”
“P-Please stop her. Save me, Father. I’m still your child, aren’t I? sob”
Noella clung to the Count’s leg and pleaded through her tears.
What on earth have these two been up to?
The Count gave a hollow laugh and shifted his terrifying glare from Noella to Adelaide.
Adelaide, who had already been walking toward him, barely bent her knee as if nothing had happened.
“You’re back, Father.”
“What is the meaning of this? From what I’ve heard—”
“You heard it?”
A little later than expected.
When Adelaide said it plainly, the Count furrowed his brows.
But he didn’t scold or shout at her. He only looked a bit disappointed, that was all.
“…Adelaide, explain what happened.”
“What are you referring to? The bid? Or what went on in this room?”
“Of course—”
“—It seems you mean the latter.”
Adelaide shrugged at the Count, looking as if this was surprising news.
She hadn’t expected her father to take more interest in matters between his children than in business.
Then again, whatever he wanted to hear was, in the end, the same story — not something that could be separated out neatly.
“As you know, Father, I don’t much care for using violence. It’s crude and barbaric.”
Adelaide’s face was expressionless as she lightly shook her wrist.
“But if you have to deal with animals, you should expect a bit of that.”
“Adelaide!”
“F-Father. sob No, really. I didn’t do anything wrong, sob.”
Noella, looking around at the scene, shook her head and let out a sudden flood of tears. The tears soaked the carpet to the point that they gleamed on the Count’s shoes.
Watching it all with a blank face, Adelaide raised her hand and pointed toward the door.
“Will you leave, please?”
“What insolence!”
“Do you think, Father, that you have the right to protect Noella?”
“What did you say!”
“If you really believe you have fulfilled your role as a father to this child, you may as well strike my cheek as well.”
Adelaide took a step closer.
Noella, who might have been tempted to kick, was too busy dealing with their father.
“You’ve always said the owner is whoever raised and cared for the house and the trading company. So if you think you’ve done any duty as a parent beyond giving birth to Noella or Caiden, you’re welcome to blame me.”
“You—”
“Let me be clear: I have the authority. I fed them, clothed them, raised them — none of it happened without my hand.”
Adelaide spoke, chest heaving with indignation, and the Count pressed a hand to his forehead.
Noella tried to cling to him again, but she didn’t have enough to steal her father’s gaze from his eldest daughter.
“Have I ever laid a hand on Noella?”
“That’s….”
“Soon you’ll be thankful I asked you to leave with words alone. At least then you won’t face accusations of having killed your child.”
“…….”
“If you understand, will you go now? I still have matters to attend to.”
Adelaide raised her hand again, pointing at the door.
The Count’s face clouded, perhaps sensing something about the eldest’s resolve.
Adelaide didn’t avert her eyes and gave him a look that was almost reassuring.
“Don’t worry. If I really wanted to kill her, I’d have had countless opportunities.”
“…Adelaide.”
The Count ground his teeth at the undeniable truth.
Still, perhaps out of paternal pride or because he was a merciless head of the trading company, he felt compelled to give Adelaide a final warning before turning away.
“What will you do about the trading company? You’re not planning to let this go like this, are you?”
“—Of course not. There’s still time left on the deadline you mentioned.”
Adelaide met her father’s gaze without flinching.
There was no pleading for trust or begging for a chance. That made her eyes all the more earnest, and the Count left the room.
Thud!
The door slammed as loudly as when he’d come in.
Noella gasped, hollow-eyed and incredulous.
“F-Father, how could you leave me like this—”
“Noella, your sister doesn’t like it when people look away when she’s speaking.”
Adelaide lightly tapped Noella’s pale cheek and grabbed her by the collar.
“G- sister. sob”
“Breathe. This is just the beginning.”
She didn’t much like violence, but some people only understand that language.
Of course, it might not work on this wicked woman, but if she wouldn’t change anyway, there was no need for Adelaide to keep restraining herself.
“I should have paid attention to you sooner. I should’ve found out who you were seeing, which kind of woman you were calling a friend.”
“A friend?!”
“Your friend Chloe — she’s pretty, isn’t she?”
Including the part about pretending to be virtuous while doing whatever she pleases.
Adelaide remembered the face she’d seen in court.
Even if it wasn’t about looks, there couldn’t be another Chloe in Adelaide’s world.
Fate can be frightening that way. No matter how much one tries to keep things apart, they end up sticking together.
She didn’t expect Chloe to use Noella and profit from her, nor did she expect Noella to sell out even her own family.
Her head still rang; it felt like ice was suspended at the base of her skull.
“How did you come to know Chloe—”
“Stop that nonsense.”
“Guh.”
Adelaide gripped Noella’s collar tight; Noella flailed an arm.
She was serious — this wasn’t a threat.
Noella seemed to realize it instinctively and suddenly quieted.
“Good. At least you caught on quickly.”
Adelaide tossed her aside.
Even a villainess like Noella wasn’t a Thanos-esque brawler.
Having maintained a frail persona and stayed mostly in bed, Noella couldn’t possibly overpower Adelaide, who’d been hardened by the trading company.
“I overestimated you. I thought you were just stupid, but it turns out you’re the worst — enough to sell out your own family.”
“How do you know that! How could someone like you, who has everything, know what’s in my heart!”
“—Know what?”
Because I read the original.
Adelaide clicked her tongue in exasperation.
Noella must have planned to cling on without evidence, but you have to pick your targets.
I even paid for the official copy; how could you think I wouldn’t know someone like you?
“You say I have everything?”
Adelaide let out a hollow laugh and stepped on the hem of Noella’s dress.
Noella tried desperately to retreat.
“Father always takes your side even in situations like this! He always has!”
“No, it’s not like that.”
“…….”
“Our father has the natural eye to tell whether something will make money or not. He’d have seen long ago that you were the sort who would ruin the family.”
This wasn’t a lie.
No matter how inattentive he might be, he behaved differently toward Caiden — even a curse at him — but toward Noella a mere greeting is all he’d give.
Even without reading the original, one who reaches the Count’s level can see a person’s nature.
“Do you really think our father wouldn’t have seen what sort of scheming you had?”
“T-That can’t be! Father would never think of his child that way—”
“Why? Because his child was going to squander the family fortune on some friend?”
“Sister!”
“What’s even funnier is that even the Count, who might be helpless in some ways, told me that if I won that land in the auction, he would look after you.”
“…W-what did he say?”
Noella shook her head as if it were absurd. But Adelaide wanted to shake her — the truth was, she would rather not believe it.
She widened her eyes, reddened.
“He said, whether a dress shop or something else, someone like you might find something you’re suited for, so don’t cast her out. That was the only condition Father placed on me.”
“…No way.”
“Right? Doesn’t it sound impossible? And even more ridiculous that you — who was about to be handed a fortune — would wreck that chance.”
Adelaide curled the corner of her mouth into a sneer and told Noella to remember what she’d done.
She didn’t expect Noella to be moved to reason by this. That’s not the sort of person she was.
“So, what was Chloe whispering in your ear — that she’d give you a cut?”
“C-Chloe isn’t like that!”
“She keeps denying it, huh.”
Adelaide pressed down on Noella’s clenched fist, as if she’d anticipated this.
Relax your grip.
Noella, who defended Chloe without realizing she was being used, looked almost pitiable.
“Chloe is different from you!”
“Is she? What’s so different?”
“She treated me honestly! She acknowledged me and encouraged me!”
“Would someone like that cast you aside like this?”
“…Cast me aside?”
Noella’s face showed more shock at the mention of their father than before.
Her vacant eyes trembled. She pressed her lips together tightly, evidently resolved to deny everything.
“Don’t accuse me! I don’t believe you! Do you think I wouldn’t see you trying to drive a wedge between us?”
“You still don’t know me? Whether I’m sowing discord or not, I do nothing unless it’s profitable.”
“…….”
“Do you know how much Chloe wrote down today? A full thirty-five hundred million and one rubles.”
At the thought of that number, Adelaide’s anger flared anew.
“Idiot. Still don’t get it?”
“Th-That’s—”
“It’s not four billion, not thirty-six hundred million — it’s blatantly thirty-five hundred million and one rubles, and you don’t know what that means?”
That’s why you’re so easy to take advantage of.
Adelaide let out a short, bitter laugh and wiped her face.
If Chloe truly considered this wicked girl a friend, she wouldn’t have written such an obvious sum.
“Anyone with a functioning brain would find that suspicious. So who do you think that suspicion points to?”
“Ah….”
“See?”
Sadly, they were playing right into Chloe’s hands, but Adelaide had no intention of stopping.
She tilted Noella’s head back and tightened her grip.
“Yeah. Consider yourself royally screwed.”
