Unable to identify the sender, Maurice knocked on Johan’s bedroom door with the letter in hand.

“Come in.”

Maurice composed himself and entered.

Johan was getting dressed. As Maurice entered, Johan was fastening a black cufflink. His shirt, draped over his solid frame, was stark white in the clear sunlight.

“I have a matter to report.”

Johan, finishing with his other cufflink, nodded lightly.

“An international express mail for you, sir.”

Maurice moved behind Johan to place the mail on a table in front of him.

Johan, indifferently, glanced at the letter and then back at Maurice.

“It’s an anonymous mail from the Britannian Kingdom.”

Interest sparked in Johan as he dismissed the valet dressing him. After the valet’s respectful departure, Johan sat in an armchair near the table.

After reading the content, Johan, expressionless, took out a cigar. As he lit it, his gaze slowly returned to the problematic letter.

Once the gray smoke dissipated, the clumsily, yet carefully written words became visible.

Johan pinched the letter between his fingers.

The content was brief.

「To His Grace Duke Johan Leopold,」

The cowardly sender, who did not reveal their identity, began the letter in a very business-like tone.

「I have the pink diamond necklace.

Wonder how I got it?」

The polite start to the letter ended with a preposterous provocation, a taunt to the unsuspecting owner.

But even thieves have vulnerabilities.

Bold, but naive, this thief hadn’t been adept at concealing their handwriting.

Johan recognized the clumsy script. Olivia Blanchett’s, his former wife’s handwriting.
She had only learned to write at seventeen, a woman whose hastily acquired skills for the marriage market couldn’t have been smooth. Thus, everything about her was immature and clumsy.

Johan’s gaze, looking down at the handwriting of this underdeveloped woman, was sharp.

He set the letter back down and exhaled the smoke he had deeply inhaled.

Assuming the letter’s sender was his ex-wife, how did the necklace end up in Olivia’s hands?

He recalled the incident that had come to mind when thinking about why he had entrusted the lily key to his wife’s secretary.

On the night the necklace disappeared, it was found in the maid’s room of his wife.

If the maid had already switched it with a fake…

And the loyal maid had then presented the original to Olivia…

Well, that was a plausible flow of logic. However, Johan soon dismissed this assumption.

He had provided her with a materially comfortable life. Why would she…

Especially over just a necklace. It made more sense that the maid acted alone in disposing of the stolen goods.

Was that maid the culprit then?

“…”

No, that couldn’t be it.

Why would Olivia, at this point, expose the criminal acts of her maid, the only person she had brought from the earl’s house?

That reasoning was also flawed.

So, that left one other possibility.

Diane Brook. The possessor of the lily key.

Feeling fatigued, Johan slowly closed his eyes. The cigar in his hand smoldered, sending up wisps of pale blue smoke.

Assuming Diane Brook was the culprit, how did the necklace cross the ocean and, of all people, end up in the hands of Olivia Blanchett?

How…

Johan tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest.

A change in stance towards his ex-wife, whom he had decided not to involve himself with anymore, was necessary.

“Send a sparrow to Olivia.”

After a moment of silence, Johan opened his eyes and spoke flatly.

“To that woman.”

His grey eyes, catching the early morning sunlight, shone sharply.

“Put her under surveillance.”

His gaze shifted to the letter that had seemingly taunted him by its arrival.

The sweet fragrance faintly imprinted on the white paper. The clumsy handwriting pressed firmly into the words. The mysterious letter seemed to emanate his wife’s presence.

Was she capable of such absurd actions? This newfound realization held Johan’s gaze on the letter for an extended period.