“Thank you, Elizabeth. I was just thinking of moving to my husband’s hometown, so I needed some money.”

After greeting Elizabeth, the woman began counting the gold coins in a small pouch. Her name was Karin. They had met a long time ago in a pub in the market and occasionally drank together.

They were merely individuals interested in gossip about the nobility and social circles, and there was no real friendship between them. Karin was unaware of her pregnancy and childbirth.

After heading to Portrion to work as a concubine, she had lost contact with Karin. It was only recently that she obtained information that one of her friends was working as a maid for Count Göturk.

However, the information Karin provided, even after paying the investigation fee, brought only great pain.

‘Elise… Elise is going to be sold to that filthy Marquis.’

“You investigated, as you claimed, and I do have a child, Elizabeth. However, your child, adopted by the Göturk Count and his wife, will soon be sold to the pedophile Marquis Humphrey. Just to give the Count and his wife something like a mine.”

The story of the mine was something she couldn’t verify from her standpoint.

However, Edit’s claim that Elise would soon go to Marquis Humphrey was a fact she could confirm no matter how many times she checked.

Elizabeth barely suppressed the trembling of her body, heated by anger, and the burning tears in her eyes.

Karen, noticing her strange reaction, shrugged and asked, “But is it worth paying so much money for information that Göturk Count’s daughter is going to Marquis Humphrey? I thought you, as his lover, would know about Gilbert’s plans, the mastermind behind this.”

“…”

Elizabeth internally regretted the fact that Gilbert was the mastermind behind this, but she had to accept it.

“The nobles often engage in strategic marriages for the sake of their families. Of course, practically, she will be sold to the old perverted Marquis, given that there is no nephew or niece to call him a relative.”

Elizabeth choked back the desire to say that the child was her daughter.

“Take the money and leave. Don’t leak anything about this matter.”

Feeling uncomfortable with Karen’s sharp attitude, Elizabeth barely held back her tears after she left the mansion.

After she disappeared, Elizabeth took a deep breath, as if she could easily get over it. Even if she threw away everything she could grab, the bitterness did not subside.

“During this time, I’ll raise our Elise well in the Göturk Count’s mansion. To others, she will be my distant relative, but to them, she is just a bargaining chip.”

“Gilbert, how could you…?”

She glared fiercely with her bloodshot eyes. Gilbert Göturk, a man who was once everything to her, had abandoned her like this.

Thinking about how he had come up with various excuses to prevent her from meeting Elise, her anger surged as if her blood were boiling in reverse.
For several years, Elizabeth did not know that her daughter was being sold while working as a concubine for him, and that fact was nothing short of laughable.

Elizabeth clenched her fist. Her nails dug into the flesh, causing it to pale and bleed. The heartbeat accelerated as rage spread throughout her body like molten lava.

Unaware, she devoted several years of her life to them, only to be betrayed.

Until she witnessed the members of the Göturk Count’s family being killed with her own eyes, she thought she wouldn’t be able to close her eyes even if she died.

‘I can’t do it alone to bring down those inhuman people.’

Elizabeth hugged her knees, and the cold gold coin glowed. With a new goal of revenge and saving her daughter, her mind was clearer than ever before.

‘I can’t do it. But if it’s Edit…’

She already knew who she had to leak information to in order to bring down the Göturk Count who had manipulated her.

“Lately, Lady Carter seems quiet. The lowly tricks aimed at Madam and the gossip have all stopped.”

Vivian spoke as if her insides were refreshed.

Whenever they saw news about Edith tempting the Duke to seize his fortune or that her mother had a similar affair, they had silently commiserated. Now, the long-pending resentment seemed to be subsiding.

“However, mentioning Lady Lowell, the marchioness, was really crossing the line.”

When Vivian, who remembered her mother’s character, vented her anger, Edith also smiled as if she felt relieved.

“I mean, who else is as sincere as our mother?”

“Just because the Madam received one brooch, people who were writing absurd novels in the newspapers have changed their attitudes as if they never did it before.”

The schemes to undermine Edith ceased right after the New Year’s Ball.

The brooch bestowed upon her chest by the Emperor, presented to the winner of the combat tournament, was evidence that the Marquis Lection had knelt down and proposed to her. It was also a declaration that she was no longer concerned with being called the lady of another house.