Lucrezia abruptly stood up from her seat.

“What on earth… how did you find out!”

Her eyeballs seemed about to pop out due to her skyrocketing blood pressure.

“Did she hear your uncle babbling at the entrance then?!”

Epolito muttered.

“Well… I heard that too, and why, that morning of Arabella’s funeral mass, my mother came into my room… you know, that day.”

Lucrezia felt dizzy. She couldn’t tell if her son was frustrated or if the situation was serious.

“That day, she was hiding in my closet.”

Lucrezia gasped in surprise. She was on the verge of dropping her jaw. The only reason Lucrezia’s jaw remained intact was that she had temporarily closed her mouth to yell at her son.

“You son of a bitch, are you crazy?!”

Because his mother seemed ready to slap him, Epolito decided to leave out the part where he had mindlessly revealed to Arabella the fact that they have different fathers.

He didn’t need to be punished as everything Malita needed to know had been delivered.

On the other hand, Lucrezia couldn’t regain her composure. If Malita had only heard Stefano’s slip of the tongue at the entrance, that ‘Epolito and Arabella have different fathers’, it would have been Lucrezia’s own problem.

But if Malita heard the conversation she had with Epolito on the morning of Arabella’s funeral mass, it becomes a different level problem.

Lucrezia had clearly said that day that she was living with Cardinal de Mare because of Epolito.

It seemed that her son did not understand, but women tend to be better at understanding subtle nuances and words than men.

Malita was a bit slow, but she was subtly cunning in certain areas. Would that maid girl really have failed to understand Lucrezia’s words?

“Let’s go.”

Lucrezia quickly moved to kick open the door.

“I just told her to kick that girl out, now I need to find Loretta right now. I need to kill and get rid of her.”

Knock, knock!

Just as Lucrezia was about to open the door, a brisk knock followed, and the door swung open from the hallway.

“Oh my goodness!”

Lucrezia was surprised and nearly sat down. The maid Loretta, whom Lucrezia had been intending to find, was standing right at the door.

“Why are you barging in without even looking!”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“I was just on my way to find you, this is good timing. It’s about that Malita girl.”

“Ma’am! That’s what I came to tell you! I gave her a good thrashing and kicked her out!”

“What?!”

Lucrezia was about to slap Loretta who was waiting for praise. Epolito, quickly supporting Lucrezia, who was in a confused state, asked Loretta instead.

“Where did you kick her out?! How far has she gone?!”

“Where do you mean. I kicked her out the back door of the kitchen.”

“Hey! How can you handle things like this! Let’s go. Follow me right now.”

Epolito made the bewildered maid sit on the sofa and hurried down to the first floor.

He first ran out the back door of the kitchen and looked around everywhere, but he couldn’t see the plump redhaired maid anywhere.

“Damn!”

He grabbed Loretta by the collar and shook her.

“Find out where she went!”

Loretta, who was unexpectedly subjected to violence, was taken aback.

“Sir, why are you doing this! Your mother definitely told me to beat her and kick her out!”

“Stop talking and find Malita! The one who kicked her out should be responsible for finding her! You ruined everything!”

Loretta, who had only done what she was told and had become the scapegoat for ruining everything, choked up with tears in her eyes and waved her hands.

“Oh my, how am I supposed to find someone who’s already gone!”

“I don’t care, take responsibility and find her! If you can’t find her within a day, I’ll throw you to the dogs!”

Epolito roughly threw Loretta away. Loretta, who was feeling a bit proud, thinking she had accomplished a secret mission and become Madam Lucrezia’s favorite, was at a loss in this situation where she couldn’t even recover what she had lost, and she ran away in panic.

Ippolito felt a pounding headache.

“I can’t let her escape…! Somehow… I must find her…!”

Maleta thought today was the unluckiest day of her life. She was taken aback when Loretta, whom she considered a friend, suddenly dragged her out.

Being dragged to the back of the kitchen and being beaten by the servants didn’t feel real to Maleta. Even amidst all that, she curled herself up like a ball, protecting her belly.

This wasn’t due to overflowing maternal love, but rather because she thought the child was her last lifeline.

“Get out! Don’t even think about setting foot here again! Spat!”

When she was driven out through the back door of the kitchen, she was utterly shocked. Maleta considered returning to the De Mare mansion, but the fear of getting severely beaten by Lucrezia’s close aides stopped her.

‘I need to meet His Eminence, Cardinal De Mare…!’