When Pride Falls at Your Feet (19 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 46

“From the very beginning, Father invested in automobile development, proposed supportive legislation, and worked hard to help—but that turned out to be poison. His rapid success drew others’ attention, and before long, many began coveting his automobile investment rights. Among them, Count Vallemont was reportedly the worst. He kept pressuring my parents to hand over the rights, eventually resorting to constant threats, so they sought a way to safely transfer everything.”

Emilia furrowed her brows, clearly furious, and trembled her lower lip. Fresh tears welled up in her eyes once more.

“They could have simply sold the investment rights, but because I couldn’t inherit the family estate solely for being a woman, they felt deeply sorry for me and wanted to give me as much as possible. So… so they registered all past investments under Mother’s name to keep them out of the family’s grasp. But eventually, Count Vallemont seemed to notice and intensified his pressure to make them hand it over—apparently, he was after even more than just the automobile rights, leaving them no choice but to find another solution…”

Emilia pressed her lips together tightly. She took a deep breath, fighting to steady her emotions and hold back her tears. Enrico simply watched her with an unreadable gaze.

He didn’t frown at her lengthy story, nor did he show annoyance at the tearful tremor in her voice—though in the past, he would’ve walked away without even glancing back.

“If I’m reading this letter, it means I’m no longer alive, and they’re sorry they can’t confirm whether that plan succeeded or not. But why… why would that be something to apologize for? They didn’t need to go that far…”

“…It seems that plan succeeded after all.”

At his quiet remark, her tear-filled eyes widened in shock.

“Yes?”

“There was an accident on the way back home, and we’ve already confirmed the anonymously held investment rights exist. They likely skirted the law somehow—so first, we should find the lawyer who handled it.”

She blinked, as if realizing something she hadn’t considered before. Overwhelmed by emotion, she hadn’t had the presence of mind to assess the situation—only now, hearing his words, did clarity seem to return.

“Oh… If we keep searching, we might find something else. They probably left all related documents here. If we uncover any information about the lawyer, I’ll need to ask whether anyone suspicious approached him on the day they met or if they discussed anything unusual.”

Enrico quietly watched as Emilia rummaged through the chest again. The letter didn’t seem to contain anything particularly noteworthy—just general context about the current situation, written before the incident occurred.

Since he wasn’t especially curious about the case itself, he’d been pondering the commonality between Emilia and the late Viscount Este—until a word suddenly flashed through his mind, causing one eyebrow to arch slowly upward.

Sacrifice.

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