Guidelines for the Perfect Goodbye - Chapter 114
* * *
Shortly after, Cecilia left the Garnet Room alone. She escaped the room where Louise remained and firmly closed the door behind her.
And she thought,
‘Mother didnāt take many items to the annex. If the item Louise was looking for wasnāt in the Garnet Room, it must be in the annex.’
She didn’t really believe Louise was looking for an engagement ring. It was just an ominous premonition, but she felt she knew what Louise was looking for.
‘The Countess’s wedding dress.’
She had seen that box while tidying up the rooms in the annex. Lilith had taken the box to the annex purely out of anxiety.
‘She must have thought sheād be in trouble with Father if itās found.’
But that dress was something that had to be found by someone.
‘What secret does it hold?’
She had already checked inside the box before. It was just an ordinary wedding dress.
No secret notes were inside, and no suspicious items were sewn into the seams.
Then the clue wasn’t the wedding dress.
‘The memory of my mother when she received the wedding dress from the former Countess.’
That would be the clue to Louise’s real purpose.
‘If Louise ClĆ©on is connected to the former Countess, then she didn’t approach Caroline out of simple jealousy.’
There would be a bigger, deeper conspiracy.
It was clear that Louise had devised a plan as meticulous and dreadful as Cecilia’s, if not more so.
And it likely had something to do with the death of the former Countess.
Cecilia concluded,
‘Evelyn Lasphilla did not die from childbirth.’
She was murdered.
* * *
Caroline was uncomfortable in the unfamiliar room. The bed was inferior to her own, and the other furniture was of much lower quality.
Cecilia was probably using her bed now.
The thought made her blood boil.
‘The nerveā¦’
It made her feel as if her bed was rotting now. She would like to change it immediately upon returning, but doing something so noticeable would be a problem.
Even now, she thought of other people’s attention. If she immediately replaced the bed and brought in new furniture, what would people think?
Caroline had no choice but to beat the pillow and suppress her anger alone.
Then, suddenly, she thought of Cecilia’s fiancĆ©.
‘Logan Harper.’
She had constantly ridiculed Cecilia for being engaged to the grandson of a merchant without a title.
But having seen him in person, he was as tall and handsome as Ulysses, polite, and well-built, probably due to his long military service.
‘To be married to such a manā¦’
Jealousy surged up to her scalp.
Caroline had been pushed into a broken engagement. Meanwhile, Cecilia was destined to be joined with a man more outstanding than she had imagined.
‘This is so unfair.’
How kind had she been to Cecilia? How gentle and merciful? Yet here she was, like a puppet whose string had snapped, while that girl had become the star of today.
‘That place was originally mine.’
The second best bedroom after the head of the family.
The second best place after the head.
She always should have been there.
Initially, a country girl from a baronās family had stolen her place. She endured her insufficient stepmother as a good daughter.
Then Nathan was born and hogged all the love and attention. She endured that too as a good older sister.
But should she overlook it when even a bastard dared to covet her place? How much more should she endure?
‘Even my bedroom was taken away.’
It was only for a short while, but she felt it had been stolen. Normally, she might have been annoyed but could have laughed it off and been generous.
However, now that her engagement with Ulysses had been broken, Caroline’s resentment had reached its peak.
‘If you’ve taken what’s mine, you should be prepared to have yours taken too.’
Caroline thought of the impressively handsome Logan Harper. He had talked more with her than with Cecilia today. He had been smiling throughout their conversation.
He must definitely be harboring such fondness for Caroline already.
