The Wicked Wife's Dark History Keeps Coming Back To Haunt Her - Chapter 232
“Madam, when I heard what happened to you, I felt like my faith in humanity shattered into pieces. What would you have done if you had married without knowing anything?”
Nina murmured while shaking her head.
“…Exactly.”
No matter how precious one’s child is, how could they ever think of marrying him off like that.
A drug addict drags the people around them into a pit of suffering.
That’s why the imperial family strictly banned the use of such drugs, and why she herself had felt extreme fury when Count Azelot handed her one.
The Beverley family had essentially tried to dump a burden onto Count Bernard’s daughter.
“They were obviously going to divorce anyway even if they went through with it, so I really do not understand. In the end they ended up paying a huge settlement.”
“Right. I also have no idea what they were thinking.”
Just as Marsha said, why hide it and force the marriage when the outcome was obvious.
Clicking her tongue, Nina folded Sophia’s letter neatly and slipped it back into the envelope.
‘Anyway, I need to tell Grandfather and my parents what I heard…’
Nina’s gaze deepened.
‘I never imagined the drug trade would operate like that…’
She remembered the paintings hung in Beverley’s long gallery.
Those paintings.
Before leaving the estate, she had gone down one more time to check them, and the signatures beneath each painting were all different.
Just as Henry had said, they were disguising various painters’ works to sell the pieces at a high price while pretending they were done by a single deputy painter.
‘You buy a painting, and the drug is handed over along with it…’
The price of drug distributed among nobles was considerable.
According to Viscountess Beverley, the paintings were merely a cover for the transaction and a bonus item on the side.
‘So that is why they mass produced paintings like a factory.’
To distribute that much drug to nobles while avoiding attention.
‘If this comes to light, it will be chaos…’
The entire empire would be turned upside down.
If the largest foundation in the empire was committing such illegal acts, other nonprofit groups would not be spared from an imperial audit either.
And one of the people involved was none other than the Minister of Finance.
Just imagining the potential fallout gave her chills.
Since she now understood how the trade worked, all they needed was evidence of transactions and confirmation of the production site.
Her grandfather, parents, and Ash would take care of that part.
‘For now, I should respond to Sophia.’
To restore the reputation she had damaged, she planned to attend social gatherings with Sophia soon.
Marchioness Lambert had also promised to help suppress the rumors about Nina, so Nina intended to confirm that as well.
She was just about to take out her stationery drawer when Marsha said,
“Madam, a gift addressed to you has arrived. Would you like to check it?”
“A gift?”
“Yes, it is from House Reginald.”
If it came from House Reginald, the sender must be Henry.
‘It is about time it arrived!’
Her future money tree.
Nina followed Melanie down to the receiving room.
“How many are there…?”
She had expected maybe two or three pieces, but more than ten artworks had arrived.
They were Henry’s early works she had once seen in House Reginald, along with the paintings he had done during the Hunting Festival.
“Melanie, hang these in the long gallery.”
He was officially a painter sponsored by House Bayern. It would look strange if there was not a single one of his works displayed in their home.
She would have to host a tea party soon.
There she would present Henry’s paintings to the guests and slowly spread his name.
That would help him become a court painter faster.
“Then Madam, you should choose which works to take down from the long gallery.”
Should she?
She had been thinking it was about time to change them anyway…
Right.
There was something about the long gallery she had been finding strange for a long time.
“Head maid, there is something I have been curious about for a while… normally long galleries display family portraits, do they not?”
She had felt a sense of wrongness once before.
“Yes, normally they do.”
Nina looked at Melanie’s slightly stiffened expression and cautiously continued.
Why was it that, unlike other noble houses, House Bayern displayed no family portraits at all?
