After the disappearance of his daughter, he had finally lost hope and he and his wife had committed suicide. This meant that Paige was the missing daughter.
“Dad wasn’t the kind of guy to take a bribe,” Paige said. “He hated that sort of stuff. And yet...”
Elizabeth looked at Paige’s clenched fists and asked fearfully, “So then in the office earlier... I could feel your hatred for my father. Do you have some sort of history with him?”
“Tiberio killed my parents,” Paige answered without a moment’s hesitation. The blood drained from Elizabeth’s face.
“That man framed my dad and ground him down to the very end. Dad was a strong man, but he couldn’t stand to be ostracized and to have the world look at him in a negative light.”
Gasparo had lost his job, his title and fortune, and even his land in the corruption case. In addition, he had also been required to pay compensation, which had ended up being a tremendous amount of money that he would never have been able to repay even if he’d spent the rest of his life working to do so. His wife had been bedridden with illness at the time, and thanks to the unfair treatment toward the family, they had been in dire straits, unable to buy medicine or even bring a doctor in to see her.
According to Paige, her father had always insisted that Tiberio had set him up. Tiberio had then purchased the former Marquisate of Lanchester, which had been confiscated by the empire, and become its new lord.
When the Lanchester family had been rendered homeless, Tiberio, concealing his true identity, had appeared to Paige, saying that if she did as he said, he would help her family. Paige, resorting to desperate measures, had done as she was told; however, after she’d ended up sold to the Kingdom of Slidd as a slave, her parents had taken their own lives.
Despite finally revealing the heavy burden of her past, Paige remained calm as she continued speaking. “I just don’t understand. How could someone as harmless and sincere as my father be singled out and framed by Tiberio?”
“Did your father not tell you anything?” Westalia asked.
“He did say that he had something on the Reyn family. He didn’t want to tell me anything specific, though, so I don’t know what it actually was,” Paige replied.
“I can’t apologize enough for the troubles my father has caused you,” Elizabeth said, balling the fabric of her skirt in her fists.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“You don’t blame me?”
“What you’ve done and what Tiberio did are two different things. I hold no grudge against you,” Paige said. Then she let out a small sigh and continued. “I’m just concerned at this point. It was exactly five years ago that my mother fell ill. Elizabeth Pink was just coming into fashion. My mother loved that vivid color so much that she had her whole room wallpapered in it. One day she collapsed, and shortly after that my father suddenly tore all of the wallpaper down. The corruption incident happened right after he finished peeling it off.”
Because no one had noticed the causal link between Elizabeth Pink and ill health, the market had grown in size until the present day. But was it really possible that not a single person had noticed the connection in the past five years? What if Gasparo had linked his wife’s poor health to Elizabeth Pink? Being the honest man that he was, he would have tried to alert a larger audience of people to the dangers of the color so that people would not suffer as his wife did.
“And what symptoms did your mother have?” Westalia asked.
“Mainly nausea, diarrhea, and a rash,” Paige replied.
Those lined up with the symptoms of Elizabeth Pink poisoning.
“Well then, Paige. Let’s go conduct an inquiry with the Imperial Guard. If your father was aware of the harmful effects of Elizabeth Pink, it would be logical that he was treated that way to keep his mouth shut. He must’ve mentioned Elizabeth Pink to someone. We need to collect testimonies,” Westalia said, her eyes downcast.
“All right.”
“You must go back to Le Chantier Palace now,” Westalia said, looking at Elizabeth. “If you stay with us, your father will easily figure out who the intruders were. Avoid contact with us for a while, and then if you do need to talk, go through a messenger. Okay?”
“I understand.”
“And of course, don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Of course not!”
Having finished with what she had to say, Westalia got up from the sofa. “You must be tired, Paige. Take your time and rest. I’m going back to my room.” She left without another word.
Westalia’s rapid exit from the room left Paige and Elizabeth exchanging glances.
Back in her room, Westalia finally released all the tears she’d managed to hold back up until that point.
Paige... I’m so sorry. Westalia collapsed on the spot, leaning her back against the door and holding a hand over her mouth so that no one outside would hear. She began to sob. She’d never thought Paige could have such a twisted past. Paige always spoke calmly and matter-of-factly, and yet she’d endured so much pain and suffering.
It was precisely because Westalia, too, had experienced pain, frustration, and anger that had no outlet that she could understand what Paige was feeling.
Westalia remembered the hatred she’d been able to feel coming off Paige in waves when they’d met Tiberio at the soiree. She probably hated him enough to kill him. It was heartbreaking to think that Paige had been carrying such heavy burdens and enduring those hardships alone, all the while supporting Westalia as she strove to become empress. Paige was always so aloof that Westalia had been unable to notice the darkness in her heart.
I wasn’t a good employer, let alone a good friend, Westalia thought. She wiped her tears away with her sleeve and grimaced. Paige had been working so hard without complaint that Westalia couldn’t just allow herself to cry herself to sleep in self-pity.
It’s my turn to support her. Let me take away your sorrows, Paige. If you don’t like that man’s pretty face, let’s turn it into something ugly, Westalia thought. It was just a guess, but Westalia suspected that Tiberio was the reason for Paige’s hatred of attractive men.
Westalia walked to the window and looked up at the starry sky. Tiberio’s image superimposed itself over the beautiful stars.
“I will lay waste to that beautiful face until it looks like something out of a nightmare,” Westalia whispered, her tone dripping with venom. “I will beat you with my own bejeweled hand. And then I shall torment you with my most precious poisons, Tiberio Reyn.”
A crack spread across the windowpane where Westalia struck it with her ring-adorned hand.