148. The Last Witness
“Who knows if that’s just a story you made up?”
As expected, Oksana denied the story Katya told.
She felt extremely displeased that the past she had tried to forget was vividly unfolding before her eyes.
Now she finally understood why she had felt bad seeing Katya, why she hadn’t liked her from the start.
She reminded her of Tatiana.
That bright and happy face that only received love from both parents and husband.
“Do you think I would do something like this at my long-awaited wedding without clear evidence or witnesses?”
Katya held a clear smile on her lips.
Soon after, Oksana was terrified to see a woman walking into the chapel.
The woman wearing a nun’s habit was someone who had worked as Tatiana’s lady’s maid.
Oksana knew her well since she had also worked as a maid.
She was a loyal servant who followed the deposed Grand Duchess Tatiana to Pavlovsk Monastery until the end.
And she was reported to have died with her in the flood.
‘How is that wench alive and well like this?’
The nun passed by Oksana with a proud face as if to show off, greeting her before standing beside Katya.
“How could I know all these details when I was young and in the South at the time? This is the story I heard from this person who saw and heard many things while by Her Highness Tatiana’s side back then.”
It was no coincidence that Katya had found her.
From the fact that Baron Lantskoĭ the painter had accurately depicted Tatiana’s portrait from the day of the flood at Pavlovsk Monastery, which was off-limits to men, she deduced there must have been an informant.
The portrait of the deposed Grand Duchess, once seized by the state treasury, was put on display in Arsetia not just as a relic of the past but as a quiet attempt to find someone who had served at the monastery during those days.
Luka went abroad with Katya’s portrait under her orders, and after investigating visitors during the exhibition, they found this nun.
“Her Highness the Grand Duchess accepted the divorce without requesting aid from His Holiness the Pope in Arsetia when she received the divorce demand because of that woman’s threats.”
The nun pointed at Oksana as she spoke.
She didn’t even address Oksana as the former Grand Duchess.
To her, the only Grand Duchess was Tatiana whom she had served.
Arsetia and the Western continent nations designated the same religion as their state religion, and divorce of monarchs was taboo according to doctrine.
Therefore, when unreasonably forced to divorce, one could request mediation from the Pope.
But Tatiana didn’t do that.
“It was to protect Prince Nikolai.”
She was imprisoned in a tower until she signed the divorce papers.
During that time, all the people of House Valuyev were killed, and she had no power to stop it.
One day, Oksana visited Tatiana who was cursing and hating her powerless self.
And she told her everything that had happened.
It was an attitude born from confidence that she couldn’t do anything even if she found out.
“If you quietly divorce and withdraw to a monastery, I promise not to harm your son.”
“……”
“But if you resist more here, I can’t guarantee your son’s life either. What will you do?”
Without time to be angry about being betrayed by Oksana whom she had trusted as a friend, everything proceeded rapidly.
Tatiana left for the monastery like that.
She lived like she was dead for Nikolai’s safety.
When someone locked her door while everyone was running to evacuate during the flood, Tatiana realized it was done by Oksana’s subordinate.
The nun who arrived late tried to break down the door to save her mistress, but she stopped her from beyond the door.
“You should escape quickly.”
“I can’t leave without Your Highness!”
“Even if I survive here, I’ll die again. If I endure today, another death crisis will come. I have no power. I can only accept it.”
“Your Highness, no. Sob……”
“My son can only live if I die. I want to rest in peace now too.”
“If that is Your Highness’s will, I shall follow you together.”
“No, you must survive. If you ever meet my son, tell him I loved him more than life itself and I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with him longer. Please.”
Nikolai couldn’t hold back his tears that poured out upon hearing about his mother’s final moments.
“Who can prove your words? I can’t even believe you were the deposed Grand Duchess’s maid?”
Oksana’s desperate reaction didn’t deviate much from Katya’s expectations.
The nun exchanged glances with Katya and took out a ring from inside her clothes.
It was the ring Yuri had given to Tatiana, which all the nobles knew about.
It was a relic that had only existed in legends of the Grand Duke’s family until it was excavated from ruins the year Nikolai was born.
Yuri put that ring that hadn’t faded despite the long years on Tatiana’s finger.
It was the day they finally confirmed their feelings after only secretly loving each other.
When Tatiana left Hersen Palace after being deposed, Oksana secretly hoped Yuri would take it back and put it on her finger as the new Grand Duchess.
But that remained just her hope.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Who knows if you stole that ring after searching Tatiana’s corpse? You seem to be lying about being the former Grand Duchess’s loyal servant to gain a position—!”
“This ring has holy power in it that makes the jewel’s color change if it goes to someone the owner didn’t permit. When it was excavated from the ruins, its color was dead so they didn’t recognize it as the legendary relic.”
But fortunately scholars recognized it and brought it to Yuri who was Grand Duke.
The tale of how the ring recognized the Grand Duke’s descendant and miraculously sparkled again was quite famous among nobles.
“How dare you try to deceive with a fake ring!”
The moment Oksana rushed forward and snatched the jewel from the nun’s hand, its blue sparkle turned pitch black.
When the nun held it again, the color came back to life.
The nobles were all amazed by this strange phenomenon.
“Her Highness the Grand Duchess gave this to me as proof when she asked me to deliver her last words to Prince Nikolai. I should say she entrusted it to me.”
The nun walked to Tatiana’s son and firmly placed the ring in his hand.
The ring began to shine even brighter than before, as if it had finally found its true owner.
“Do you all really trust that wench’s words more than mine? You must not forget that Nikolai is a tyrant just because you’re swept up in that wench’s crude tongue! This isn’t rebellion but revolution—”
“So for that great and righteous revolution, you ordered your own son to kidnap his brother’s bride the night before the wedding?”
“What? Now you’re really going all the way! I won’t play along with your delusions! If you have evidence or witnesses, let’s see them!”
“I am the witness.”
The final witness stepped up to the judgment seat.
When Oksana saw him, she felt cornered at the edge of a cliff.
Her son Mikhail had appeared as a witness on the side of the wench trying to oust her.
Mikhail was the whistleblower.
Her son who was hung up on love had finally backstabbed her.
As soon as he received Oksana’s instructions for the kidnapping, he wrote a letter and slipped it into Pavel’s hand while passing by.
That letter was delivered to Nikolai and Katya, and after some time, Mikhail acted out the kidnapping to deceive his mother’s followers who were tailing him.
He learned that he might be an albino after deciding to join hands with Katya and hearing about it from her and Brunhilde.
The reason Katya thought of Mikhail whom she had seen at the Despot Club when she first saw Brunhilde was because both of them were albinos.
“Mikhail, don’t be deceived by that wench. You really are the former Grand Duke’s child.”
“Mother, please stop. I found out who my real father is.”
The reason Katya sent Luka to Arsetia was not only to find an insider who had worked at the monastery back then, but also for this.
She recalled reading about some noble family in Arsetia where albino children were born, and she tasked Luka to look into that.
“And look into Oksana’s ex-husband’s family too. There might be a connection.”
If Mikhail really was an albino and Oksana had used this to deceive Yuri about being his son, they needed to search more broadly about the child’s father.
There was a possibility he wasn’t even the ex-husband’s child.
When Luka visited the Count’s family, he could immediately tell Mikhail was their family’s son.
Though they weren’t albinos, the children Oksana’s ex-husband had with his new wife looked very much like Mikhail.
Of course, the paternity test also indicated Mikhail was the ex-husband’s child.
Feeling betrayed that her own son had deceived her, Oksana was enraged.
“Because of who!”
It happened in an instant—she pulled out a dagger from her chest and raised it.
As Oksana, consumed by madness, tried to stab Mikhail, someone jumped between them.
