Chapter 4

At that, Betty hurried into the room after her.

“So, tell me who it was.”

She shouted, placing her hands on her plump waist.

“Who dared to do this to our young lady!”

Betty had cared for Celia since she was a child. It must have been after Celia turned seven, when her birth mother’s health rapidly declined after giving birth to her younger brother Robert, and she left for the South to recuperate.

“Heavens, did you get caught in the rain in this weather? What if you catch a cold?”

Betty exclaimed as she helped Celia out of her mud-stained dress.

“If you end up with pneumonia like your mother…!”

“…That might be better.”

“What?”

“Yes. That wouldn’t be so bad.”

Celia muttered quietly.

“If I catch pneumonia and die after being drenched on my husband’s funeral day, at least they won’t call me the woman who killed her husband.”

“My lady….”

Betty frowned deeply and grumbled.

“I swear, people will say you killed your husband and couldn’t bear the guilt, so you took your own life.”

“Is that so.”

Celia gave a bitter smile at Betty’s bluntness.

“What’s this? I don’t recognize this umbrella or handkerchief.”

Betty, sorting through Celia’s clothes, asked.

“Oh, that’s….”

Celia recalled the owner of those items.

A man with a smile as cold as rising steam, as soft as mist that disappears at a touch.

“I need to return them, so I’ll wash them….”

Just then—

“Celiaaa!”

The door burst open with a bang.

It was Celia’s father, Scott Lancaster.

“Heavens, Sir! The young lady is still changing!”

Betty hurriedly wrapped a robe over Celia’s shoulders.

Celia, flustered, tried to tie it, but—smack!—a large hand struck her cheek before she could.

“Sir!”

Betty shrieked in horror, but Scott paid her no mind.

“What on earth have you done, Celia! How could you cause such a scene at your husband’s funeral!”

Celia slowly raised her head, her tone self-mocking.

“…News travels fast, Father. As expected, the New Adams Governor’s information network is impressive.”

Betty gasped at the sight of Celia’s swollen cheek and bleeding lip.

“With all that information, didn’t you hear what happened in the study? Don’t you know what the Evans family did to Charles’s will?”

Celia shouted loudly. But Scott showed no sign of surprise, only clenched his drooping jaw.

“Don’t tell me… you agreed to it, Father?”

Celia’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“How could you? How could you abandon your own daughter and side with the Evans family?”

Her cracked voice burst out like a scream.

“Enough, Celia!”

Scott shouted even louder.

“What do you expect me to do! Do you want me to make enemies of the Evans family just to get a few scraps of inheritance?”

“It’s not just a few scraps! Do you even know how much debt Charles took out in my name as guarantor?”

“No matter how much it is! I cannot make an enemy of the Evans family!”

Scott spat out his words through gritted teeth.

“Do you know what holds the most power in the New World, which has only been independent for two hundred years?”

Celia knew the answer.

Titles.

She had married Charles, infamous for his wild ways, because he was from an Old World Viscount family.

The newly rich in the New World had only been around for three or four generations at most. They admired the Old World nobles, whose families had histories spanning three hundred, even a thousand years, and that’s why those who came from the Old World with titles dominated New Adams high society.

“If we offend the Evans family, who control New Adams society, we’ll be ruined instantly. The banks won’t lend us money, and all our political funds will be cut off.”

Scott’s voice grew louder.

“Then next year’s reelection is finished. For me, your brother, and the entire Lancaster family, it’ll be the end!”

Scott, having finished, was breathing heavily.

“So what do you want me to do?”

Celia asked in a trembling voice.

“Just accept the will… and declare bankruptcy? So I become a penniless widow, forever chased by loan sharks?”

Her eyes reddened with tears. Before anger and resentment came sadness and despair. But her father’s gaze remained cold as he looked at his daughter.

“Go to the Old World.”

Scott continued in a grim voice.

“And marry for the third time.”

***

“No way, the Old World?!”

Celia’s friend Margaret jumped up.

“They still use gas lamps there! The water pipes run with rust, and there aren’t even toilets in the bathrooms! How are you supposed to live in a place like that?”

Under her flamboyant Art Nouveau hat, Margaret’s curled red hair shook violently. Watching her, Celia let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t mind the Old World.”

“Celia!”

“But marriage?”

Celia shouted, clutching her head.

“Who would ever want to marry me? I’ve lost two husbands already!”

Even Margaret was at a loss for words at that.

No one would want to become Celia’s third husband. No matter how prestigious the Lancaster family was, no matter how young and beautiful Celia might be.

Celia muttered in despair.

“Father will definitely find some strange match. Someone disabled, insane, or maybe incredibly old….”

Margaret gently patted her trembling shoulder.

“Celia. Isn’t there any way for you to stay here? What about your other family members?”

“Robert doesn’t care. And Eleanor….”

Celia couldn’t finish her sentence.

Her stepmother, only ten years older than her, had been uncomfortable with Celia from the start. After being caught two years ago in an inappropriate relationship with Robert’s tutor John, she had seen Celia even more as a thorn in her side. So this time, she’d see it as the perfect opportunity to drive Celia out.

“I’ll soon be penniless and thrown out. I have to find another way before that happens.”

“Another way? What way?”

“To get Charles’s inheritance back and become independent from this house.”

“What? Are you thinking of suing the Evans family?”

Margaret’s eyes widened.

“No way, Celia! There’s no way you could win against the Evans family!”

Two hundred years ago, the Evans family, who crossed the sea and led the New World’s war of independence, was truly formidable. Rumor had it that if the Evans family’s master so much as coughed, Congress would shake, and if he so much as glanced, banks would collapse.

“If you sue the Evans family, the Lancaster family won’t be safe either.”

The Evans family’s matron was also famous for ruling New World high society. There was even an unwritten rule that if you weren’t among the four hundred invited to her New Year’s party, you weren’t acknowledged as part of the upper class.

“And do you think Bernie Evans will just sit back? You know how vicious that old woman is!”

That was something Celia couldn’t deny. She’d suffered through a harsh married life for the past two years.

“Yes, Mother-in-law hated me from the very start.”

Charles’s mother, Bernie Evans, hated Celia intensely. Her own son, who had been divorced for fooling around with women, was just “wandering for a while,” but her daughter-in-law, who had lost her first husband to a train accident, was “unvirtuous.”

“So when she heard Charles had died, she blamed me right away.”

‘Aaaagh! I knew it! I was worried from the moment that woman entered this house! Charles died all because of her!’

“But stealing the inheritance crossed a line. This is practically telling me to die.”

Bernie Evans might act like a brute, but she wasn’t a fool. She knew her son had been frequenting gambling dens since the wedding night, and that her daughter-in-law was being hounded by loan sharks after paying off her husband’s debts. Yet she took Evans Hotel away.

“I’ll get the hotel back, no matter what. And I’ll become independent with my head held high.”

Celia clenched both fists and declared.

“My goodness, you really mean it.”

Margaret’s teal-colored eyes sparkled at the sight.

“The problem is, I can’t find a lawyer.”

Celia let out a heavy sigh and continued.

“Maybe the Evans family has already intervened… No one is willing to defend me.”

Celia had contacted every lawyer she knew in the past few days. But all the answers were refusals.

‘After reviewing your case, we have determined it does not fit with our practice…’

‘Our office is short-staffed, so we regretfully must decline…’

‘We’re sorry. After review, we believe your chances of winning are slim…’

Each had a different excuse, but in the end, they all meant the same thing.

We have no intention of defending Celia Lancaster, the woman who “killed her husband,” against the Evans family, who rule New Adams high society.

“Hmmm… Then what will you do?”

Margaret frowned and pondered, then snapped her fingers.

“Daniel Wilcox! He graduated from law school, didn’t he?”

“Daniel? Would he be willing to help me?”

Margaret answered Celia’s hesitation with a voice full of confidence.

“Of course. He’s been your friend since childhood, and Daniel even liked you!”