I’ll Be the Heroine’s Competent Divorce Partner - Chapter 70
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 70
Right after the performance ended.
Elodie had greeted Richard when she encountered him in the hall.
But Richard barely acknowledged her greeting, then subtly turned away, pretending to converse with another noble.
‘Did I make some mistake?’
Elodie felt uneasy as she retraced the events that had happened earlier.
But nothing particularly came to mind.
‘No, that can’t be it.’
After pondering for a moment, Elodie eventually shook her head.
I must have been a bit oversensitive.
Logically speaking, there was no reason for Richard to avoid her, was there?
And so, at present.
“How did you manage to book Matthew Paul? Your abilities are truly remarkable.”
Look how she can’t bring herself to say the performance was good.
Elodie smiled bitterly to herself.
Meanwhile, Catherine answered smugly.
“My aunt provided a great deal of assistance.”
“Oh my, the Duchess?”
“Yes. As everyone well knows, my aunt is very fond of me. It’s truly more than I deserve.”
However, while Catherine said it was more than she deserved, her expression didn’t look that way at all.
Rather, she held her chin up high with a triumphant expression.
At the same time, Marisa chimed in.
“Since she’s her only niece, I suppose she feels particularly attached in many ways.”
“Of course, naturally.”
“With such a lovely niece, even I would dote on her.”
As the atmosphere flowed harmoniously like this.
One lady casually spoke up.
“Speaking of which, Viscount Scofield’s daughter’s necklace. Isn’t it really beautiful?”
At that moment.
Elodie and Isabel’s gazes met each other.
Simultaneously, the other ladies also joined in praising the necklace.
“That’s right, I was curious about it too.”
“Where did you purchase it?”
“The young lady’s beauty is so enchanting that even such a glamorous design suits her well.”
Meanwhile, Catherine seemed to thoroughly enjoy receiving everyone’s praise.
The corners of her mouth shot up endlessly toward the sky.
“Oh, this necklace?”
Catherine shyly and carefully touched the necklace.
“With such praise… I’m embarrassed.”
After first pretending to be modest with that response.
Catherine added with a beaming eye-smile.
“But I’m truly happy, since I also love these jewels.”
Wow, what a shameless act, really…
Elodie clicked her tongue inwardly.
Well, she could guess what Catherine was thinking.
She was probably inwardly smug, thinking she was a much more attractive person than Isabel.
‘The social perception of adultery is like that from the start.’
Although the law condemned adultery, the law couldn’t perfectly control reality.
Some noble men secretly took pride in keeping multiple women and strutted about.
They even gossiped behind the backs of wives who were victims of adultery.
Saying how unattractive must a woman be for her husband to stray outside.
…Even though the wife was clearly the victim.
Catherine probably unconsciously agreed with such thinking.
‘Otherwise, how could she plan such a despicable act?’
Thus, Elodie was consumed by an intense desire.
The desire to somehow throw cold water on Catherine, who was smiling so confidently.
“Viscount Scofield’s daughter.”
At that call, Catherine immediately looked this way with wary eyes.
What, why, what.
What are you going to do by staring like that?
“I’ve been curious since earlier. That necklace…”
Elodie asked the question while pretending to know nothing.
“Isn’t that my sister-in-law’s item?”
“……”
“……”
The surroundings suddenly became quiet.
I deliberately put on a hurt expression and continued speaking.
“What’s this, Sister-in-law? That necklace, when I asked to borrow it last time, you refused.”
“Miss, um?”
Isabel deliberately put on a troubled expression and pretended to be flustered.
I asked again with a sullen face.
“Did you only lend it to the Viscount’s daughter? That’s really too much, when you told me it was a very precious item.”
“Elodie, dear…”
Marisa, startled, hurriedly tried to manage the situation.
Along with that, Elodie turned to look at Marisa as if she had just realized something.
“Oh, or did you get help from Mother?”
Then she pouted her lips and grumbled.
“But that’s really too much. Don’t just favor the Viscount’s daughter, please pay attention to me too. Okay?”
At first glance, it sounded like the charming words of a daughter acting spoiled toward her mother.
But the guests at this gathering interpreted those words with a different meaning.
You could feel their inner thoughts just by looking at the way they stared.
For example…
‘The Duchess is going a bit too far.’
‘No matter what, lending the Duke’s wife’s precious jewels to her niece…’
‘And the Viscount’s daughter too. To wear it so boldly when the owner is clearly watching…’
‘Isn’t she being too shameless?’
Marisa’s eyes widened instantly.
‘Elodie, that damned girl!’
And rightfully so, since Elodie had intended exactly this reaction.
The proof was how she gently narrowed her eyes while maintaining eye contact with Marisa.
Unlike her cotton candy-sweet smile, her blue eyes shining within her narrowed gaze were as coldly frozen as ice.
When she first invited Elodie, Marisa had been somewhat at ease about the necklace matter.
David was keeping his affair with Catherine secret.
So naturally, she had calculated that Elodie would also keep her mouth shut.
But.
‘To think she would stab me in the back like this!’
Elodie had not spoken in a way that implied David’s affair.
Instead, she thoroughly pushed the blame onto Marisa and Catherine.
She made it sound as if Marisa had forcibly borrowed the jewels that Isabel treasured and handed them over to Catherine.
Just as Marisa was clenching her molars to suppress her surging anger.
“Ah, by any chance.”
Elodie suddenly turned to look at Catherine as if something had just occurred to her.
Catherine, who had been restless, flinched and stiffened her shoulders.
At the same time, Elodie spoke with a rather apologetic voice.
“Did you perhaps overextend yourself preparing for this recital?”
“……Pardon?”
It was a rather out-of-the-blue comment.
Catherine became a bit dazed even while being on full guard.
Elodie smiled awkwardly.
“If that’s why you borrowed the necklace…… I’m sorry, I was being insensitive.”
In an instant, Catherine’s face turned bright red with humiliation.
That was right.
With just those words, Elodie had turned Catherine into someone who didn’t even have jewels to wear to a party.
“You really work so hard helping people when you don’t even have money to dress yourself up.”
“P-Princess?”
“If you need anything, please contact me anytime. I’ll help you out a bit.”
Elodie, who had been looking at Catherine with a rather pitying gaze, soon smiled as kindly as an angel.
At the same time, the guests’ gazes became somewhat peculiar.
‘Honestly, borrowing jewels from her aunt-in-law, well, that’s one thing.’
‘But wasn’t she just talking as if they were her own jewels?’
‘Looking at it, the Scofield Baron family doesn’t seem that wealthy……’
‘If their situation was that difficult, they shouldn’t have held a recital in the first place.’
The only reason they didn’t voice these thoughts was entirely thanks to Marisa.
Since Marisa’s maternal family was the Scofield Baron family.
It was because they feared the fierce gaze of the Grand Duchess.
‘I can’t let that brat Elodie continue babbling any longer.’
With that judgment, Marisa spoke up sharply.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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