She Became My Friend’s Mother-In-Law - Chapter 134

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 134. Arrest
Drip.
Rosena’s hand froze mid-motion.
A drop of ink fell from the quill’s tip, spreading into a dark blotch across the parchment.
‘…Arrest?’
It was incomprehensible.
She would have preferred to believe she’d misheard.
But then.
Crash!
A tremendous boom shattered her fragile hope into pieces.
“Open the door at once!”
“We’re breaking through by force!”
The door trembled as if it might splinter apart.
Screams from the Servants echoed through the Corridor.
‘Damn it all!’
Rosena sprang to her feet.
She considered hurling herself through the window to escape.
Crash!
The door exploded into fragments, and the Guard Corps soldiers poured through first.
The captain leading them bellowed.
“I repeat! Rosena Osburn! You are under arrest for the murder of Elise Hays, fleeing the scene, and extortion of the Hays Ducal Family!”
“What nonsense is this!”
Rosena bared her teeth savagely.
“Do you have evidence? Do you have any evidence! How dare you frame me like this―”
“Stop wasting time! Seize her now!”
Before she could finish speaking.
The Guard Corps descended upon her in a overwhelming surge.
“Let go! Don’t touch me! You filthy wretches! I’m nobility! Nobility!”
Rosena bit, scratched, and shoved away the arms reaching toward her.
“Ow! She bit me!”
“This crazy woman!”
“You bastards! Get your filthy hands off me! Now!”
Rosena thrashed and resisted desperately.
But she was no match for the endless stream of guards closing in.
Both her arms were seized in moments.
“Put the shackles on!”
Click.
The guards roughly wrenched her arms behind her back and fastened the shackles.
Her wrists were bound with the cold metallic sound of steel.
“Let go! Release this at once!”
As I was dragged away by the Guard Corps.
I continued to writhe and scream.
“I won’t let this go! I won’t let this go!”
“Good grief, she’s thoroughly mad.”
At the sight of me thrashing about without tiring, hurling curses and kicking at the empty air.
Every guard couldn’t help but click their tongues in disapproval.
When we arrived at the entrance, crowds of people were already gathered.
“My, isn’t that the murderer?”
“Goodness. She was hiding in the Devlin Estate.”
The gazes pouring down upon me were thick with open contempt.
I clenched my teeth.
I had once been praised as the future Duchess.
The fact that I had fallen to such depths was utterly pathetic.
My insides twisted, and self-loathing flooded through me.
“…You!”
Then, suddenly, my gaze froze.
Cecilia and Rainer were standing among the crowd.
“….”
Cecilia looked down at me in silence.
And slowly, she moved her lips.
‘Con-grat-u-lations.’
It felt as though I had been struck hard on the head.
Memories of the past came flooding back.
The day I had been absolutely certain that Cecilia and Evan would marry.
The mockery I had sent was returning to me in full.
My face contorted in an instant.
“Aaaah! I won’t let this go!”
I twisted my shoulders and shrieked.
A scorching rage boiled within me.
My eyes gleamed with madness.
“You! I’ll destroy everything! All of it―!”
“Here! Gag her!”
As my struggles grew more violent.
The guards unhesitatingly shoved cloth into my mouth.
“Don’t! Mmph! Ugh!”
In the end, I was dragged away with my hands and feet bound.
My toes scraped against the floor, leaving only pitiful sounds behind.
Shortly after, the black carriage carrying me departed.
The remaining onlookers clicked their tongues and dispersed one by one.
“My lady.”
At that moment, Simon, an employee of the information broker, approached.
He seized the opportunity while the front of the manor was in chaos.
He had just entered on Cecilia’s orders.
“Did you find it?”
“Yes, here it is.”
Simon handed over a thick stack of papers.
It was the manuscript that Rosena had written with enthusiasm right up until her arrest.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Yes, I’ll take my leave now.”
Simon withdrew after completing his task.
The two of them immediately boarded the Duke’s Mansion carriage.
Cecilia retrieved the manuscript from her bosom and read it again.
“Sigh….”
The contents were truly ridiculous.
It was filled with fabrications that cunningly mixed fact and fiction into something plausible.
“So Mariana directly set the fire while quarreling with the Dowager Duchess, according to this.”
To distort that day’s fire in such a manner.
As for the contents about Rainer and her, there was no need to mention it.
That she had married her husband by exploiting his weaknesses.
That Evan had shaken the Duchess’s heart.
That a jealous Rainer had disowned Evan.
She was presenting these absurd stories as if they were truth.
“People who don’t know better would find it entertaining.”
“I thought she was merely foolish, but she does have a talent for writing fiction.”
Rainer muttered with cold derision.
Cecilia pressed her lips firmly together.
How could she be so shameless?
Even her composed nature was seething with indignation.
“I’ll burn this as soon as we arrive home.”
It was worthless scraps of paper.
“Wait.”
At that moment, Rainer grasped her hand.
“I think it would be better to keep it for now.”
“What? Why?”
Cecilia looked at Rainer with a puzzled expression.
If anything, Rainer should be more angry than she was.
Yet he remained remarkably composed.
“Destroying this won’t end the problem. Rosena will find ways to attack us regardless.”
The venom that had gleamed in her eyes just moments before.
It was not the kind that would extinguish easily.
But Rainer had no intention of being swayed by such a woman.
“I cannot stand by and watch that woman brandish this as though it were a weapon.”
“But….”
“Trust me, Cecilia.”
Rainer’s hand gently enfolded Cecilia’s hand, which held the manuscript.
Cecilia gazed at that hand for a moment.
His large hand held hers with unwavering firmness.
“…I understand.”
Finally, Cecilia nodded her head.
“Then, what do you intend to do?”
“I have a plan.”
Rainer’s eyes gleamed with quiet intensity.
“Rosena Osburn will come to realize that the move she made was the worst possible choice.”
* * *
Days later, in the interrogation room of Brisen Prison.
Within air grown cold and heavy.
A single candle flickered precariously.
Rosena sat in a chair.
Her eyes were hollow, and cold shackles bound her wrists.
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
Gritting her teeth, she muttered the words.
Across from her sat two investigators with expressions of utter boredom.
“How many times must I say this before you understand?”
Rosena’s voice was hoarse and ragged.
Yet her eyes still burned with relentless intensity.
The investigator regarded her with an expressionless gaze.
“I believe this is the twentieth time I’ve heard that claim.”
“Then hear it for the twenty-first time.”
Rosena twisted her lips into a bitter smile.
“It was all orchestrated by the Duke of Hays and his wife.”
“Sigh….”
One investigator rolled his eyes as though fed up.
The other let out an audible sigh.
But Rosena paid them no mind.
“A bastard harboring a grudge against the Dowager Duchess, that’s what they’re claiming I am.”
“….”
“They’re trying to pin it all on me, but everyone knows the Duchess and I were never on good terms!”
No matter how many times she repeated herself.
Fury rose within her with each word.
Rosena slammed both fists down upon the table with a resounding crash.
“It was all Cecilia! She orchestrated everything! I know it all! I’m telling you, I’ll testify!”
“…Pfft.”
That was when it happened.
The investigators exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
Soon both men were clutching their bellies, their shoulders shaking with mirth.
“Oh my, my sides!”
“I have to admit, the persistence is impressive!”
“W-what…?”
Rosena’s eyes widened at the unexpected reaction.
“Wow, you really don’t know how the world works, do you? Hey, let me show you some reality.”
One investigator wiped tears from his eyes and gestured with his chin.
His companion pulled today’s newspaper from his pocket.
And tossed it directly in front of Rosena.
“Read this. Everything you said has been proven to be complete nonsense.”
“…What?”
Rosena picked up the newspaper with trembling hands.
The handcuffs around her wrists rattled.
“…!”
The moment she unfolded the newspaper.
Rosena’s eyes shook violently.
「EXCLUSIVE REPORT! Rainer Hays’s Confession: The Hidden Truth of the Hays Ducal House We Never Knew!」
“Th-this can’t be…?”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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