The Contract Wife Tries to Leave - Chapter 194
Gradually, her clearing sight became more defined. Before long, Victoria found herself staring dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape. It was no wonder…
“Are you all right?”
The person in front of her was incredibly handsome. He was in a league different from the Marquis Neubitz. He had the kind of beauty that was almost divine, like an archangel descending from heaven with a trumpet of judgment—a beauty with an aura of sanctity.
‘And he looks somehow familiar…’
Where had she seen him before? Victoria’s mind whirled.
“I am Karl Babenhausen. May I ask for your name?”
“Ah!”
The moment the handsome man revealed his identity, her thoughts struck like lightning. The second son of the Babenhausen family! She realized she had seen him years ago at the Weimar estate when he was with his family’s eldest son.
She had thought he was remarkably handsome back then too… but she hadn’t expected to meet him again like this.
“Victoria Oder. You’re the second son of the Marquis Babenhausen, right? As for how I ended up trapped here…”
Victoria didn’t understand why Karl Babenhausen was here or how all of this had come about, but she began to explain everything in detail, seeking his help.
When she revealed she’d been kidnapped and had been held here for a full two weeks, Karl’s expression grew complex.
“A woman told you that if you stayed here quietly, she would let you go?”
“Yes, yes. But it’s already been two weeks…”
“Is this woman, by chance, her?”
Karl pointed to a young woman dressed as a maid. When the woman’s eyes met Victoria’s, she visibly flinched and quickly averted her gaze, her behavior suspicious to anyone watching. Victoria fixed her gaze intently on the maid.
“I think I’ll know if I hear her voice.”
At this, Karl turned to the maid and commanded,
“Say something.”
“…”
The maid’s face reflected a look of utter defeat, and she kept her lips tightly sealed. The suspicion in Victoria’s mind only intensified. With eyes blazing, she demanded,
“You—do you know me? You kidnapped me and locked me up here, didn’t you?”
“…….”
“Say something. Keeping your mouth shut like this only proves you’re guilty. So, you’re the kidnapper―”
“N-No! I’m not!”
Accusing her of being the kidnapper made the maid protest frantically, just as Victoria had intended.
There was no way an ordinary maid would have done this alone; someone must have ordered her. Victoria figured if she pushed her as the prime culprit, she’d speak up out of a sense of injustice.
And sure enough, the maid’s voice matched exactly with the woman who had infuriated Victoria over the past two weeks.
“Yes, it’s her! She’s the one who kidnapped me!”
“I-I did help, but I wasn’t the one who kidnapped you!”
“Then what were you? On the first day, you told me that if I stayed here quietly, you’d let me go!”
“I did say that, but I wasn’t the one behind the kidnapping! I swear!”
Meanwhile, Mary, now labeled the kidnapper, was on the verge of losing it. All she had done was help the young lady and pocket a bit of money for it, and now she was being accused as the mastermind.
If things went on like this, it was clear she’d be blamed for everything. After all, wasn’t that the way things always worked with highborn people? The young lady would surely deny any wrongdoing and would likely even accuse her of being the kidnapper, bringing up her past connections to a crime organization.
In the end, Mary realized her only way out of this was to expose every crime Josephine had committed, emphasizing that she was merely following orders and was nothing but an innocent maid.
Having made up her mind, Mary clenched her hands into fists. It was almost a relief that she had been caught by none other than the second son. Given his sense of justice, he wouldn’t try to pin all the blame on her.
“This… this is all the work of Lady Josephine.”
“Hey! Mary!”
Josephine’s loyal hound, William, yelled frantically from the hallway entrance. Next to him, Hans looked utterly anxious, unable to keep his hands still.
Glancing at Karl’s hardened expression and Victoria’s wide-eyed stare, Mary turned to William and scolded him.
“Think carefully, William! Do you think the lady will protect us? We’re all going to end up taking the fall and rotting in prison!”
William, the fool, stammered on about how Lady Josephine would never do that to them, but Hans had gone pale, frozen in place, seemingly convinced by Mary’s words.
Mary turned to Karl again and continued her revelation.
“I… I even kept the evidence. Lady Josephine ordered me to burn it, but I saved it. Everything was under her orders. That idiot over there and I were just following her commands!”
“…”
As if overwhelmed by the influx of information, Karl closed his eyes briefly.
He recalled how he had ended up here in the first place. It had all started with his suspicions regarding Josephine’s recent behavior.
