To My Husband's Mistress - Chapter 1 Part 4
“…Aren’t you curious, Miss Leticia?”
At that moment, Rianca, correcting her gaze that wavered with the firm refusal, grabbed her arm and whispered something.
“Before your father died, something happened.”
For a moment, Leticia doubted her ears. The words that escaped from Rianca’s lips, adorned with a girlish expression, were extremely shocking.
“Oh, now you’re looking at me. I guess your dead father was precious to you?”
Rianca, who whispered in a voice that Aster would never hear, clapped her hands and laughed. It was a clear mockery of her surprise.
“What did… you just say just to me?”
Talking about her recently deceased father was no different from touching a sore spot. So, why did Rianca mention this?
“Oh my, such a frightening expression.”
Given her temperament, isn’t she going to explode?
With eyes wide like a rabbit, Rianca scanned her bruised face and mocked her. Despite that, her expression remained innocent and clear, sending shivers down her spine.
Feeling mocked, Leticia’s gaze turned fierce. At that moment, Aster, who had been watching from a distance, leaned forward as if ready to rush over at any moment.
“Don’t lose your nerve. If he comes now, you won’t be able to hear about your father forever. Are you okay with that?”
Rianca, glancing sideways at Aster, shot a pointed remark as if pricking a sensitive nerve.
“Loosen up that fierce expression and just follow me quietly. Oh, and don’t stick too closely. I can smell the stable on you.”
This woman… Leticia bit her lips and stared at Rianca’s back, who was walking ahead.
Ever since she tangled with a perfectly fine married man, Leticia knew she was no ordinary woman. However, encountering her true colors face to face was beyond her imagination.
A face of an angel, the innocence of a child, and the cunning of a devil all blended into one.
Anyway, she had to admit that Rianca was so cunning that it gave her goosebumps. With her deceased father brought into the conversation, she had no choice but to move as Rianca wanted.
Clutching her hands tightly to the point where her nails dug in, Leticia followed behind her. With no pleasant topics to share between the wife and the secret mistress, only the cold wind and the rushing sound of the river echoed loudly between them.
“Let’s stop here. It’s already cold enough…”
The moment Rianca stopped and turned around was the moment Leticia had been waiting for. Without hesitation, she swung her hand.
Swish–
“This is the price for insulting my father earlier.”
Stealing her husband was something she could endure. After all, Aster, a married man who she had her eyes on, was just as much of a scoundrel.
However, casually uttering ‘father’1Rianca called her father “??” which is a dialect of ?? that is a disrespectful or a humble word for father. with such disrespect towards her pitiful father was unforgivable.
“…..”
Rianca’s surprised face, which was not an act, was quite comical. Watching it, Leticia felt refreshed, as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
“Now that the settlement is over, let’s start the conversation.”
Leticia, who had calmed down, clenched her fist and stared at Rianca. In response, Rianca bit her cute lips tightly.
Leticia expected her to be angry for getting hit, but unexpectedly, Rianca chuckled.
“Oh my! You really are an amusing person.”
Wiping away tears that clung to the corners of her eyes, Rianca asked, “Do you know what people who commit suicide must do before they die?”
Leticia didn’t reply, but Rianca immediately gave her the answer.
“Changing their will! People always want to leave their last will before they die. The late Count Violet was no exception.”
…A will? Leticia thought of her father’s death.
Like the heads of many families, Graham prepared his will in advance, in case of any eventuality.
Whenever a revision was needed, they called in a lawyer to make the changes. Leticia, as the sole heir, had always watched over them.
After Graham’s suicide, the publicized will was exactly as she remembered it.
“My father did not change his will.”
“Are you sure?”
Rianca immediately refuted, as if she were joking.
“Your father definitely tried to change his will, Leticia. You’ll know if you ask the family lawyer.”
But it was a strangely sharp remark, even for a joke.
“He intended to leave all of House Violet’s remaining assets to one person. Can you guess who?”
“… Me?”
“Correct! You’re indeed clever.”
Leticia didn’t feel particularly happy about being praised by Rianca. After all, the speculation wasn’t that difficult to make.
After her younger sister died, Leticia was the only child left to her father.
“But, as you know, the will was never revised. Count Violet passed away before that happened.”
Rianca put her finger to her lips and smiled.
“Here’s another question. If the deceased didn’t change their will before they died, who would benefit the most?”
The answer to this question was also obvious. It was her stepmother, Jenia.
Jenia originally belonged to a distant branch of the Violet family, a poor local noble family. She was already in a poor position, but when her husband died of illness, she was left with nowhere to go with her young son.
At that time, Leticia’s divorced father regarded Jenia as pitiful. Although she was his second wife, he allowed her to live in the Violet residence as his wife in name only.
If Leticia’s father had modified his will, Jenia would not have received a penny. She wouldn’t have been able to seize House Violet’s estate as she did now.
“By this point, aren’t you curious? Whether that father… No, if the deceased ‘actually’ committed suicide.”
Rianca brought up the suspicion that had been wriggling under Leticia’s heart.
“Oh my goodness.”
Already struggling with the worst assumptions, Leticia covered her mouth with her hand. Rianca might be playing with her, but deep down, she knew.
Her words had a certain credibility.
As the second wife, Jenia could have easily poisoned her father’s tea. Forging the scene to make it look like suicide wouldn’t have been that difficult.
“I heard that her ex-husband died of illness. It’s a pity. But was it really an ‘illness’?”
Up to this point, Leticia’s mind was in complete disarray.
The last time she saw her father’s face before he was put in the coffin was a dark pallor. No matter how much the mortician did the makeup and dressed up the body, the traces of unbearable pain could not be hidden.
She hung on the edge of her father’s coffin, thrashing about like a madwoman. Half out of her mind, she cried and begged for forgiveness, asking her dead father to come back.
But was her father’s death… Jenia’s doing?
“If you can’t believe it, feel free to check! If you inquire in the rural village where she lived, there should be a person or two who knows. It’s a tiny village, after all.”
Rianca’s face as she spoke was strangely self-assured, almost mocking. Her attitude was so convincing that it was impossible to believe that she was lying.
“…Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Leticia asked, her trembling lips revealing the shock she felt.
Rianca and she, if one had to define their relationship, were at best love rivals. So, there was no reason for her to be kind.
Especially to reveal such a sensitive truth, Rianca would have to take the risk of being exposed as the informer.
“Why?”
But Rianca responded as if she had been waiting for this moment.
“Thanks for asking. If you hadn’t, I would have been disappointed, you know?”
She cheerfully responded and looked around. Then she leaned in close to Leticia, as if worried about being overheard.
“The first reason is because I hate Jenia.”
“….?”
“Come on, look at your expression. Didn’t you know? She’s been trying to seduce Aster since before.”
What, what did she say? Leticia was stunned and couldn’t bring herself to ask.
Even if they were only nominally married, Jenia was indisputably her father’s wife. Aster was her stepdaughter’s husband, and the age difference between the two was at least sixteen years.
“It’s true! Do you believe me if I say she pretended to be drunk and leaned on Aster, and even took off her clothes in front of him? Of course, he didn’t even look at her, but still.”
Rianca chuckled, covering her eyes as if pretending to be shocked. Because she was getting too close, Leticia unconsciously stepped back.
It was a defense mechanism that often appeared when someone she didn’t like approached her.
“And the second reason is…”
With a discreet glance and a whisper, Rianca continued with an innocent expression.
“You’re so stupid and pitiful.”
Unlike her flower-like lips, her voice was incredibly sinister.
“You’re so pitiful that it’s heartbreaking to think you don’t know anything like a fool.”
At the same time as she spoke, Leticia’s chest suddenly tightened.
Thump-
At first, it was chillingly cold, but then a fiery pain pierced through her body like a flame.
Leticia, in astonishment, looked down. There, a sharp dagger was deeply embedded in her chest.
“I told you, didn’t I? People who commit suicide leave a will behind.”
Since you can’t leave one, I’ll do it for you, Rianca’s smiling face seemed demonic.
Why didn’t she anticipate this earlier? Rianca Snoweider was not a woman who would sit back and watch the legal wife live.
“Goodbye, Miss Pitiful Wife. It’s time for you to join your dead father.”
Rianca, who had stabbed her, whispered affectionately. Then she pushed Leticia’s body with all her might.
Into the icy cold river that flowed relentlessly.
***
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