A week had passed since they parted at the police station. They hadn’t seen each other since. Ethan had been released for quite some time.
“I’ll find you, no matter what it takes. Wait for me.”
He couldn’t keep that promise. His grandfather had died—how could he have had the heart? Besides, if he came looking for Eve in this situation and angered her father even more, it would be like throwing a match into a powder keg.
Better not to come. I’ll go myself.
But in her current position, she couldn’t go.
Knock knock.
“Miss, I’ve brought food.”
Chantal knocked on the door. The nurse who had disobeyed the master and arranged Eve’s escape—fortunately, she hadn’t been dismissed. Rumor had it that Dr. Callas, whose complicity had never been exposed, had pulled strings.
Ever since the duke had become less mobile, Chantal had grown bolder and visited Eve every day. Nevertheless, Eve couldn’t ask her to help escape again. The shocking image of Chantal being dragged by her hair was still fresh in her mind.
Eve quickly hid the ring and sat up.
“Come in.”
“How are you feeling?”
Entering, Chantal did her duty as a nurse and examined Eve first.
“Any nausea?”
“No.”
“Bleeding?”
“No.”
“If your lower abdomen hurts or you feel like your period is starting, be sure to tell me.”
It was unclear whether she was worried about Eve’s pregnancy, a miscarriage, or that Eve would soil her clothes and sheets due to lack of pads—but she asked and reminded about the same things every day. It felt a bit pushy, but Eve no longer suspected that she was trying to pry into a pregnancy on her father’s orders.
Chantal placed the tray on the bed and said:
“I have news.”
What news? If she wanted to tell Eve, it was either about Ethan’s condition or her father’s affairs. Eve couldn’t stand even the second it took Chantal to remove the lid from the plate. She urged her:
“Tell me now.”
“I’ll tell you when you finish eating.”
Her trick to make Eve eat had become more skillful. Eve forced herself to finish the soup. She had never even drunk tea so quickly in her life. But Chantal didn’t hurry to speak—she dawdled, clearing the tray.
“So what’s the news?”
“Mr. Fairchild has been arrested again.”
Eve’s stomach twisted, and the food rose to her throat. She grimaced in pain and asked:
“What’s the charge this time?”
“Kidnapping and false imprisonment of you.”
“That old snake!”
Rage flooded her, and she couldn’t stop herself from wanting to throw and break something. But there was nothing around her to break. That was why Chantal had cleared the dishes first.
“It’s not true. I was the one who first suggested running away.”
Strength she hadn’t felt before surged through her body. Eve got out of bed and headed for the door.
“I have to get out of here. No one will stop me this time! I’ll kill everyone if I have to, but I’m getting out!”
Chantal blocked the path of the frantic duke’s daughter.
“You’d better write a letter. I’ll deliver it to the police.”
“Yes. That’s a good idea.”
Chantal immediately brought pen and paper. Eve didn’t start writing about Ethan’s innocence right away. Instead, she gripped the pen and stared at the blank page. Several times she crumpled what she had painstakingly written.
I need to think through everything that needs to be said and write it down without missing anything. I can only send the letter once. The moment it reaches the police, my father will know too.
What if he destroys it?
She couldn’t trust the police either. After much deliberation, Eve wrote a thick letter, handed it to Chantal, and changed the recipient.
“Publish this as a classified ad in the newspaper.”
Then her father’s tricks wouldn’t work. The whole world would know about Ethan’s wrongful accusation, and the police would be forced to release him despite the Duke of Kentrell’s pressure.
“Dr. Callas knows how to do it. The money for the publication…”
Eve had no money right now. The only jewelry she had was what she couldn’t sell.
“Don’t worry. Owen will pay.”
“Really? I won’t forget this kindness. When I get out, I’ll repay you double.”
“It’s nothing. We’re not helping you for a few coins.”
“Chantal… you’re an angel.”
“You are more important to us, Maiden.”
After the first interrogation, the police held Ethan in a cell for two days before summoning him to the interrogation room again.
This time, Shepard wasn’t handling the case—another investigator was. Thanks to that, Ethan understood that Shepard hadn’t actually been the duke’s dog. So Ethan, not holding out much hope, asked:
“Have you been to Montfleure?”
During the first interrogation, Ethan had mentioned Montfleure as proof that Eve had voluntarily gone to Lavinia with him, married him, and lived with him.
The residents, the homeowners, and the priest who performed the ceremony would testify. And the marriage registry where Eve had personally signed remained in the church.
“The Mercian police don’t have an unlimited budget to pay for investigators’ overseas trips.”
Yes, I thought so… It had been useless to hope. Ethan had already begun to lose hope.
The investigator, who had thrown out that harsh remark, sat down across from him and pulled an envelope from inside his coat.
“Lady Evelyn sent a statement to the police.”
A statement?
Finally, this torment would end. Eve must have told the truth. Hearing that he had been falsely accused, she had evaded surveillance and sent this letter. The thought of his beloved, fighting alone to save him, brought such gratitude and regret that tears welled up in his eyes.
Eve, when I get out, I’ll find you no matter what it takes. Just wait.
But what was written on the letter—which the investigator unfolded and handed to him—wasn’t the truth.
…Ethan Fairchild kidnapped and imprisoned me. The time he stole does not exceed a month, but the honor of a Lady that he trampled will never be restored in my lifetime.
Though my body has escaped, my soul remains locked in the prison he created. I now merely drag out an existence like a ghost, rather than living.
In light of this, I beg you, Mr. Investigator. Give Ethan Fairchild the harshest and most severe punishment the law allows. Make him pay in full—for the depth of the wounds he inflicted on me, for the weight of human dignity he destroyed.
Lady Evelyn Sherwood of the House of Kentrell
Someone else wrote this, pretending to be Eve.
This is a forged, false statement.
The woman who loves me wouldn’t side with the father she hates to try to kill me.
But by the time he reached the last lines, it was meaningless to deny this slander.
It was obvious that Eve had written this letter.
In fact, there had been no doubt from the beginning. Their clumsy but thrilling first date at the pub and the kiss were described as a night when Ethan had forcibly assaulted Eve. Their secret romance and how Ethan had posed as her driver were presented solely as his threats.
All the distortions in the statement skillfully twisted the intimate secrets that no one but the two of them knew. Therefore, this false accusation—so cleverly built on the truth—was a betrayal that only Eve could have committed.
Ethan had grown accustomed to Eve’s handwriting. Reading the book he had lent her, she had answered every note he left in detail, and Ethan had read them until the pages wore thin.
Even the signature next to the name was hers. He had seen it countless times on receipts. Eve had renounced him with the same signature she had used to swear in the marriage registry to be with him forever.
Only for herself.
Yes, you were a Sherwood too.
Tears rolled down Ethan’s cheeks. Only now did he realize that it wasn’t just his sincere feelings that had been trampled—his entire life had been, and it could never be restored.
Evelyn Sherwood, you were the most reckless and desperate gamble of my life, a bet in which I staked my worthless existence. But to you, I was just a cheap chip you placed out of boredom—and as soon as things got dangerous, you threw me away.
Loving someone like a filthy Sherwood was the biggest mistake of my life.
He regretted it.
He shouldn’t have opened that album.
No—at the very least, he shouldn’t have trusted the woman who had played with him on the night his first kiss was stolen.
“Let me warn you too. If you’re a coward who’s afraid of my father and our difference in status, get out right now. And don’t appear before me again.”
If only he could go back to that day, he would have chosen to be a coward rather than a gambler who had lost everything.
Ethan was indicted. Based solely on Eve’s statement.
He was immediately transferred to a detention center. A college student who had dreamed of a brilliant future had become an inmate in prison uniform and shackles, escorted by guards down a corridor.
As he walked down the cold corridor lined with endless rows of steel bars, unpleasant stares bore into him relentlessly.
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