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Chapter 8
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After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 20
The public hearing lasted seven days.Faking a pregnancy to steal a wedding, deliberate arson, framing, bribing a prison guard, abuse, poisoning, embezzlement, ordering Carlton to silence Martha, drugging Helena, hostage-taking, a second arson. Every charge was nailed down by witness testimony and sworn statements.On the hearing stand, Lydia was still crying. "They believed it was Evelyn who set the fire! They're the ones who made her sign the confession!"I did not deny it on my parents' or Adrian's behalf. "Yes, they hurt me, and they will each answer for what they did. But their wrongdoing does not absolve you of trying to kill me."When Lydia was led away, Edmund did not plead on her behalf. He lost his authority over the earldom for abandoning his own daughter, coercing a false confession, and years of harboring a criminal, and faced his own hearing.Carlton was convicted as an accomplice. Adrian did not escape with a claim of "poor judgment," either. Concealing the kerosene, pro
After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 19
Lydia piled the copies of the confession, the doctor's testimony, and the prison depositions on the floor, then splashed kerosene onto the curtains.She slipped out through the side door of the records room and locked it shut from outside. The maid trapped in the storage closet did not even have a chance to run toward the window."Burn all of this, and no one can convict me." She struck a match. "As for the maid inside, she'll figure something out."By the time Leon and I reached the records room, the flames had already flared up. The maid was pounding on the door, screaming for help.The same door, the same kerosene smell. I was thrown straight back to the first fire. Lydia stood in the courtyard shouting that the maid inside was beyond saving and that everyone should save the documents she had carried out first.This time, no one listened to her. The guards went around her. The maids and servants followed my directions, hauling water and tearing down walls. For the first time, the po
After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 18
After Helena woke, she read the midwife's letter herself. The box also held records of the allowances Edmund had paid the governess, hush money paid to the coachman and the midwife, and the paperwork used to bring Lydia into the estate under the guise of an orphan.By the time Edmund arrived, there was nothing left to hide."Lydia is my daughter," he admitted, his voice low. "After her mother left, I couldn't let her grow up on the streets.""But you could let our daughter grow up on the streets?" Helena threw the workhouse intake form in his face. "Evelyn was six when you threw her away. Lydia was six when you brought her in. You weren't too poor to raise a child. You were choosing which child deserved to live."Helena stared hard at him. "You brought her into our marriage and had me raise her as an orphan. And then you forced Evelyn to give way to her, over and over, to take the blame for her?"Edmund had no answer.The records room was at the end of the corridor. Lydia had locked he
After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 17
Harris told the whole story in front of everyone.When I was six, a high fever damaged my voice and left me withdrawn. Edmund decided that an eldest daughter who could barely speak and was slow to respond embarrassed the family. He had Harris take me to a workhouse in an outer county and told everyone the child had wandered off.Helena knew nothing at the time and searched for me for ten years. After I was found and brought back, the daughter she preferred was Lydia, who cried freely, threw tantrums, and said sweet things. I kept my head down and did what was expected, so Helena simply got used to expecting me to keep giving way.Harris produced a faded intake form from the workhouse. In the column marked "Reason for abandonment," Edmund had written, "Physical defect. Family unable to provide care." That same year, the Hastings family had hosted the most lavish winter ball in the county. "Unable to provide care" meant nothing more than that he no longer wanted me as his eldest daughter
After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 16
Mr. Pemberton spent two weeks reinvestigating both incidents. He tracked down the old boiler worker and contacted the convent, then brought every witness and record to the Northsea constable's office. The boiler worker, well over seventy, recognized the old scar between my right thumb and forefinger at once."When the Earl was trapped by the steam valve, it was Miss Evelyn who crawled into the boiler room, cut the belt with a knife, and dragged him out," the old man said. "Miss Lydia stood by the door the whole time, crying. She didn't claim she'd done it until the rescuers arrived."The boiler worker also remembered that when Edmund woke up, the first person he saw was Lydia. He gave her the gold badge of honor meant for the one who saved him. I was lying in the bed next door, my throat so damaged by the smoke that I could not get a full sentence out.The old nun from the convent came as well. She brought the rescue log from that year, which stated in black and white that after Helena
After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One Chapter 15
Three days after the ball, my parents arrived in Northsea with six carriages.The first carriage was loaded with Helena's jewelry. The second carried my dowry. The rest held land deeds, trust-restoration papers, the eldest daughter's seal, and the resewn wedding gown.Helena also brought my childhood toys, the gown I never got to wear on my sixteenth birthday, and every last thing Lydia had taken from me over the years. She thought that if she filled in the past, we could go back to the way things were.But those things had only mattered because I had once been waiting for them. Now that I had stopped waiting, they were nothing but price tags.When they sent me to prison, there had been a single prison cart. Now, to bring me back, they had hauled everything they called their best.Edmund spread the documents across the table in the Northsea constable's meeting room. "Come home with us, and everything the Hastings family owns is yours."When Helena saw the scars exposed during a bandage
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