Todos os capítulos de After My Sister Stole My Wedding, I Died Before the Next One: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

In Northsea, I did not move into the ducal residence. I settled into a small apartment near the sanatorium. Leon gave me three housing options, each with the rent, term, and exit conditions clearly stated. I chose to work as a bookkeeping assistant at the sanatorium and pay rent from my wages.Martha had been found by the military at a hospital in the South, still unconscious. Leon had her transferred to Northsea because she was the only eyewitness to the arson and could be silenced at any time.He did not tell me right away. I did not learn Martha was already there until three people showed up at the sanatorium with transfer documents. They claimed to be Martha's uncle, aunt, and coachman.The documents they carried were forged Northsea military hospital papers. The constable later confirmed that Lydia had bribed a clerk at the southern hospital to obtain the location of Martha's transfer. The guards Leon had posted were stationed outside, watching from a distance. They had not checke

The Northsea constable's office decided to present a public update on the case before the charity ball. Edmund, Helena, Adrian, and Lydia all received summonses. The southern constable arrived in Northsea with the full case file as well.The night of the ball, I wore a silver-gray veil. Not to keep hiding, but because Martha still had not fully recovered, and I did not want Lydia to know the witness would be there.Lydia spotted me the moment she entered the hall. She cut through the crowd and tore off my veil. "Evelyn!"Reporters and guests all turned at once. Edmund, Helena, and Adrian stood across the ballroom. When Helena saw my face, her knees buckled and she nearly collapsed.Lydia pointed at me and shouted, "She's not dead! She forged her death to escape the arson trial, and she's conspiring with the Duke of Northsea to buy off witnesses!"She repeated the same lies about the records room, clutching her belly and crying that I hated her for taking Adrian from me and would not ev

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 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

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