Chapter 142
The hand rummaging through the bag stopped. Sasha kept her head lowered, looking toward the bag, then wordlessly stared at the man sitting across from her. She looked coldly at the man who, if anything, was gazing at her as though she were being strange and frustrating.
“What am I supposed to ask you?”
“The situation is what it is, but there’s no need for you to act as though your emotions have been stripped away.”
Emotions? Sasha let out a hollow laugh at hearing such a word come from his mouth.
“Good heavens. Mr. Turner. Did that really come out of your mouth? You were the one who spent the entire time going on about being a proxy and acting like less than a stranger.”
Mr. Turner did not answer Sasha’s sarcasm. As if to say, Fine. Do this, if you must.
……What on earth is that attitude?
Why is he acting like this now?
The tips of her fingers twitched, then began to tremble faintly. Afraid that Mr. Turner might see even that small, shaken movement of hers, afraid he might look at it and put on that absurdly pitying expression again, Sasha clenched her hand tightly into a fist.
Once again, rage rose in her along with an impulse. She wanted to reach out right now, grab that man—already battered and pitiful-looking, covered in bruises—by the collar and shake him. Was that not what he wanted? He must surely want Sasha to vent her anger on him, instead of closing her mouth and swallowing down her emotions.
“……Is your conscience pricking you now? Even if you were only a proxy, you deceived me in accordance with his will.”
“No. It isn’t that. Of course there’s that as well, but it isn’t only that.”
“Really? Then you pity me. Have you grown attached to me, perhaps? Fine. It isn’t strange. We’ve known each other for quite a long time. And after that person could no longer even move around, we saw each other even more often…….”
Her tone remained perfectly calm, but increasingly barbed words began to slip out.
Sasha stopped in the middle of speaking.
“……What is this, really? What do you think you’ll accomplish by letting me take my anger out on you now?”
“Sa…….”
“Does that serve as absolution for you? Is that why you’re doing this to me…….”
Despite having taken a breath in the middle, before she could even finish speaking, the words caught again and stopped short with a hard thud.
Sasha realized that at some point, without noticing it herself, she had half risen from her seat. She pressed her hand, still clenched so tightly in her wrinkled glove, to her chest and sat back down.
Hah, hah. As Sasha curled in on herself, breathing hard, she could feel the man sitting across from her growing restless. But perhaps because she had warned him so firmly, he did not dare rise presumptuously and peer at her.
The carriage was still crossing the road at a moderate speed, rattling now and then. The occasional snort of the horse, the faint hum of people’s voices drifting past the scenery outside, the sound of footsteps. Sasha stayed curled up, holding her breath, letting those things fill her mind entirely.
A few seconds passed like minutes. The heartbeat that had been pounding so rapidly it felt as though it might burst right there slowly subsided, and her ragged breathing began to calm.
“What use would it be for me to take my anger out on you, Mr. Turner?”
“…….”
“The person I truly want to blame and question is already dead and gone.”
Sasha took a spare handkerchief from her breast and wiped away the tears that had, for purely physical reasons, already run down to the bridge of her nose.
“……The person I want to scream at is already buried with his coffin, rotting away. What use is any of it?”
Sasha quietly looked at the lawyer, who still could do nothing and say nothing, and asked.
“Is there still anything left that you’re not allowed to tell me?”
“No.”
Only then, as if granted permission, did Mr. Turner open his mouth and answer.
“Good. Then answer what I ask honestly from now on.”
Whether there was still anything he was hiding, even now.
She had not thought she would end up saying to that man, in this way, the words she had heard from Isaac not long ago. Mr. Turner replied, “Ask me anything.”
The carriage rattled again. Mr. Turner tried to straighten his posture as usual, but frowned at the sharp pain that shot up from one shin.
“Judging from what I heard earlier, the final testament was meant to be delivered only after I completed all the tasks.”
“……In principle, yes, but you changed the plan midway. I intended to deliver it just before you left after receiving the twelve thousand ond.”
As promised, Mr. Turner began to answer honestly, without concealment and without any embellishment.
“What if I had given up that conditional inheritance and left the mansion from the start?”
“Even then, it would have been delivered to you without exception. The moment my term as proxy ended, it would have been sent to you by post if necessary.”
Sasha stared fixedly at Mr. Turner with an expressionless face.
“Even if I had ruined every one of those trivial tasks and the entire sum had been deducted, in the end I would still have been able to receive all that money.”
“That is correct. The deducted amount would revert to the foundation, but if you signed those documents, you would inherit not only the mansion but also the foundation anyway.”
As soon as Mr. Turner finished answering, he groaned and shifted in his seat.
“……I see. So that was why you were so relaxed every time I grew anxious.”
“Miss Sasha. I merely kept my mouth shut because of confidentiality. I did not deceive you and enjoy it. Never.”
Even though Mr. Turner’s face was twisted with pain, he forced the words out as if this much had to be corrected.
“But you knew everything. I understand it a little now. Why even the servants were mentioned and there was content that sounded like I should get along with them, why it said I had to at least make a friend of plausible status, and even meet a decent man and marry him…….”
“…….”
“You said that, originally, you meant to reveal it only right before I left. When I heard this after everything was over, did you expect me to be moved? Ah, so all that hardship had meaning. He was looking out for me while pretending not to. Did you think I would be touched?”
Mr. Turner was just carefully beginning, “That is……” when it happened.
Sasha shook her head.
“Don’t answer. This really is me taking it out on you. Don’t answer anything. Just.”
Thud. Something struck the roof of the carriage.
Sasha slowly lifted the face she had buried in both palms and looked toward the window.
It had begun to rain.
……I’m truly sick of this.
“Do you remember the conversation we had before? When I said that once everything was over, we should go back to being strangers to each other. Don’t tell me you said that with this in mind too.”
“……That was just a joke. But…… in any case, I did expect that you would resent me because of this confidentiality.”
After that, neither of them said anything.
After running without stopping for another thirty minutes or so, the scenery beyond the window had changed again before they knew it. A quiet neighborhood where old houses gathered together.
Sasha looked without expression at the slope above the clustered roofs, and at Dilton Manor standing atop that hill.
“If that person’s lie had not been exposed and I had signed the adoption papers as it was, then in any case I could have continued living as ‘Sasha Grayson.’”
“You could have.”
“People would still think I was his granddaughter, when in truth I would be his adopted daughter.”
She would have lived her whole life in overflowing wealth, telling lies. Of course she would have felt the same anger she felt now, but she would soon have had no choice but to compromise, rationalize it to herself, and go on living as Sasha Grayson.
Had even that been part of that person’s calculations?
The carriage was now climbing the hill.
“……What was it that he truly wanted from me?”
Sasha murmured.
It was impossible to tell whether it was a question or a soliloquy.
And so Mr. Turner, who did not know the answer himself, did not answer that question and remained silent.
＊＊＊
“He injured his leg and can hardly walk, so please bring a stretcher.”
As soon as she got out of the carriage, Sasha jerked her chin toward Mr. Turner and spoke. The moment the butler, Jason, nodded, Mr. Turner’s reply came from inside the carriage. “It is not that serious.”
Without even looking back that way, Sasha said,
“Then bring two men who can support him and take him to the medical wing. Immediately call Dr. Henson……”
Sasha stopped mid-sentence and corrected herself with a belated look of realization.
“He left this place, didn’t he? Then……”
“I will quickly bring another doctor.”
“……Thank you.”
Two sturdy servants approached and supported Mr. Turner from either side. Sasha ignored Mr. Turner’s pained groan and entered the main building.
The first thing she did was, as expected, to check whether anyone had come to the mansion while she was away. But before checking the guest list, Sasha went to the bedroom first, and though she had wondered, as expected, her husband had still not returned home.
The trial had ended quickly, a little past three in the afternoon, and the sun was already setting. As if only belatedly coming to her senses, Sasha received the guest list from the butler, confirmed that only the names of a few reporters were written there, changed her clothes, and headed back to the medical wing.
Mr. Turner was being treated by another doctor whom Mr. Jason had hurriedly summoned. While a splint was placed against his shin and bandages wrapped around it, Mr. Turner once again could not help groaning. Whether he did or not, Sasha sat some distance away and waited for his treatment to end.
At last, when the servants, including the doctor who had finished the treatment, seemed to read the room and left the sickroom, Sasha opened her mouth.
“……The person who kidnapped you was probably someone named Robert Bloom.”
“……Oh. I see.”
Mr. Turner replied as though it were rather unexpectedly helpful information.
Whether he did or not, Sasha was calmly turning the information over in her head and fitting it together. Robert Bloom. He was certainly someone who might personally bear a grudge against Isaac. Moreover, had he not been a man who had originally plotted to kill her?
“In any case, I don’t know whether you already know this, Miss Sasha……”
“Call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Just.”
“The one who sold your secret to the reporters was the young duke. Jeffrey Grayson.”
Ah. When the name she had somewhat expected, yet had still doubted, came out, Sasha frowned.
Mr. Turner groaned and sat up on the bed as he said,
“I happened to hear it on the way. Your…… husband personally tortured that man named Robert…… and found out.”
“……Really? Did he, by any chance, tell you to convey anything to me separately?”
Her steps, which had been about to rise from the chair and head toward the door, stopped.
Mr. Turner frowned as though trying to recall a hazy memory.
“……He told me to take good care of you.”
“Not that. Did he ask you to convey any words directly to me?”
“There was nothing like that. He simply told me to go quickly.”
At the same time as he answered, Mr. Turner lay back down. His face was redder than before, and sweat was breaking out on him. Belatedly, the wound in the affected area was causing a fever to rise through his entire body.
“I’ll call the doctor again. Rest comfortably for now. And…… in any case, thank you for trying desperately to help me.”
Whether or not Mr. Turner answered, Sasha had not particularly said it expecting an answer, so she simply closed the door and left.
Before she knew it, evening had passed and it was night. It was a long night.
On the off chance, even after Sasha entered the bedroom, she could not fall asleep for a long while and waited for Isaac to return.
But Isaac did not return that night.
And even the next day, he did not return.