When You Turned Your Back On Me, We Became Strangers [EN]: Chapter 44

Turning Away, You’re Just Another Person (43)

As Reilly entered, Anna and Theo’s faces, who were on the opposite side, contorted. When they went to her room in the morning, not a trace remained.

‘She went to the Imperial Palace.’

Theo frowned, his temples throbbing. He should have locked her up that day. If he had, this trial wouldn’t be happening.

“Didn’t you say she seemed to have run away?”

Anna bit her lip and said to Theo. She felt uneasy about her disappearing without a trace, but she thought she had given up since she was on Theo’s side.

“Don’t worry. We won’t lose this trial.”

Theo clicked his tongue at Anna’s words and turned his gaze away from Reilly. Having a mistress alone wasn’t enough to be disadvantageous in the trial. Theo’s reputation was already tarnished, and Anna was now his legal wife.

‘What can you do?’

She was someone who couldn’t do anything even after coming to the Prinz estate and didn’t know anything. Theo sat down and smiled crookedly, as if there was nothing to worry about.

The judge read through the submitted documents and looked at Reilly.

“Why didn’t the defendant attend at that time?”

“Your Honor, there was a reason why I couldn’t attend. I would like to submit evidence accordingly.”

Reilly handed over the bundle of documents in her hand. The judge accepted the papers without much thought.

The judge’s face began to crack little by little as he slowly examined the documents.

Theo, who had been watching this quietly, shouted at the judge.

“Your Honor, Reilly Schertel did not fulfill any duties as the Duchess while she was in the Prinz family!”

Reilly smiled softly at Theo’s words. She wanted him to shout that out. That way, he would take all the blame.

The judge adjusted his glasses and asked Theo.

“Are you saying that she didn’t contribute to any of the Duke’s affairs?”

“Yes, that’s right! Even though she was pregnant, she didn’t take care of herself and even miscarried, and she was so distraught that she didn’t take care of the Duke’s affairs.”

Theo shamelessly told lies.

“You requested a witness to be present today, didn’t you?”

When the judge asked Reilly, she nodded.

“Your Honor, we were not notified! This is not legal!”

Theo’s eyes shook with anxiety. A witness? He shouted urgently, protesting, wondering what she might have prepared.

However, the judge allowed the witness. This was because Reilly said that she couldn’t say it in advance because there was a risk of destroying the evidence.

And the other basis for this was Tom’s severed tongue and his statement.

“Bring in the witness.”

Tom and Caban appeared with the judge’s words.

Anna jumped up from her seat, startled by Caban’s appearance. Her bloodshot eyes turned to Caban.

‘Why is that guy here?’

Didn’t she just tell him to have a good day this morning?

Anna instinctively brought her hand to her stomach. Caban, who met Anna’s eyes, turned away with reddened eyes.

“Caban? Why is the head butler a witness?”

Theo, who didn’t know this fact, muttered while looking at Caban. Anna sat down inconspicuously and tried to calm her emotions.

‘Please, please! Please don’t let that stupid guy ruin everything.’

She prayed and prayed. If everything was over, she might do something irreversible.

Tom and Caban took the oath and took their seats in the witness stand.

Reilly exchanged glances with them briefly, then stood up and continued her defense.

“Your Honor, I am not here for property division. I am here to report something more important than property.”

The judge turned over the documents and listened to Reilly’s words.

“Theo Albert, the Duke and my ex-husband, brought in a mistress named Anna as soon as I became pregnant. And she killed the child in my womb.”

“Your Honor! That woman is now blurring the essence [obfuscating the main issue]!”

Theo shouted and protested. Reilly shook her head at Theo’s voice and looked at them both.

“All of this is not a separate issue. The reason I got divorced was because I couldn’t live with him as a mother who lost her child.”

Reilly said the words Theo had said to her verbatim, making eye contact with each of the jurors.

“He said this to me, who was grieving over the loss of the child. You can have another child. It was as if I existed to have children.”

Everyone gasped and sighed at her words. It was an unbelievably cruel thing to say. Reilly pointed to Anna without stopping.

“Furthermore, Anna, she pushed me down the stairs to kill my child in order to become the Duchess, and before that, she threatened me with poison.”

“Your Honor! There is no evidence for this!”

Theo frowned and raged at Reilly’s words. However, in contrast to him, Anna’s face was pale.

Unable to control her trembling hands, she grabbed Theo’s sleeve.

‘That woman is going to reveal everything here.’

From the beginning, property division was not important to Reilly. She just needed a place to expose them. Moreover, if it was revealed that Anna had tried to kill Reilly, she could not be safe.

At that time, she was from a humble family without a proper title, and she would be charged with the murder of a Duchess of the Prinz family.

Tom wrote on the paper somewhat calmly. Since he couldn’t speak, he had no choice but to convey his words in this way.

He shuddered as he glanced at Reilly.

“Hey, you have to think carefully before you write.”

It was Ren’s voice that he heard in his ear. At the same time as his whole body trembled with fear, he struggled to regain his mind and wrote down the deal he had made with Anna.

Despite the uneven handwriting, the judge was able to understand what Anna had done. Tom submitted a picture of the medicine along with the ledger.

Only then did Ren pat Tom on the shoulder a couple of times and smile.

Although it was not visible to others, Tom peed in his pants again because of the voice he heard in his ear, just like that day.

“Your Honor, the witness does not seem to be in good condition, so I request his dismissal.”

“Granted.”

Tom quickly left the courtroom, supported by people.

“I will ask Mrs. Anna Albert.”

The judge began to question her, looking at the evidence. The ledger showed traces of continuous purchases of various poisons and colorless, odorless poisons. In addition, she showed a list of drugs that could be used to threaten her, along with infertility drugs.

“I, I… Your Honor, this is…”

She couldn’t refute it at all. Everything was written down, from the date to the amount. If she denied it here, she didn’t know how much bigger the punishment she would receive later would be.

“Why don’t you say it’s not? Refute it quickly! Anna, you wouldn’t really do that, would you?”

Theo urged, looking at the frozen Anna. He couldn’t believe that Anna had killed his child. Above all, what was the infertility drug, and poison?

Moreover, Theo’s eyes narrowed at the drugs and items that looked like pregnancy.

‘Could it be that the miscarriage she had at that time, just like Reilly, was a lie?’

At the same time as he thought he had been deceived, anger surged.

It meant that nothing would have gone wrong if it hadn’t been for Anna in the first place. Theo couldn’t contain his anger, grabbed Anna’s shoulders, and fiercely drove her away.

“Tell me! Did you really do that? It’s all because of you!”

Anna was helplessly shaken by Theo’s hand and shed tears. The pain in her stomach was felt for a moment due to Theo’s touch, who was holding her shoulders tightly, and she hurriedly shook off his hand.

Anna gasped for breath as she collapsed to the floor.

“Anna!”

Caban, who was in the witness stand, ran to her and checked her body. Reilly looked at Theo without hiding the smile spreading across her lips.

“Anna fraudulently occupied the position by deceiving that the child in her womb was the Duke Albert’s child. And she has been embezzling the Duke’s family’s property with Head Butler Caban. This is a clear embezzlement.”

At Reilly’s words, the judge turned over the next document and scanned it. As she said, there were parts where the manipulated ledger and the figures did not match.

“W-What is that?”

Theo’s face, who didn’t know anything, crumpled. Seeing Caban hugging and sobbing with Anna, everything finally fell into place.

Caban hurriedly asked the judge for permission to go to the hospital.

“I’ll tell you everything! Please send me!”

If this continued, the baby in Anna’s belly might be in danger. Caban begged the judge to admit everything he had done with her.

“Let go of me! What do you have to do with me! I am the Duchess of the Prinz family! Let go!”

Anna shook her head and denied it, as if she had come to her senses at Caban’s words. However, she lost consciousness due to the heavy pain felt in her stomach.

With the judge’s permission, Anna was rushed out. Everyone whispered at the sight of Caban running after her in a hurry.

“This is really a mess.”

“Anyway, Duke Theo and that woman named Anna are the same, right?”

The jurors’ expressions were colder than before. There was no need to hear more, and the victory had already tilted.

Reilly didn’t stop.

“Above all, if we consider what he has been doing, I think we should strip him of his Duke title.”

She drove a wedge with the intention of driving him to the edge of the cliff.

“If you look at the last document, it states the illegal activities that the Prinz family has been doing secretly from the Empire. What made it possible to run the family was the monetary profits from various gambling and illegal distribution. Therefore, I request that I give up the division of property and return it to society.”

“Who decides! This is my family! It’s my property! You were just a discarded princess!”

Theo started shouting like a madman. He struggled, saying that he couldn’t give anything out, but he slumped down in his seat due to the Imperial Guards stationed in the back.

It was the perfect downfall of Theo and his mistress.