Chapter 45

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“Why do you think I would do such a troublesome thing?”

“Troublesome, you…… !”

“That’s right. The reason Lady Jason was able to attend this tea time in the first place was…”

Ines glanced at Baroness Wickham with a smirk. 

“Because I asked Baron Wickham to bring Lady Jason in.”

“What the hell does this mean?!

Blood drained from Charlotte’s face. She glanced sideways at Baroness Wickham, and saw the Baroness nodding her head as if agreeing with Ines.

It meant that there was no lie in Ines’ words. 

“It’s much easier not to get inside from the beginning than to get in and be ignored.”

“Well, then what the hell is going on?”

“It is not that we ignored the Lady, but rather the Lady wasn’t willing to participate in our conversation, right?“

Ines asked softly.

At the same time, the ladies came out one by one to help Ines.

“You are right, Countess.”

“In the first place, it was Lady Jason who forcefully intervened this tea time.”

“In such a situation, it’s too much to have a conversation with Lady Jason.”

“Why didn’t you try talking to us first?” 

Since it was not their position to welcome Charlotte from the beginning, the backlash of the ladies was quite intense.

Charlotte stiffened her shoulders.

‘How did this happen?’

When she came to her senses, she realized that she was on the defensive.

In that situation, Ines nailed it again. 

“Above all else, you know what Lady Jason said is an insult to the ladies here, right?”

“Hey, what are you talking about!”

“That’s right. There is no hierarchical relationship between me and the ladies…”

Ines sighed.

“The ladies in this room can’t be swayed by my words, right?” 

Oops. Charlotte felt cold, as if she had swallowed a large piece of ice.

‘I made a mistake.’

As proof of that, the ladies were staring at Charlotte with bloody eyes.

To be honest, it was true that the ladies were wary of Ines. But speaking out about it was another matter.

It was the same as saying, ‘You are lower than Ines’. The ladies who were gathered here were not people who were nobody , and of course they had a high nose. In the current situation that was unfavorable to Charlotte, it has even touched the pride of the ladies… 

‘It’s over.’

Ines made a satisfied face.

“Ah, that, that… …… .”

Charlotte was not sure what to do, and she looked around.

But she had no way out.

So Charlotte, who was in her predicament, came up with a solution.

“Ines!”

In the end, all she could do was cling to Ines.

“Why the hell are you doing this to me?”

Charlotte pleaded with Ines with her wide-eyed eyes.

“We are friends, aren’t we?”

“Oh my God, friend?”

Ines opened her eyes wide for a moment, then burst out laughing as if she had heard a really funny joke.

“How can a woman who is having an inappropriate relationship with her friend’s husband be considered her friend?”

“Hey, Ines?!”

“Even the very day after I got divorced, you lay naked in the studio I got for my ex.”

Ines continued making explosive remarks without raising an eyebrow.

The ladies were astonished.

“My, is that true?”

“Oh my God, how did that happen!”

The murmuring of the ladies did not subside easily.

“Honestly, how much has the Countess of Brierton ever cared for Lady Jason?” 

“Right. Whenever she attended a party or tea time, you were always with the Countess.”

“Actually, if it wasn’t for the Countess, she wouldn’t have even been invited.”

“How shameless.”

Disgust lingered in the eyes of the ladies.

Charlotte, meanwhile, looked like she was about to faint at any moment.

The blood drained from her face, and she turned white, then she turned blue, and her red eyes looked like she would burst into tears.

But Ines had no sympathy at all.

Rather, the emotion Ines was feeling right now.

‘I feel cool.’

It felt refreshed as if her chest had opened up.

The public opinion that her revenge was futile, at least did not fit Ines at all.

It didn’t matter if other people pointed fingers at her saying she was mean. 

She wanted Ryan and Charlotte to feel as much pain as she felt. 

“… To be honest, I was really surprised.”

Therefore, Ines lowered her eyes and spoke in a subdued voice.

“After the divorce, I went to clean up the studio, and saw the two of them were sleeping together.”

“Ines, what nonsense are you talking about now!”

Charlotte raised her voice like a scream.

On the other hand, the ladies each let out a sigh with a sad expression on their faces.

“Oh my god.”

“No way… ”

It may be a somewhat cheap metaphor, but at first glance it seemed to be a composition of an adulterous woman and the good wife who lost her husband. 

And the adulteress was a close friend of the good wife. Significantly, all of the people who attended this tea time were married women, women who had at one time or another been troubled by their husbands’ female histories, whether light or deep. It meant that the situation was filled to the brim with emotional sympathy for Ines. 

Charlotte, on the other hand, felt a choking sense of crisis.

‘No, I can’t go on like this, it’s not right!’

The situation was against her.

Charlotte desperately worked her brain.

‘I have to convince Ines somehow. To do that…Oh yes!’

For a moment, Charlotte’s eyes lit up.

Come to think of it, there was one reason to persuade Ines.

That’s right.

“But Ines, listen to me. I am a victim too!”

Charlotte promptly raised her voice.

Ines asked Charlotte with a puzzled look on her face.

“Victim?”

“Yes, Ry…. No, Young Master Gott!”

She almost always called Ryan.

Charlotte quickly changed the name and nodded her head violently.

“The Young Master seduced me. I just fell for him!” 

Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes.

“I was so young and naive back then…… I just couldn’t resist him.”

In pleading so, Charlotte sang a delightful song in her heart. 

‘Okay, that’s a perfect explanation!’

In the meantime, Charlotte buried her face in her hands and cried out loud. The sight of tears streaming down her reddened cheeks was so pitiful that it made people want to hug her and comfort her.

It had always been like that with men. Whenever she shed tears, they would try to comfort her, not knowing what to do.

‘If I do this, Ines will also soften a little, right?’

Charlotte was so absorbed in the ‘victim role’ that she did not notice 

the fact that Ines and other ladies were all looking at her with tired faces.

After a while.

“Why do I need to know about that?”

A pitiful voice returned to Charlotte.

Surprised, Charlotte lifted her head up with a flash.

“Ha, Ines?”

With her tears welling up, Ines’s face appeared beyond her blurred vision.

Ines’s face was so cold that seemed to have no blood.

“That’s Lady Jason’s love affairs.”

“What?”

For a moment, Charlotte doubted her ears.

‘I even bow down like this and complain about injustice, but you’re like that?’

That gentle Ines?

Charlotte felt numb as if she had just been slapped in the back of her head.

Ines fired again.

“In the inappropriate relationship between Master Gott and Lady Jason, even if the Lady is a victim….”

“No, wait… .”

“To me, you’re the perpetrator.”

At those blatant words, Charlotte’s face hardened.

Ines spoke with a grim face.

“So, don’t you dare pretend to be pitiful in front of me.”

“Pretending to be pitiful, I…!”

“I don’t want to be as low as Lady Jason, so I’m being very patient.”

‘This isn’t it?’  Charlotte, who looked around at a loss, stiffened her shoulders.

Sure enough, the ladies also had the same expression on their faces as Ines.

There was no pity, not even a sign of feeling sorry. The only thing that could be seen on the faces of the ladies was pathetic, disgust, and disgust.

“Lady Jason.”

At the same time, Baroness Wickham called Charlotte in a solemn voice. 

“I am very disappointed with the behavior of the Lady today.”

“Yes? But!”

“Obviously, you received the cancellation letter, but you were very rude to come so arbitrarily.” 

The Baroness who drew a sharp line, glanced sideways at Ines.