Chapter 194
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 194
“Tom told me that one day, someone commissioned him to build a boat for a massive sum of money. We were struggling to put food on the table back then, so it was a godsend. But strangely, the client’s expression was dark the entire time.”
“What was the reason?”
“He asked Tom to build ‘a boat that would sink.’ It was unsettling, naturally. I found it strange even then, but we were so desperate for money that we had no choice but to accept the commission.”
Mrs. Carpenter pressed her handkerchief firmly against her eyes. While she swallowed her tears, the courtroom remained deathly silent.
“When the boat was finished, Tom asked me to help him. I thought he wanted me to clear the sawdust from the floor, but when I went to the workshop, he told me to hang a pot and melt glue. Glue dissolves in water; it has no place in shipbuilding. And he had a staggering amount of it.”
Even as she sniffled, her voice remained clear, carrying a resolute will to uncover the truth.
“For several days after that, Tom and I repeatedly applied melted glue over the perforated bottom. We let it harden, then applied it again, over and over. Once it set, it turned a dark brown, not much different from the color of the wood. After the final layer of glue, we even attached thin planks over it. At first glance, it looked just like any ordinary boat.”
“Two weeks after that boat was delivered, your husband passed away, didn't he?”
“Yes. Because of that, our family was shattered. The money I earned alone wasn't enough to survive, so even the children had to work. And our youngest… who was home alone… fell into the well while drawing water and drowned.”
Finally, a sob escaped her. The lawyer handed her a fresh handkerchief, offering a moment of comfort before asking his next question.
“Do you happen to remember the name of the person who commissioned the boat?”
“No. But Tom's work journal remains. I can't read, so I've simply kept it all these years. It was only recently, after Miss Harriet Listerwell's people looked at it, that I learned what was written inside.”
“As today's second piece of evidence, I submit the work journal of Mr. Tom Carpenter—the boat builder who died under suspicious circumstances!”
At the lawyer's dramatic introduction, the Judge opened the weathered notebook.
“...It is written here: ‘The client attempted to remain anonymous, but I overheard his coachman address him as Sir Listerwell. It does not appear to be Viscount Listerwell himself.’”
At those words, the gallery began to murmur. John's claim that he knew nothing about the boat or the glue was revealed to be a complete fabrication. However, it wasn't the Judge's intervention that quelled the commotion.
“I came here today because there's something I must ask you! Did you really kill my husband?!”
May Carpenter’s voice, her eyes bloodshot as she shouted at John, drowned out everyone else.
“Your Honor! Mrs. Carpenter's statement is irrelevant to the current trial...!”
“Tom was horrified when he heard about the Albrecht Park Boating Accident! He said it felt like the boat he made—you wouldn't believe how much he agonized over it!” Mrs. Carpenter screamed, the veins bulging in her neck. “He must have had a premonition of his own death. Otherwise, he wouldn't have urged me to keep his journal safe and tell everyone I knew nothing! Ugh…!”
“Ms. May Carpenter. Please step down from the witness stand.”
“Did you kill my husband?!”
She continued to scream despite the Judge's order, and was eventually dragged out by the guards.
John, Bella, and their lawyer huddled together, whispering frantically. In the midst of the chaos, Harriet's lawyer stepped forward again.
“Viscount John Listerwell claims to be a benevolent man who bestowed great favor upon his niece, Miss Harriet, but we have evidence to refute that as well. Would such a ‘kind’ uncle truly attempt to forge documents to seize land and a mansion under his niece's name?”
He called Lily Adler, a woman from the back alleys, as his next witness. Upon seeing her, John’s brow furrowed for a moment before his eyes widened in shock.
“Miss Lily Adler. Around late February of last year, you visited the Asety Bank in Perilas with Viscount John Listerwell, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you accompany him, Miss Adler?”
“He told me to pretend to be Miss Harriet Listerwell and sign some documents. Before going down there, I practiced Miss Harriet's signature many times.”
The gallery stirred once more.
“Why were you hired, specifically?”
“He said I resembled Miss Harriet in my physical features. After the plan fell through, I received 500 Dirham, and he threatened to kill me if I ever spoke of it.”
With that answer, the lawyer turned toward the jury box.
“The document she attempted to sign while impersonating Miss Harriet concerned the transfer of 165 hectares of land and a mansion in Perilas. Prior to this attempt, Viscount John Listerwell had also tried to claim it himself.”
“Do you have evidence or a witness to support this?” the Judge asked.
“I call Sir Howard Scott, the President of the Asety Bank in Perilas, as a witness.”
This time, Howard, who had traveled all the way to Genoa for the trial, stepped onto the stand. John's face turned deathly pale.
“Is everything the lawyer said true?”
“It is,” Howard replied. “Furthermore, Viscount Listerwell consistently responded to my letters requesting Miss Harriet’s presence with lies and excuses, actively obstructing any meeting between her and myself.”
He meticulously detailed when and what content he had sent in his letters, and how John had replied. Since the letters John had sent were presented as evidence, his testimony was irrefutable.
“That is all, Your Honor. Who, then, was the one who coveted another's property? And who was the one who committed such unfilial acts?”
The tide had completely turned. But John seemed determined to persist to the bitter end.
“If Viscount Listerwell truly oppressed Miss Harriet, why didn't she clarify things until now? Is it a mere coincidence that she only began slandering her uncle's family after becoming the Duke of Kailas's lover?!”
As John's lawyer shouted, Harriet's lawyer raised his hand as if he had been waiting for that exact opening.
“We call Miss Harriet Listerwell herself as our final witness.”
With the Judge’s assent, Harriet slowly ascended the stand. From that vantage point, designed to be slightly higher than the rest of the courtroom, she could clearly see the faces of the plaintiffs, the defendants, the spectators, and the jurors.
Amidst those faces—showing doubt, anticipation, disgust, and occasionally even support—Harriet recalled the day she left the Convent. That naive day when she thought she would become the biggest scandal for her uncle and Bella, wondering just how far she could go.
She took a deep breath and spoke.
“When my parents passed away, I was a twelve-year-old girl—the same age Bella is now. As an orphan, the only person I could trust was my uncle, my sole guardian. At the time, I believed he was looking out for me. After all, before my parents died, my uncle's family had always been kind and affectionate.”
Harriet moistened her dry lips with her tongue, clenching her fists as she recalled the days when her bright, cheerful self had gradually withered away. Just the memory brought a wave of phantom pain.
“It was difficult to realize that my uncle's family was subtly manipulating, oppressing, and destroying me. I never imagined that my closest blood relatives would try to ruin me. But every time Bella caused a scandal, they pinned it on me. With no one to rely on, I couldn't defend myself.”
Rumors about her past scandals were already widespread, so while some might have doubted her words, no one was curious about the details. They already "knew" the stories—they just hadn't known the source.
Bella gnashed her teeth in anger, but she had no choice but to endure. She could only watch as the old truths were dragged into the light.
“Still, I believed. I believed my uncle's family would acknowledge my sacrifice. I believed they would find me a good marriage prospect as promised and provide a generous dowry... But when I was confined to Saint Clarissa Convent and even my guardianship was severed, I realized that my uncle never intended to look out for me at all.”
“Baron Alfonso Billay visited you while you were at the Convent, did he not?”
“Yes. From him, I learned the truth about my parents' accident. I returned to Genoa with the sole determination to uncover it.”
At that, John finally snapped.
“Lies! It's all lies!”
“If you doubt my truthfulness, I will bring the Mother Superior and the nuns of Saint Clarissa Convent as witnesses,” Harriet countered calmly. “They will faithfully testify to everything—including the night my uncle visited to drag me to the Asety Bank.”
“You must have bribed them all! Spreading your legs for the Duke of Kailas and doing such things...!”
Thud! Thud!
The Judge struck the desk twice, issuing a sharp warning.
“Silence! If you insult others without basis, you will be punished separately from this trial. I warn you.”
Only then did John's mouth snap shut. He looked at the jury box with desperate eyes, but their expressions were no different from the Judge's.
Cold, contemptuous gazes.
John felt as though the memory of this morning, when he had been certain of victory, belonged to a distant, unreachable past.