Chapter 6

Father and Grandmother finally realized something was wrong.

Father slammed his hand on the table and shouted, “What is going on?”

I looked at Jiang Shuang at my leisure. “You’ll have to ask Miss Jiang. What exactly happened? Did she secretly claim the credit for selling my jewelry?”

“Liar!” Jiang Shuang could no longer keep up her pretense. Pointing at me, she shouted, “Those are my things! You used some underhanded trick to copy my pawn tickets! To think the daughter of a marquis could be so unscrupulous, bullying an orphan like me!”

I clapped my hands. “Since Miss Jiang Shuang says I stole them, why don’t we take this to the authorities?”

I surveyed her, Father, and Grandmother with an icy gaze. “We can check Mother’s dowry inventory while we’re at it and find out which treacherous thieves have taken so many things over the years!”

Father’s eyes widened. He stared at me, unable to believe how aggressively I was behaving.

Grandmother was even more appalled and shrank back a little.

“Of course, I’m sure Father and Grandmother know nothing about it. After all, how could a marquis’s household covet a daughter-in-law’s dowry?”

I stared at the auspicious hairpin in Grandmother’s hair and laughed coldly. She hastily covered it with her hand, only making her guilt more obvious.

Then I looked at Father, and at all the jewels adorning Jiang Shuang’s hair.

Which pin, which pair of ornaments, hadn’t belonged to Mother or me?

A pack of thieves, accusing someone else of theft!

Suddenly, Father whirled around and slapped Jiang Shuang hard across the face.

Nanny Ruan started and quickly shielded me behind her.

Blood trickled from the corner of Jiang Shuang’s mouth. She stared in disbelief at the father who had always doted on her.

“Fa—”

Before she could finish, his second slap landed.

Both sides of her face promptly swelled to match.

Naturally, she could no longer get the word out.

Father glared viciously at her. “I took you into my household out of kindness. Even if you were to serve as my darling’s stand-in, I gave you good food and a comfortable life. How could you do something so shameless?”

His furious scolding left Jiang Shuang sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t be bothered to listen any longer.

I hadn’t expected him to act so decisively.

Now it would be difficult to insist on going to the authorities.

He had pinned all the blame on Jiang Shuang. Even if I reported it, she would be the only one punished.

And it would create an uproar, making it harder for me to act secretly afterward.

I covered a yawn. “Since the matter is settled, I’ll go and rest. Miss Jiang Shuang doesn’t seem suited to remaining in our household.”

Father soothed me with a smile. “Of course not. I’ll deal with her. Go and rest, darling.”