"Let a week pass and then they will get rid of the fool." That was what the duchess had thought but now when she looked at the newspaper in her hands, she was regretting her words.
"The eldest daughter of the duke was treated worse than beggars!"
"The abandoned child was beaten and hidden in the attic."
"The precious daughter of the richest man in the empire had pennies as her allowance."
"The only noble who did not have a carriage or a dress!"
The newspaper was full of headlines with different pictures of Althea.
She was sobbing in many of them while hiding her dress with an embarrassed face in the other pictures.
A highlighted picture of her faded dress and the condition of her room was also highlighted in the pictures.
It was looking more like her personal photo session rather than the newspapers.
From first page to last, from one company to another, everyone had only covered her.
She had risen like a star in the single night that everyone was talking about her in the whole empire.
She could not help but tore this one too. But it did not change the fact that the truth she was hiding for so long in her palace and never thought that it would come out was in the public and the whole empire was talking about it.
She did not dare to go out of the room. Even the maids who already knew about the condition of Althea in the palace were looking at her with strange eyes.
"What are you staring at? Huh?" she asked the maid who was looking at the lump of torn papers that were covering the whole ground.
"I could not believe that you let all these pictures out! How were you guarding her room? All of you, I am going to punish all of you." she shouted while looking at all the maids as if she had gone maniac.
How in the world did this happen? There was an ominous thought in her mind that it was all done by that fool but she discarded it as soon as it was formed.
She was a fool who had been a pawn in her hands from the start. How could she be so cunning enough to plan all this and even execute it!
Not to forget that was kept in the room under surveillance of guards all this time.
She had increased the security around her after the last incident. There was no way she could do it.
She shook her head after that thought and then threw another paper on the ground and trample over it.
"My lady, we have made sure that no one would enter the room of the elder miss. We have even been protecting the door. There is no way that someone had gone in." they assured but their words only increased her anger.
She felt a surge of anger in her chest and threw the vase on the head of the maid.
"Are you lying now? No one went in! Huh! Then how did so many pictures come out and published in the newspaper? Was there a ghost?" she mocked as she looked around to find anything else to throw on them but the maids kneeled in front of her.
"My lady, look at the pictures closely.. I think.. I mean, we all believe that it is from the day when the lady's room was searched." they said, collecting all the courage they had as they picked up one of the newspapers from the ground and showed it to her.
"The color of the dress is the same as the dress the eldest miss was wearing that day." said the maid as she pointed towards the photograph when the duchess frowned.
She looked at the picture but she was not sure what Althea was wearing that day.
"Ha! I am sure all her dresses were the same. How could there be a proof in it? And that day, I am sure no one took the picture in the room since I was present there all the time." she said with a frown when the maids looked at each other and then at her.
Did she not get the hint? They were talking about the glass she had presented to the girl herself!
They all had the same question in their mind but they did not dare to speak about it.
"My.. lady! What about the magical crystal ball you had gifted her. What if the pictures were taken from it?" said the maid with tears in her eyes when the duchess frowned.
This could be the case! But she could not believe that Althea had the guts or chances to do it.
No! It was impossible!
"I mean.. What if someone had stolen it and sold the pictures in the market for money." said the maid when she saw confidence on her face, "but in the end, if the eldest miss had not asked for it in the first place, then it would not have happened, right my lady?"
She paused as she thought about it for a second before nodding her head with a malicious look on her face.
"Yes, it was all her mistake and she needed to be punished."