Edmund's face twisted, and he raised his hands defensively.
"It wasn't just for me!" He exclaimed, his voice tinged with desperation. "It was for us—for our future!"
"For us? Do you even believe your own words?" The maid's lips curled into a bitter smile.
Edmund stepped closer, his gentlemanly features now shadowed with intensity.
"Listen to me, Isabelle. If the third young master dies, I can take his place. Don't you see? The patriarch has always favoured me. He trusts me—respects me. He's even said that he'd much rather have someone like me as his son than that spawn of a devil."
Isabelle's eyes narrowed, her disgust evident, but Edmund pressed on, his voice gaining momentum.
"With the young master gone, the patriarch would have no choice but to elevate me. I'd become indispensable to him, and we'd be set for life. Wealth, power, influence—it would all be ours. For us, Isabelle. For us!"
Isabelle shook her head slowly, her expression unreadable.
"No.'' She said, her voice steady but heavy with disappointment. "This was never about us...It was always about you—your ambitions, your greed. You wanted to climb the ladder, and you used me as your pawn to do it!"
"I did no such thing!" Edmund snapped, his scholarly composure slipping into desperation. "Isabelle, how can you even think that? Everything I've done—everything—is for us. I love you!"
Her chest tightened at his words, not with warmth but with growing dismay.
'Had it all been a lie? Was his approach to her family, his supposed love, all part of this twisted scheme?'
She shoved those thoughts aside, unwilling to entertain them further.
"I rejected your favour back then." She continued, her voice steady despite the turmoil inside her. "There was no way I could kill someone, not even for a supposed future together...I could never stoop to that."
Her words seemed to land like a blow, but Edmund quickly recovered, his tone shifting to one of fervent conviction.
"But Isabelle, you don't understand! That man, Cassius, isn't just some wastrel noble. He's a monster...A rapist who's destroyed and killed multiple women and then used his family's power to cover it all up...I didn't want him dead just for us; I wanted him dead to bring justice to those women. To protect others from him!"
Isabelle's resolve wavered at the intensity of his words. She recalled the rumours—the whispers that had floated through the servants quarters and beyond.
They had painted the third young master as a wastrel, a debauched noble who indulged in excess and cruelty. She hadn't known him, nor had she ever seen him for herself. The weight of those rumours, combined with Edmund's fiery determination, had been enough to sway her.
"I believed you at that time." She said, her voice quieter now, tinged with both sorrow and fury. "I believed every word you said...I thought I was saving lives by helping you...I thought I was doing something brave, something that would make the world a little better for those who couldn't fight back...That's why I agreed to poison him."
Edmund's expression flickered, but Isabelle didn't stop. Her eyes locked onto his, burning with righteous anger.
"But something felt wrong." She hissed. "Even as I carried out your request, something didn't sit right with me. So I started investigating. I dug deeper, hoping to find proof of the man you claimed Cassius was...Do you know what I found, Edmund?"
She stepped closer, her voice rising.
"Nothing! Not a single case against him...Not even a whisper of those horrific acts you claimed he committed...The young master is innocent!"
Edmund's face twisted in frustration, but before he could speak, Isabelle pressed on.
"Do you have any idea what it feels like to realise you've been tricked into trying to kill an innocent man?...To live with the knowledge that I may have ended a life based on a lie? Why would you do this to me, Edmund? Why!?"
He waved her off with a dismissive scoff.
"Those crimes were well hidden, Isabelle. You wouldn't find anything because the Holyfield family buried it all. He's guilty, I'm sure of it."
"You're sure of it?" She repeated, her voice shaking with fury. "You have no proof, do you? You made it all up, didn't you?"
Edmund's silence was answer enough, and Isabelle's fists clenched at her sides as the weight of his betrayal settled over her.
Finally, Isabelle sighed deeply, her shoulders dropping as though the weight of the world rested upon them.
"What's done is done." She said quietly. "We can't change the past, no matter how much we wish we could."
Edmund frowned, still reeling from her accusations. Before he could respond, she looked up at him, her eyes filled with a conviction he rarely saw.
"But the future." She said firmly. "That's still in our hands."
"What are you talking about?" His confusion deepened.
Isabelle straightened, her tone unwavering. "We need to turn ourselves in, Edmund...For what we've done."
"What? Have you lost your mind?" Edmund's eyes widened in shock.
"I mean it." She continued, her voice steady but earnest. "I thought about confessing everything when the head butler questioned me, but I didn't want you to become the scapegoat while I simply became the one who confessed...We're both guilty...We both committed this crime, and we should face the consequences together—as an engaged couple. It's the only way to set things right."
Edmund's jaw tightened, disbelief flashing across his face.
"You can't be serious. Do you know what you're suggesting? Imprisonment, disgrace, the end of our lives as we know them!"
"Yes, I know." Isabelle replied, her tone softening but her resolve unshaken. "But if we confess now, we might at least find forgiveness. I don't want to live the rest of my life with this weight on my conscience, Edmund. And besides..." She added, her eyes searching his face. "We're running out of time...They'll find us soon, and it will be much worse if we're caught hiding like cowards."
With her gaze turned wistful, almost hopeful, she continued saying,
"I thought…I thought if we went through this together, we could bond through it...That maybe I could see you in a better light...That even after everything, we could face the consequences as equals and rebuild something honest, even if it's within prison walls."
Edmund's face twisted in disgust. "You're insane!" He spat. "Why would I throw my life away over something so ridiculous? Turn ourselves in? Beg for forgiveness? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!"
Isabelle sighed, the disappointment in her eyes cutting deeper than any words could.
"Of course you'd think that." She murmured, half to herself. "Why did I expect anything else?"
Finally, having nothing left to say to Edmund, who was long gone, Isabelle's heart raced as she turned away from him, her steps resolute yet heavy with the weight of her decision.
The guilt that had been eating at her for so long now seemed like a looming shadow, and she had finally resolved to face it head-on.
She glanced back once, her eyes lingering on the man she had once hoped would stand by her but now saw only a figure clouded in selfishness and betrayal.
"Where do you think you're going?" Edmund's voice cracked with panic, the sharpness in it pulling her back to the moment. "You can't just leave!"
"I'm going to confess." She said quietly, her voice steady despite the turmoil within. "I'll face the consequences alone. I won't mention your name. You don't have to worry." Her words were spoken with the weight of a promise but also of resignation.
Edmund's expression twisted, eyes wide with disbelief and fear. "You're out of your mind!" He snarled. "Do you think you can just walk away from this? You'll drag me down with you!"
Before Isabelle could take another step, Edmund rushed forward, his hands outstretched with a desperation that bordered on rage.
He didn't trust her...He knew, deep down, that if she confessed, he would be implicated as well. In his panic, he tried to grab her, pulling at her arm with an iron grip.
Caught off guard, Isabelle froze, her breath hitching in her throat. The suddenness of his attack left her no time to react. His fingers closed around her wrist, and the pressure sent a shudder through her frail body. Her heart pounded, and a sickening chill spread through her veins.
The force of his grip was too much; she knew she couldn't escape. She wasn't strong enough to fight him off.
As Edmund's hand tightened, she closed her eyes, accepting the helplessness that washed over her.
There was no way out. She had put her trust in the wrong person. She braced herself for what she knew would come next, for the inevitable push that would drag her into deeper darkness.
But just as Edmund pulled her back, something unexpected happened.
A sudden voice broke through the tension, its calm yet commanding tone slicing through the panic.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."