Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 167: Chapter 167: Cheating father

Chapter 167 – Cheating father

”Because she sleeps with Lord Cole.”

The words hit like thunder.

”What?”

Isolde visibly recoiled, her face falling, eyes wide with utter disbelief.

A tense, coiling silence followed Aissatou’s direct and cold words. And for the first time in a while, Isolde felt a cold dread settle over a world gone quiet.

She drew a sharp, unsteady breath, looking at Aissatou whose face was itself rotten with hatred and something Isolde recognised all too well.

Jealousy.

A jealousy so profound it was unsightly to look at on a face so old and worn by time.

It took Isolde a few more breaths to steady herself enough to speak.

”It cannot be.” She breathed, eyes fixed hard on Aissatou. ”What do you mean my father sleeps with Veronica, his own maid?”

”What surprises you about that, my Lady?” Aissatou asked, stopping herself just short of a shrug. ”Noble men are known to have no restraint in such matters. Why do you think most of them keep maids and not butlers? The first quality a maid must have, as you well know, is beauty. The second is the ability to keep a secret. Anything else is secondary.”

”Do not lecture me, Aissatou.” Isolde growled. ”I know exactly how noble men think. But that only happens because their wives are useless women who cannot do anything for themselves, giving those men the courage to cheat on them.”

She paused, eyes narrowing with a hidden protectiveness she had not known existed inside her. A feeling she hated herself for.

But it was already there. And the words were already coming out, impossible to stop.

”My mother is not like them.” Isolde pressed. ”This cannot happen to her. She would know, and she would deal with it the way she always deals with things.”

”Lady Sophia is indeed a capable woman. You may not like hearing it, but both Miss Anesthesia and you have taken much of her character.” Aissatou nodded, acknowledging the fact. ”However, you must also not forget that Lady Sophia carries the entire house. She is the one working day and night to raise the Amaris higher in rank and standing across the Kingdom. And so, my Lady, you can imagine the weight of the responsibilities she bears at all times. Responsibilities that leave her very little time to...”

Aissatou left the rest unspoken, letting Isolde complete the thought herself.

And she did.

Her face twisted. ”That should not be a reason. If that was the problem, my father should have helped her.”

”I have never seen Lord Cole exert himself for this house in any visible way.” Aissatou said carefully. ”I specify: in any visible way, my Lady. Some things are well concealed, so perhaps...”

”How do you even know any of this?” Isolde asked the most important question. ”How do you know my father is sleeping with Veronica? Did Leo tell you?”

”He did.” Aissatou nodded.

”How did he find out?”

”After your departure to the Capital, my Lady, there was a meeting between Lady Sophia and Lady Sefira. Leo was the one who welcomed Lady Sefira personally and was asked to wait outside the meeting room.” The old maid said, her voice strangely flat. ”Lord Cole was not expected to attend, as you know, he rarely involves himself in these things. However, that meeting unexpectedly required his approval on certain matters. Leo, as butler of the house, was tasked with informing him.”

Aissatou paused, and Isolde could already see where this was going.

”And let me also tell you something, my Lady: Leo, whatever his professionalism, does not particularly like Lord Cole. He never fully understood why. But he once told me that the Lord always asked him questions.”

”What is wrong with that?” Isolde asked, despite herself.

”There is nothing wrong with questions in themselves. But questions become insufferable when they are soaked in condescension.” Aissatou replied. ”That is what Leo always felt. And that day, he finally understood why.”

Isolde said nothing, only listened, her heart beating rapidly.

She could not believe what she was hearing. But Aissatou could not lie to her. Not after the contract she had signed.

All of this was true.

”...Leo found his wife Veronica in their own room, naked, kneeling between the legs of the Lord, who was equally so.”

Aissatou smiled without warmth. Isolde shuddered visibly.

”I need not elaborate on what she was doing, do I, my Lady?”

”In their own room?” Isolde asked, her voice dry. ”Why did Leo go there?”

”To have his wife relay the message to Lord Cole. As I said, Leo did not wish to do it himself. What he found instead was his wife using the time he was on duty to sleep with her master in the very room she shares with her own husband.”

Isolde staggered back a couple of steps and sank weakly into the chair.

Never in her life had she believed her own father would betray her mother.

It was true this was nothing new in the world of nobles, such things happened every day. But people always believed that misfortune was something reserved for others, never for themselves.

Isolde was no different.

She had held onto an unshakeable belief in her family’s sincerity — even while they treated her poorly — and this revelation felt like a blow to the one thing she had quietly been proud of about them.

And now even that was being taken from her.

”...did they know Leo had seen them?”

”No.” Aissatou shook her head. ”Leo’s Aspect shielded him from their awareness, and he did not linger after the initial shock.”

”And now what?” Isolde smiled thinly, her eyes cold. ”I suppose you are pleased, Aissatou. You found out that the wife of the man you have been sleeping with is cheating too. What a magnificent pair. Both husband and wife cheating: the husband with an old woman with one foot in the grave, the wife with her own master.”

Isolde laughed but there was only sadness and anger underneath it.

”Is that why you want me to kill Veronica?” She asked again, unbothered by the hatred flickering across Aissatou’s face.

She knew the hatred was not directed at her.

”Yes, my Lady.”

”And why would you want that? She cheated. Knowing the ego and shamelessness of men, Leo will leave her and act as though he was the sole victim.”

”That is the problem, my Lady.” Aissatou drew a controlled breath. ”Leo is not leaving her. Worse, Leo has cut off all contact with me.”

Isolde arched an eyebrow. ”What?”

”I do not know his reasoning, my Lady. But he feels guilty. He believes it was because he had been neglecting her that Veronica cheated, so he has taken all the blame on himself. He is no longer willing to see me.” Aissatou pressed her lips together tightly. ”He is living with her, knowing she cheated and is still cheating, staying in hope that his love and care will bring her back to him.”

She laughed a low, vicious sound.

”How can I accept that?”

”And you want to use me to kill her?” Isolde said. ”Aissatou, am I your puppet?”

”It is also for your own benefit.” She countered. ”Whether you like it or not, my Lady, having the protection and affection of your mother, if not her respect, is genuinely useful to your plans. You will gain more resources, and you will know what she is doing before she does it. Consider this: if Leo had not known this information because Veronica was drunk and unhappy one night and spoke too freely...”

She paused, cocking her head.

”...you would have had no idea that your husband’s family was being threatened by your own.”

Isolde grasped her meaning immediately, and could not disagree.

Her low standing within the house was becoming a genuine problem. Her mother was greedy and unpredictable: she might move against the Desdemona if the benefits outweighed the risks. And her father, even worse.

It was essential for her to know what was happening, and that was only possible if she had proximity to them.

And between her father and mother, Isolde would choose her mother without hesitation.

Especially now.

She was the lesser evil of the two.

Isolde sighed quietly, running a hand through her smooth black hair.

”So your plan is that I expose my father’s infidelity to earn some favour with my mother, and in doing so, she eliminates Veronica, leaving the space free for you to reclaim Leo?”

Aissatou nodded, a sharp gleam passing through her eyes. ”Yes, my Lady.”

”I suppose sleeping with a man half your age has not dulled your mind.”

”I am sharper because of it, my Lady.”

”But that is not enough.” Isolde said. ”The Kanam family is still a problem. If they were refused today, they will try their luck elsewhere. They need to be destroyed.”

”But the Desde—!”

”I know.” Isolde cut her off. ”I know they cannot. But do you know who can?”

She smiled coldly, not waiting for an answer.

”Me.”

”You?” Aissatou’s voice carried doubt.

”Yes. I failed the mission to kill Hatred inside the Academy. That failure has cost me significantly in my climb. This is the opportunity to correct it.”

”My Lady, the Kanam Matriarch is at the Fourth rank. You are at the Second.”

”Assassination is not always a direct confrontation. It is an art of subtlety, planning and ruthless efficiency that leaves no possibility of failure unaddressed.” Isolde said with quiet conviction. ”So if it is simply a matter of execution, I have all the tools necessary to bury a Tier Three family, especially one this weakened. I have you. I have Maxim and his Shapeshifter Aspect. We simply need a plan.”

Her purple eyes were without mercy.

”My mother likes deals. I will give her one she cannot refuse. And if she does refuse, I will remind her that I am her daughter. But before that...you said Veronica spilled all of this because she was drunk and unhappy one night for some reason?”

”Yes.”

”When was that?”

”When the Kanam Matriarch visited...”

Aissatou paused, her eyes slowly widening.

”...you cannot mean?”

Isolde smiled coldly, her assassin’s mind already working at full speed, finding threads in places others would never think to look.

”Now that we know the nature of the relationship between Veronica and my father, the only thing that could have put her in that state of distress would be something involving him. Knowing that, we can reasonably assume something happened between my father and the Kanam Matriarch.”

”That is very plausible.” Aissatou admitted. ”What do you intend to do with that?”

”The best assassins know how to kill by borrowing the hands of others.” Isolde smiled. ”That is a Fangs saying. Do I need to say more?”

The old maid smiled with killing intent unmistakeable in her expression. ”As long as Veronica is dead at the end of it, nothing else matters, my Lady. Leo is mine. I will take him back.”

”I have no interest in your love life. I told you from the beginning to end things with Leo, now look at where that has led. I do not want to be involved in your personal affairs. What I do want is for none of it to touch me in any way. Are we clear?”

”As clear as the ding of a bell, my Lady.”

Isolde’s eyes flashed.

”Good. Now let us think our way out of this mess.”

—End of Chapter 167—