Charlotte initially chalked the stray hair to the aftermath of an eventful day, which likely resulted in the maids only managing to change her bedsheets instead of doing a thorough cleaning of her room.
But if I haven’t dumped anything I wore yesterday into the laundry basket in the wardrobe, how could my hair end up there? Are these even my hair? To whom could they belong to? If this is really my hair, how did it end up in here?
Charlotte had Lupine send the strands for analysis.
The results came back sooner than expected. The hair was indeed Charlotte’s, and the red stain was nail polish.
It was a perplexing finding, given that Charlotte, Lupine, and Morgan did not use nail polish.
They concluded that someone sporting red nail polish had come into Charlotte’s room.
Lupine covertly investigated the members of the household for potential suspects.
She noticed that a few of Sherlyn’s personal maids wore nail polish, and three of them painted their nails red.
Unfortunately, their nails seemed impeccably neat and showed no prior signs of chipping.
Nonetheless, Lupine had the three maids put under surveillance in the hopes of uncovering new evidence.
Charlotte was disappointed that they could not make further progress in their investigation with the clue.
She had been calling Zachary and her children every day to no avail, which added to her frustration.
Robert had been contacting Zachary frequently as well as he expressed his wish of delivering an apology in person with Sherlyn and Louis in tow. Zachary ignored his pleas.
Charlotte suffered a poor appetite over three days of radio silence from Zachary, while Robert and Sherlyn worried incessantly about potential paybacks from Zachary.
Louis’ efforts to track him down remained fruitless.
One night, Louis received a promising phone call during dinner. He turned to Charlotte, agitated as he said, “Charlotte, Mr. Murphy told me that he’s meeting Zachary at the Regium Hotel in Pillere tomorrow night.”
“Really?” Charlotte was elated as she summoned Lupine. “Get the car ready; we’re going to Pillere.”
“On it.” Lupine left to carry out her orders.
Louis suggested, “Let me handle the arrangements. I’ll come with you. I’d like to talk to Zachary as well.”
“You shouldn’t go; if he becomes angrier after seeing you, our discussion won’t go anywhere.” Charlotte was adamant.
“But-”
Sherlyn chimed in with her two cents on the situation. “Charlotte, you’re marrying Louis in four more days. We’ve been planning to head to Pillere tomorrow anyway for your wedding preparations.”
“That’s right.” Robert flashed a smile at Charlotte and continued, “I’ll be busy greeting guests as well. Many of them have flown here from across the globe to attend your wedding despite their busy schedules. We must show them our utmost respect as a sign of our gratitude.”
The couple’s words hit Charlotte like a bucket of cold water. She only realized then how soon she would be walking down the aisle with Louis, and the thought filled her with dread. She even had the urge to call off the entire wedding, though she could not bring herself to utter her request.
“Charlotte, I understand if you want to discuss the matters of your children with Zachary privately. We could still head to Pillere together tomorrow morning, right? Then you can meet him after we’ve settled down,” Louis offered, not wanting to make things difficult for Charlotte.
“Okay.” He had phrased his suggestion in such a way that it would be rude and inconsiderate of her to reject it.
Louis replied happily, “All right, that’s settled then.” He got his men started on the travel arrangements right away.
Sherlyn added with a smile, “It’s fine if Louis doesn’t travel with you. Zachary’s got a mean temper, and he might blow up when he sees Louis. We have the utmost faith in you, Charlotte!”
Her words were a thinly-veiled warning for Charlotte not to betray their trust while she was in Pillere.
