She cleared her throat as she met his gaze, "I'm sorry for your loss, but you are barking up the wrong tree here. I think you should know that no matter how much you are going to torture me, my response is not going to change. I did not kill your daughter, and neither did Paulina. We may not have gotten along with her, and our relationship was not a pleasant one, but we are not beasts. I wouldn't even do that to my enemy, much less someone who had served and trained me in the past. I won't allow you people to torture me or Paulina into making a false confession. I didn't like Beth, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I'm not going to pretend to like her now because she is dead. I found her to be very annoying, controlling, and unnecessarily proud. But regardless of how I felt about her, I never wished for her death and I am sad to know that she was murdered in such a gruesome way. I would never hurt Princess Tyra either. She was the first friend I made after I married Prince Harold, and I have no idea how I would have coped here in those first days without her. I am innocent. You can choose not to believe me, but you should face this objectively so you can catch your daughter's real killer and allow her to rest in peace," Alicia said in a rush, and also stopped to take a deep breath when it felt like she had run out of oxygen.
It seemed like she had tried to speak as fast as she could just in case he chose to interrupt or ignore her.
Beth's father watched her for some time without saying a word, and then he took a deep breath, "I don't think Beth is someone you could have easily killed without dying with her," he said in a calm voice, and Alicia's eyes widened.
No matter how much he tried, he couldn't understand what was happening. Now that he was trying to set his grief aside to think, he couldn't believe that it was possible that Harold's wife had killed his daughter. It didn't make sense that Beth would die that way.
"You... believe me?" Alicia asked in disbelief, even though she could feel another sprout of hope rising within her.
Rager didn't answer. "I asked some of the servants and guards about you," he informed her. "Most of them secretly think you did not do it. And you seem to have the support of some aristocrats and even the queen's relatives," he said, and on hearing that, Alicia teared up.
He remembered how some of the maids had been scared and intimidated by him, yet they had told him she was not that type of person. Some claimed she had helped them carry buckets of water when she saw them struggling with it. Some told him how she had helped them when they got into trouble with Luciana and she wanted to punish them. Some told him about how she served them the snacks she had made and helped them clean. They didn't think someone as nice as her could do that.
Apart from the good reports he had gotten from most of the maids and guards about her, he could see the sincerity in her eyes as she spoke. He had met a lot of people in his lifetime, and he liked to believe that he was a good judge of character who could tell a lie from the truth when he heard one, and after listening to her, she sounded like she was telling the truth. Unless she was a good liar.
"I swear on my life. I did not do it."
"Don't be so quick to swear." He warned her.
"Princess Tyra is currently being questioned. She admits seeing you stab Beth, and she says you stabbed her when she tried to stop you before you collapsed," Rager said as he continued to watch her.
Both Alicia and Paulina gasped when they heard that.
"Princess T-tyra said I did that?" Alicia asked in shock, realizing the little hope she had felt sprouting a moment ago had been crushed.
Rager continued to look at her, "I do not want my feelings to get in the way of my judgement. All I want is for my daughter's killer to face the same fate. That is why I have decided not to involve myself in this directly anymore. I will watch from the side and observe how everything goes. I suggest you start thinking hard about what happened that night." He warned before he turned around and left.
Once he left, Alicia embraced herself as a blank look crept into her eyes. Princess Tyra said she did that? She killed Beth and hurt her? Alicia thought with defeat.
She remembered the words Harvey had spoken to her on the day he sneaked into her chamber. He had said that was the last place she wanted to be especially on the night of the banquet. What did he mean? Was it possible that Princess Amber turned into a beast on that night or something? Had he known that something like this was going to happen?
She thought about Harold. Did he know something? Was that why he kept insisting she stay in her room?
Was all this related to Princess Amber? Or was it related to the secrets of the moon kingdom, which Harold had said he would only tell her after she gave herself to him?
"You did not do it," Paulina said as she scrambled over to Alicia's side and wrapped her hands around her.
What if she had truly done it? What if she was really guilty but just didn't know it the same way she had killed those men and hadn't known about it until she heard from Harold and Alvin, who had witnessed it? She thought and raised her head when she felt Paulina's arms around her.
"I know you did not do it. Maybe... someone asked her to say you did. You can't hurt anybody," Paulina said confidently, but Alicia knew otherwise.
What was going to happen to them now? There would be no need for a trial or torture anymore now that Princess Tyra had told them this.
She doubted that either Harvey, Susan, or even Williams would believe her now that they had heard from Tyra.
Did that mean she was going to be executed just like that? What about Harold? What was he going to do when he woke up and found out that she was dead? She couldn't just let them execute her this way without saying goodbye to Harold first.
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