Dirty Heart - Chapter 22

Courtney Balkan’s recollection was nothing short of a massive scandal. Overnight, she became a celebrity, her name circulating not only among high society but also on the lips of commoners.

From early morning, the Erhardt ducal household was forced to endure a difficult situation. It was because of the swarm of reporters and curious onlookers who had gathered.

The purpose of the crowd stretching their necks over the wall was obvious. They wanted to see for themselves just how promiscuous a woman named Courtney Balkan really was.

The inside of the ducal household was just as chaotic. Servants gathered in small groups, talking endlessly about Courtney.

“No wonder that woman Courtney kept throwing herself at me too! She kept touching me, saying we should have some fun together…!” Billy the stable hand shouted excitedly.

The gardener Martin immediately chimed in, “Her eyes were seductive from the start. She definitely wasn’t ordinary.”

“How could she meet other men while having the Young Duke?”

“Do you think the Young Duke will let Courtney off? If it were me, I’d be furious from the betrayal.”

“What kind of charm does that skinny girl even have? I don’t get it.”

“Didn’t she seem a bit slow, but strangely erotic at the same time? Maybe that’s what attracts men.”

The scandal spread more and more uncontrollably, and Courtney’s name continued to fall without end.

Meanwhile, after hearing the news, Alex hurried through the ducal residence with anxious steps.

“Where the hell did he go at a time like this!”

He grabbed his hair in frustration. In the middle of all this chaos, the person at the center of the scandal, Lionel, was nowhere to be seen, and it was driving him mad.

“She doesn’t think I spread the rumors, does she?”

A chill ran down his spine. He was worried Courtney might mistake him as the cause of everything.

After witnessing her flirting with Billy and Martin, Alex had kept her secret completely. Her threats were part of it, but more than that, he believed that if this truth came out, she wouldn’t be safe.

Since she was the first woman who made his heart race, he had tried his best to show her at least that much respect. Yet the rumor, whose origin he couldn’t even trace, was spreading like wildfire.

After wandering around anxiously for quite a while, he finally managed to find Lionel.

“Young Duke!”

Crouched in a corner of the back garden, Lionel was feeding a cat. Whether he’d taken the wrong medicine or failed to take the medicine he was supposed to, it was an absurd sight.

“What on earth are you doing over there?”

“Alex, look at these little ones.”

Following the direction of his long fingers, Alex saw a mother cat with a swollen belly gathered together with the kitten Lionel had picked up a few days ago.

“I thought she’d abandoned it, but it looks like she was pregnant and didn’t have the strength.”

To be calmly petting a cat without any awareness of the situation. Alex’s patience, as he looked at Lionel, finally reached its limit.

“This is not the time to be fussing over cats!”

“What’s with the commotion?”

“It’s chaos because of Miss Courtney, total chaos!”

Only then did Lionel lift his head.

“Courtney? What about Courtney?”

“Just look at this.”

Alex handed over a crumpled newspaper, and Lionel casually unfolded it.

“Rising sex symbol… what?”

At the spot, as Lionel read through the article, a hollow laugh slipped from his mouth. He tried to act composed, but he couldn’t hide the displeasure spreading across his face.

“Courtney is so innocent. This article is completely ridiculous.”

“Innocent….”

Alex trailed off. Honestly, there didn’t seem to be any overlap at all between Courtney and the word innocent.

“What’s with that unpleasant look?”

“N-No. It’s nothing. Anyway, this is no small matter!”

At that moment, a butler came running from afar, panting as he spoke, “Young Duke! The Duke is looking for you.”

***

A luxury hotel in the capital. In a top-tier suite that cost hundreds of thousands of krang per night, Charlotte continued her long-term stay.

Expensive jewelry scattered throughout the room and a newly purchased fur coat openly revealed her greed.

In contrast to her glossy appearance, a starving boy lay curled up tightly in a corner of the terrace. No matter how many days he had gone without food, Charlotte didn’t spare this pitiful child even a proper glance.

“These days, because of that bitch Courtney, the whole place is in an uproar, right?” Charlotte asked her attendant as she unfolded the newspaper.

“It’s certainly a shocking move. There’s never been such an open woman in the Empire until now.”

“Hmph! What’s so impressive about that pathetic wench?”

As expected, the entire front page of the newspaper was covered with Courtney’s story. Something about her brazenly talking about her sexual experiences with men in the sacred confessional.

“Did she completely lose her mind while I wasn’t looking?”

Annoyed, she tossed the newspaper aside and immediately put a cigarette in her mouth. As if waiting for it, the attendant lit it for her.

“By the way, what was that proposal from the ducal house?”

“Ah, yes. They said they’ll give ten million krang more if we return Liam.”

“Ten million krang just to send that brat back….”

Charlotte rested her chin on her hand and fell into thought. It seemed that bitch Courtney had thoroughly wrapped the young duke around her finger. Otherwise, there was no way he would offer such an absurd amount.

“What will you do?”

“Send him back. They want him that badly.”

“Yes, understood.”

The attendant dragged Liam in from the terrace. Because he hadn’t been able to wash for so long, the child’s face was completely smeared with dirt and tears.

“Shall we clean him up before sending him?”

“Just wash his fingers a bit.”

“Pardon…?”

Her voice snapped sharply. “Didn’t you hear me? It’s ten million krang. Cut off one of his fingers and send it.”

“But… if something goes wrong, this could become serious. If the ducal house reports it….”

“Let them report it once or twice. What of it? We’ll just make up an excuse.”

At that moment, terrified, Liam wet himself on the spot.

“P-Please spare me, Director….”

“You filthy little thing, how old are you and you still can’t even control your bladder!”

As a foul stench filled the room, Charlotte hurled the cigarette she was holding straight at the child’s face.

“Why are you just standing there!”

The cruelty of the woman called the Mother of Pitiful Children continued to grow worse, yet the truth remained thoroughly concealed.

***

“I thought she was only naive, but she’s quite something.”

The Duke muttered as he set down the newspaper. He instinctively knew that Courtney becoming famous overnight was no coincidence.

“Recently, there’s been a rather unpleasant incident in my office. A report on side effects related to the heart transplant went missing.”

“…A side effects report?”

At Lionel’s question, the Duke handed over a copy of the report as if he had been waiting for it.

“Read it. I held back from telling you, worried it would only add to your concerns, but since things have come to this, you should know.”

Lionel carefully unfolded the document he received. Among the densely written cases of numerous surgical side effects, one paragraph underlined in red ink caught his eye.

『A case of rejection caused by the donor’s promiscuous sexual lifestyle』

• If the donor has a history of frequent sexual relations with multiple partners other than the recipient, the risk of rejection after heart transplantation increases more than twentyfold.

“The last person to enter my office was that girl, Courtney.”

The Duke’s voice was filled with certainty.

“Not long after, the report disappeared. And today, an article about Courtney comes out. The Empire’s greatest nymphomaniac… ha!”

The Duke let out a scoff, as if it was still absurd no matter how many times he thought about it.

“Do you really think this is a coincidence?”

“Then… shouldn’t the surgery be stopped like this?”

Lionel muttered in a low voice, unable to take his eyes off the document. The line stating that the rejection rate increased twentyfold if the donor had frequent sexual relations with others felt no different from a death sentence to him.

“There are dozens of guards assigned solely to watch that girl. If she had done something suspicious, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been reported to me.”

“Then what you’re saying is….”

Lionel, who had paused to steady his breathing, slowly raised his head.

“Are you saying Courtney knew everything and orchestrated this?”