Chapter 180: Drugged? Cressida Kicks the Door Open and Enters

Chapter 180: Drugged? Cressida Kicks the Door Open and Enters

At that moment.

Cressida stood outside Rita's door.

Emma had just told her that the servants downstairs heard a man's voice coming from Rita's room.

The two had gotten into a heated argument.

Cressida rushed over, only to find the door locked from the inside.

She pushed hard but couldn't get it open.

Cressida said coldly, "Rita, open this door."

From inside came Rita's crying voice: "Cressida, someone poured something into the door frame. I can't get it open. Save me — Peter's gone mad, he's going to kill me!"

Cressida crouched down and examined the door frame.

Sure enough, she found a thin streak of grayish-white residue. She recognized it — sticky rice mortar.

Normally used to build city walls and towers, it could make any structure incredibly solid.

No wonder the door couldn't be opened from either side.

"Stand back," Cressida said.

A moment later, she raised her foot and kicked the door open.

Inside, Peter lay on the floor, half propped against a table, gripping a long sword in his hand — his own, the one he always carried.

Rita had a cut across the back of her hand. She was crying so hard her face had gone pale and her hair was a mess.

When Cressida walked in like she owned the place, Rita scrambled behind her.

"Cressida, someone is trying to frame me!"

Peter's eyes were glazed, but he held onto the last thread of his senses and growled under his breath: "Cressida, she's the one who drugged me. A maidservant lured me to the garden in Jessica's name. Whatever was in the tea I drank before — she put it there. She wanted the drug to take hold, ruin her own virtue, and force me to marry her."

Cressida turned a hard look on Rita.

Rita was sobbing, shaking her head over and over.

She was so frightened she could barely get her words out.

"Cressida, please believe me, I didn't do anything. At first — at first, yes, I did think about it. But then I saw what happened to Rose after she drugged Everett, and I got scared. I never touched the powder Rose gave me. I swear."

As if to prove herself, Rita rushed to her vanity and started digging through it.

When she pulled out the bottom compartment, it was empty.

Rita's eyes went wide. "That can't be right. Where's my powder? I never touched it. I left it right here."

Peter was now even more convinced she was behind it. He forced himself to his feet and lunged at Rita with the sword.

Cressida moved immediately, snatched the sword from his hand, and shoved him back to the ground.

"Cressida! You're going to cover for her?"

"Let me find out what happened first. If she's guilty, I won't let it go."

When she finished speaking, Cressida's dark eyes fixed on Rita — sharp and unsparing.

Could Rita have been competing with Jessica for Peter? It was possible.

Peter came from a wealthy family, was handsome, and had already become an official at the Ministry of Punishments at a young age. He was an only son, and his father was known throughout Emerald City for keeping no concubines and doting on his wife and child.

A family like that, with a name like his — he was considered one of the most eligible men in Emerald City among the young noblewomen.

But Cressida had read enough people to know: Rita hadn't been performing just now.

She genuinely had no idea how Peter had ended up in her room.

Cressida's gaze must have been too intense, because Rita dropped to her knees, grabbed her sleeve, and cried.

"Cressida, please believe me. Someone set me up. I'll swear on it — if I drugged Peter, may I come to a bad end."

Cressida asked only one thing: "You said earlier you weren't feeling well. Why did you come back to your room?"

Rita, still crying, quickly explained everything.

She had been feeling unwell because her period had come early. She came back to change.

She had barely stepped inside and started to undress when she spotted a man lying on the floor behind the screen.

Peter.

Rita was startled. She went over and noticed his face was flushed — something was clearly wrong.

She tried to rouse him. But when Peter came to, he said very little before suddenly drawing his sword and accusing her of trying to trap him into marriage.

Rita spun around and ran for the door — only to find it had been tampered with. It wouldn't open. Neither would the windows.

Peter kept insisting she had bad intentions. He cut the back of her hand. Rita was still in tears with nowhere to turn when Cressida arrived.

Rita wiped her eyes. "That's everything that happened. Cressida, you have to believe me."

Peter gritted his teeth. "Who's going to believe that? Are you saying Clio did this to me on purpose?"

Cressida raised an eyebrow. "You've met my mother?"

Peter explained that a maidservant had passed along a message from Jessica, asking him to wait in the nearby garden. But while he was there, he ran into Clio.

She was an elder, so naturally he was polite. Even knowing the friction between the main house and the second branch, Peter was not one to be rude.

Clio seemed to take a real liking to him. She even said that if Jessica married him, it would be a truly wonderful match.

Peter was flattered — and he drank the tea she offered him.

After that, he felt dizzy. A young maidservant offered to help him to a guest room to rest. But when he finally looked up and got his bearings, he was in Rita's bedroom.

By now, the whole picture had come together clearly in Cressida's mind.

What was there left to figure out? This was nothing more than Clio and Rose making their last desperate moves.

They knew the Autumn Feast would draw a crowd today. So they played their final card — trying to pin the label of a poorly managed household on Cressida.

After all, if Rita and Peter had actually been "caught together," Patrick — a man who cared deeply about appearances — would have been furious.

Clio was getting desperate too. She had very few pieces left to play in this household, and she had just thrown them all out at once.

This was her all-or-nothing move.

Just then, Emma walked quickly to the doorway.

"Ms. Cressida Hamilton, Brynn is here — and she brought Princess Bella's guards with her."

Cressida frowned.

She had always known Aunt Brynn wasn't the sharpest. How could she let the Princess's guards follow her here? Even if she meant well, word would get out.

Cressida made her decision on the spot.

She grabbed Peter by the shoulder. "Come with me."

Rita was at a complete loss, crying as she asked, "Cressida, what about me?"

"Stay here. Not a word about any of this. When the banquet is over, I'll deal with it."

With that, Cressida got a firm grip on Peter and dragged him away.

Peter couldn't help but feel a flicker of surprise.

He knew Cressida trained in martial arts, but he hadn't expected her to be this strong.

Cressida had barely gotten Peter out of there when Brynn and the others came hurrying in.

Brynn stepped through the door, looked around sharply, and demanded: "Where is he? Who was the man in your room? Rita, don't be scared — tell me everything."

Rita steadied herself and, following Cressida's instructions, looked up at her.

"Mother, what are you talking about? There's no man in my room."

She raised her hand to show the cut. "I think the maid must have misheard something. I just came back to change, and I accidentally hurt my hand."

When Brynn saw the wound, everything else flew out of her head.

"You careless girl — you nearly gave me a heart attack."

The guards clasped their hands and said, "Mrs. Brynn Hamilton, if your daughter is unharmed, we'll take our leave."

Brynn was about to reply when Pearl's voice came from the doorway: "Rita, what happened? I saw Brynn rushing over with the Princess's guards — you're not in any danger, are you?"

Rita's heart jumped. Pearl had already walked in.

Brynn said, "How kind of you to worry, Pearl Gomez. Our Rita just nicked her hand — nothing serious."

But Pearl kept her eyes on Rita. Her clothes were disheveled, her gaze kept shifting away — she didn't look like someone who was fine at all.

"As long as you're alright, Rita. I noticed you hadn't come back to the table for a while and started to worry."

"No, I'm fine... Pearl, you're overthinking it." Rita kept her head down.

Out of the corner of her eye, Pearl caught a glimpse of something on the floor behind the nearby screen — what looked like a jade pendant.

She narrowed her eyes and walked toward it.