Chapter 59 The Unforgettable Ghost: A Man Wearing a Mask

"Tower... Tower?"

Lilith froze completely. She watched in disbelief as Tata hysterically accused Lorenzo in front of her, then knelt on the ground and broke down in tears.

“No, Miss Tata, you don’t need to cry.” Lorenzo’s face showed a gloating smile. “You’ve done so much for my and your wife’s happiness. You’re the great contributor to our happiness, why should you cry?”

“Madam…I’m so sorry…I was wrong…I betrayed your trust…” Tata cried her heart out, tears blurring her innocent, doe-like chestnut eyes. “I believed Lorenzo’s lies. He swore to me that he was sincere towards you, that he would do everything in his power to make you happy, so I…”

“Enough.” Lilith interrupted Tata’s confession sternly and briefly, tears welling in her eyes. She had never, ever imagined that this little girl she had bought and raised would betray her. She had even doubted Sophia, Isolde, and Heinrich, but none of them had ever doubted her.

“Lilith, I’m giving you one last chance.” Lorenzo grinned maliciously, kicking Tata, who was kneeling on the ground, aside. He swaggered to the dining table, staring intently into Lilith’s eyes. Heinrich was about to draw the dagger from his waist and point it at him, but Lilith stopped him.

"Marry me, and I can forgive and forget, ending this farce. If you refuse, all I need to do is submit the evidence I have to the ten-person committee, and I can send you to jail immediately."

“You already know what will happen if you become my husband,” Lilith said through gritted teeth, “yet you still insist on marrying me. It seems this Mr. Antonio holds a very important place in your heart. My answer to your request is: Get out.”

“This is the path you chose.” Lorenzo was unsurprised by her response and didn’t press the matter further, immediately leading his men away. Heinrich watched Lilith’s reaction with concern, hesitating whether to chase after them, when she took his hand, her long nails digging deep into his skin as if he were gripping a rope, a lifeless lump. He felt a chill run down his spine for no apparent reason.

Lilith turned her gaze to William: "This is none of your business. Go back."

"Yes, ma'am." William immediately packed his things and hurriedly left through the side door, not wanting to get involved at all.

"Heinrich, you should also excuse yourself."

“Okay.” Heinrich hesitated for a moment, then decided to bring the cake that Lilith had made for him with him.

"Leave the cake, but don't eat it. You're still thinking about eating it at a time like this." Lilith suddenly glared at him, watching him put the cake back on the table untouched. "Get out of here."

Heinrich had no choice but to leave, bewildered.

“Close the door.” Lilith glanced coldly at Ivanka, who rushed in from the kitchen. Now only Ivanka, Lilith, and Tata remained in the house. She reluctantly shifted her gaze to the little Gypsy girl kneeling on the floor, sobbing. She was trembling with grief, as if she were the one who had been betrayed and abandoned.

“Donata.” Lilith rarely used the formal name she had given her when she bought her. She always treated her like a little girl. But now they had to have an adult conversation. Lilith took a deep breath and asked in a casual tone, “Tell me, when did it start?”

“Ever since…you took away the family crest ring you bestowed upon me.” Tata pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the snot and tears from her face. She knew Lilith’s rules; no matter how much she cried, there was no going back. Although the past could not be undone, she still wanted to do something for her mistress who had been so kind to her in her final moments.

"Was it out of jealousy that Heinrich had risen to prominence in banking affairs?"

“That’s part of the reason,” Tata said calmly as she composed herself. “But the main reason is that I wanted my wife to be happy, which is why I made such a wrong decision.”

"To achieve happiness...?" Lilith frowned deeply.

"Lorenzo approached me shortly after the Canarro Bank opened. He earnestly told me that if he could facilitate your marriage with him, you would no longer have to work under so much pressure... He would use the power of the Condalini family to fully support your career, and you could live a happy life while running the bank..."

“Madam, please forgive me, no, I don’t deserve your forgiveness at all… I only realized later how foolish that lie was. But I believed him then. I simply couldn’t bear to see you growing closer to a lowly slave… Compared to Heinrich, Lorenzo was at least somewhat worthy of you in terms of birth and social standing…”

“Tata, my husband was Heinrich Schmidl, the first in line to the title of Viscount in the Holy Roman Empire. But I still killed him because I didn’t want marriage.”

“I thought it was just because you didn’t want to marry into Germany. But if your husband was Lorenzo, you could still stay in your familiar Venice and continue your career… I later realized how wrong I was… But by the time I realized it, it was too late… I was bewitched by him… It wasn’t until the war broke out and he monopolized war insurance and bonds that I realized his purpose had always been to accumulate more profit for himself…”

“The real mistake you made wasn’t trusting Lorenzo so easily. It was that you’ve been with me for so long, yet you’ve never understood what kind of person I am or what I really want.” Lilith’s chest throbbed with pain, making it hard for her to breathe.

"Madam... I'm so sorry." Tata's features contorted in pain, tears welling up once more. This time, she simply wept silently, awaiting her fate.

“I’ve always treated you like my own sister. Even the tasks I assigned you were things I used to do for my mother when I was a child. Because I believe that nothing teaches people how to trade better than the real market. But you’ve completely let me down.”

Tata silently removed the Knaro Bank brooch from her chest, took the dagger from her belt, and removed the mother-of-pearl hair tie from her braid. She held them all up with both hands and placed them on the table, returning them to her mistress. She knew the consequences of betraying Lilith and was mentally prepared to face her death. "Go," Lilith said, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. The lace bracelet Tata had knitted for her was still on her wrist, soaked with tears.

Tata stood there dumbfounded, unable to believe her ears.

“I can’t bring myself to do it. Forget everything you’ve been through here, forget who you are. Go back to where you came from. Let’s wipe the slate clean.”

"lady……"

"Get out of here."

Tata could hardly believe her ears. She hesitated as she got up from the ground, bowed to Lilith one last time, and then left Lilith's little house in tears, running into the depths of the night.

Ivanka closed the door and walked back to Lilith with concern. "Do you need me to clean up the mess?"

"Let her go. Take the cake and throw it away." Lilith, exhausted, stood up and dragged her heavy steps toward the stairs. Heinrich was waiting for her at the top of the stairs. Before she could say anything, he bent down, picked her up, and carried her upstairs toward the bedroom.

Lilith leaned against Heinrich's shoulder in a daze. According to her original plan, this strong and warm body should have already been disposed of as a corpse. She had made a blind and wrong decision without even testing him, almost causing the innocent Heinrich to die unjustly and making him take the blame for the real traitor, Tata.

Even though Heinrich had proposed flawed strategies, even though he was still shrouded in unresolved doubts, even though he had transformed from a kind child into a ruthless one, at least he remained loyal to himself.

Lilith could no longer control her emotions and collapsed into Heinrich's arms, bursting into tears.

“I promised to braid her hair… but I haven’t had a chance to braid it for her yet…” she sobbed as she recalled those promises that could never be kept, tears streaming down her face, ruining her makeup.

“It will all pass.” Heinrich, unable to bear it any longer, carried her to the bed, took off her shoes, and tucked her into the blankets. Then he went to the dressing table, picked up the makeup remover and cotton pads, and sat on the small stool by the bed to remove her makeup. Lilith glanced at a glass of warm milk on the bedside table, and without thinking, picked it up and drank it all in one gulp.

"I will arrange for newly recruited people to take over Tata's work and try to minimize our losses."

"Thank you for your hard work." Lilith looked into those serene blue eyes through her tears, filled with guilt and gratitude towards Heinrich. She desperately wanted to confess to him that she had wronged him, causing him to brush with death without his knowledge. A sliver of reason amidst her surging emotions silenced her.

"I'm sorry I couldn't give you a perfect birthday night."

“This isn’t your fault.” Heinrich gently took her hand. “You need to rest now. We can talk about work tomorrow.”

After Heinrich left, Lilith got up, changed into her nightgown, and went back to bed. Her mind was a jumbled mess, filled with countless tasks waiting to be done, so she couldn't sleep at all. But she was so tired and sleepy that she soon drifted off to sleep.

The nightmare still wouldn't let her go. The masked, all-black man appeared uninvited once again. He put shackles on her, roughly pinched her cheeks, dipped his fingertips in poisoned cream, and stuffed it into her mouth, swirling it around on her tongue.

Lilith tried to resist, but the nightmare held her limbs firmly, imprisoning her in the dream and unable to wake up. She screamed silently, cried out in anguish, but she couldn't escape the nightmare's torment and abuse. What should she do?

When she finally woke up, it was already daylight. Her heart was pounding in her chest, as if she had just survived a fierce battle. She felt no relief from her sleep, yet she still had to open her eyes to face the chaotic reality of her present situation.

Half an hour later, accompanied by Heinrich, she listlessly walked into the bank. The newly hired intern, unaware of Tata's whereabouts, assumed the supervisor was simply absent for some reason and volunteered to gather intelligence. Lilith, expressionless, used a letter opener to cut open the sealing wax seal on the envelope while silently listening to the report on the morning's market news.

"The war between the Republic and Milan and Padua continues. It is said that the ten-member committee is considering negotiating with the leader of the Milan mercenaries, offering a higher price to persuade him to defect."

"Since these old men fight like it's a joke, why don't they just set up a territory and make it an arena for them to fight? And hurry up and open all the checkpoints on the trade routes, so we innocent civilians can stop being tortured," Lilith complained irritably. "Next."

"This morning, the Fugger family bank from Germany officially opened at the Rialto Bridge market. It is said that they obtained their operating license from the money exchange guild some time ago, but deliberately waited until now to officially open for business."

"The Fugger family, the one whose leader bought a count's title from the Emperor through business wealth?" Lilith felt she had heard rumors about this family somewhere before. "There isn't a single bank north of the Rhine. How could they possibly understand the financial industry? I doubt it. Next."

"According to rumors, the Fugger family was able to enter the Venetian banking industry thanks to a masked man as an advisor..."

"What!?" Lilith slammed her hand on the table and stood up abruptly, the envelope in her left hand already crumpled into a ball. The phantom of the woman she danced with in the Zurich villa and the recurring nightmares in her dreams intertwined and overlapped, like a haunting ghost.

-----------------------

Author's Note: Tata is a pitiful little girl. Lilith projects a lot of herself onto Tata, because she herself didn't receive care from her elders during her adolescence, so she wants to make up for her regrets by being good to Tata. And that's why Tata's betrayal hurts her even more than Heinrich's "betrayal."

However, Tata's act of informing was well-intentioned but backfired. Others, however, were doing things with malicious intent...