Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

Hailey worked fast. After just two days, she came across the book which Harper had prepared

especially for her. Based on what

she discovered in the medical book, she decided to perform a blood test on Sue. To her surprise, the

result matched the

description written in the medical book.

"My Lady..." Abigail, Hailey's maid, was too shocked to finish her words.

"Mother was poisoned!" Hailey exclaimed. "Harper probably wasn't expecting that I would actually

check the medical books or

even borrow these medical books from her. Otherwise, she would have already disposed of this

medical book long ago."

"My Lady, are you implying that Lady Harper poisoned Lady Sue?" Abigail asked, confused.

"Of course. Who else could it be?" Hailey said in a cold tone. "Think about it. Who's benefiting most

from Mother's illness?"

"Of course it's Lady Harper, My Lady. She has taken over the domestic affairs of the mansion ever

since Lady Sue has gotten ill.

Right now, she holds a power that's befitting her identity," Abigail said, taking a guess. "Even if we

know that Lady Harper

poisoned Lady Sue, we don't have any evidence to prove it."

"This is the evidence!" Hailey blurted out as she waved the medical book she was holding in her hand.

"Harper is the best

physician in the mansion. It will be easy for her to do some research and make the poison, Nightmare. I

must tell Father about

the truth. Now that she dared to poison Mother, I'm sure she would have no qualms about poisoning

Father as well. Father is

going to hate such a vile woman."

"That's right. Prime Minister Charles will seek vengeance for Lady Sue," Abigail nodded.

Without delay, Hailey went to see Charles, who just got back home from the imperial court session. His

face darkened almost

instantly at the sight of Hailey scurrying toward him. "What is it? What is so urgent?"

"Father, it's serious. Someone has poisoned Mother!"

As soon as Hailey said those words, Charles felt his eyelids twitch. Were people aware that he

poisoned Sue? How could they have found out? Nightmare was a type of poison that couldn't possibly

be discovered by any test. Apart from that, Kelly, his first wife, had also been given the same poison

and no one had ever suspected and found out about it even after all this time. "What on earth are you

talking about? That's nonsense. Your mother is ill because she has been depressed for a long time. No

one poisoned her!" Charles snapped at her. The thought of what people were going to say if they found

out the truth made him shudder. How could he possibly look his son and daughters in the eye ever

again?

"Father, believe me. It's true. Mother has been poisoned. They used a poison called Nightmare. I have

a feeling that Harper did it in order to take control of the mansion," Hailey quickly said despite having

no evidence to back it up. "Nonsense!" From what she said, it was apparent that Hailey didn't know.

This made Charles feel so relieved. "How can you say such things with a straight face? Why are you

being so mean to your sister? She is not as bad as you think." Hearing him say that made Hailey feel a

bit anxious. She brought out the medical book, showed it to Charles and said, "Father, take a look at

this. This is the medical book I found in Harper's study. It clearly records the poison called Nightmare,

its symptoms and the way to test it. I have already done a test on Mother. She was indeed poisoned

with Nightmare. Given the fact that it is a very gentle poison, whoever wants it to work has to add it into

Mother's food or drink every day. Father, please give

your command. We're going to catch this person."

Taking the medical book, Charles went ahead and read it carefully. This sent a shiver down his spine.

This book belonged to

Harper, so she must have read it already. Had Harper ever doubted about Sue's illness? If that were

the case and she found out

about Nightmare, would she begin to suspect that he had done the same thing to Kelly? No! No! That

couldn't be! Harper was

still an infant when Kelly died. There was no way for her to know about it. Right now, all he had to do is

make sure Hailey

wouldn't say a word to others about her suspicion and the contents of the book. If he managed to do

that, everything would be

just fine.

"Well, your mother was not poisoned, dear. Poison, Nightmare, these are all just utter nonsense. You

shouldn't be reading this kind of book." Saying that, he proceeded to tear up the medical book to get rid

of the evidence. Hailey's eyes were wide open in disbelief as she watched this. Sue's life was on the

line and yet her father didn't even care about it, not even a bit. What was worse, he simply tore up the

book that could have helped them save her mother's life. "Father, Mother was really poisoned. Please

trust me on this..." "That's enough. I don't want to hear you talking about this anymore. The family

physician had already said that your mother is

just suffering from a bout of depression. She is still mad at me because I didn't save your sister. It's all

my fault. When she comes

to her senses, she will make a full recovery. Stop overthinking things. You'd better think more about

how you're going to won the

favor of the crown prince." Charles gave her a talking-to. After all, he knew better than anyone else

whether Sue was really

poisoned or not as well as the type of poison Sue had been given. If he hadn't poisoned Sue himself,

he would have probably

believed Hailey's words that Sue had been poisoned by Harper.

"Then Father, please excuse me." Gritting her teeth in anger, Hailey took her leave. She had already

made up her mind about

catching the perpetrator red-handed, but no matter how hard she tried to protect Sue, Sue was still

getting weaker day by day,

which could only mean that Sue was still being given regular doses of the poison. If things continued

going on like this, Sue was

going to die very soon.

All of this was making Hailey both anxious and angry. If Sue were to succumb to the poison, she would

lose her status. After so

many years of planning and calculating, Sue was still a mere concubine on the official records, which

meant Hailey was only a

concubine's daughter. Sue had been trying very hard to persuade Harper into making Hailey Kelly's

daughter on the records, but

Harper strongly disapproved of it. That was the reason why they wanted to get rid of Harper in the first

place. However, Harper

managed to survive.

"My Lady, what are we supposed to do next? I boiled the herbs myself. I had my eyes on it during the

entire time and I was sure

no one touched it, but it was still poisoned. What should we do? If it keeps going on like this, Lady Sue

wouldn't last very long."

Abigail was getting so worked up. They still hadn't caught the person who was poisoning Sue. On top

of that, they didn't even

have any idea how that person did it. Now, Sue was spending more time sleeping than awake. Her

condition was worsening at

an alarming rate.