Forensic Imperial Concubine

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.