Duchess Lyra looked at Baroness Augusta's shocked, pale face and smiled, a cool, knowing expression. "You seem quite shocked, Baroness."
Augusta's mind was blank for a few seconds as she struggled to process the devastating turn of events. She finally stammered out her answer, her voice a weak, desperate attempt to regain some control. "Well… b-because I did not know you would show such blatant favoritism for your own child."
"What do you mean by that?" Lyra asked, her voice dangerously calm.
Augusta scoffed, trying to paint Lyra as the villain. "You must truly consider the one you gave birth to as your only child for you to act in such a manner." She leaned forward, her eyes glittering with a malicious fire. "But that is what you are implying, is it not? You are passing over the firstborn son, Duke Philip, the one who has worked so hard all this time to maintain the family business, and you are trying to put your own favored son in the successor's seat."
