The abbé presses further: could Fernand, once called a “faithful friend,” truly have betrayed Edmond? From the stairs, La Carconte interrupts again, warning her husband to keep silent. But Caderousse, irritated and restless, cannot resist his own bitter knowledge. How could Fernand be faithful to a man whose fiancée he coveted? Edmond’s very honesty, Caderousse says, had left him blind to the treachery of those around him. Better, perhaps, that he died never knowing the full extent of his betrayal.

Yet even here, fear lingers—fear not of the hatred of the living, but of the curse of the dead. To speak ill of the past is dangerous, Caderousse insists. What good, after all, in exposing the guilty, when Edmond himself is gone?

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The Countdown of Monte Cristo is a daily podcast reading one page at a time from Alexandre Dumas’ classic novel — every day, for four years.