The abbé continues Edmond’s final instructions.

The diamond, he says, was to be sold and its value divided into five equal shares: for Caderousse, for Danglars, for Fernand, for Mercédès—and for Edmond’s father. But the old man is gone, and the mention of his death shakes Caderousse with conflicting passions. The priest presses further, asking how the elder Dantès died. Caderousse, his voice thick with guilt and sorrow, admits the truth: the poor man had wasted away, abandoned and starving, broken by grief and neglect. Each word drags Edmond’s memory closer, and the abbé’s eyes linger, measuring Caderousse’s story against the weight of hidden knowledge.

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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.