Chapter 245: The Older Generation’s Big Old Scandal
Everyone in the room froze at Arabella Donovan’s words.
Mr. Lewis looked questioningly at Ms. Kerr, as if asking if she had told Arabella Donovan about their family situation beforehand.
Ms. Kerr immediately understood his unspoken question and shook her head, speechless. ’I barely know anything about your family situation,’ she thought. ’How could I have possibly revealed it to Miss Donovan beforehand?’
Mr. Lewis, having received his answer, looked at Arabella Donovan with a new sense of caution and anticipation.
"We did consider that before, but then we thought about it. My younger brother’s children are already quite old, and it wouldn’t feel right to adopt them now. Besides, my wife and I both love children, and we want to experience the hardships and joys of being parents from the very beginning. That’s why we’re more inclined to adopt a younger child."
’As expected. It’s because you were unwilling to adopt your relatives’ children that you brought this deadly disaster upon yourselves. So much for blood ties. Sometimes, family can be far crueler to their own than any outsider.’
Caspian Rhodes was a little surprised, but not entirely.
Outsiders don’t harm you because there’s no conflict or vested interest. But when family turns on you, it’s almost always because they’re plotting to gain something.
Throughout history, how many relatives have turned against each other for power and wealth? The saying ’humans die for wealth, and birds die for food’ isn’t just an empty phrase.
Arabella Donovan was silent for a long moment. Just as Mr. Lewis and his wife were growing restless, she finally sighed and said carefully, "What I’m about to say might shatter your perception of reality. You can choose to believe me, or not."
"This..." Mr. Lewis and Ms. Cain exchanged a look and quickly declared, "Please, say whatever you need to. We’ll believe you."
"From your facial features, I can see that you were originally supposed to have two children, a harmonious family, and a life of happiness and well-being."
"T-two children?" Hearing this, the couple could no longer remain calm and shot to their feet in agitation.
"H-how is that possible? We’re already so old... the children..."
"That’s why I said ’originally.’ Your physiognomy shows you were meant to have both a son and a daughter, and you should have had them early in life. But because..."
"Because of what?" At the phrase "both a son and a daughter," the middle-aged couple, who both adored children, couldn’t stop their eyes from welling up.
Ms. Cain, in particular, felt a pain so sharp it was as if two chunks of flesh had been carved from her chest. The thought that she should have had two adorable children calling her ’Mommy’ in their sweet little voices, only to have them stolen from her for some unknown reason, was agonizing.
"What was the reason?"
"Because someone swapped your fate."
"What?!" The faces of Mr. Lewis and Ms. Cain changed drastically, and Ms. Kerr and her son were also taken aback.
"A-a person’s fate can be swapped?"
"It can. But the conditions are demanding, and such an act damages one’s spiritual virtue—it’s a heretical path. If they can hide it from the Providence, they might get away with it. But once discovered, not only will the beneficiary of the swap suffer a backlash, but the person who helped them will also bear the karmic consequences. At best, their vitality will be severely damaged. At worst... they’ll be struck dead on the spot."
"Who was it? Who was it?!"
Mr. Lewis didn’t care what miserable fate awaited them. He only cared about one thing: the identity of the culprit who had caused his wife so much pain for so many years.
Arabella Donovan met Mr. Lewis’s grief-stricken gaze, her own eyes filled with pity. "You already have an answer in your heart, don’t you?"
Mr. Lewis jolted at her words, and Ms. Cain turned to look at him in astonishment. "Who is it? Tell me, who is it?"
Mr. Lewis’s eyes showed hesitation, but seeing his wife’s state, he gritted his teeth and asked, "Is it my younger brother?"
"Him?" Ms. Cain’s hand trembled, her face a mask of disbelief. "How could it be him? How is that possible? Are you mistaken?"
Mr. Lewis turned away without a word. If possible, he wished he was wrong more than anyone.
But some things are like having your view blocked by a single leaf. No matter how much evidence was right in front of him before, he had been willing to deceive himself and turn a blind eye.
Once someone pierced that thin veil of denial, no one could see the truth more clearly than he.
Ms. Kerr hadn’t expected this to turn into an internal family affair. But since she was already involved, she felt a clear answer was owed to everyone present.
"Lewis, your saying that... does it mean you’ve long suspected something was off about your brother?"
Mr. Lewis ran a hand through his hair, looking utterly devastated. "My brother and I... we’re actually not..."
Kieran Kerr’s face lit up with the expression of someone who just got some juicy gossip. He blurted out, "Not full brothers?"
Mr. Lewis: "..."
Ms. Cain: "..."
Ms. Kerr’s mouth twitched. She called out a warning, "Kieran Kerr!"
"Here!"
"Shut up! No one’s going to think you’re mute if you don’t talk!"
"Ohhh~" Kieran Kerr pantomimed zipping his lips, not daring to say another word.
The interruption actually lightened Mr. Lewis’s heavy mood a little.
"He is my biological brother, but we’re half-brothers. We have the same father but different mothers."
"You’re half-brothers? Why did you never tell me?" Ms. Cain had always assumed her husband and his brother were fraternal twins, explaining why they didn’t look exactly alike.
She never imagined the reason they didn’t look alike was because they didn’t even come from the same womb!
Mr. Lewis looked bitter. "It’s not exactly something to be proud of. How could I bring myself to tell you?"
If not for today’s events, he would have taken this secret to his grave.
It turned out that Mr. Lewis’s father and his younger brother’s biological mother were once a couple who had fallen in love freely.
However, Mr. Lewis’s grandparents disapproved of their son’s girlfriend, believing her looks and family background were unworthy of their outstanding son. So they forcibly separated the couple and found Mr. Lewis’s biological mother, who also had feelings for his father and came from a family of equal social standing.
With the grandparents’ meticulous scheming and the willing cooperation of Mr. Lewis’s biological mother, Mr. Lewis’s father ended up sleeping with her, thus betraying his girlfriend.
However, what no one expected was that Mr. Lewis’s father had already slept with his girlfriend before this, and by a remarkable coincidence, both women became pregnant at the same time.
Mr. Lewis’s father was already disgusted by the actions of his parents and Mr. Lewis’s biological mother. Even though he was forced to take responsibility and marry her, he felt nothing for her and never forgot the girlfriend he deeply loved.
When he learned his girlfriend was pregnant, he was ecstatic. He even considered abandoning everything to run away with her and their child.
Unfortunately, before he could act on this, his family found out and locked him up, causing him to miss the time he had arranged to elope with his girlfriend.
Not only that, but Mr. Lewis’s grandparents also went to their meeting spot to humiliate the girlfriend, telling her to go get an abortion on her own.