Chapter 239: Wide-Ranging Business
Vance was taken aback by her words. "Miss Donovan, you... know them?"
"...I don’t."
’But I know all about them!’
Caspian Rhodes: ’I knew it!’
The Sanford siblings’ storyline appeared in the latter half of Desmond Donovan’s book. Back then, Chester Donovan had temporarily dropped out of the running because of the Jennings Plaza bombing, and he laid low for a long time afterward.
He resurfaced because of the Sanford siblings. Xiang Qiufu’s brother, Oscar Sanford, was an antiques expert and, at the same time, an expert at forging antiques!
He exploited his position to appraise genuine antiques as forgeries. Then, under the pretext of helping dispose of these "forgeries" to prevent them from circulating on the market and harming more collectors, he would acquire the genuine antiques at a low price.
Afterward, he would secretly sell these genuine antiques abroad for a handsome profit.
Caspian Rhodes’s eyes grew cold. ’Disguising our country’s genuine antiques as fakes and selling them abroad... an act like that is just as depraved as fraud or robbery. This is textbook smuggling.’
Forget Arabella Donovan—now even he was itching to report them.
And as for that Chester Donovan, his luck was simply incredible. It was how he managed to be such a fence-sitter and still calmly survive all the way to the story’s finale.
You would think the bombing incident would have been the end of him, but who could have predicted that fate would immediately turn around and hand him Oscar Sanford, a major career-making opportunity.
While on a mission, Chester Donovan’s men accidentally stumbled upon Oscar Sanford’s smuggling operation. Because they discovered it in time, Oscar Sanford’s attempt failed. Chester Donovan and his men intercepted all the antiques he was holding, including many iconic ancient treasures and rare calligraphies and paintings.
This allowed Chester Donovan to atone for his past failures and return to the first tier of contenders.
As Arabella Donovan pieced together the siblings’ background and their role in the story, her expression shifted. Her previously nonchalant demeanor vanished, replaced by a faintly severe and cold look.
Vance saw the change in her expression, and his heart suddenly began to race for some unknown reason. He had a vague feeling that something big was about to happen.
"Miss Donovan..."
"Call me Mr. Donovan."
Vance was stunned for a moment, but he obediently corrected himself. "Mr. Donovan, what is this...?"
Arabella Donovan gave him a graceful smile, then sauntered over to Xiang Qiufu and said meaningfully, "You said your husband was a long-time employee of this auction house. That means he must have worked here for a good while, correct?"
"That’s right." Xiang Qiufu glanced up at Arabella Donovan, then, perhaps feeling that looking up put her at a disadvantage, she decisively scrambled up from the floor. "My husband worked at this auction house for a full ten years! Ten years!" she said domineeringly. "Who knew that because of a tiny little mistake on the books, this ungrateful viper would call the police and have him arrested? He still hasn’t been released."
"If you ask me, my husband was framed by him! He was made to take the fall! Otherwise, how could a lowly accountant possibly have the ability or the nerve to embezzle so much of the company’s money? My poor son and I lost the head of our family overnight, and now we have to force ourselves to smile at the real mastermind just to survive."
It just goes to show that shameless people are all natural-born actors. One moment, this Xiang Qiufu was looking down on Arabella Donovan with an arrogant sneer; the next, she was wailing uncontrollably. Anyone who didn’t know the inside story would probably think she had suffered some great injustice.
Vance hadn’t expected the woman to not only be deliberately disruptive but also to completely twist the truth. His hands, clenched into fists at his sides, began to tremble.
"Mr. Donovan, don’t listen to her spouting nonsense..."
Before Vance could finish, Arabella Donovan raised a hand to stop him. "I know."
Vance paused, swallowing the words he was about to say.
"Since your husband worked at the company for so long, did he ever tell you anything about the former owner—that is, my family’s elder?"
"Wha—" Xiang Qiufu was stunned. She hadn’t expected that after all she’d said, Arabella Donovan would ask such a completely unrelated question. For a moment, she was at a loss for words.
"It seems he never told you, or maybe he simply didn’t know. In that case, let me give you a little background. My family’s elder hails from the Sacred Sect and is an heir to its orthodox arts. He is an expert in matters of feng shui and divining fortunes. To put it simply, he can predict the future, among many other things. As his junior, I can’t claim to have mastered all his skills, but I know a thing or two about the basics, like reading people."
As she spoke, Arabella Donovan even gave the woman a playful wink. "Let’s put it this way: in my presence, no one—good or evil—has anything to hide behind. I might even know more about your family’s affairs than you do."
"You’re just putting on a mystical act, trying to be mysterious! They were all tricked by you and your family’s elder! I don’t believe a word you say!"
"Oh, really?" Arabella Donovan shrugged, her expression one of mock helplessness. "I was originally going to spare you and your son some dignity, seeing as your husband worked at the auction house for so many years. Even if he didn’t achieve great things, he certainly put in the hours. But it seems you’re not interested."
"You... What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
A flicker of understanding passed through Vance’s eyes, as if he had realized something, but he didn’t dare jump to a conclusion just yet.
"Xiang Qiufu. You are fifty-nine years old, born into a low-income family with a gambling-addicted mother and a good-for-nothing, alcoholic father."
"You’re fifty-nine? Not... fifty-three?" Arabella Donovan had barely begun when Vance immediately seized upon the key detail.
"Don’t listen to her nonsense! I am fifty-three..."
"You know perfectly well whether I’m lying or not. Since childhood, you’ve been a cheat and a swindler, stopping at nothing. You dropped out before finishing middle school to run wild, and after that, you spent a long time in the business of selling your body for money."
Even that was a rather delicate way of putting it. The business of selling your body for money... that was just...
The calm expression on Vance’s face finally showed a few cracks. Caspian Rhodes and the others, meanwhile, looked like they were watching some premium drama unfold.
The only one who completely lost her composure was Xiang Qiufu herself. "You’re lying! You’re lying! You’re lying! I’m calling the police! I’ll sue you for slander!"
"Go ahead. It’ll be a perfect opportunity for the police to educate you on the penalties for forging an ID card."
Xiang Qiufu froze, her eyes darting around guiltily.
Seeing she had successfully intimidated the woman, Arabella Donovan didn’t pause, continuing, "After that, you met Mr. Vance’s cousin. You lied to him, claiming you had only recently started working and were forced by poverty to take a job in ’that kind of messy place.’"
"He believed you. To get you to leave that place, he gave you all of his savings. You saw him as an honest, easily manipulated man and decided to settle down. After that, you changed your age, fabricated a life story for yourself that had nothing to do with reality, and had him take you home, where he became your husband."