Chapter 407: Clearly a Great Demon King
Crime? What crime? How is it a crime? Do they mean *that* kind of crime?
Zane Lynch and the others, who had been drowsy from waking up too early and feeling out of place with the ancestor-worshipping crowd, were jolted wide awake, instantly a hundred times more alert.
Everyone followed Arabella Donovan’s gaze and landed on a man in his late twenties. He wore a white suit and gold-rimmed glasses, looking every bit the part of a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Unfortunately, no one sitting beside Arabella was from the Rhodes family, so for a moment, they couldn’t guess how this man was related to Caspian Rhodes.
"What is it?" Caspian Rhodes appeared at Arabella Donovan’s side at just the right moment, his voice low.
Arabella Donovan’s eyes lit up. She pointed at the man who was chatting and laughing cheerfully with the person beside him and asked, "Mr. Rhodes, what kind of relative is he?"
"Him? He’s the son of my uncle from my third grand-uncle’s side. You could call him my cousin, Silas Rhodes."
"A cousin, huh," Arabella Donovan mused. Unable to contain her curiosity, she quietly asked Caspian Rhodes another question, "Does he have a son?"
"Yes, he has a son who just turned five this year. Is there a problem?"
"Nothing, nothing. I was just asking."
The corner of Caspian Rhodes’s eye twitched. ’You don’t look like someone who thinks it’s nothing,’ he thought.
Sure enough, the moment Arabella Donovan finished getting the details from Caspian Rhodes, she couldn’t stop her inner thoughts from spilling the tea.
’He has a son! A five-year-old son!’
Zane Lynch and the others frowned. What was wrong with having a son? It couldn’t be...
Before they could dwell on it, Arabella Donovan dropped a bombshell.
’But he has azoospermia!’
Zane Lynch and the others: "!!!"
Even someone as composed as Caspian Rhodes almost gasped upon hearing such a shocking secret out of the blue.
’My cousin has azoospermia? Which means he’s infertile?’
’Then where did this big son of his come from? Could it be...’
While Caspian Rhodes’s mind was racing, Arabella Donovan was also muttering to herself.
’So where did his big son come from? That’s an excellent question. The son belongs to his wife... and his younger brother.’
Zane Lynch and the others: Holy shit!
Caspian Rhodes: "?!!"
’To be precise, his illegitimate half-brother on his father’s side.’
As mentioned before, Caspian Rhodes’s second and third grand-uncles were both extremely lecherous old coots. With the elders setting such a poor example, the younger generation was bound to follow suit. Caspian Rhodes’s uncles were each more shameless than the last.
And yet, these uncles were particularly concerned with the family status of their wives. Take the aunt from before—though she seemed timid and wasn’t highly regarded at home, her maiden family was, in some ways, better off than Walter Rhodes’s branch of the family.
If not for the fact that Walter Rhodes’s father had the surname Rhodes, he might never have been able to marry her.
This cousin’s mother was the same, with the only difference being that this aunt was much better off than Walter Rhodes’s mother. Not only was she doted on at home, but she also had a much stronger personality.
Therefore, the son she gave birth to was more confident. At least, before he and his mother gave their approval, none of those mistresses or their children could even think of stepping foot into the family home.
’But what does it matter how tough they are? Silas Rhodes’s condition is congenital.’
This meant he would most likely never be able to have children of his own.
’His wife didn’t know about it at first. After two or three years of marriage without getting pregnant, she went to the hospital for a checkup and found everything was normal on her end. Under pressure, she secretly collected a sample, had her husband tested on the sly, and then discovered the earth-shattering secret.’
What happened next was easy to guess. In order to have a child of her own, Caspian Rhodes’s cousin-in-law had an affair. The other man was her husband’s father’s illegitimate son.
’What is this, a real-life drama of "sleeping with my brother’s wife"? And you, the illegitimate son, you’ve got some nerve trying on the crown!’
The gossiping crowd: PFFT... What is this mess?
Of course, the most important thing was...
’Silas Rhodes’s father—that is, Mr. Rhodes’s uncle—knows everything about this!’
But he didn’t say a word, nor did he inform his own son.
To his son, it might be a scandal, but to him, it was no big deal.
After all, the offspring of either son was still his bloodline. In fact, compared to his elder son, who might slip from his control at any moment, he preferred the child’s biological father—the son who wasn’t very bright but knew how to suck up to him.
Of course, the most important thing was that he didn’t think it was a bad thing for his elder son. With this child, his elder son’s secret ailment wouldn’t be discovered by the outside world, saving him and their family from becoming the laughingstock and gossip fodder of high society. It killed two birds with one stone, how great was that!
And so, in his self-congratulatory delusion, the matter was successfully kept under wraps.
Everyone: "..." That’s... hard to judge. I guess it’s easy not to get mad when you’re not the one being cuckolded. With a father like that, that guy really has it tough.
However, they had clearly forgotten Arabella Donovan’s initial assessment of Silas Rhodes. This was a man who could be described with the word "criminal"!
’All three of them think they’ve kept it a secret. The illegitimate son is even fantasizing about elevating his own status through the child once he grows up, getting everything his brother has without lifting a finger. Little do they know, the man himself has known about it from the very beginning...’
What?!
Zane Lynch and the others were startled. They looked over at the man in the distance, who was still chatting and laughing amiably with those around him, but their gazes now held a new, complex mix of astonishment and shock.
In their eyes, Silas Rhodes had transformed from a poor, deceived soul into a pitiful man forced to swallow his pride and wear the cuckold’s hat for his family’s reputation. He was even more pathetic now. What was a person to do?
If Arabella Donovan could have read their minds at that moment, she would have laughed at their naivety.
’This Rhodes family cousin is a ruthless one. He knows about his condition, he knows about his wife’s relationship with his brother, and he knows what this whole family is plotting. But he deliberately pretends not to know, letting everyone think he’s oblivious, that they can play him in the palm of their hands. He watches them gloat over every little advantage they gain, which only makes them get greedier and fantasize about taking even more from him.’
Hearing this, Zane Lynch and the others already sensed something was wrong. This... was not the pitiful man they had imagined. No, he wasn’t pitiful at all—he was a straight-up evil mastermind!
’It’s like a game of cat and mouse. He’s looking down from on high, watching the mice scurry in his palm, watching a bunch of ants try with all their might to shake a great tree. They chew for ages, thinking they’ve wounded him grievously, when in reality they’ve only scraped a bit of his bark. Damn, this guy’s interesting!’
The crowd, whose blood was running cold from Arabella Donovan’s words: "..." More than just "interesting"! If we met someone like that in real life, we’d give them a wide berth!