I Read Their Tragic Fates, and My Family Reads My Mind?

With her suspicions confirmed, Ms. Cain was both shocked and overjoyed.

She was shocked because she’d expected a bitter fight, yet it had been so easy to take her enemies’ lives without a struggle. She was overjoyed that her family’s great revenge had been exacted; her poor child could finally rest in peace.

"Did he just say you found this little ghost in Terence Lewis’s room?"

Mr. Lewis’s expression stiffened. "...Yes. We did find this box in a hidden compartment in the bookcase in Terence’s room."

After Arabella Donovan reminded them that the little ghost’s physical vessel wouldn’t be far, the couple began consciously observing the area around their home. They paid special attention to the layout of Terence Lewis’s house, which was separated from theirs by only a single wall. After several days, they finally confirmed that the room directly opposite their own wall was, in fact, Terence Lewis’s bedroom.

Once they knew this, they used the pretext of delivering a gift to visit, worked together to draw everyone away, and secretly slipped into Terence Lewis’s room. They found the box and took it with them.

Looking back now, everything had gone almost impossibly smoothly.

Perhaps their poor child, from the great beyond, had been watching over them, helping them free him from his suffering.

"The little ghost’s primary keepers were your younger brother and his wife. Now that the wrong has been righted, the backlash will fall upon them. Add to that the fate-swapping—of which they were the direct beneficiaries—and the combined effect will be more than enough to take their lives. They will die a sudden, violent death."

"As for Terence Lewis..." Arabella Donovan paused. "He was an indirect beneficiary, so he’ll also face a backlash, but it will come a bit later and be milder than his parents’. However..."

"However?"

"However, his parents arranged for him to live under the same roof as that little ghost for all these years with the intent of having him absorb the child’s good fortune, using the body to conceal the truth and deceive The Providence. But a little ghost is still a little ghost. After being around it for so long, he’s naturally been tainted by its yin energy. And, strictly speaking, the two of them were sharing the same fate up until now."

"This..." Ms. Cain exchanged a glance with her husband. "What are the implications of that?"

"Let me put it this way. To people like us, your nephew seems perfectly normal—just an ordinary young man. But in the eyes of the things we cannot see, he’s one of their kind."

"Th-Things we can’t see?" Kieran Kerr shivered, a violent chill running down his spine.

"Exactly what you’re thinking of." Arabella Donovan gave him a chillingly sweet smile. "Before, the little ghost was in his room, suppressing them. Even if those other things coveted him, they didn’t dare make a move. But now the thing that was protecting him is gone, isn’t it?"

Kieran Kerr was terrified but couldn’t suppress his curiosity. "What will happen to him, being targeted by those things?"

"Who knows? You know those things love to come out in the middle of the night. Maybe one or two will pop out from time to time to have a friendly chat with their companion. Or maybe they’ll just lie on top of him and whisper secrets no one else can hear."

At this, Ms. Cain and Mr. Lewis, who had been somewhat dissatisfied that Terence Lewis wasn’t punished with a sudden death like his parents, shivered uncontrollably right along with the Kerr mother and son after hearing Arabella Donovan’s description.

’For someone like me, who’s terrified of ghosts, I’d rather just die than run into something like that in the middle of the night! If it didn’t kill me, it would scare me half to death.’

Arabella Donovan just smiled, saying nothing. Paul Lewis and his wife certainly hadn’t intended to harm their son by placing the little ghost in his room.

But now, thanks to her intervention, Terence would have to swallow this bitter pill himself.

"The fates have been restored, and the matter of the little ghost is resolved. If you two still want to have a child, you should be able to... try now."

There was nothing physically wrong with the couple. Their inability to conceive for so many years was due to two reasons. First, their fates had been swapped. His younger brother had been destined to be the last of his line, and after the swap, Mr. Lewis took on that curse, affecting his own ability to have children.

Second, it was because of the little ghost. Though they had not raised it intentionally, in the eyes of The Providence, it was no different than if they had.

Becoming part of a family is a two-way street. When a soul looking to be born sees a family ruthless enough to turn their own child into a little ghost, why would it ever choose to join them? Was it looking for an early grave?

Due to this combination of factors, it was useless no matter how many doctors Mr. Lewis and his wife consulted.

But now that the situation was resolved and everything was back on track, it wasn’t impossible for them to have a child if they still wanted one.

But hearing this, Ms. Cain wasn’t particularly excited. Instead, she asked hesitantly, "If Lewis and I have another child... will it be the same one we lost?"

Arabella Donovan paused, taken aback. "I can’t guarantee that. The karmic tie between you has been severed. Logically, he shouldn’t be reborn to you again."

Ms. Cain lowered her head in disappointment, saying no more. Mr. Lewis wanted to comfort her but was clumsy with words and could only let out a quiet sigh in the end.

"If you truly want to make it up to him, then donate money and do good deeds in his name. Although you acted in time to prevent him from being stained by blood, he was still turned into a malevolent object, which damaged his otherworldly virtue. If you perform good deeds in his name, you can accumulate Merit for him. That way, when he is reincarnated, he can be born into a good family."

As soon as Arabella Donovan finished speaking, both Ms. Cain’s and Mr. Lewis’s eyes lit up. "Yes, yes, of course. We’ll go home right away and start donating and doing good deeds in our child’s name. We only hope he can be born into a good, harmonious family in his next life and live a peaceful existence."

Arabella Donovan just smiled, saying nothing. ’It’s a good thing for them to donate a lot of money right now anyway. The old saying about spending money to avert disaster has its truth. Not to mention, in the eyes of The Providence, some of the wealth they’ve accumulated would definitely be considered ill-gotten.’

"Oh, and take this box back with you. Keep it safe. In a few days, if an elderly man in his sixties or seventies comes to visit, show this to him. Tell him the whole story, from beginning to end, and he will draw his own conclusions."

"This..." Mr. Lewis took the box from Arabella Donovan and exchanged a glance with his wife. In the end, he asked no questions, simply nodding and storing the box safely.

With the matter resolved, the couple was eager to return home and start donating to accumulate Merit for their child, so they didn’t impose any longer.

They presented Arabella Donovan with a thank-you gift they had prepared in advance and then tactfully took their leave. Before they left, they mentioned the Curse Worm affecting Mr. York’s son and scheduled a time with Arabella to bring him in for its removal.

The Kerr mother and son had only come to show the couple the way and act as witnesses. Now that Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were gone, they naturally took their leave as well.

Watching the couple support each other as they departed, Arabella Donovan couldn’t help but sigh.

’She had only mentioned the fate awaiting Paul Lewis and his wife, but she hadn’t said a word about Mr. Lewis’s father.’

’That elder, lurking behind Paul Lewis’s branch of the family, was the true architect of this entire tragedy.’