Chapter 248: Risk Transfer
"Remains?"
Hearing that word, the couple shuddered violently, as if every breath they exhaled was laced with pain.
"That’s right. As I just said, a fetus of over five months is already formed. And to raise a ghost child, one often needs..."
Arabella Donovan didn’t elaborate, but everyone present understood her meaning.
Ms. Cain’s face was deathly pale, and she nearly fainted again. But her concern for her child and her hatred for her enemies kept her conscious at this critical moment.
"Find him. We must find him. It’s my fault as his mother. I was too careless. If I had been more thoughtful back then, even if he wasn’t fated to be with us, I would have brought him home for a proper burial, to let him rest in peace. Then none of this would have happened."
"No, it’s not your fault, it’s mine. I was afraid that if you woke up and asked about the baby, the grief would destroy your health, so I urged the nurse to deal with it quickly. If I hadn’t, they might not have had an opportunity to take advantage of."
"This isn’t the time to be assigning blame. We need to solve the problem." Ms. Kerr felt a mix of pity and frustration for the couple. Normally, while not exceptionally shrewd, they were at least steady and dependable, able to handle things. Now, however, they were in a complete panic. Still, she could understand. If she were in their shoes, she probably wouldn’t be very calm either.
"Serena, can you help them find the child’s...?"
Arabella Donovan pondered for a moment. "Generally, a ghost child’s physical vessel cannot be separated from its intended master for long. It’s most likely in a place you pass by or come into contact with every day."
Ms. Kerr, her son, and Caspian Rhodes shivered in unison. The thought of being in close contact with something... unclean every day would send a chill down anyone’s spine and make their hair stand on end.
Mr. and Ms. Lewis, however, didn’t feel that way. No one would be afraid of their own child, even one who was no longer of this world.
"A place we pass by every day? Has it been that close to us all this time? I had no idea..."
As Ms. Cain spoke, she looked as if she was about to start crying again. Mr. Lewis, though deeply shaken, felt his mind race as he tried to recall any place that could fit Arabella Donovan’s description.
"We currently live in an apartment in Norwall. There are four units on our floor, and every two units share an elevator. My younger brother’s family lives right next door to us."
Kieran Kerr shivered again and asked tentatively, "Are you suspecting that thing is in the elevator?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Ms. Kerr shot him a glare. Did her foolish son not know how to speak? ’That thing’? Such an ugly way to put it. Wasn’t he afraid of provoking the couple until they snapped?
Mr. Lewis looked uneasy. "According to Master Donovan, the elevator is undoubtedly the place that best fits the description. But my brother’s home isn’t out of the question. Strictly speaking, our apartments are only separated by a single wall."
"If it really is at your brother’s place, then you two will have to figure out a way to get in and steal it back."
After saying this, Ms. Kerr turned to look at Arabella Donovan again, but she hesitated to speak.
Arabella Donovan glanced at her, puzzled. "Miss Kerr, is there something you wanted to ask?"
"I’m just a little confused. If they raised this ghost child to seize someone’s fate, shouldn’t the ’master’ tied to it be their eldest son? But from your description, Serena, it sounds like it’s being raised on behalf of these two instead."
Arabella Donovan paused for a moment, realizing she hadn’t explained this part clearly.
"You didn’t misunderstand, Miss Kerr. The ghost child is indeed being raised by them on behalf of Mr. Lewis and Miss Cain."
"Then... what’s going on?"
"When raising one of these things, it’s most effective when there’s a blood connection. Mr. Lewis’s brother stole his fate, but he couldn’t inherit the blood tie to that child. To maximize their profit, they raised this ghost child on behalf of Mr. and Ms. Lewis, hoping the couple would strike it rich quickly so they could bleed them dry."
A flicker of light crossed Mr. Lewis’s eyes. He thought about all the money, stock shares, and countless treasures his brother had taken from him over the years. He increasingly felt like he had just been a walking ATM, a total sucker.
"Of course, the most important reason is risk transference."
"Risk transference?"
"That’s right. And I know this might be painful for you both to hear, but what they’ve raised is an evil entity. A single misstep can lead to a backlash. I suspect their initial goal was simply to acquire wealth, but people’s appetites grow, little by little—especially when they discover they can keep getting what they want without having to give up anything at all."
Arabella Donovan narrowed her eyes, fixing her gaze on the couple once more. "The first moment I saw you two, I noticed you were shrouded in resentment, with a dark cloud over your fortunes. Without intervention, you will soon face a great disaster."
The couple’s faces paled slightly. "This..."
"It means the backlash has already begun. If I’m not mistaken, your brother’s approach to this ghost child has shifted from simply seeking wealth to actively using it to harm people. The more people they use it to harm, the more karmic backlash is reflected onto you, and the stronger the ghost child’s resentment grows. Once its resentment reaches a critical point, it will... devour its master."
"Devour its master?" Ms. Kerr and the others were alarmed. "You mean, it will turn on them?"
"Yes." Arabella Donovan nodded, her expression grave. Initially, when she first noticed traces of a ghost child connected to the couple, Arabella had been biased against them.
But before she could show it, she realized something was off. They hadn’t raised this ghost child willingly—it had been forced on them by someone else. Now, that was interesting.
"Do you remember the first question I asked you?"
Mr. Lewis and his wife exchanged a glance, quickly recalling what Arabella Donovan had asked them before.
"You asked if we were planning to adopt my brother’s child?"
"That’s right. When did you first have this idea to adopt a child? Was it really your own thought?"
Arabella Donovan’s reminder struck them like a bolt of lightning. Ms. Cain even began to tremble unconsciously. "No, that wasn’t our idea. From the very beginning, all we wanted was to adopt a young child of our own. It was..."
Ms. Cain paused, then whipped her head around to meet her husband’s eyes. "It was my sister-in-law. A while ago, she suddenly brought it up, saying that since my husband and I are getting on in years, if we really like children that much, we could adopt her son."
From Mr. and Ms. Lewis’s current situation, it was clear that his brother’s family had originally been fated to be childless; they only managed to have a son and a daughter after stealing the couple’s fate. To suddenly suggest giving their only son to his older brother was strange enough, let alone the fact that this son was already around ten years old.
At the time, Ms. Cain was already distraught over the issue of having children, so when her sister-in-law brought it up, she let her guard down and blurted out her true feelings.
Now, thinking back carefully, she realized that when she had mentioned wanting to adopt a younger child instead, her sister-in-law’s expression had instantly darkened. For a fleeting moment, her face had even twisted into a vicious snarl!