Chapter 412: Darkening Just Like That
Caspian Rhodes strained to listen, but at that critical moment, several elders called him over, and he helplessly missed his chance to learn the truth.
Perhaps sensing the shock and panic in Arabella Donovan’s voice, Hector Donovan asked with concern, "What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
"...N-no... I’m fine."
On the outside, Arabella Donovan appeared calm as a summer breeze, but on the inside, she was already screaming her head off.
’Oh, crap. It looks like this one is really about me!’
Hector Donovan’s expression flickered, and a sudden sense of foreboding washed over him.
Sure enough, in the next second, he heard his little sister drop a bombshell.
’Crap, why is this my birth chart? In other words, the person who exchanged marriage horoscopes with Mr. Rhodes is...’
’Turns out I’m the poor sap? You really can’t get too smug. Even just spectating, the drama can land right on your own head. Unbelievable!’
"What?" Hector Donovan cried out in shock. It was a good thing they weren’t sitting, or he probably would have slammed his hand on a table and shot to his feet.
Startled, Arabella Donovan glanced at a few of the Rhodes’s relatives nearby, who were now looking over in annoyance at his outburst. She quickly tugged on her brother’s sleeve, reminding him to tone it down. This wasn’t their house; attracting too much attention could get them thrown out.
But it was no use. Hector Donovan was completely consumed by rage.
’Fine, fine, fine. So that’s how we’re playing this, is it? I knew you were up to no good, you little bastard. Can’t even rest in peace. Don’t think I can’t get you just because you’re dead.’
’You dare covet my sister? Even in death, I’ll drag you out and whip your corpse! Whip it!’
Hector, blinded by his fury, completely missed the key detail from Arabella’s thoughts: the one exchanging marriage vows with the supposedly deceased Caspian Rhodes was a girl—a *dead* girl.
Zane Lynch was worried Hector Donovan’s emotional state would disrupt the Rhodes family’s ancestral worship ceremony and get them all thrown out.
He quickly stepped forward and gave him a tug, reminding him in a low voice, "Calm down. We can talk about whatever it is when we get back."
Hector wanted to retort, ’How am I supposed to calm down? It’s not *your* sister they’re messing with!’ But when he looked up, he saw his two sisters gazing at him with worried expressions. Arabella’s eyes, in particular, held a trace of confusion and thoughtfulness.
It was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over his head, and for the moment, he went quiet.
Seeing her brother calm down and the Rhodes family’s ceremony proceeding in an orderly fashion, Arabella Donovan breathed a sigh of relief. She could finally take a closer look at this "self" of hers who was being roped into a ghost marriage.
’The Wagner daughter, born in Wagner’s Village, Lyra. Born October 27th in the year of Bingxu, died of illness on July 15th in the year of Renchen. In other words, according to this book’s plot, I died... before I was even six years old.’
Hector Donovan and the others: "!!!"
Her brother was no longer concerned about any marriage contract. In that story, his precious little sister had died so young! ’Who did it? How dare they!’
Even Eloise Donovan, who had just been watching the drama unfold, suddenly grew stone-faced, her expression frighteningly grim.
Arabella, however, suddenly recalled her predetermined fate from Cassandra Lynch’s "real vs. fake daughter" novel. In that story, she was abandoned by Holly Wagner and left with Holly’s parents. At a young age, she was forced to do hard labor and was constantly abused and berated by the two elders. On top of that, because her mother had gotten pregnant out of wedlock and was always on the run, the villagers would point fingers at her. They let their own children isolate and bully her.
In the end, she fell ill and received no proper treatment. She passed away at a tender age, buried forever in that unfamiliar mountain village, never once laying eyes on her true family before she died.
Now, it wasn’t just Hector Donovan. Even Eloise Donovan began to radiate a black aura, looking so grim she seemed ready to erupt at any second.
Even before this, she had felt guilty for what Arabella Donovan had gone through over the past decade or so. She felt it was her fault that Arabella had suffered so much.
𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Eloise had known since they first met that Arabella was fated to die young in the book’s plot. At the time, she’d been so shocked by the truth of their parentage that she hadn’t given it much thought.
After the initial shock wore off, she figured that this so-called "plot" wasn’t set in stone. Besides, Arabella had already grown up and been brought back to them. With their protection, she would surely not repeat the tragedy from the original story.
But now, learning that her precious sister had not only been abused to death by Cassandra Lynch’s family but couldn’t even rest in peace—her birth chart sold off for a ghost marriage with another dead person—was too much.
Just the thought of it made Eloise dizzy. A furious heat rushed to her head, contorting her face with rage until it looked like she might breathe fire.
Zane Lynch watched in terror, half-afraid Eloise would turn into Godzilla on the spot and mow down every member of the Rhodes family in attendance.
But unexpectedly, after fuming for a moment, Eloise slowly calmed down and sidled up to Hector Donovan to ask a question.
"Back when Mom and Dad found Serena, did they ever look for any of Cassandra Lynch’s relatives?"
Hector knew exactly who she was asking about. "They did," he said in a low voice. "Unfortunately, that old couple died in an accident a few years back. They got off easy."
"Oh, they’re already dead." Eloise’s tone was airy, tinged with a strange melancholy and disappointment that made the two men’s hearts ache for her.
Just as they were about to offer some words of comfort, Eloise’s tone shifted, and she said cheerfully, "It’s fine. So they’re dead, big deal. We can go pay them a little visit later. While we’re there, we can loosen the soil on their graves for them, you know, to thank them for the ’kindness’ of raising Serena back in the day."
Zane Lynch: "???"
’Wait a minute, weren’t you just ready to murder that family a second ago? Why the sudden urge to visit their graves? And you want to... loosen the soil?’
’Hold on, that’s not some kind of euphemism for "loosening the soil," is it? Are you guys planning to dig up their graves?’
’Seriously, girl, how did you turn to the dark side so fast?!’
Hector, however, instantly caught his sister’s drift, and the tension in his brow eased.
"Eloise, you’ve always been the clever one. That’s exactly what we should do. When we get back, we’ll get Mom, Dad, and our older brother and go over there together. We’ll dig up their gra— Ahem, I mean, we’ll loosen the soil on their graves for them."
Zane Lynch: "..." ’Did you just say the quiet part out loud by accident? Damn it, another one’s snapped!’
’Then again, he could understand. If his own sister had gone through something like this, he’d probably be swinging a shovel more enthusiastically than anyone!’
While Arabella and her companions were unlocking new information, Caspian Rhodes and the others finally finished their prayers, preparing to place the incense sticks in their hands before the ancestral graves.
However, in the next second, the unexpected happened.
Several uncles from the second and third branches of the family took the offered incense sticks from the younger generation. They were just about to place them into the burner in front of the ancestral graves when the sticks—which had been burning fine moments before, thin trails of smoke curling from their tips—all snapped clean in half. Every last one of them fell to the ground.
"This..."
The elders stared at each other in dismay, their faces draining of color as they looked at the broken incense. One of them recovered quickly. "Hurry, light more incense!"