Chapter 324: Anyway, I Don’t Believe It
As it turned out, she really wasn’t dreaming.
The whole false-and-true-cousin situation was real. The sister-in-law and nephew who appeared out of nowhere were also real.
Because of all this, Melody Lynch hadn’t left the house for the entire Spring Festival, spending all her time at home trying to rebuild her entire worldview.
And today, her parents had urgently dragged her out first thing in the morning, all to wait for her real cousin and the Donovan family who had adopted her.
Her cousin’s parents were both gone, and she had been lost to the world for many years. It was natural for Melody’s parents to dote on her. By extension, it made sense that they would also value the unrelated family who had raised her for so long. Melody could understand that, but wasn’t this a bit over the top?
"It’s one thing for us adults to come, but why did you bring Henry too? It’s so cold, and he’s still so little. Even if we left him at home, I’m sure my cousin’s family wouldn’t mind."
The moment Melody Lynch said this, Juliet Lyons, who was sitting with the child in her arms, gave a slightly awkward smile. "It was my idea. For one, I was worried he’d be scared if he woke up alone in the middle of the night and couldn’t find anyone. For another, I heard that Eloise’s younger sister is coming this time, so I wanted to bring him to the airport to thank her in person."
"Eloise’s younger sister?" Melody Lynch was stunned. She never would have guessed that bringing the child was Juliet Lyons’s own idea.
The family adored their brand-new nephew, but no matter what, their love couldn’t possibly compare to that of his own mother, who had given birth to him and raised him all by herself for so long.
For her sister-in-law to be willing to drag her exhausted nephew to the airport this late at night to pick someone up showed just how much she valued this Miss Donovan.
"You mean the Miss Donovan who was switched with Eloise and sent to that remote mountain region?"
"That’s right, her. This Miss Donovan is our whole family’s benefactor." It was Mrs. Lynch who spoke. She patted her daughter-in-law’s hand reassuringly and smiled. "She’s the one who helped Eloise reunite with our family, and she’s also the reason your sister-in-law and nephew were found. You could say that without her, who knows where our family would be right now!"
But Melody Lynch wasn’t convinced. "It has to be a coincidence, right? Isn’t she just a young girl, the same age as Eloise? How could she be that incredible?"
"Hey, don’t be so quick to dismiss it. There’s definitely something uncanny about Eloise’s younger sister."
"What nonsense are you talking?" The words had barely left Zane Lynch’s mouth before he received a merciless slap from his mother and a glare from his wife.
If she weren’t holding the child, she probably would have come over and slapped him too.
Zane Lynch instantly backed down and tactfully corrected himself. "Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, my mistake. I shouldn’t have said that. Master Donovan is a true master with real talent. My cousin invited her to check the feng shui at my company. In the time it took her to walk a single lap, she helped me expose several major parasites in the company, saved a female employee’s life, and even gave me a budding money tree before she left."
"That’s right, that’s right. Miss Sherwood also told me a while ago that Master Donovan did a reading for Mr. Kerr of the House of Aethel Jade and his mother. With her remote guidance, she saved the life of Mr. Kerr’s son, who was on a business trip abroad at the time."
Mr. Lynch recalled everything that happened when their family had traveled to Stroven City for their young niece’s birthday to formally acknowledge her. He chimed in, "With her kind of ability, she must have seen the connection between Eloise and our family in advance. That’s why she brought her to the company to meet your brother, and then brought her to our banquet, deliberately causing a scene there so we would see how much Eloise resembled your second aunt."
"Right, right, right. I looked into it afterward. The Donovan family used to live in Stroven City, worlds apart from us, thousands of kilometers away. Master Donovan came to the film studio near here with her second brother—that’s Best Actor Donovan, the one you like so much—for a shoot. She was traveling on the company’s dime as his assistant."
"My cousin noticed her because her fortune-telling on set was frighteningly accurate, which is why he invited her to my company to help with the feng shui. And what happened? That very weekend, she summoned Eloise, who was still in college in Stroven City, and had her come along to my company so I could meet her. She must have divined my connection to Eloise from my cousin to have done that."
"Zane is right. And about your sister-in-law and nephew, she was the one who called Eloise to tell her. That’s how this clueless brother of yours finally knew where to find them and how to clear up the misunderstanding. Otherwise..."
Juliet Lyons’s expression shifted slightly, as she was clearly reminded of what had happened to her son not long ago.
Everything Eloise Donovan had told Arabella Donovan about Juliet Lyons and her son reconciling with Zane Lynch and coming home was true.
Cassandra Lynch had indeed targeted Juliet Lyons and her son. And she wasn’t just planning to make a move—she had already acted!
Fortunately, Caspian Rhodes had previously warned Zane Lynch that while he was trying to win back his wife, he shouldn’t forget to keep an eye on Cassandra Lynch, just in case.
Of course, this warning was delivered under the pretext of it being an earlier reminder from Arabella Donovan.
Therefore, when Zane Lynch discovered that Cassandra Lynch was trying to harm the child, he reacted swiftly, rescuing him before her people could move him.
Because of this incident, the relationship between the child’s parents finally broke the ice, and the young couple’s gratitude toward Arabella Donovan reached its peak.
Not to mention, during the New Year, the Lynch family, due to their new connection with Eloise Donovan, had each received a special family New Year’s gift from Arabella Donovan.
The others all received relatively simple jeweled beads, but Henry Lynch received a Peaceful Coin, about the size of a regular coin.
Juliet Lyons wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but ever since her son started wearing the Peaceful Coin, his complexion had gotten better day by day.
In previous winters, her child spent most of his time either sick or on the verge of getting sick. But from the time he put on the Peaceful Coin before the New Year until now, he hadn’t been sick once. This was the real reason Juliet Lyons had insisted on bringing him today.
As Melody Lynch listened to her family members chime in one after another, listing all of Arabella Donovan’s accomplishments over the past six months, she felt the worldview she had painstakingly glued back together over the last few weeks start to crumble again.
"Does it have to be this exaggerated? What century are we in? I can’t believe people still believe in this stuff. Anyway, I don’t."
"If you don’t believe in this, what do you believe in? Regardless of whether you believe it or not, it’s a fact that we only found your cousin, as well as your sister-in-law and nephew, thanks to her. When you see her in a bit, remember to have a good attitude. Don’t go around with a long face and show a lack of manners, or just you wait until we get home. I’ll deal with you then."
"Mom, am I really that tactless in your eyes?" Melody Lynch rolled her eyes, speechless, and said sullenly, "Even if not for their sakes, then for the sake of my cousin Eloise, I definitely won’t be rude to them. You can rest assured."
"You’d better."
"Mom!" Melody Lynch felt completely helpless in the face of her mother’s attitude.
It was so obvious that before all this, besides Cassandra Lynch, she had been the one the family doted on and indulged the most.
She didn’t mind having a new cousin in Eloise, but this Miss Donovan... what kind of magic did she possess to make her family hold her in such high esteem after just a few meetings?
’That girl... she couldn’t possibly be putting a hex on people, could she?!’