Chapter 249: Struggle Less for a Few Decades
"Who in their right mind would give up their only son for adoption? It’s not like they have sons to spare. They only have one, and they want to give him away to someone else? Their intentions are clearly malicious."
Kieran Kerr had just finished his rant when Arabella Donovan quietly offered the answer: "Because they’re about to die."
Everyone: "!!!"
"How does that saying go? The ones who frame you know better than anyone how innocent you are. By the same logic, the ones who want to kill you know better than anyone when you’re going to die."
"They know that with the combination of the fate-swapping and the backlash from the ghost, they don’t have to do much more before you die. At that point, all they have to do is temporarily have their only son adopted under your names. After you both pass away, their son can effortlessly inherit the fortune you’ve worked for all these years, saving him decades of struggle."
Mr. Lewis and his wife felt their temples throbbing and their minds buzzing, their heads aching fiercely.
"But you didn’t want to adopt their adult son. Instead, you were more inclined to adopt a child of unknown origins. In that case, according to the law, after you pass away, your inheritance would most likely go to the adopted child."
"They could have tried to seize your assets, claiming that as the uncle, they needed to manage things for the young child. But after scheming for so many years, how could they accept someone else snatching the fruits of their labor at the last second? What should have been theirs would now take a roundabout path to reach them, and even then, their claim wouldn’t be legitimate. How could they possibly stand for that?"
"So, they figured it was better to have you die an unnatural death before you could adopt a child. That way, as your own flesh and blood, your younger brother would also have a claim to the inheritance.
The only problem with that plan would be fending off Ms. Cain’s side of the family from trying to claim the inheritance. But that wasn’t a big issue. All they had to do was forge a will in advance, stating that you both were leaving your entire estate to their eldest son.
At that point, with no so-called adopted child to take a piece of the pie, everything would fall perfectly into place."
Mr. Lewis and his wife’s faces were deathly pale. They felt that the shock they received today was greater than all the blows they had suffered in the past thirty or forty years combined.
Ms. Kerr and the others were shocked yet again. According to Arabella’s explanation, the couple’s lives were in imminent danger.
"Arabella, do you know how Lewis’s younger brother’s family plans to make the couple die an unnatural death as soon as possible?"
"It’s simple. Just make the ghost child commit more evil acts. It already died unjustly. Once it commits evil, not only will it bear karmic retribution, but the malevolent energy around it will also gradually consume its sanity, turning it into a vengeful spirit that only knows how to harm people. At that point, the first person it will want to harm will be..."
Arabella Donovan glanced at the husband and wife, the implication perfectly clear.
The reason they didn’t use it to kill them from the start was because they wanted to use the Lewis couple as their personal ATM and blood bank, helping them accumulate wealth.
Now the time was ripe, and the Lewis couple had outlived their usefulness. Naturally, they had no more scruples and could freely use the ghost to harm anyone they disliked or who had ever offended them.
Mr. Lewis couldn’t stop trembling at the thought that soon, at the behest of those villains, their own son would be the one to send them to their graves.
’Separated from our own child, kin turning on kin, until the entire family is dead. And this is the work of my so-called closest relative, my very own brother!’
But Mrs. Cain only heard Arabella Donovan’s words about karmic retribution. Her poor child, murdered before he could even open his eyes to see the world, couldn’t even rest in peace after death. He was being used by his own murderers, forced to bear sins and suffer endlessly.
At this thought, Mrs. Cain felt as if her heart was being ripped in two, the pain so unbearable she wanted to die.
"Master Donovan, I beg you. Please, I’m begging you, help my child! Help my child!" Overcome with grief, Mrs. Cain dropped to her knees in front of Arabella Donovan with a thud, startling everyone.
Arabella instinctively took two steps back, avoiding Mrs. Cain’s desperate bow.
"I said I would handle this, but first you need to find the ghost’s physical vessel. Only then can I help him find release and make those evildoers suffer the backlash and pay the price. Otherwise, anything we say now is just empty talk."
"Right, we have to find my child first. I’m going to their house to find him right now."
As she spoke, Ms. Cain turned and made to run out. Mr. Lewis, as if jolted from a stupor, hurried forward and grabbed her hand. "Calm down. Don’t be impulsive."
"Calm down? How can you ask me to calm down? They murdered my child, and now they want to use him to harm me and my husband, to send our entire family to hell! How can I calm down? He was my own flesh and blood! What right do they have to do this to him? What right do they have to do this to us?"
By the end, Ms. Cain finally broke down, letting out a heart-wrenching wail. Mr. Lewis couldn’t help his eyes from turning red, his heart filled with bitter sorrow.
"I know, I know..."
"No, you don’t know! All these years without a child, every time I saw you with the two kids next door, especially with that boy, Terence, I felt so guilty. I thought if I hadn’t insisted on going out shopping back then, we wouldn’t have been in that car accident, and our baby would have been stillborn before ever getting a chance to see the world."
"No, it wasn’t your fault." Mr. Lewis never imagined his wife had been thinking this way all these years. He was filled with regret and heartache, hating himself for not noticing his wife’s inner turmoil for so long.
But Ms. Cain paid him no mind, continuing through her sobs, "But now, I find out my child was actually murdered. The people who killed him are living just a wall away from us, taking our money, enjoying our affection, and living a happy, prosperous family life!"
"And my poor child! Not only did they steal the happy life that should have been his, but he’s also being enslaved and tortured by them, forced to do their dirty work and bear the karmic consequences! Why? You tell me why!"
"Calm down? Calm down? I’ve been calm my whole life, and I’m done being calm! Today, I’m going to get my child back, and nobody is going to stop me. If they dare to stand in my way, we’ll settle all our scores, new and old. If it comes to it, we’ll all go down together!"
Mrs. Cain, blinded by rage and a rush of blood to the head, looked ferocious enough to kill anyone who stood in her way, even if it meant taking everyone down with her.
Mr. Lewis couldn’t stop her, so Ms. Kerr and her son had to step in to help. The private room instantly descended into chaos again.
And amidst this chaotic mess, only Caspian Rhodes noticed Arabella Donovan jolt the moment Mrs. Cain mentioned the name of Mr. Lewis’s nephew. Her big, round eyes even widened considerably.
This familiar, strange reaction piqued Caspian Rhodes’s interest. Sure enough, the next second, he heard her ask faintly.
"What did you say Mr. Lewis’s brother’s eldest son’s name was again?"