Chapter 185 - 184: Asher is the Top-Tier Green Tea King

Chapter 185: Chapter 184: Asher is the Top-Tier Green Tea King

Asher shook his head, his body trembling. "Don’t look..."

He didn’t want me to look, as if he was afraid of what I might remember.

"Just go." I told Julian Fletcher to leave. I didn’t want to see him right now.

Julian Fletcher lowered his gaze and spoke softly. "Once you’ve seen everything, you’ll understand... Cece, I’ll wait for you."

He shot Asher a cold, warning glare and walked straight out.

It seemed Julian Fletcher’s only reason for coming today was to expose the fact that Asher wasn’t a fool, and that he had orchestrated everything that had happened to the Lancaster family.

"Did you plan all of this?" I asked in a low, heavy voice. "Everything that happened to the Lancaster family... was that your scheme? Including me and this baby?"

Public opinion online had suddenly swung overwhelmingly in favor of Sebastian Lancaster, which was a blow to Master Lancaster. On top of that, Brandon Lancaster was a suspect in a criminal investigation. Even if all the charges fell on Brandon, Master Lancaster would inevitably face public criticism and be implicated by association.

If Sebastian Lancaster returned to the company now and seized the opportunity to consolidate his power, he had a real chance of taking complete control of the Lancaster Group.

After all, in the eyes of the public, no man would scheme against his own wife and their unborn child.

"He thinks you’re Cece, so how could he possibly scheme against your child? This is a guy who was fantasizing about being a dad back when he was a love-struck teenager at eighteen or nineteen..." Lucas Grant muttered, pressing an ice pack to his face.

"Yes..." Asher confessed.

My eyes welled with tears. I wished so badly he would try to deny it.

"I was pretending to be a fool. I orchestrated everything. The Lancasters are in this state today—with Master Lancaster and the old patriarch trying to kill each other, Brandon Lancaster making a move on Dylan Lancaster, and Master Lancaster having the patriarch killed... I admit I had a plan in all of this, that I fanned the flames... Those reporters were my doing, too," Asher said in a small voice, looking flustered and helpless.

Madeline Quinn was shocked. She instinctively covered Zeke Shaw’s ears. "Are you, a police officer, supposed to be hearing this? Don’t listen."

Zeke Shaw replied in exasperation, "I’m a traffic cop..."

Madeline Quinn breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. Anyway, it’s all hearsay without proof. It’s like... the butterfly effect. The Lancaster family brought this on themselves."

Zeke Shaw tilted his chin helplessly in the direction of the police expert in the room.

Madeline Quinn shot a vicious glare at Lucas Grant. "That hit must have made your ears ring, right? You didn’t hear a thing, did you?"

Lucas Grant opened his mouth to speak, but upon seeing Madeline Quinn’s balled fists, he wisely lowered his head and surrendered. "I didn’t hear a thing."

Madeline Quinn nodded, then looked back at Zeke Shaw. "You were right. Might is right."

"You and the baby showing up... that was an accident for me," Asher spoke again, his eyes red and brimming with a sense of being wronged. "I never schemed against you or the baby..."

"If you were Silvia Lynch... this baby never would have existed. I wanted... I really, really wanted... for it to be born." Asher’s voice choked with emotion. The baby was gone, and he was devastated.

He just didn’t know how to express it. He didn’t know how to put it into words.

He had even suppressed his most basic urges, all because he was afraid of hurting the little one...

He really... really wanted this child.

Tears began to fall, one after another. His crying was helpless and heartbreaking.

Even Zeke Shaw couldn’t bear to watch any longer. It was starting to look like I was bullying an honest man... "Um, that journal Julian Fletcher gave you... can we see it?"

I lowered my head, wiping away my tears. ’If he would just explain...’ I was still willing to believe him.

"Then why did you stop pretending?" I demanded, my eyes still rimmed with red.

Asher just stared at me, his gaze as intense as ever. "I was wrong... I failed to protect you and the baby... I was wrong. I want to try a different approach..."

’He didn’t care if he lived or died anymore. He finally had a vulnerability, so he no longer needed to play the fool to save his own skin. He had to protect Cece.’

"I’ll trust you, just this once. Don’t let me down..." I murmured. "But if I find out... that you’re lying to me, I will never forgive you."

Just like how I’ll never forgive Julian Fletcher.

’To be honest, after being given a second chance at life, I didn’t want to trust anyone ever again. But Asher... he was an exception.’

’He always seemed to be the exception.’

Asher cried even harder.

He didn’t say anything, just kept crying.

Even Lucas Grant was getting annoyed. Not daring to speak up, he muttered under his breath, "Man, you’re a real actor... When your wife was unconscious, you looked ready to kill gods and slaughter demons. The doctors were terrified of you... Now you’re crying like you’ve suffered the greatest injustice in history."

Asher didn’t say a word. He just stood there and cried, not even wiping the tears away. He kept his head bowed as they dripped, one after another, onto his shirt...

Watching him made you feel like you were the one in the wrong.

His eyes were large to begin with, and his eyelashes were long. Seeing them beaded with tears... I almost apologized on pure instinct.

’But then I thought about it. This wasn’t my fault. He’s the one who was pretending to be a simpleton, lying to me this whole time.’

"No more crying!" I threatened.

Asher looked up at me, his voice choked with sobs. "Cece... don’t be mean to me."

"..." Madeline Quinn, Lucas Grant, and Zeke Shaw all turned to look at me in unison, their expressions a silent reprimand, as if to say, ’Stop scolding him.’

’He looks so pitiful...’

’Sure enough, the double standards are real. If he were a woman, he’d be the ultimate ’green tea’ master. Even Erin Whittaker would be no match for him, right? One crying session and he’s got everyone on his side.’

I averted my gaze, pulled my phone from my pocket, logged into my parents’ account, and handed the phone to Zeke Shaw.

Zeke Shaw looked at it carefully, a little confused. "I can understand parents loving their child and recording their growth from the day they’re born, but your parents... they started recording from the first day of pregnancy..."

Zeke Shaw scratched his head. "I mean, that’s also understandable, I guess. But still... why does the way they recorded it feel so strange?"

I looked up at Zeke Shaw. He was a police officer; surely he could spot some subtle clues. "Are you saying this journal account is fake?"

Zeke Shaw shook his head. "It’s not fake, but the data is too precise. Look, starting from day one, all the entries in the journal were made at the exact same time every day. And they’re timestamped... year so-and-so, month so-and-so, day so-and-so, at so-and-so hour and so-and-so minute..."

Down to the minute.

Lucas Grant paused, then leaned in for a look. "He’s right... This doesn’t look like a record of a child’s development. It’s more like... experimental data from some lab."

CRASH! The glass of water Madeline Quinn had been handing me slipped and shattered on the floor.

Breathing heavily, I looked up at Lucas Grant.

In that same instant, Asher rushed forward and covered my ears. "Don’t listen. Don’t look... Cece, if you can’t remember, just stop trying... I’m here."

’I was almost certain now. Asher definitely knew a lot of secrets, but he had no intention of telling me. He didn’t even want me to find out...’

’He would rather let me misunderstand him than tell me the truth of the matter.’

’Could I take this to mean... that he’s doing all this to protect me?’

"Spoken like a true expert..." That one comment was a revelation for Zeke Shaw, too. "I knew something was off about this journal. It really does look exactly like experimental data."

Lucas Grant clearly enjoyed the compliment, lifting his chin smugly. "Hah. Well, you have to consider who I am. When I used to run pharmaceutical trials on lab mice, this is exactly how I’d log the data. The mouse’s reaction today, its status at the same time tomorrow... you observe them for months. Some chronic medications require a year of testing, or even longer."

My fingers went numb, and I instinctively buried myself in Asher’s embrace.

’What am I so afraid of?’

"Maybe it’s just the way her parents were used to recording things. Cece’s dad has a Ph.D. in medicine, he studied abroad, and her mom’s a professor at Meridia University. It’s totally possible they’d have a habit like this," Madeline Quinn offered as an explanation. "I remember Cece saying her dad started his own company after leaving Westgard Pharmaceuticals, something to do with medical devices and facility construction. He almost went bankrupt later because of payment delays on the new Holy Grace Hospital campus project..."

Zeke Shaw and Lucas Grant both nodded. "That’s also a possibility."

BZZT! Lucas Grant’s phone vibrated.

Lucas Grant answered the call. "Captain Grant, there’s a situation with Erin Whittaker!"

’The serial killer case was moving forward again... and Erin Whittaker was the key that would set everything in motion.’