Chapter 377: What a Coincidence

Chapter 377: Chapter 377: What a Coincidence

The moment Arabella Donovan spoke, the expressions of the Reeses changed.

Sandra Reese immediately burst into tears. "It’s my fault. I was clearly conscious back then, so how could I have mistaken who it was? I’m the one who wronged her. It’s all my fault."

"How can this be your fault?" Mrs. Reese’s heart ached seeing her daughter like this, and she quickly took her hand to comfort her. "You were blind at the time and already in such a panic. How could you be expected to remember everything clearly?"

"Mom’s right. This is on me. I failed to protect you, and I didn’t recognize the person who saved us in time. Because of me, we’ve spent all these years treating an enemy as our benefactor..."

Before Mason Reese could finish, he was interrupted by Mr. Reese, who had been taciturn and had barely said a word since they arrived.

"How old were you two back then? You were just children. This was our failure as parents. We didn’t protect you, and we didn’t investigate the incident thoroughly enough. We wronged a good person and shielded a wicked one."

Arabella Donovan listened to the family’s exchange and sighed sympathetically.

’This must be the difference between people. When people with a strong moral compass encounter a problem, their first instinct is to reflect on themselves. But for people with a weak moral compass, their first instinct is to shirk responsibility. Even when they’re the ones who made the mistake, they have a million excuses to blame someone else.’

The two families exchanged a look. Upon reflection, it was true. It was just like Cassandra Lynch. She was clearly the perpetrator, yet she managed to paint herself as the victim and, in turn, sabotage the actual victim. How terrifying was that?

After her internal sigh, Arabella couldn’t bear to watch the family members continue to blame themselves, so she cut in. "So, did you come to me today just to confirm this?"

"Not entirely." Mrs. Reese and the others quickly composed themselves and revealed their true purpose for finding Arabella Donovan that day.

"Actually, we were already mentally prepared for this before coming here. We also had people look into Miss Flynn’s situation, but we never expected..."

"That she had already left Jarden long ago and vanished into thin air, right?"

The Reeses were stunned for a moment. When it registered, their gazes toward Arabella Donovan were filled with even more excitement and delight.

"Yes. We discovered that after the incident back then, her parents divorced. Her mother took her and her brother and left Jarden, and their whereabouts are unknown. Even with our careful investigation, we haven’t been able to find a single trace of them."

’It would be a miracle if you could,’ Arabella thought. ’Speaking of Miss Flynn—oh, no, she should be called Miss Sloan now—she’s just a terribly unlucky, pitiful person.’

Her mother wasn’t originally from Jarden. She had married for love and moved far away to be with Mr. Flynn, the biological father of her two children.

This Mr. Flynn was an ordinary building materials merchant. When he married Sylvia’s mother, he was flat broke. The two of them supported each other through their most difficult period. Ms. Sloan bore him a son and a daughter and managed the household, while Mr. Flynn, not long after his daughter’s birth, caught a lucky break and made a fortune, becoming one of Jarden’s nouveau riche overnight. ℴℴ𝘮

There’s a saying that money corrupts men. While it’s not always true, it does hit the mark for a lot of people, and this Mr. Flynn was one of them.

With plenty of money and fueled by the intentional flattery of those around him, his vanity began to swell at a visible rate. He gradually started to feel that his wife, who had supported him through thick and thin, was no longer good enough for him. Slowly, he began to philander and indulge in a life of debauchery, even fathering several illegitimate children on the side.

Who’s to say if it was fortunate or not, but the time when Cassandra Lynch framed Sylvia Sloan for deliberately plotting to harm the Reese siblings coincided with the birth of an illegitimate son to her biological father’s favorite mistress.

At that time, he was in a deadlock: he wanted to divorce his wife to let his mistress and illegitimate son take her place, but he was unwilling to part with a single penny for the settlement.

The incident with the Reese family gave him the perfect excuse to fly off the handle. After it happened, Scumbag Flynn kicked the mother and daughter out and, in the next breath, welcomed his mistress and illegitimate son into the home.

He had wanted to keep Sylvia Sloan’s brother, but unfortunately, despite his young age, the boy knew right from wrong. He knew how to protect his mother and sister, and more importantly, he understood the principle of avoiding the spotlight to bide his time and build up strength.

As soon as the incident happened, he had deliberately started hiding some of the family’s valuables.

Once his parents divorced, he decisively took a suitcase full of valuables and fled to a distant place with his mother and sister. Both he and his sister changed their names, completely severing ties with their biological father’s family.

’Good thing Sylvia Sloan’s brother, despite his youth, was so quick-witted. Thanks to his foresight, when Sylvia, her brother, and their mother returned to their ancestral hometown, they sold the valuables and had at least some funds to fall back on. They didn’t actually end up on the streets. It’s just that...’

It’s just that...? The hearts of both families leaped into their throats in unison. Based on past experience, whenever Arabella Donovan used that kind of transition, it meant something was about to take a drastic turn for the worse.

And that was indeed the case. Sylvia Sloan’s entanglement with the Reese siblings did not end just because she left the city.

Arabella Donovan flipped through the book, pinching her fingers as if making a calculation. If the Lynch Family hadn’t seen Cassandra Lynch’s true nature ahead of schedule, if they hadn’t acknowledged Eloise Donovan so early, and if the incident in the coffee shop hadn’t happened, then Mason Reese and Sylvia Sloan would have met again in about a year.

’Because Miss Sloan had changed her name, neither of them recognized the other when they met again, and they got along exceptionally well. It wasn’t until Sandra Reese appeared that Miss Sloan suddenly realized these siblings were the very people she had kindly saved—the very culprits whose misunderstanding had led to her mother being forced into a divorce and humiliated by her scumbag father and his mistress.

’Miss Sloan, seething with resentment, found her opinion of Mason Reese plummeting. She started deliberately avoiding him. But as luck would have it, Mason had already developed feelings for her by then. How could he accept the woman he admired suddenly distancing herself for no reason? So, he went to demand an explanation from Miss Sloan. And who would have thought that their confrontation would, by pure coincidence, be witnessed by Cassandra Lynch, who had come looking for Mason.’

Everyone: "?!!" That was too much of a coincidence! Why was that menace mixed up in everything!

Everyone, now having a clear understanding of Cassandra Lynch’s true nature and actions, suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

And sure enough... ’Cassandra Lynch’s ’protagonist halo’ kicked in again. She saw Mason Reese’s feelings for Miss Sloan and, unwilling to let a fish in her pond end up in someone else’s pot, had someone secretly investigate Miss Sloan’s background. And what did she find? That she was none other than the Miss Flynn she had framed and whose credit she had stolen!’

Arabella Donovan spread her hands in a small shrug. What a coincidence, huh?

’Learning the truth made Cassandra Lynch both furious and terrified. Afraid that the two would uncover the old misunderstanding if they spent too much time together, she cooked up a vicious scheme to frame Sylvia Sloan for attempting to harm Sandra Reese again. Then, at the moment Sylvia was unable to defend herself, Cassandra would leap out and expose her as the true culprit who had "plotted to harm" the siblings all those years ago. She would claim Sylvia had only returned and gotten close to the siblings to get revenge for them causing her to be driven out by her father and forced to flee to a distant land.’

Everyone: "!!!"