Chapter 475: Ignorance is Bliss

A piercing screech of brakes split the air. Sitting in the passenger seat, Arabella Donovan was thrown forward, then yanked back by the seatbelt, bouncing twice.

Badly startled by Arabella Donovan’s shocking words, Caspian Rhodes finally, belatedly, understood why the Donovan Family’s attitude toward him had grown increasingly hostile after the ancestral worship ceremony. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but his face remained impassive as he tried to patch things up.

“Sorry, a cat just darted out and startled me. Are you okay?”

But this time, Arabella Donovan wasn’t as easily fooled as she had been before. Instead, she said quietly, “Mr. Rhodes… so you really can hear what I’m thinking.”

!!!

Caspian Rhodes slammed on the brakes again, pulling the car over to the side of the road.

“Are… are you kidding me?”

“Mr. Rhodes, do I look like I’m kidding?”

Caspian Rhodes met Arabella Donovan’s gaze and remained silent for a long moment before finally admitting defeat.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

Caspian Rhodes wanted to say he didn’t mean to, but he felt the words were too flimsy. Whether it was intentional or not, he had invaded her privacy. That was an indisputable fact.

Arabella Donovan hadn’t expected him to apologize so directly and without hesitation. She was stunned for a long moment before she let out a snort of laughter.

“I haven’t even done anything yet, so why do you look like the sky is falling?”

Caspian Rhodes was a little surprised by her reaction. “You’re not angry?”

“Why would I be angry? And even if I wanted to be, how could I manage it? So many people can hear my thoughts, and they’re all my blood relatives and elders. Who am I supposed to get angry with? What’s the point?”

Hearing her say that actually made Caspian Rhodes even more worried about her.

“I’m not your relative, and I’m not your elder. If you’re angry, you can take it all out on me. Don’t bottle it up.”

Arabella Donovan froze, then laughed even more happily.

“I’m really not angry. Maybe at first I was a little… mortified, but after I calmed down and thought about it, it didn’t seem so hard to accept. Even though having my privacy invaded is definitely cringe-worthy, it’s undeniable that thanks to this, the fates of many people have changed for the better. That’s enough. And…”

Arabella Donovan glanced at the man beside her and let out a long breath. “And besides, maybe subconsciously I didn’t want to know about this too soon. Sometimes, the more you know, the less happy you are, right? In life, ignorance can be bliss.”

Arabella Donovan had done a lot of thinking at home these past few days. If she had known from the start that her thoughts could be heard, her mood and actions would have inevitably been affected, even if she wouldn’t have held back on important matters. She would have felt constrained and overly cautious, a far cry from her previous carefree self.

At the end of the day, everything has its pros and cons; it all depends on how the person involved looks at it.

Fortunately, Arabella Donovan wasn’t the type to get hung up on things. Since it had already happened, there was no point in obsessing over it. It was better to just let it go.

Caspian Rhodes could tell she was speaking from the heart, and the anxiety he felt began to ease. “That makes sense.”

Something suddenly occurred to Arabella Donovan. She whipped her head around to stare into Caspian Rhodes’s eyes. “So, when you said before that I wear my heart on my sleeve, that was all a lie? You could actually hear my thoughts the whole time.”

“I… guess so.”

‘Hmph, I knew my acting skills were pretty good! I’m not a three-year-old, how could I really wear my heart on my sleeve?’

Caspian Rhodes glanced at her smug expression, which was, in fact, a perfect reflection of her every thought. He really couldn’t bring himself to tell the outrageous lie that her acting was actually good.

Having successfully cheered herself up, Arabella Donovan gloated for a while before she seemed to remember something. She turned to Caspian Rhodes, her expression serious. “When did you start hearing my thoughts?”

“From the beginning.”

“The beginning?”

At this point, Caspian Rhodes no longer held anything back and laid all his cards on the table.

“Actually, the first time we met wasn’t on your second brother’s film set. It was at the restaurant where your fourth sister worked.”

“The restaurant where my fourth sister worked?” Arabella Donovan thought for a long moment before remembering when her sister had ever worked at a restaurant. Her eyes widened.

“That long ago!”

“Yes. I happened to be in Stroven City for a business meeting, and the other party chose the very restaurant where your fourth sister was working. I had just walked in the door when I heard you muttering about your relationship with your fourth sister and Cassandra Lynch. Solara is my cousin, and while I don’t know Cassandra Lynch well, I had met her a few times. So when you mentioned the Lynch Family’s affairs, I immediately put two and two together.”

“So when you invited me to Lynch’s company to do a feng shui reading, that was premeditated too. You wanted me to get in touch with the Lynch Family as much as possible and tell them the truth?”

“Mhm.”

“No wonder.” It all clicked for Arabella Donovan. She’d been wondering why things were always so coincidental. Every time she was mentally plotting how to find this person or that person, Mr. Rhodes would appear at just the right moment to give her an opening and offer help.

And to think she’d always thought that for a big boss, Mr. Rhodes seemed to have nothing better to do than wander around all day, looking like a total slacker.

Caspian Rhodes: “…” He really was very busy. If it weren’t for orchestrating “chance” encounters with a certain someone to listen in on the drama, pulling all-nighters at work was a regular, regular occurrence!

With her long-held questions finally answered, Arabella Donovan felt a sense of peace, as if a weight had finally been lifted. But while she breathed a sigh of relief, she also felt a strange sense of loss, prompting another, deeper sigh.

Seeing this, Caspian Rhodes’s heart leaped into his throat again. “Did something I did before make you angry? I apologize.”

But Arabella Donovan shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I just think it’s a little unfair. All of you can hear what I’m thinking, but I can’t hear what any of you are thinking.”

“…”

Caspian Rhodes really didn’t know how to comfort her about this. After a long silence, he finally managed to squeeze out, “It’s okay. From now on, if there’s anything you want to know, you can just ask me. I’ll tell you anything and everything.”

Arabella Donovan didn’t seem to expect him to say that. On a sudden impulse, she blurted out, “Mr. Rhodes, are you comforting me, or are you… flirting with me?”

As soon as the words were out, both of them in the car fell silent.

This was especially true for Caspian Rhodes. He suddenly recalled something Arabella had thought before—in the original plotline, he was supposed to die a sickly young man, and his grandparents and parents, heeding the words of a charlatan, would find him a partner for a ghost marriage. That partner was…

“I’m sorry. If anything I said offended you, you can tell me directly. I’ll be more careful.”

“No, no, it’s fine! I was just kidding. You didn’t offend me, really, really!”

Caspian Rhodes: “…”

Arabella Donovan: “…”