Chapter 476: It’s Not Like There’s No Way

The small incident left the atmosphere between them rather awkward.

Neither of them said another word until Arabella Donovan was dropped off at the Lynch Family’s home.

By the time Eloise Donovan arrived back at the Lynch Family’s home in Gregory Sherwood’s car, Caspian Rhodes had already left after dropping Arabella off.

Her suspicions still unconfirmed, the first thing Eloise Donovan did was pull Arabella Donovan into her room.

“So? Did you figure it out? Can he also…”

Arabella Donovan neither confirmed nor denied it, but Eloise Donovan could already guess the answer from her expression.

“He really can…” Eloise Donovan trailed off, noticing something was off with her sister. “Why do you look so worried? What did he say to you? Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have let you be alone with him. I should have gone with you.”

Arabella Donovan watched Eloise Donovan’s regretful and annoyed expression, looking pensive.

“Eloise, Mr. Rhodes is clearly a good person. Why did you, our eldest and second brothers, and Dad seem so displeased with him from the very beginning?”

Of course, “the very beginning” she referred to wasn’t after they learned about her and Caspian Rhodes accidentally entering into a posthumous marriage in the original plot, but a time much earlier than that.

Before today, Arabella Donovan had never considered this, but now…

Eloise Donovan hadn’t expected Arabella Donovan to suddenly ask this. ‘What other reason could there be?’ she thought. ‘Of course, it’s because we’re worried about some stray boar coming for our family’s prized cabbage.’

She was only older than Arabella Donovan by a few hours, but she still felt her sister was young. As the older sister, she felt a sense of duty to protect her and stop any scoundrels with ill intentions from getting too close.

It was the same now. In Eloise Donovan’s mind, her sister was too young for romance; it wasn’t time for her to be thinking about such things. Saying too much would be pointless and might even pique her curiosity, which would only benefit that boar outside.

But today, Arabella Donovan was clearly not as easy to fool as usual.

“So, you all saw it. Mr. Rhodes… his attitude toward me is off, isn’t it? Not the ‘off’ between friends, but the ‘off’ between a man and a woman, right?”

“!!!”

Eloise Donovan jumped in fright. “How could you think that? Did he say something to you? Do something to you?”

The more Eloise Donovan spoke, the more agitated she became, looking as if she would grab a weapon and go settle the score with Caspian Rhodes the moment Arabella Donovan nodded.

“No, no.” Arabella Donovan was also startled by her sister’s intense reaction and quickly waved her hands. “He didn’t say or do anything. I just suddenly remembered that in the original plot, he and I… and then your attitude toward him has always been so bad. I was just wondering if there was some misunderstanding. Could your bad impression of him also be because of the original plot’s influence?”

“How is that possible? We’re not blind. That guy obviously has ill intentions toward you and is after something.”

“Uh… is it that obvious?”

Eloise Donovan suddenly realized she had let it slip again and hastily tried to backtrack. “Just stay away from him, alright? You’re still young, and it’s too early to talk about this stuff. You know better than anyone those stories about naive, love-struck girls getting completely deceived by a big bad wolf, only to be used and tossed aside. A schemer like him, with a thousand tricks up his sleeve, is not for you.”

“Ohhh…” Arabella Donovan could tell her sister genuinely had a strong aversion to Caspian Rhodes. To avoid provoking her further, she wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.

Having gotten the answer she wanted, and fearing she’d misspeak again if she stayed, Eloise Donovan offered a few simple words of comfort to Arabella Donovan and then beat a hasty retreat.

As soon as she left Arabella Donovan, Eloise Donovan immediately relayed the news to her family that Caspian Rhodes could also hear Arabella’s thoughts.

Although they had long suspected this and were mentally prepared, getting a definitive answer still infuriated them all. They couldn’t help but collectively cry out: On what grounds? He’s not part of our family, so why can he hear Serena’s thoughts? We refuse to accept this!

This was Arabella Donovan’s question as well. According to her family, the only people who could hear her thoughts were those who bore her no ill will, were of good character, and were related to her by blood or marriage.

Even the Lynch Family was only able to hear her thoughts because they had a connection through her fourth sister and had, by a twist of fate, received an exclusive New Year’s gift, which led to them being classified as “one of them.”

‘So what was the deal with Caspian Rhodes? Could it really be because of that marriage pact from the original plot? Has even The Providence judged them to be bound together?’

Before Arabella Donovan could figure it out, the matter with the Lockhart Family was temporarily resolved, and she returned home with Eloise Donovan.

「The day after they returned home, an unexpected guest arrived.」

“Mr… Dawson, and Leo, what brings you here? Is something the matter?”

Compared to their last meeting, the Dawson father and son’s attitude toward Arabella Donovan had undergone a dramatic change. There was respect mixed with their awkwardness, and gratitude mixed with their embarrassment.

“It’s nothing, we just came specially to thank Master Donovan for her guidance and help that day. If it weren’t for your warning, my son and I would have likely been completely driven apart by that bitch’s provocations…”

‘It’s not just about being driven apart,’ Arabella Donovan thought to herself. ‘If things had kept going, you would have lost your life.’

“It seems, Mr. Dawson, that you’ve found the evidence to confirm what I said that day and learned the full truth.”

Speaking of which, Dylan Dawson had mixed feelings. The show’s broadcast had just been suspended because of the human trafficking incident when he learned from his assistant that, just as he’d expected, his brother’s “wife and daughter” had immediately packed their bags to flee after hearing what had happened.

The moment he heard this, Dylan Dawson’s heart sank. You didn’t have to be a genius to figure it out. The mother and daughter were living so comfortably there, why would they suddenly decide to leave at such a critical moment? If it wasn’t a guilty conscience afraid of being exposed, what else could it be?

Because the mother and daughter had basically given themselves away, Dylan Dawson already had a good idea of the situation when he returned with his child. But when he saw the evidence with his own eyes—his brother’s wife, heavily pregnant, coming and going intimately with another man—a fire of rage still burned in his heart.

To this day, he could still recall his brother’s face. He remembered not long before the accident, the young man had grinned at him with an honest smile, saying that once things stabilized on their end, he would bring his whole family over to live a happy life together.

But while his brother was working hard, that woman had been hooking up with another man behind his back, getting pregnant with another man’s child. Afterward, she even brought that bastard to pass off as his brother’s child, coming to him to exploit the goodwill his brother had earned with his very life!

Dylan Dawson was so furious he saw red. If not for the fact that his own child was present and he still had a shred of sanity left, he would have beaten those two to death.

“My poor brother… so young, and he didn’t even leave behind a child. I’ve failed him.”

Arabella Donovan glanced at him, a cryptic smile playing on her lips. “If you truly feel bad about it, it’s not like there’s nothing that can be done.”