Chapter 497: A Sudden Turn of Events

Mr. Donovan’s hand, resting on the doorknob, froze in midair. Everyone else spun around to look.

“What is it?”

“Something’s not right. We have so many people guarding the neighborhood. They’re supposed to call over the slightest disturbance. But these people are already at our front door…” And there wasn’t a single peep from outside.

The moment Arabella spoke, everyone broke out in goosebumps.

The bodyguards assigned to their close protection immediately grabbed their phones, trying to call their colleagues outside, but found they couldn’t get through at all.

At the same time, the “Kerr mother and son” waiting outside seemed to sense something was amiss inside and began shouting loudly again.

Listening to the shouting, the people inside—whether it was a psychological effect or not—felt an inexplicable chill, a hair-raising sense of dread. This feeling intensified, especially when the people outside started pounding on the door.

“What should we do? Did the calls go through?”

“They won’t connect. It’s like the signal here is being jammed. We can’t send calls or texts.”

“Then what are we going to do? This door… it should hold for a while, right?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! I picked this door myself. It’s made of imported steel from Draven, practically a bulletproof setup. The main selling point is that it’s impervious to blades and fire!”

Mr. Donovan had barely finished speaking when the door was smashed open from the outside with a loud BANG. In an instant, all eyes were on him, as if to ask: how could he be so unreliable? He must have been ripped off.

Mr. Donovan: “…” ‘I’m going to have a word with that shopkeeper later,’ he thought. ‘Product not as described! One star! It has to be one star!’

Setting aside Mr. Donovan’s indignation, the people behind the broken door were, as expected, not the real Kerr mother and son. Instead, it was Guinevere Rhodes—whom the police had been searching for in vain—and a group of people completely unknown to Arabella Donovan.

In fact, aside from Guinevere Rhodes in the lead, the people following her were in a very strange state. Their eyes were vacant, their movements stiff. They looked less like living people and more like a collection of soulless marionettes.

Even though everyone had been mentally prepared, they couldn’t stop their hearts from lurching at the sight of these people.

Guinevere Rhodes led the group as if she had some incredible backing, her chin held high with the smug, overbearing look of a petty villain who had just come into power.

“Hand over the person, and I can let you live.”

In the context of the current scene, the line itself wasn’t out of place, yet it still left Arabella Donovan completely baffled.

‘Seriously? Now that this woman knows she’s the protagonist chosen by The Providence, she must really think the world is her oyster, talking so aggressively! I mean, come on, you’re not the only one who’s been chosen as the protagonist. Your predecessor is still rotting in a jail cell right now. Is that really something to be proud of?’

Hearing Arabella Donovan’s inner thoughts so abruptly again, the Donovan family almost lost their composure.

But once they calmed down and thought about it, they realized her words weren’t without reason. These so-called “protagonists” were less children of destiny and more like disposable tools.

Take the woman in front of them, for instance. If she didn’t still possess some value to be exploited, she would have likely been cast aside like the other “protagonists,” becoming a disposable pawn.

But this disposable pawn could indeed threaten Arabella Donovan’s safety right now, and they had to guard against her!

When Guinevere Rhodes saw that instead of showing fear after her threat, the Donovan family was looking at her with mocking, half-smiling expressions, she flew into a rage. She was convinced they were deliberately making fun of her.

“How dare you peasants laugh at me! You’re just like this woman—a bunch of brainless fools. Daring to oppose me… I see you all have a death wish!”

‘Oh, right, right, right. “How dare you oppose me, Nicholas the Archdemon! I see you have a death wish!” I knew those lines sounded familiar. Aren’t they classic villain dialogue? You’re supposed to be the protagonist, but you’re spouting villain lines and doing villainous things. Are you sure that’s okay?’

The Donovan Family: Pfft…

Their laughter made Guinevere Rhodes even more furious. “Fine, fine, fine! Since you insist on opposing me for this little slut, I’ll oblige you.”

The moment Guinevere Rhodes finished speaking, the bodyguards who had been surrounding the Donovan family instantly moved to stand in front of them, facing off against the people Guinevere had brought.

The tense atmosphere was palpable, ready to erupt at any moment. Afterward, no one could quite tell who made the first move.

By the time Arabella Donovan processed what was happening, the room had already descended into chaos.

The people Guinevere Rhodes had brought with her didn’t seem normal to begin with. Although their fighting skills were no match for the bodyguards Ron Cole had assigned to Arabella Donovan, even ordinary people become difficult to handle when they fight without fear for their own lives—to say nothing of the fact that these people seemed to have some kind of buff granted by The Providence.

The two sides were truly locked in a stalemate. Arabella Donovan was eager to jump in and help, but the Donovan family all remembered what Caspian Rhodes had said. Even knowing that Arabella could genuinely be of assistance, they formed a tight defensive circle around her, refusing to let her participate. They were terrified that if a real fight broke out and something unexpected happened to her, it would be too late for regrets.

However, just because Arabella couldn’t get involved didn’t mean *they* couldn’t.

Seeing that the people Guinevere Rhodes had brought were all tied up in the fight, leaving Guinevere herself isolated, Mr. Donovan and the others exchanged a look. The three of them—father and sons—immediately moved to encircle her from three different directions.

Guinevere Rhodes seemed surprised that Arabella Donovan had so many people protecting her. She was even more shocked that the intimidating-looking people she’d brought couldn’t even defeat Arabella’s bodyguards. They were utterly useless to the extreme.

Now, seeing the men of the Donovan family closing in on her, she couldn’t help but feel a little panicked.

“What do you think you’re doing? I’m telling you, I’m a Rhodes! I’m also the protagonist handpicked by heaven itself, born under its divine protection! If you dare to touch a single hair on my head, not only will the Rhodes Family come after you, but heaven itself will punish you! You’ll all be cursed with terrible luck!”

The Donovan men laughed at her words. “Is that so? In that case, we’ll just have to see for ourselves what kind of terrible luck we’ll have after we mess with you.”

“Stay back, stay away from me!” Guinevere Rhodes shrieked, seeing that her words had not deterred them in the slightest and they were, in fact, getting closer.

Even though it was hardly the right time or place, Arabella Donovan couldn’t stop her train of thought from going off the rails as she watched the scene unfold.

‘She’s screaming like some virtuous maiden being harassed by thugs.’

The trio of thugs: “…”

‘Then again, getting harassed is a classic scene reserved for the female lead, so I guess… it fits?’

The Donovan Family: “…” ‘Stop, stop! If she keeps this up, we’ll actually become the thugs!’

Joking aside, Arabella Donovan still sensed that something wasn’t right, especially when she saw Justin Donovan and the others successfully capture Guinevere Rhodes.

‘Something’s wrong. This is way too wrong. Did The Providence go to all this trouble staging this whole scene just so she could lead this huge group of people here to offer themselves up for slaughter? No matter how you look at it, this was all way too easy, wasn’t it?’

Before Arabella Donovan and the others could dwell on it, a loud shout suddenly rang out from beyond the door.

“Look out behind you!”