Chapter 288: Another Possibility

Chapter 288: Chapter 288: Another Possibility

It was already nine o’clock when Vivian Lowell returned home.

Worried that Vivian hadn’t eaten well at the banquet or that the food hadn’t suited her taste, Ms. Shaw had prepared some dessert as a late-night snack.

"I have white fungus stewed with rock sugar and pear, as well as some bird’s nest soup. Would you like to eat something before bed, Mrs. Faulkner? It’s still early, so you’ll have plenty of time to digest it," Ms. Shaw offered warmly.

Vivian’s appetite that night really had been mediocre—she had, after all, run into quite a few people she disliked. Hearing Ms. Shaw’s offer, she readily agreed.

"I’ll have a bowl of the pear stew and a bowl of the bird’s nest. Not too much, though. It’s mostly liquid, and I don’t want to be getting up to use the restroom all night!" Vivian joked playfully.

Ms. Shaw smiled and nodded. Nearby, Grandma Faulkner also asked about the evening’s events.

"How did it go? What kind of person is that old man’s granddaughter? Is she easy to get along with?" After asking, Grandma Faulkner turned down the volume of the Peking opera playing on the television.

"Well..." Hearing Grandma Faulkner bring it up, Vivian couldn’t help but shake her head with a bitter smile. She gave a rough summary of what had happened that night, along with the deductions she and Julian Faulkner had made.

"Mr. Drake definitely has his own plans! And I firmly believe that under his watchful eye, Shelly Lowell won’t be able to pull any major stunts!"

However, Grandma Faulkner fell silent for a long time. It was as if she hadn’t heard Vivian at all; she was lost in thought, pondering something unknown.

Vivian was startled. Afraid that the shock had made the elderly woman physically uncomfortable, she quickly asked, "Grandma? Are you alright?"

Grandma Faulkner finally snapped back to reality and spoke to Vivian earnestly, "Vivian. It’s nothing. I just think that the Drake family’s situation must be quite complicated.

"That old man definitely has his own ideas. But never mind that. Although this matter involves you, you shouldn’t be dragged too deeply into it.

"Just focus on taking good care of yourself. If you run into any trouble, you must tell Julian.

"You two are husband and wife; you shouldn’t be afraid of inconveniencing each other. Whenever something happens, you’re supposed to help each other solve it, aren’t you?"

Vivian smiled and nodded. Grandma Faulkner had always been such a wonderful person.

"I know, Grandma," Vivian promised. She urged her to get some rest early, then headed upstairs with Julian.

Back in their bedroom, Yuumi greeted Vivian enthusiastically. After playing with the cat for a while using a teaser wand, Vivian started scrolling through her phone.

Sure enough, X had completely blown up. Everyone was discussing how the "Miss Drake" introduced at the Drake family’s homecoming banquet tonight turned out to be Shelly Lowell!

The Drakes seemed to have hired a PR team. The content trending on X was mostly aimed at clearing up Shelly’s past scandals.

After all, Vivian had previously exposed some of Shelly’s dirty laundry—like her associating with wealthy sugar daddies during her school days, the leaked private photos, and the incident where Shelly allegedly tampered with an elevator in an attempt to kill Vivian and Julian. The Drake family systematically clarified all of it.

They claimed that Shelly was still in college at the time, young and just engaging in normal dating! As for the explicit photos, they argued that many people took pictures like that just for fun. Shelly herself supposedly had no idea how they were leaked, and she certainly wasn’t a bad student! Regarding the elevator incident, they wrote it off as a mere accident where the elevator suddenly stalled; the threats she made were just spoken in anger, and she hadn’t actually done anything!

In short, every single incident seemed to be perfectly rationalized by the entertainment accounts.

And beneath every post on X, the comment sections were heavily moderated, much like toxic fan culture controlling the narrative. The comments constantly praised Shelly for actually being a great person who had endured a hard life and worked tirelessly to succeed in her studies. They complimented her beauty and marveled at how, after all the twists and turns, her true identity turned out to be a daughter of the Drake family.

Of course, there were skeptics. However, Vivian noticed that as soon as these questioning comments were posted, they were deleted almost immediately, failing to make even a ripple.

The majority of the remaining discussion centered around Shelly’s past. Wasn’t she previously the Lowell family’s daughter? Why hadn’t a DNA test been done back then, and how was she suddenly a daughter of the Drake family now? Many found it bizarre and questioned Shelly’s identity.

In response, Joy Drake posted the results of a DNA test online, which explicitly proved a biological grandfather-granddaughter relationship between Shelly and Mr. Drake!

Joy also stated that the Lowell family either never did a DNA test or had messed it up, suggesting that the real Miss Lowell might have been adopted by another family from the orphanage. In short, Shelly belonged to the Drakes, not the Lowells!

This explanation seemed entirely logical. With Joy personally stepping forward and providing the DNA test as proof, the online chatter quickly died down.

But... Vivian spotted another theory floating around.

"That doesn’t add up, does it? I remember at the very beginning, Mrs. Faulkner was the Lowell family’s daughter. Then Shelly was found, and Mrs. Faulkner was kicked out of the house."

"If that’s the case, Shelly and Mrs. Faulkner must have had their identities swapped back then. Mrs. Faulkner should have been the one adopted by that family. If we follow that logic..."

"Could Mrs. Faulkner, who still doesn’t know who her biological parents are, actually be the true daughter of the Drake family? But then how do you explain the DNA test?"

"Were the Lowells always this careless? They just assumed Shelly was their daughter without even doing a DNA test, and immediately kicked Mrs. Faulkner out? This whole thing is terrifying in hindsight!"

After this user raised their suspicions, someone replied below.

"To the commenter above, your suspicions are totally valid! But I guess the Lowell family was just never that smart to begin with? Otherwise, all those things wouldn’t have happened to them later on!"

"Wait! If Mrs. Faulkner is the real Drake family heiress, and Shelly has managed to worm her way in now, then this situation truly is chilling!"

"..."

After reading the discussion, Vivian’s phone dropped to the floor with a loud THUD. She was completely stunned. This was another possibility—one she hadn’t considered at all.

In her past life, Vivian had personally handled the DNA test between Shelly and the Lowell family. Coupled with Shelly’s later illness, Vivian could say with absolute certainty that Shelly was not a member of the Drake family.

So, what exactly did the Drakes use to determine if Shelly was that child from back then? Was it the adoption records from the orphanage? That was possible. By using the adoption records, the Drake family could have tracked down the child involved in the incident and the family that adopted her. From there, they found Shelly, learned about her background, and confirmed she was adopted. Thus, they concluded Shelly belonged to the Drake family.

But another problem arose. Shelly had been taken back to the Lowells long before the Drake family came looking for her, which had exposed the hospital mix-up at birth between Shelly and Vivian.

With that in mind, Shelly shouldn’t be a Drake. So who was the real Drake family member?

Vivian thought of herself. She remembered the dazed, stunned expressions on Sylvia Drake and Finn Drake’s faces the very first time they laid eyes on her.