Chapter 290: The Truth of the Past

Once Vivian figured it out, her mood immediately improved.

Julian was right!

Regardless of the outcome, she needed to be clear on who her true family was and who had ulterior motives!

Someone like Mr. Drake—whether they were blood-related or not—was already like Eleanor in Vivian’s heart; at the very least, he was a close friend. Meanwhile, Joy Drake and Shelly Lowell were malicious entities. She had to stay constantly vigilant and absolutely never give them a chance to exploit any vulnerabilities!

That night, Vivian slept very well.

Over the following two days, Thursday and Friday, many people interested in Shelly’s situation or those trying to fish for information from Vivian ended up failing. Vivian barely paid them any attention.

When Eleanor expressed her concern, Vivian simply replied that she trusted Mr. Drake.

“It’s fine. Mr. Drake is a shrewd man. Shelly definitely won’t be able to fool him! Perhaps he’s doing this as part of a deeper scheme? We just need to wait and see!” Vivian explained.

Eleanor had only been worried for Vivian’s sake. Seeing that her friend had a plan, Eleanor didn’t press the matter.

Saturday arrived in the blink of an eye. Vivian woke up bright and early, arriving at the foot of Briarmont by eight-thirty. As soon as she got there, she saw that Henry Sterling had already arrived.

Henry had set up a booth at the mountain’s entrance, with signs indicating a charity event today. People could participate simply by signing up at the entrance. Many people actually had no idea about the charity event and were just out for a Saturday hike to exercise, but upon seeing the banners, they came over to join the fun.

“Reaching the summit of Briarmont will donate neutering quotas and cat food to urban stray animals. So it’s an event organized by Aethelburg University! That’s one of the most prestigious universities in Veridia! I want to sign up!”

“I want to sign up too! Not for anything else, but hehe, look at that handsome guy helping people register. I want to go over and ask for his contact info!”

Vivian overheard the discussion between the two girls, who then eagerly walked toward Henry.

Perhaps due to Henry’s good looks and Aethelburg University’s reputation, quite a few people were signing up. Vivian didn’t crowd in with the rest of them. Instead, she sat on a nearby bench to wait for Eleanor and Mr. Drake to arrive.

They arrived very quickly. Vivian and Julian had just sat down, and Julian had only just opened a bottle of mineral water for her to take two sips before the others began showing up one after another.

“Vivian!” Eleanor called out. Behind her, Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes also greeted Vivian and Julian.

As for Mr. Drake, he was accompanied by two burly, tall men who looked like they had excellent stamina. They looked a bit like bodyguards! Vivian figured that since Mr. Drake had a special status and was advanced in age, it was better to be careful while hiking, hence the bodyguards.

“Hello, Mr. Drake,” Vivian stood up and greeted him.

Mr. Drake responded with a warm smile. The Rhodes family also came over to greet him. After the groups exchanged pleasantries and got acquainted, they began the hike together.

Henry was also there during the climb. However, he was surrounded by quite a few girls. Some asked if he was a student at Aethelburg University, while others outright asked for his contact information.

Henry answered their questions politely, treating everyone with his usual gentle and amiable demeanor. But when it came to giving out his contact info, he declined.

“If you’re interested in charity work, you can follow our Aethelburg University Animal Protection Organization’s WhatsApp Official Account later. You might even get the chance to adopt a cat.”

Henry smoothly changed the subject, deliberately interpreting their requests for his contact info as an eagerness to do charity work with him. This gave the girls a graceful out. The shyer, more timid ones were too embarrassed to press the issue further.

But among the group, a girl with short pink hair blinked and said, “Handsome, I’m only a tiny bit interested in charity! The reason I signed up with you is because I’m interested in you! Doing charity is just a bonus because of that. I’ll follow the WhatsApp Official Account, sure. But can I also get your personal WhatsApp?”

The girl was very straightforward. As she smiled at Henry, her two little canine teeth showed, making her look incredibly cute and energetic.

Hearing her words, the other girls around Henry who had already given up suddenly felt tempted to try again. If someone else could get his WhatsApp, they wanted it too!

“I…” Henry was out of options now. He could only sigh and say, “I already have a girl I like, and I’m currently pursuing her. So… I’m sorry. I can’t agree to your requests. I want to give all my heart and soul to liking her.”

The girls were dealt a huge blow upon hearing this, except for the pink-haired girl, who became even more intrigued. She muttered, “You’re still pursuing her, which means you’re still single! How about I leave you my WhatsApp number? If you get rejected, you can come find me!”

Henry shook his head, expressing his firm resolve. With that, the pink-haired girl had no choice but to give up.

Not far away, Vivian took in everything that had just happened up ahead. Caught between laughter and tears, she stole a glance at Eleanor.

Eleanor was chatting with her parents about the pet hospital and her experiences catching stray cats.

Mr. Rhodes doted on his daughter the most and couldn’t help but interject, “Catching cats is too dangerous! Some stray cats are terrified of people. They don’t know you’re trying to help them, and they might scratch you! Eleanor, make sure you take protective measures when catching them. Do not get hurt! The weather is getting hot now, so don’t just wait around outside blindly. Find a place with air conditioning to stay in!”

Mrs. Rhodes nodded in agreement. “Exactly! You can always hire a few people to catch them for you later. You just stay in the hospital and do the surgeries for the kitties!”

Parents were always terrified of their children suffering or getting hurt. Their hearts ached for her.

Eleanor nodded and cheerfully agreed, but Vivian could tell that she definitely still wanted to handle these things hands-on.

As they walked, they were nearing the halfway point up the mountain. Worried about Vivian’s condition, Julian handed her a piece of chocolate to replenish her energy.

“Are you tired? There’s a bench ahead. Do you want to sit down and rest for a bit?”

Vivian wasn’t very tired. However, there were too many people on the way up. It was a bit noisy, and she hadn’t had a chance to speak with Mr. Drake yet.

“Alright,” Vivian agreed, then turned to Eleanor. “Eleanor, I want to rest for a while. If you guys still have energy, keep going! You don’t have to wait for me.”

“No way!” Eleanor was unhappy hearing this. She pointed to a few benches over there and said, “You guys take one, and my parents and I will take another. That works perfectly. Vivian, you have my godson in your belly. I have to protect you properly!”

Godson already?

Vivian was highly amused and said, “Alright then, I’ll listen to whatever you say. Who asked my Eleanor to be so cute!”

Eleanor smiled too. She rubbed her head shyly, then led her parents to sit on a bench a little further away from Vivian.

After sitting down, Henry glanced back at Eleanor’s direction a few times before continuing forward. Finally, it became quiet around Vivian. There were still people occasionally hiking up from the bottom of the mountain, but they were in the minority now. Most of them were strangers anyway, so there was no need to worry about them overhearing anything.

“Mr. Drake…” Vivian found an opportunity to speak, but she suddenly paused, seemingly unsure of what to say.

Instead, it was Mr. Drake who smiled. He set his cane aside and spoke to Vivian earnestly, “You already know, don’t you? About you, about our situation.”

“Mhm…” Vivian nodded. Looking at Mr. Drake’s kind and affectionate demeanor, she felt her nose start to tingle with emotion.

“Since you know, I won’t say much more about it. It should be mostly as you guessed. However… there are some things that you don’t know.”

Vivian had already learned about her true origins in her previous life. Her parents had died in a car crash, making her a posthumous child. She was switched at the hospital and grew up in the Lowell Family. Later, after Shelly officially reunited with her biological family, Vivian left the Lowell family in this life. But regarding what happened before all that, Vivian was entirely in the dark.

Back then, Vivian’s parents had returned to Veridia to handle some projects and simultaneously scout out the prospects of the Drake Family expanding their business back to the home country. At that time, Veridia was far less developed than it was now.

The Drakes living abroad did not support her parents’ idea. They also opposed Mr. Drake giving his children so much authority and wanted to carve up some of the Drake Family’s assets for themselves. Naturally, Mr. Drake refused. The Drake Family was an empire he had built single-handedly. Even though the collateral branches of the family had made some contributions, they had never been involved in the core operations from the beginning. It was absolutely unrealistic for them to demand a larger share of the profits when they had done so little.

Using his own prestige, Mr. Drake suppressed the dissenting voices and supported his daughter and son-in-law’s return to Veridia for the scouting trip!

Mr. Drake thought everything would go smoothly after quelling the opposition. But not long after, he received the tragic news of his daughter and son-in-law dying in a car crash. He was told that even his granddaughter, who had been barely eight months along in the womb, hadn’t survived.

They had originally planned for the child to be born in Veridia and acquire Veridian citizenship. This was supposed to serve as the catalyst for the Drake Family’s return to Veridia, allowing the child to grow up there, making everything fall perfectly into place.

But an accident happened!

Whenever he spoke of this, Mr. Drake felt not only sorrow but also profound anger.

Gripping his cane tightly, he said to Vivian, “I was so consumed by grief back then. My only thought was to lay them to rest so they could find peace. It wasn’t until a long time later that I discovered their car crash had been orchestrated by someone!”

Years later, Mr. Drake had tracked down the files of the car crash case. The records stated that the at-fault driver—the man who crashed into his daughter and son-in-law’s car—had a terminal illness and was dying. Thus, he wanted to take revenge on society and drag others down with him. As a result, Mr. Drake’s daughter and son-in-law had tragically become his collateral damage.

It all seemed logical and reasonable on paper. What didn’t add up was that a few years later, the driver’s wife and children suddenly started living a life of luxury!

The wife was originally a laid-off factory worker. After losing her job, she could only work as a low-level employee at a supermarket, earning a meager salary of one or two thousand a month. It was the kind of income where just raising a pair of children would be a severe struggle!

In fact, after the driver died, they had relied on the tiny bit of inheritance he left behind, and their lives truly had been very tight. But after three to five years of struggling, the driver’s wife publicly claimed that she had won the lottery! She bought a new house, sent both her son and daughter to elite private schools, and was even planning to immigrate!

When Mr. Drake accidentally learned of this news, he realized something was wrong. After launching an investigation, he discovered that the woman had never won any lottery!

That money was blood money—paid by someone who had hired her husband to intentionally ram his car into his daughter and son-in-law’s vehicle!

“This matter was handled incredibly covertly. Even with my resources, I couldn’t dig up much substantial evidence over the years. However, I did provide some ‘assistance’ regarding their family’s immigration. Right now, they are sitting in a foreign prison. Heh, if you do wicked deeds, you must be punished!”

Mr. Drake practically gritted his teeth as he said this. He then continued, “Unfortunately, they didn’t know the true identity of the person who paid them either. They only had a phone number. So many years had passed, and the number was completely untraceable. It wasn’t until the last year or two that I finally found some new leads.

“Certain people within the Drake Family have long been dissatisfied with my absolute control over the family’s power. They were the ones who orchestrated that incident back then! They didn’t want to return to Veridia! They were terrified that my daughter would eventually take over the Drake Family and damage their interests.

“My daughter… she was murdered!”