Chapter 410: "Mr. Sloan, How About We Test Them Out?

Chapter 410: Chapter 410: "Mr. Sloan, How About We Test Them Out?

"Hurry up and tell me!" Estelle urged anxiously.

Nathaniel chuckled, the rich sound vibrating in his chest, though he didn’t want to keep her worried. "Ethan did force me to drink it, and I took a sip. But I didn’t swallow it. I rinsed my mouth out right after, so don’t worry."

"He went to all that trouble and didn’t even check?" Estelle asked, still suspicious.

Nathaniel scoffed lightly. "He certainly wanted to."

Indeed, after Nathaniel had taken a sip of the herbal soup, Ethan had been in a frantic rush to verify if he had swallowed it. Nathaniel had been curious as to why Ethan was losing his composure over this. So, he had employed a little trick, a sleight of hand to make Ethan mistakenly believe he had finished the bowl.

At that, a look of extreme, unexpected delight had washed over Ethan’s face. The joy had been so jarring that anyone could tell something was amiss. However, once Ethan was certain Nathaniel had ingested the soup, he hadn’t bothered hiding his reaction. Muttering the word ’good’ several times in succession, Ethan had walked away in visible excitement.

Snapping back to the present, Nathaniel smiled faintly. "I had Zane take the soup to check its ingredients. He said it needs to be tested in a lab, so it probably won’t be that quick."

Estelle then recounted Thea’s bizarre display of ’confidence.’

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes. "Mrs. Sloan... it seems we’re being targeted."

"You’re being targeted, not us," Estelle corrected him.

Given Ethan and Thea’s simultaneous abnormal behavior, coupled with that bowl of herbal soup, the same theory surfaced in both of their minds—there was definitely something in that soup. Ethan hadn’t hidden his true colors after watching Nathaniel drink it, and Thea was absolutely certain that Nathaniel had already fallen in love with her.

"Could it be..." A sudden thought struck Estelle. "Could there be some kind of drug in that soup that alters your mind?"

"Zane probably won’t have the results until tomorrow evening," Nathaniel said, his gaze growing sharp. "They likely want to pull some sort of stunt at the Evernight International annual gala..."

Estelle suddenly blinked playfully. "Mr. Sloan, why don’t we test the waters?"

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow. "My thoughts exactly."

At the Sloan family villa.

Laura had been waiting for Ethan to return. "Did he drink it?!" she asked, visibly thrilled.

"Of course," Ethan replied, beaming. "I watched him swallow it myself."

"That’s good, that’s good..." It was as if a massive weight had finally been lifted from Laura’s chest. She let out a long sigh, repeatedly muttering her relief.

"Then, about Evernight International’s annual gala in three days..." Laura hinted.

Ethan stroked his chin. "I’ll have Nathaniel add Theodore’s name to the list, but Estelle is going to be a problem."

"Don’t worry about that, with that drug..." Laura suggested slyly. "From now on, Nathaniel will only love Thea. What kind of waves can Estelle make all on her own? When the gala comes around, we just have to find a way to keep her locked up at home. Once everything is settled on our end, it won’t matter how capable Estelle is; it’ll be too late for her to do anything."

"Alright, we’ll do as you say."

Ethan and Laura were basking in the joy of their impending success when a phone call suddenly interrupted them.

Thea’s anxious voice came through the speaker. "Uncle Sloan, Aunt Sloan! Nathaniel... he hasn’t changed at all! Does that drug actually work?"

What?

The two of them were stunned. Laura, in particular, lunged forward and snatched the phone. "How is that possible!"

"It’s true..." Thea grew more aggrieved the more she thought about it. They had promised that Nathaniel would fall in love with her. Why was it that even after taking the drug, Nathaniel only had Estelle on his mind?

She recounted everything that had just happened at the studio. After hanging up the phone, Laura felt dizzy and overwhelmed.

Her previous excitement faded, replaced by a cold sweat. "I-it can’t be ineffective, right? We only had a tiny bit of that drug left. If Nathaniel... Did he actually drink it or not?! Didn’t you see it with your own eyes!"

Ethan didn’t appreciate Laura speaking to him in that tone. It made him feel like he was losing his masculine dignity. In the past, he had always felt that Miranda was too opinionated, which was why he had never liked her. Back then, Laura had been gentle, meek, and obedient, perfectly catering to his chauvinistic ego.

But now, she was becoming increasingly insolent!

However, Ethan didn’t have time to bicker about that right now. He was equally shocked that the drug hadn’t taken effect.

"I really did watch Nathaniel drink it... It didn’t work? How could it not work..."

Ethan repeatedly replayed the scene in his head: Nathaniel had tilted his head back, downed it in one breath, his Adam’s apple had bobbed as he swallowed, and then Ethan had checked the empty bowl...

"Could it be that the drug takes time to kick in?" Ethan frowned. "The person who gave it to us said it would definitely take effect within three days, but they didn’t say exactly how long. Could it just be that it hasn’t been long enough?"

Laura gritted her teeth. "Then... then we’ll have Thea test him again tomorrow!"

Back at the studio.

"But," Nathaniel asked, a smile lingering in his eyes, "how does Mrs. Sloan plan to test the waters?"

Estelle rested her chin on her hand. "That will require your cooperation.

"Judging from Ethan and Thea’s behavior, I’ll hazard a guess—they both believe they can control you, or even manipulate your thoughts and memories to make you think you’re in love with Thea.

"If Thea didn’t believe that to be true, why would she be so arrogant? Why would she make such a huge spectacle of calling me a ’cast-aside wife’ at the studio?"

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes, a glint of coldness flashing through them.

Estelle, on the other hand, was unfazed. "Don’t be mad. I’m just saying that Thea shouldn’t be this stupid. She dared to show off because, firstly, she couldn’t hold it in anymore, and secondly, she has confidence.

"From her perspective, she believes you are the source of that confidence.

"She thinks you love her the most. She assumes your memories have been altered and automatically ’corrected.’ In her mind, she believes your memories now show the two of you as a deeply in-love couple, while I’m just some woman who used underhanded tricks to steal her spot.

"Therefore, it’s only natural for her to think you’d take her side, because she firmly believes the drug has altered your mind."

Estelle concluded her analysis and asked, "Does that make sense?"

It did. This perfectly explained Thea’s abnormal behavior. Only if Thea was absolutely certain that Nathaniel was her steadfast backer would she act so brazenly. In reality, of course, that was impossible. The only reason she’d think that way had to be connected to the bowl of herbal soup Ethan had given him.

Which meant...

"There is indeed a type of drug out there," Nathaniel said, his voice raspy and icy. "And Ethan is trying to use it to control me."

"Mhm..." Estelle tapped her fingertips against the table. "For now, we can only guess that the drug messes with your memory and thoughts. But as for anything else, we can’t be sure.

"Ethan definitely wouldn’t drug you just to make you fall in love with Thea. He probably has other plans. For instance, making you forget your true identity? However..."

Estelle suddenly shifted gears, flashing a sly smile. "We can start with Thea to see if our hypothesis is correct."