I Read Their Tragic Fates, and My Family Reads My Mind?

Hector Donovan still had some sense about him as he approached Genevieve Gallagher, deliberately choosing an angle that kept his back to Arabella Donovan.

He thought that would be foolproof, but who would have guessed he’d still almost been recognized?

For a moment, Hector Donovan didn’t know whether to be happy or frustrated. He hurriedly thrust the last glass of champagne on his tray into Genevieve Gallagher’s hand and walked away without looking back, forcing himself to appear calm.

Genevieve Gallagher looked at the champagne and handkerchief in her hand. After a moment’s thought, she folded the handkerchief neatly and put it away carefully.

To an onlooker, the scene might have seemed a little intimate. But Arabella Donovan, who already held the "script" and had witnessed the life laid out for Genevieve, understood the true meaning behind her action.

’Sigh. She’s received so little kindness growing up that she treasures even a small handkerchief from a stranger. It’s so sad, I could just cry! She’s just starved for love, so what’s wrong with giving her a little? She’s such a wonderful, outstanding young woman, but her crazy mom has gaslit her so much that she’s lost all her confidence.’

Genevieve Gallagher had always been invisible in the Gallagher family. Her father didn’t dote on her, and her mother didn’t love her. Despite her status as a young lady of the house, she lived a life worse than any of the maids. At least the maids didn’t have to endure their own mother’s constant verbal and physical abuse for a decade, their nominal father’s cold indifference, and the gloating taunts of their so-called siblings.

In such an extreme environment, she seemed to have become a combination of Ian Jennings and Charles Gallagher. She possessed Ian Jennings’s capability and tenacity, yet she still had a soft spot—a yearning for the approval of her family, especially her own mother.

It was hard to say Mrs. Gallagher hadn’t done this intentionally. Unable to take revenge on Master Gallagher, who had brought her such great shame, she vented all her resentment on Genevieve Gallagher.

She easily controlled Genevieve Gallagher’s every emotion, turning Genevieve into a slave for her family of three. In the name of kinship, she bled her dry, making her willingly sacrifice everything for them. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

And in fact, she succeeded.

’The Gallagher family doesn’t know the real story. They all think Mrs. Gallagher treats her so coldly because she’s a girl and can’t help Charles Gallagher fight for the inheritance. Genevieve thinks so too. To win her mother’s approval, she desperately learned all sorts of skills, just to prove that she was no worse than her younger brother or any other man in the Gallagher family.’

This was precisely why Arabella Donovan repeatedly emphasized how outstanding Genevieve was. After all, the Gallagher family raised their children as if in a pit of vipers.

Master Gallagher officially acknowledged forty-nine children, and these forty-nine children, in turn, gave him over a hundred grandchildren.

With over a hundred people, even a professional teacher would take a while just to do a roll call, let alone shoving them all into the company to be tempered and to fight it out.

The advantage of having so many children was that if one was a write-off, it didn’t matter. There was always a spare.

And it was in this brutal, battle-royale-like environment that Genevieve Gallagher was dealt the worst hand but still managed to play a winning one.

The Donovan family was stunned to hear this. They had thought she was just a pitiful little thing, but who knew she was actually a vicious, carnivorous flower!

But somehow, that only made her more charming and attractive. ’What can you even do about it?’ No wonder their Arabella was paying so much attention to her.

However, before they could finish marveling, the plot took a sharp downturn.

’Genevieve made it to the finals on her own merit and was just about to reach the top, only to be backstabbed by her own brother—the one who only scraped by into the final round under her protection. At Mrs. Gallagher’s instruction, Howard Gallagher revealed Genevieve’s true parentage at the board meeting. Due to concerns about public opinion, Genevieve was forced to withdraw from the board and leave the company. In the end, Howard Gallagher became the final victor.’

The Donovan family: "..." ’Damn it. Suddenly, I have a million "motherfuckers" to say and don’t know where to start!’

It felt like watching a fantastic TV series where everything seems to have settled. All the good guys have gotten their happy endings, and the bad guys have received their just desserts.

Then, a meteor suddenly falls from the sky, killing all the good guys, smashing the cages holding the bad guys, and setting them all free.

With an ending as shitty as that, the screenwriter would have razor blades sent to them and be forced to write an alternate "what if" storyline at knifepoint.

However, Caspian Rhodes, who knew some of the Gallagher family’s inside secrets and had even done business with them, knew that this scene was entirely plausible.

Although Master Gallagher’s private life was depraved and he was a complete scumbag, a scandal involving incest between a father-in-law and his daughter-in-law would undoubtedly challenge the public’s moral bottom line. Regardless of gender, the company’s board of directors would never allow someone with such a massive stain on their background to become their chairman, no matter how exceptionally capable they were.

He just felt it was a shame when he thought of all the effort Genevieve Gallagher had put in, and he felt it was all for naught.

The Donovan family’s heads were buzzing after suddenly learning of this garbage outcome. Once they calmed down and thought about it, they realized why Arabella Donovan had called Howard Gallagher a "useless little opportunist" from the start.

And wasn’t he just a useless little twerp? He was petty, pathetic, and pointless. And yet, in the end, he still managed to coast to victory by backstabbing his own sister.

No wonder he was so favored. ’Howard... more like "How fortunate." He really does have all the luck. For fuck’s sake!’

This affair had little to do with them, but for some reason, the more they thought about it, the angrier they got.

Arabella Donovan felt the same way. ’She’s so beautiful, so strong, and so tragic. She’s the iconic "beautiful, strong, and tragic" archetype.’

’Doesn’t she deserve a deus ex machina to pull her out of this? Let her star in her own spinoff, take on the role of an avenger, and just mow down all these scumbags?’

She was a flower that bloomed among thorns, a bird that flew from a swamp, yet her branches were brutally cut, her wings broken, and she was left to fall and rot.

But if someone could catch her before she shed her last drop of blood, before her last leaf fell—if someone could give her a few drops of water—she could be reborn like a phoenix and rise again.

Mrs. Gallagher was the dragonslayer who eventually became the dragon. She was originally a victim, but in the end, she picked up the butcher’s knife and became a perpetrator herself.

But the most detestable one was still Howard Gallagher. He was brainless to begin with, on top of being selfish and arrogant. He accepted everything his parents and sister handed to him without a shred of guilt, climbing to the pinnacle of power by stepping on the flesh and blood of his sister and even his mother.

’I feel like Genevieve is just a temporary cheat code the author gave to Howard Gallagher. Otherwise, with his sesame-seed-sized brain and social skills that even a dog would snub, how could he possibly have ended up as the third male lead?’

The Donovan family couldn’t agree more. They already had a bad impression of Howard Gallagher because of what had just happened, and now all they felt was annoyance and repulsion.

Genevieve Gallagher stood in place for a moment before finally raising her glass and walking to the other side of the room, most likely to call Mrs. Gallagher.

The gossip session died down for the moment. The Donovans quickly composed themselves and went about their business, doing their best not to let Arabella Donovan notice anything was amiss.

Eloise Donovan took a deep breath. She was about to walk over to Arabella Donovan with a plate of carefully selected pastries and a glass of juice when a hand suddenly shot out from the side and grabbed her arm tightly.

"Rona, is that you?"

The Donovans, noticing the situation with Eloise Donovan: ’!!!’

Arabella Donovan: ’Ooh!’