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

Gregory Sherwood was no fool. Walter Holloway’s nervous demeanor inexplicably reminded him of the men who were always entangled with Cassandra Lynch.

A flicker in his eyes, he asked, feigning nonchalance, "Why are you so worked up about Cassandra Lynch?"

Prompted by his question, Mrs. Sherwood also quickly caught on. "That’s right, Walter. When did you get so close with Cassandra?"

Hearing the name, Arabella Donovan’s eyes showed she understood.

’He really is one of Cassandra Lynch’s simps. But he doesn’t even qualify as a fish in her pond—at best, he’s just a little shrimp.’

But even though he was just a little shrimp, he would play a significant role at a critical moment.

Walter Holloway was the son of one of Mrs. Sherwood’s cousins. This cousin had poor judgment in men, marrying a scumbag and only managing to divorce him after going through hell.

Mrs. Sherwood had taken pity on her, and since they were relatives, she gave her a helping hand. Over time, the two families grew closer.

However, what Mrs. Sherwood didn’t know was that this junior, who often visited their home and affectionately called her "Auntie" and Gregory "Brother," had been intensely jealous of Gregory Sherwood since childhood. He envied his perfect family, his reliable father, his excellent resources, his outstanding grades, and... his gentle and kind fiancée.

Walter Holloway’s jealousy of Gregory Sherwood reached its peak after he met and fell in love with Cassandra Lynch.

In his heart, Cassandra Lynch was an ethereal goddess, compassionate and kindhearted, who treated even someone like him—a man who was mud—with gentleness and not a hint of disdain.

He was a mere mortal who didn’t dare dream of pulling a goddess down to the mortal realm, but why was Gregory Sherwood so lucky?

Jealousy blinded him, twisting his feelings of injustice toward Gregory Sherwood into outright hatred.

So, when he learned that Ian Jennings wanted to move against the Sherwood family, help Cassandra Lynch break off her engagement, and try to seize the moral high ground, Walter Holloway backstabbed the Sherwoods—the very family who had helped him and his mother through their toughest times—without a shred of guilt.

Eloise Donovan: "..." His reason for turning traitor was also rather hard to put into words.

But considering he worshipped Cassandra Lynch like a goddess, there was a twisted sort of logic to his absurdity.

The more Arabella Donovan looked at Gregory Sherwood, the more he seemed like a walking victim.

’What Walter Holloway doesn’t know is that the reason Cassandra Lynch is so pleasant to him isn’t because she’s kind and treats everyone equally. She just wants to show the Sherwood family how gentle and magnanimous she is to curry favor. Once the Sherwood family falls, he’ll be a useless accessory. The most pitiful one is a certain unlucky fiancé. It was obviously Cassandra Lynch who fell for someone else and wanted to call off the wedding, but in the end, he was the one labeled as fickle and unfaithful. Just thinking about it is mind-blowing.’

Eloise Donovan subconsciously glanced at Gregory Sherwood, but just then, as if sensing her gaze, he turned to look at her.

Their eyes met again, just as unexpectedly as the first time they met.

Only this time, as their eyes locked, their feelings were colored by a strange, subtle awkwardness because of the engagement.

Walter Holloway didn’t notice this little interlude. Facing the probing gazes of Mrs. Sherwood and her son, he couldn’t stop the cold sweat from trickling down his back.

"I... I’m just worried for you, Brother! Cassandra is your fiancée, which means she’ll be family soon. The rumors out there are so nasty right now. Don’t you want to help clear things up for her, Brother?"

As soon as Walter Holloway said this, a look of piercing understanding appeared in Gregory Sherwood’s eyes.

It made Walter Holloway’s heart pound, thinking his little scheme had been seen through.

But the next second, he heard Gregory Sherwood reply with calm indifference, "My fiancée is the biological daughter of my mother’s good friend, Mrs. Lynch, Rona Sullivan."

Walter Holloway’s heart skipped a beat. Almost forgetting to hide his reaction, he raised his voice and demanded, "What do you mean by that, Brother?"

"The literal meaning?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The literal meaning... In other words, if Cassandra Lynch were truly the daughter of the Lynch family, his fiancée, then it would be natural for him to defend her.

But if she wasn’t, and the woman who bore a striking resemblance to Mrs. Lynch was the real one, then his fiancée would no longer be Cassandra Lynch, and he would have no reason to continue defending her.

Walter Holloway subconsciously turned to Mrs. Sherwood, hoping to hear a different answer from her, but he saw that her expression was grave. She hadn’t contradicted Gregory Sherwood from the very beginning.

Realizing this, Walter Holloway’s face twisted for a moment.

’How could they, how *dared* they treat the treasure he worshipped as a goddess this way? They deserved to die, all of them!’

Arabella Donovan took one look at him and knew what he was thinking. She felt that something was seriously off about his state of mind.

Perhaps he wasn’t a good person even before he met Cassandra Lynch, but at least he’d had some moral boundaries back then.

But now, Cassandra Lynch’s existence had magnified the evil in his heart and drastically lowered those boundaries.

Melanie Yates, however, had noticed something else. Her eyes widened as she exclaimed, "Fiancée? Is that man the fiancé of Cassandra Lynch’s that my brother ran into before? The one from the Sherwood family?"

"...Yes, that should be him."

"So does that mean he might become your fiancé now?"

Eloise Donovan looked away and shook her head. "Mr. and Mrs. Lynch passed away long ago without leaving any DNA samples. The same goes for my mother, the one who was supposedly a human trafficker."

Although she didn’t know why the Lynch family was hiding the information about Rona Sullivan’s and her husband’s DNA samples, judging from their attitude toward her just now, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to acknowledge her. They likely had other plans.

That being the case, she might as well announce it publicly and see if it played right into certain people’s hands.

Melanie Yates froze. "So, you’re saying there’s no way to confirm right now if you two were really switched at birth?"

"You could say that."

"I don’t care." Melanie Yates suddenly grabbed Eloise Donovan’s hand. "I just know you’re the Lynch family’s child. So you have to snatch Cassandra Lynch’s fiancé away and get some payback for me and my brother! If you can pull this off, you’ll be my sworn sister for life!"

Eloise Donovan: "..." ’Thanks, but no thanks. I already have a perfectly good sister of my own, I don’t need to take advantage of your offer.’

She had to admit, Cassandra Lynch’s efforts to manage her reputation over the years had been quite effective. She had quite a few supporters like Walter Holloway.

Although most of them had been reined in by elders in their families who had already sensed the shifting winds, preventing them from brazenly approaching and causing trouble for Eloise and Arabella, the cold, hostile stares they cast from time to time were starting to get on Eloise Donovan’s nerves.

Eloise Donovan felt a pang of guilt, especially when she thought about how it was because of her that Arabella had to endure the judgmental looks of others at her very first banquet.

In any case, they had seen the people they needed to see and said what needed to be said. Their objective was basically accomplished.

So, she turned and asked Arabella Donovan, who was busy eating cake, "Should we head back?"

Arabella Donovan looked up from her plate piled high with small desserts, a bewildered expression on her face.

’NO!!!’

Eloise Donovan: ???