Free Web NovelChapter 86: Chapter 86: Liam Joyce Likes Her?
THUD!
The heavy sound of a body hitting the floor echoed, and everyone in the house was stunned.
"...Mom!"
"Grandma!!"
Two sharp cries exploded in the living room, and chaos erupted among the crowd.
"Ma’am!"
"Grandma!"
The gaggle of nosy relatives waiting by the door swarmed into the house. Sonia Quincy was knocked off balance by one of them, and a startled Felix Preston quickly pulled her into his arms for protection.
"Mom, Mom, what’s wrong?"
"Grandma, Grandma, please wake up!"
"Call an ambulance! Hurry up and call an ambulance!"
The living room was an absolute mess. Mrs. Preston pushed her way through the crowd, and when she saw the fallen old woman’s ashen, almost bluish face, two words immediately flashed through her mind—
’We’re doomed.’
The old woman’s grandson called for an ambulance. Evan Yates, clutching his phone, rushed out of the living room and shook his head at Felix Preston, his face pale.
Felix Preston seemed to sense what had happened, and his eyes behind his glasses instantly hardened.
Without a word, he raised a hand to cover Sonia Quincy’s eyes, practically dragging her away from the doorway.
"Mrs. Preston." Seeing this, Evan Yates quickly turned back and pulled the terrified Mrs. Preston out of the living room.
"Ah! Mom!"
The next second, a mournful wail echoed from the living room.
The sound made Sonia Quincy shudder, and her limbs instantly felt as limp as overcooked noodles.
"Sonia!" Felix Preston grabbed her shoulders, using his own arm to hold her up.
"What’s wrong with her? Was she scared by what happened?" Evan Yates asked, supporting the weak Mrs. Preston, so frantic he felt like his hair was about to stand on end.
Felix Preston immediately pulled out his phone, but his fingers trembled so much he couldn’t even dial the three-digit emergency number.
"Call the police first." Sonia Quincy raised a hand and grabbed Felix Preston’s wrist, already starting to gasp for air. "Call the police... then the ambulance."
...
Two ambulances arrived at the same time. One took away the unconscious old woman, and the other took a terrified Sonia Quincy.
Sonia Quincy was fine, just badly shaken. The old woman, however, wasn’t so lucky. She had suffered a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, and she drew her last breath on the ambulance amidst the wails of her family.
What was supposed to be a simple house viewing had resulted in a death. Both the real estate agent and the Preston Family felt it was incredibly unlucky.
Especially the Preston Family. It was such a nice house, one that could have conservatively sold for over three million. But after this incident, they would be lucky to get two million for it.
"It can’t be that bad, can it?" Sonia Quincy said from her hospital bed, her brows furrowed with worry.
"The floor plan and the renovations are both flawless. How could it not even sell for two million?"
Felix Preston sat beside her, ladling out a bowl of soup that Mrs. Preston had specially prepared. "That family posted about this online. They embellished the story, claiming our house is haunted and that it cursed their grandmother to death. Now half of Aethelburg knows our house is ’problematic.’ The agent said if we don’t slash the price, the house will probably just rot on the market."
"Rot on the market? How?" Sonia Quincy sat up in bed, fuming. "This house is so nice, the agency would go under before this house ’rots’."
Felix Preston gave a bitter smile. He scooped up a spoonful of soup, blew on it to cool it down, and then fed it to Sonia Quincy.
As she sipped the soup, Sonia Quincy took out her phone and searched for the incident on Spudster’s local city page.
The family had acted fast. In just one night, they had people post dozens of threads. The most popular one already had over ten thousand likes and three thousand comments.
Sonia Quincy clicked into the comment section, browsed for a bit, then exited, puffing her cheeks in anger.
"What the fuck, they’re all insane! Their grandmother clearly died from a sudden cerebral hemorrhage! It has nothing to do with us! How did our house ’curse’ her? And ’died on the spot’...? She clearly died after being put in the ambulance!"
"Sonia, don’t worry." While Sonia Quincy was fuming, Felix Preston remained as calm and composed as ever. He was always like this, as if the sky falling wouldn’t be a big deal.
He reached out and stroked Sonia Quincy’s hair, his smile gentle and his eyes doting. "The police are already investigating. They’ll issue a police report soon, and we’ll use that to shut them up."
"A police report?" Sonia Quincy frowned. "Is this really that serious? It warrants a police report?"
Felix Preston’s lips curled, and the nature of his smile suddenly changed. "It wouldn’t have normally, but Lynn brought someone who put pressure on the police station, so now they’re taking it seriously."
’The person Lynn brought...’ For some reason, the moment Sonia Quincy heard that, the name "Liam Joyce" popped into her head.
She drank the soup Felix Preston fed her and asked tentatively, "Was it Liam Joyce?"
Felix Preston raised an eyebrow. "Yes."
"He... he doesn’t... like Lynn, does he?" Sonia Quincy’s eyes widened slightly. Although her tone was questioning, she already knew the answer in her heart.
Felix Preston let out a cold, derisive snort. "I never would have expected Liam Joyce to develop those kinds of feelings for Lynn."
Sonia Quincy: "Does Lynn know?"
Felix Preston: "She knows."
"Ah..." Sonia Quincy nodded. "I see. If Liam Joyce is serious about this, then we’ve already won this fight."
Felix Preston pulled a tissue from the bedside table and gently wiped the soup from the corner of Sonia Quincy’s lips. "There’s been too much trouble lately. We’ll have to leave Liam Joyce for Lynn to handle. As long as she doesn’t blow her cover, we’ll definitely win."
"Sonia, you need to focus on getting better. Don’t worry too much about these things. I’m here for you."
Sonia Quincy smiled at Felix Preston. "Okay."
There was nothing wrong with Sonia Quincy, and the baby was fine, too. The next day, the doctor discharged her from the hospital.
After brewing overnight, the incident had already stirred up a considerable storm in Aethelburg.
The house’s address was dug up and posted publicly in the "victim’s rights" threads. Felix Preston and Lynn Preston were subsequently doxxed by netizens.
As expected, the comment sections of the related posts were filled with vile language.
[Holy crap, this is a Preston Family house? No wonder they were in such a hurry to sell. So it’s haunted.]
[Something must be wrong with the Preston Family’s ancestral tomb. First the Preston Group inexplicably goes bankrupt, now Felix Preston’s house curses an old woman to death. It’s just so bizarre no matter how you look at it.]
[Tsk tsk, selling a house they know is problematic. Has the Preston Family decided to stop being human? That young couple was planning to use this house for their marriage!]
[The Preston Family being inhuman isn’t exactly new. The fact that Felix Preston was willing to marry that menace Sonia Quincy is enough for me to conclude that there isn’t a single decent person in their entire family!]
[Everyone, remember this house! Be careful when you’re renting or buying in the future, watch out for this huge landmine!]
In the car on the way home, Sonia Quincy kept scrolling through the comment sections of the related posts on Spudster. The more she scrolled, the stranger she felt.
