Free Web NovelChapter 62: Chapter 62: The Ultimate Prophet
The person who grabbed Eloise Donovan was a high-society lady in a black evening gown. Her light makeup hid some of the imperfections on her face but couldn’t entirely erase the marks of time.
She gripped Eloise Donovan’s hand with force. Her eyes were red and brimming with tears, yet she refused to blink, as if determined to sear the image of the person before her into her memory.
Eloise Donovan didn’t dare move. This woman had called out her mother’s name, so she had to be an acquaintance. Eloise just couldn’t figure out who she was.
Thankfully, someone soon came to her rescue.
"Wanda." Mrs. Lynch had already instructed the staff at the door to keep an eye out for the Sullivan family. The moment she heard Mrs. Sullivan had arrived, she rushed over, but it seemed the woman had already gotten to Eloise Donovan first.
The moment Mrs. Lynch called out, Arabella Donovan instantly confirmed the woman’s identity.
’Mystery solved. That’s Eloise’s aunt, Wanda Chamberlain. In the original novel, she was the only one who wasn’t fooled by Cassandra Lynch. From start to finish, she was convinced Cassandra wasn’t Rona Sullivan’s daughter. She was the ultimate truth-teller who always insisted that Cassandra was Cassandra, Rona was Rona, and that Cassandra wasn’t even worthy of being compared to Rona.’
’Aunt?’ Eloise Donovan subconsciously clenched her fists, her eyes uncontrollably drifting to the woman’s face.
Seeing Mrs. Lynch approach, Mrs. Sullivan didn’t release Eloise Donovan’s hand. Instead, she gripped it even tighter.
"Felicity, Felicity, come quick! Look! It’s Rona! Rona’s come back!"
Felicity Lister glanced at Eloise Donovan. Seeing that she was surprised but not frightened or angry, Felicity breathed a sigh of relief.
"Wanda, please, calm down. You’re scaring the girl."
"The girl?" Wanda Chamberlain paused, only now noticing that Eloise Donovan was indeed much younger than the Rona Sullivan she remembered. And it had been nearly twenty years...
But the person she cared so much for was frozen in her memory at her most beautiful, which was why seeing Eloise Donovan instantly brought Rona Sullivan to mind.
Wanda Chamberlain struggled to suppress her surging emotions and reluctantly released Eloise Donovan’s hand.
Arabella Donovan rushed to Eloise’s side. "Eloise, are you okay?"
"I’m fine."
"Are you hurt?" Felicity Lister asked with concern. After confirming that Wanda Chamberlain hadn’t injured her, she began to explain on the other woman’s behalf. "I’m so sorry. Wanda didn’t mean any harm. She saw you and mistook you for an old friend. She got overexcited and lost her composure. I apologize on her behalf. I hope you don’t mind, Miss Donovan."
"An old friend?" Eloise Donovan raised an eyebrow, feigning ignorance. "Is this the same old friend you mentioned before? The one you said I looked so familiar to?"
"Yes, exactly." Felicity Lister had already planned on telling Eloise Donovan about Rona Sullivan, hoping to gradually ease her into accepting them as her family. Eloise asking on her own accord was the perfect opportunity.
"The old friend I mentioned is named Rona Sullivan. She was my sister-in-law. Eighteen years ago, my younger brother and Rona, who was heavily pregnant at the time, were traveling in Yarrow Province when they were caught in a massive, once-in-a-century mudslide."
As Felicity Lister recalled the tragedy, her eyes reddened. "To escape the mudslide, my brother tried to drive them to safety, but they got into a car crash. My brother died at the scene. My sister-in-law was barely breathing, and she passed away right after giving birth."
Wanda Chamberlain had calmed down by then, and her gaze on Eloise Donovan was complicated. "Which family are you from? Why have I never seen you before?"
"My name is Eloise Donovan. I’ve always lived in Stroven City. I only recently came to Jarden with my family on business."
"Stroven City?" A look of disappointment crossed Wanda Chamberlain’s face. That was far from here, and even farther from Yarrow Province. ’Could I really have been overthinking things?’
’On second thought, this girl is only about twenty. She was probably born right around the time Rona passed away. Could she be the reincarnation of our lost loved one, returned to us?’
Eloise and the others had no idea Wanda’s imagination was running wild, but Arabella could vaguely guess her train of thought. After all, this was the only person in the novel who saw things clearly. So, she decided to give this perceptive woman a little hint.
"Were you just talking about that huge mudslide in Yarrow Province eighteen years ago? What a coincidence! My parents were in Yarrow Province then, too. They got caught in the same mudslide, and the shock even caused my mom to go into labor prematurely. Speaking of which, if it weren’t for that disaster and the hospital being overwhelmed with casualties, Eloise and I would never have been switched at birth."
"What?!" Wanda Chamberlain’s expression shifted, and the way she looked at Eloise Donovan completely changed. "You... You two..."
How could Eloise not see what her little sister was up to? She sighed. "We were both born in a hospital in Yarrow Province. At the time, Yarrow was in the middle of that massive mudslide, and a lot of injured people were admitted. Both my mother and Serena’s were among them. My mother..." freёwebnoѵel.com
Eloise paused. To avoid arousing suspicion, she gritted her teeth and continued, "My biological mother was a human trafficker on the run. To give me a better life, she swapped me with Serena, who was born in the same hospital. My adoptive parents only recently found out the truth..."
Before Eloise could even finish, Arabella was already screaming her objections internally.
’No, that’s not it! Aaaah, Eloise, don’t be sad! Your mother isn’t that human trafficker, Holly Wagner! Come on, Auntie, you’ve got to be smart about this! Discovering the truth all comes down to this moment!’
"Pfft..." If the setting hadn’t been so serious, Eloise would have burst out laughing. ’How can our little sister be this adorable?’
Luckily, their aunt didn’t let Arabella down. Upon learning that the two had been switched by a human trafficker and that Eloise believed she was the trafficker’s daughter, Wanda Chamberlain stared at the face that was a near-perfect copy of Rona Sullivan’s and completely lost it.
"What are you talking about? You’re definitely not the daughter of some human trafficker! You’re... you’re..."
For someone who has lost a close loved one, time doesn’t heal all wounds. What looks like a healed scar is often still raw underneath, ready to be torn open and bleed again at the slightest reminder of that painful past.
Wanda Chamberlain had been struggling to control her emotions ever since she laid eyes on Eloise. Now, with the sudden, horrifying realization that they might have lost the child Rona Sullivan had died to bring into the world, her tears fell like rain. She was sobbing too hard to speak, so overwhelmed with guilt she couldn’t even bring herself to say Rona’s name.
By this point, most of the banquet guests had arrived. With the hostess, Felicity Lister, right there, and with Eloise’s shocking story about a child-swapping trafficker, the corner occupied by Eloise and Arabella had become the center of attention. A crowd was beginning to form.
This was the scene that greeted Cassandra Lynch as she came downstairs with Mrs. Sherwood. From afar, she could only see Mrs. Lynch and Mrs. Sullivan. "Aunt Lynch? Aunt Wanda? Is something wrong?" she asked, confused.
At the sound of her voice, the crowd instinctively turned, revealing Eloise and Arabella Donovan, who had been obscured from view.
