Free Web NovelChapter 506: Chapter 506: Suspicion
Winston Sheffield had lost the prestigious government position he was so proud of. He felt as if he’d plummeted from the heavens into a pit of mud overnight.
Winston Sheffield liked Sylvia Lancaster, but he loved his own future more!
Now that his future was gone, Winston Sheffield’s lovesick brain had been completely cured by reality.
Meeting Sylvia Lancaster’s shocked and heartbroken gaze, Winston Sheffield said with a cold face, "Wendy was right, you’re a jinx! Who told you to insist on a house in The Metropolis Residences? Who told you to offend Director Summers? Now look, I’ve even lost my job, and it’s all your fault!"
"Sylvia Lancaster, this is all your fault! If you hadn’t seduced me, Nina and I would never have broken up in the first place..."
Winston Sheffield had only found out two days ago that his former fiancée, Nina Summers, whom he had always looked down on, was actually Director Summers’s own niece!
The moment he learned the truth, an overwhelming wave of regret drowned Winston Sheffield.
’This is all Sylvia Lancaster’s fault!’
If Sylvia Lancaster hadn’t seduced him, he wouldn’t have broken up with Nina Summers!
If he had successfully gotten engaged to Nina Summers, he would have been related to Director Summers!
How could Winston Sheffield not be filled with hatred, having thrown away such a golden opportunity?
Just then, Lana Grant’s phone lit up with the ringing of a call.
Lana Grant frowned and answered the phone. "Hello?"
Whatever was said on the other end, Lana Grant’s expression instantly turned to one of extreme shock.
The next second, she swayed, and the phone in her hand fell to the floor with a THUD.
Wendy Sheffield quickly steadied Lana Grant’s faltering body and asked urgently, "Mom, what’s wrong? Who called? What did they say?"
Lana Grant’s face was pale, as if she had suffered a great blow. After a long moment, she stammered, "...Winston, Wendy... Your grandmother... Your grandmother is gone!"
"What?!" Winston Sheffield spun around, his face a mask of shock, and demanded, "How could this happen?!"
Just moments before, the brothers Mitchell and Jim Sheffield, along with Mr. Sheffield, had been accompanying Mrs. Sheffield to the hospital. But unexpectedly, the two brothers received a call in the ambulance.
The caller said that because of Winston Sheffield’s situation, the higher-ups had begun investigating other members of the Sheffield family.
When Mrs. Sheffield found out, she was overcome by a fit of rage, and her condition worsened. She passed away before they even reached the hospital, unable to rest in peace.
Mr. Sheffield, who had witnessed his wife’s death firsthand, couldn’t handle the shock and fainted on the spot. He was now in the ICU, and his prognosis was said to be grim.
After relaying all this, Lana Grant covered her face with her hands and began to cry sorrowfully. It was hard to tell if she was crying for her mother-in-law’s passing or for her own husband’s ruined future.
After hearing Lana Grant’s words, the expressions on Winston and Wendy Sheffield’s faces also turned grim.
They both knew that the Sheffield family had been involved in no shortage of illegal and disciplinary violations over the years. They couldn’t possibly withstand an investigation.
Winston Sheffield was overwhelmed with frustration. He desperately needed an outlet for his rage, so he turned and viciously slapped Sylvia Lancaster across the face!
As Sylvia Lancaster stared in shock, Winston Sheffield roared at her, "This is all your fault! You killed my grandmother! Get out! I never want to see you again!"
******
After being thrown out of the Sheffields’ house, Sylvia Lancaster had nowhere to go. Dejected, she could only return to the Lancaster family’s low-income rental apartment.
The low-income apartment still reeked of a foul stench. It seemed the toilet and sewer had backed up again. Puddles of water covered the floor, with clumps of suspicious matter scattered on top.
However, the current Sylvia Lancaster was in no mood to be disgusted by any of it.
She hadn’t even had time to change when Winston Sheffield kicked her out and was still wearing a rather thin set of pajamas. She had been soaked by the rain on her way back, and the soft fabric clung tightly to her body.
Seeing her state, a few disaster victims had followed her with ill intentions. She had been terrified the entire way home; making it back safely was a miracle in itself.
When Elaine Hughes opened the door and saw Sylvia Lancaster had returned, she asked irritably, "What’s wrong with you? Weren’t you supposed to come get us once you found a house? We packed our bags two days ago, but we haven’t heard a single word from you!"
This apartment stank to high heaven. The Lancasters didn’t want to live here for a second longer!
Yesterday, Silas Lancaster had gotten up in the middle of the night. Because of his bad leg, he slipped on a puddle of water and fell flat on his face—in what was, quite literally, a pile of shit.
After he scrambled up, he vomited his guts out, then hugged Elaine Hughes and cried, saying he’d rather die than live here anymore.
Simon Lancaster, Elaine Hughes, and Robert Lancaster weren’t faring much better. They felt like they were being pickled in the filth. They couldn’t stand to stay there a moment longer and were all waiting for Sylvia Lancaster to take them to a new house.
But unexpectedly, there was no news from Sylvia Lancaster, and the family was growing frantic with worry.
Sylvia Lancaster lowered her head and replied, "We can’t move into the new house for now... Mom, Winston and I broke up..."
"What?!" Elaine Hughes was stunned. She jabbed a finger hard into Sylvia Lancaster’s forehead and said angrily, "How could you break up with Winston at a time like this? You’ve just cut off our family’s lifeline!"
The jab made Sylvia Lancaster stagger, and only then did Elaine Hughes see her red, swollen cheek.
But she showed no concern for Sylvia Lancaster at all. Instead, she berated her harshly, "Did Winston Sheffield hit you? Did you two have a fight?... I can’t believe how useless you are. You can’t even hold on to a man!"
Just then, Simon Lancaster came out, having heard the commotion. When he saw Sylvia Lancaster’s swollen cheek, he was both shocked and heartbroken. "Sylvia, what happened? Who hit you?"
Sylvia Lancaster gently wiped the tears from her eyes and said to Simon Lancaster, "Brother... I’ve realized something is very wrong with that Melody Summers. I need to go discuss it with Mr. Felix Ford!"
******
When Sylvia Lancaster first woke up, her memories were fragmented. She just felt that everything around her had changed.
Most notably—the man she had married was not her boyfriend, Flynn Adler, but Ethan Sutton.
Sylvia Lancaster had seen some sci-fi romance movies before. They often had a plot like this—the female lead would travel to a "Parallel World" and discover that her self in that world had married a different man.
Influenced by these movies, Sylvia Lancaster had jumped to the conclusion, subconsciously assuming she had also traveled to a "Parallel World."
Later on, as she struggled to survive the natural disaster, all her thoughts were focused on survival. Every day was spent either shoveling snow or trying to find supplies; she had no time to think about anything else.
But thinking about it carefully now... ’Did I really travel to a "Parallel World"?’
’If this really is a so-called Parallel World, then how can I explain the fact that both Simon Lancaster and Elaine Hughes have memories of both worlds?’
’Could it be... Could it be that there’s no Parallel World at all, and we just traveled back in time to an earlier point?’
’Could it be because someone came back even earlier than us, changing everything in advance, and we were reborn into a world that had already been altered by someone else?’
Once she thought this through, everything made much more sense.
Among the people Sylvia Lancaster knew, besides those who were already dead, one person had changed the most and was the most suspicious, and that was...
"Mr. Felix Ford, that Melody Summers is acting like she can predict the future. She bought a whole bunch of houses in The Metropolis Residences ahead of time, and her family even got into the reconstruction department... Today, she said a bunch of cryptic things to me..."
"I still haven’t found my space. Do you think... could it be that she really has precognitive abilities and she stole my space from me first?!"
