More than her own situation, Eloise Donovan was concerned with the contempt and disdain in Melanie Yates's voice whenever she mentioned Arabella Donovan. Melanie's constant emphasis on it made Eloise feel increasingly like she was one of the main culprits behind Arabella's suffering, filling her with guilt.
Arabella Donovan noticed this, and couldn't help but feel a little touched.
'She's being bullied this badly and she's still sticking up for me. This sister of mine is actually pretty nice. But Melanie Yates… why does that name sound so familiar?'
Caspian Rhodes had just stepped through the restaurant's main entrance when a voice suddenly appeared in his mind, causing him to pause.
The middle-aged man leading Caspian Rhodes inside walked a few steps ahead before realizing he wasn't being followed. He asked nervously, "Mr. Rhodes, is something wrong?"
"It's nothing. Let's go in."
The middle-aged man finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Right, right. This way, Mr. Rhodes. The private room we booked is at the very back."
Meanwhile, Eloise Donovan stiffened. As if realizing something, she instinctively wanted to turn and look but forced herself not to.
Compared to her, Mrs. Donovan's feelings were far more complex. She ached for the daughter she had raised since childhood and was furious at Melanie Yates for her bullying and attempts to turn the two girls against each other. At the same time, she was gratified by Eloise's defense of Arabella and Arabella's acknowledgment of Eloise.
Of course, after hearing Arabella's last sentence, Mrs. Donovan immediately thought of what had happened yesterday, and her ears perked up instantly.
Fortunately, Arabella did not disappoint her.
'Found it!'
Mrs. Donovan's spirits soared, but Arabella's very next thought sent her heart plummeting to the depths.
'Ahhh! This sister of mine is so pitiful!'
Mrs. Donovan: "!!!"
Eloise Donovan: "???"
Having heard several more thoughts in quick succession, Caspian Rhodes was finally certain that the sentence he'd heard before entering wasn't a hallucination. His foot, about to step into the private room, paused once more. He narrowed his eyes and scanned the entire restaurant, trying to pinpoint where the voices were coming from.
Seeing this, the middle-aged man's heart skipped another beat. He called out uncertainly, "Mr. Rhodes?"
"The private room is a bit stuffy. Let's just eat out here."
"But..." The man was a bit stunned. 'Doesn't this man despise noisy places? Why the sudden change in temperament?'
Caspian couldn't be bothered to explain. He simply asked in a low voice, "Is that a problem?"
"...Of course not!" 'You're the boss, whatever you say goes!'
While they were speaking, Arabella Donovan had already skimmed through the entire book, reading ten lines at a glance.
The story related to Melanie Yates was a "true and fake heiress" novel where the universally adored protagonist was the fake heiress, swapped into a wealthy family to live a life of luxury. Melanie was one of the protagonist's best friends in the early parts of the story.
But that wasn't the main point. The main point was that her sister, Eloise Donovan, was the story's infamous villainess—the true heiress who had been swapped out of the wealthy family!
'That's not right. Wasn't I the one swapped with Eloise? Why is there a Miss Lynch involved now?'
Mrs. Donovan and Eloise were dumbfounded as well. They completely ignored Melanie Yates's increasingly frantic curses and insults, focusing solely on listening to Arabella's thoughts.
Eloise was even beginning to wonder if these words suddenly appearing in her head were just hallucinations, a product of her own wild imagination and attempts at self-comfort over the past few days.
'Ohhh, so that's what happened. It wasn't two babies born in that hospital that year, but three.'
The words struck Mrs. Donovan and Eloise like a bolt from the blue. Three babies. There were three!
According to the book's plot, Miss Lynch's birth mother, Holly Wagner, and her biological father were both human traffickers. The father was caught after their activities were exposed during a deal, but Holly, who was pregnant, managed to escape.
By a stroke of coincidence, a massive rainstorm in Yarrow Province that year triggered a mudslide, and Holly Wagner, Mrs. Donovan (who was there on business), and Mrs. Lynch (who was there as a tourist) were all caught in it.
Holly Wagner gave birth first, only to discover that her daughter had a congenital heart defect.
The subsequent medical expenses for this condition were astronomical, far beyond what she could afford—not to mention she was a fugitive on the run.
In her desperation, she came across two other expectant mothers who had also been sent to the same hospital to give birth because of the sudden mudslide.
Mrs. Donovan was luckier; she had only suffered a scare that induced premature labor. The other mother, Mrs. Lynch, was in a much more serious condition.
During the storm and mudslide, many travelers' cars had skidded while trying to drive away, causing a chain-reaction accident. Mr. Lynch died on the spot protecting his pregnant wife. Mrs. Lynch was rushed to the hospital, where she held on just long enough to give birth before she, too, passed away, unable to be saved.
'You have to admit, the fake heiress's biological mother was a real piece of work. After secretly observing that both our families were well-off, she got the idea to swap the babies. She chose the Lynch Family not only because Mr. and Mrs. Lynch were already dead, meaning the child would receive a ready-made inheritance and be cherished by the rest of the Lynch family as the couple's orphan, but more importantly, because her daughter and my sister shared the same blood type: Type B.'
Mrs. Donovan's expression shifted slightly. It was true, wasn't it? Everyone in their family had Type A blood; only Eloise was Type B.
If they hadn't discovered this by chance, they would have never known their child had been switched at birth.
Eloise Donovan was completely stunned. She was indeed Type B. And when the Donovan Family had investigated the parents who raised Arabella, it had been mentioned that the couple was very likely human traffickers with prior records.
It was for this very reason that she had felt exceptionally guilty toward Arabella. She had believed the swap was an intentional act by her parents, and that even though she had known nothing, she was a beneficiary of the whole farce and should naturally bear a share of the blame.
But now, she was being told that she might be a victim as well—that those two people weren't her biological parents, and that her real parents had passed away one after another right around the time she was born.
Eloise was filled with a whirlwind of emotions, unsure whether she should feel relieved or sad.
At this point, the truth was obvious.
Holly Wagner was afraid her daughter's blood type would be a mismatch with a target family's, leading to immediate discovery during medical treatment, so she selected Eloise, who had the same blood type as her daughter.
Then, worried that other details might expose her, she simply performed a grand shuffle.
She swapped her own daughter into the Lynch Family, swapped the Lynch's biological daughter—Eloise—into the Donovan Family, and then took the Donovan's true daughter—Arabella—and left the hospital early.
It was because the hospital was overcrowded and severely understaffed due to the natural disaster and the car accident that she was given the perfect opportunity to successfully pull off the switch.
And subsequent events unfolded just as she had predicted. Miss Lynch, believed to be their late brother's orphan and suffering from a congenital heart defect, was taken in by the Lynch Family and properly cared for, while Eloise Donovan grew up safely in the Donovan Family.
Only Arabella Donovan was taken back to Holly Wagner's hometown and dumped on her parents. Not only was she constantly beaten and berated by the two elders, but she also had to endure the gossip and pointing fingers of the neighbors because of her fake parents. She died of illness within a few years.
She was only mentioned in passing near the end of the story, not even important enough to be given a name.
Reading this, Arabella Donovan was speechless: "..."
'What a vicious book! The only one who gets hurt in this entire scenario is me!'