Interrupted by Arabella Donovan, Lillian Donovan’s lips twitched. She cald down a little and offered Willow Croft a gentle, faint smile. "Thank you for coming all this way. I didn’t know you were stopping by. I just ate, so I’m not very hungry right now."
Willow Croft nodded good-naturedly. "Then rember to drink it later. This hen is from our relatives back ho. It’s ho-raised, perfect for recovery. The more you drink, the faster you’ll get better."
Lillian Donovan’s feelings were complicated as she listened.
To this day, she still couldn’t understand. ’How can soone’s acting be so good? How can she watch her own lover dote on another woman without any psychological burden? She even helps him care for and curry favor with that other woman, all without a single complaint.’
Willow Croft was only there to curry favor and make her presence known. After putting the things down and asking a few more questions about Lillian Donovan’s condition, she left.
As for the thermos of chicken soup she had brought, Lillian Donovan waited for Julian Croft to step out to take a call, then poured it into a different thermos. Mrs. Donovan took it with her when she left.
When Caspian Rhodes arrived, he ca with Liam Lowe. When he left, however, Arabella Donovan personally saw him out.
"I have a lot to take care of on this business trip to Stroven City, so I might be staying for a while. I heard that you, your sister, and the one from the Lynch family were all born on the sa day. That ans your birthday is in two days. Do you have any plans?"
Arabella Donovan was surprised that Caspian Rhodes knew even this. But then she rembered he and Zane Lynch were cousins. In previous years, when Cassandra Lynch celebrated her birthday, he was probably on the guest list, so it wasn’t strange that he knew.
"My parents are planning to throw a birthday party for my sister and . They’re inviting friends and family to get together and know each other." Arabella Donovan paused, then looked up and asked tentatively, "Would you like to co, Mr. Rhodes?"
Caspian Rhodes didn’t say yes or no, only asking in return, "Am I allowed to?"
"Of course, you are. But didn’t you just say you were very busy recently, Mr. Rhodes?"
"Busy is one thing, but I still have ti to attend your birthday party. Besides, so things aren’t urgent. Your birthday is more important."
Arabella Donovan blinked. For so reason, Caspian Rhodes’s tone when he said that sounded a lot like her mother’s and Eloise’s.
’Well, since he put it that way... It’s just a matter of adding one more invitation. It’s no trouble at all.’
Therefore, after she returned, Arabella Donovan straightforwardly gave Caspian Rhodes’s na to Mrs. Donovan.
Mrs. Donovan had already anticipated this when she saw Caspian Rhodes at the hospital. But when her younger daughter ca to ntion it herself, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness, like her precious baby was about to be spirited away.
"Serena, are you very close with this Mr. Rhodes?"
"Not really, I guess. We’ve just t a few tis, and he’s helped out a lot."
’He’s brought several custors and helped accumulate a lot of rit. For example, Zane Lynch and, just today, Liam Lowe.’
Mrs. Donovan paused, her brow knitting in thought.
Seeing this, Arabella Donovan grew a little anxious. "Is it a problem to invite him?"
Mrs. Donovan snapped out of her reverie. "No, no, it’s not a problem at all. Since he’s your friend, he’s of course welco to attend. I’ll have soone send the invitation over shortly. Is there anyone else besides him?"
"No one else."
Hearing this made Mrs. Donovan even more lancholic. ’Sweetheart, you’ve been thinking about this for days, and you only invited this one person. Don’t you think there’s sothing off about that?’
’But children will make their own way in life,’ she thought. ’That Mr. Rhodes doesn’t seem to have any ill intentions toward our girl. I shouldn’t be too quick to judge. I’ll just wait and see for now.’
Mrs. Donovan acted quickly. Since Caspian Rhodes was in the city, he received the birthday party invitation by noon the next day. He imdiately took a picture of it and sent it to Zane Lynch, who was still working himself to the bone.
Zane Lynch: ?
Caspian Rhodes: Invitation to the birthday party for your little sister and Miss Donovan.
Zane Lynch: !!!
Provoked, Mr. Lynch imdiately called him. "How did you get that?"
"I ran into Miss Donovan yesterday when I was inspecting the Third Hospital. She personally invited to her birthday party."
"...Are you sure *she* invited *you*?" ’Good heavens, what’s with this air of smug satisfaction?’
For a rare mont, Caspian Rhodes was at a loss for words. ’It was true. If he hadn’t brought up her birthday yesterday, the little one probably wouldn’t have even thought to invite him.’
"That’s not important. What’s important is that the invitation is in my hands right now. Unlike so people who’ve been trying so hard and haven’t even gotten their foot in the door."
Zane Lynch was so angry he was speechless. After a long mont, he sullenly sent Caspian Rhodes a middle finger emoji.
Caspian Rhodes paid his impotent rage no mind. "How are things on your end? The girl’s coming-of-age has already passed, and you still can’t make it over. By the ti you finally decide to acknowledge her as family, she might not want anything to do with you."
Caspian Rhodes hadn’t been lying to Arabella Donovan when he said Zane Lynch was swamped and couldn’t get away.
For Zane Lynch, however, the real headache wasn’t the ss at his company, but the situation with Cassandra Lynch.
After the dinner party that night, the Lynch Family had soone keep a close watch on Cassandra Lynch. They obtained clear evidence that she had been in contact with her biological father for so ti and was planning to harm Eloise Donovan with his help.
But that woman was no pushover. The mont she sensed sothing was wrong, she sacrificed a pawn to save the king. She used her biological father’s explosive temper to stage a self-harm ploy, framing the whole situation as if she had been threatened by him and forced into it.
She was still lying in a hospital bed, playing the weak and pitiful victim for all the admirers who ca to visit.
If the Lynch Family had truly only learned of Eloise Donovan’s existence on the night of the dinner party and hadn’t investigated her little sches beforehand, they might have actually been fooled by her act.
But the Lynch Family had already seen her true colors through her past actions. Cassandra Lynch’s ploy had backfired, instead giving them an even clearer and more direct look at the cold-hearted cruelty beneath her fragile exterior.
A person who could so easily sche against and abandon her own biological father—no wonder they had raised her so carefully for over a decade yet failed to warm her heart.
Perhaps it was just as Caspian Rhodes had said: so people are just cold to the bone.
Cassandra Lynch had never cared about anyone but herself. Anyone who might harm her interests was an enemy who could be discarded without hesitation—even her own flesh and blood, even the people who had poured their hearts into raising her for eighteen long years.
Zane Lynch’s head started to throb again at Caspian Rhodes’s ntion of Cassandra Lynch, but his words were exceptionally firm.
"My parents are going to pack up all her things in the next couple of days and send her away. From now on, she has nothing to do with the Lynch family, and she can no longer flaunt our family’s na. I’d like to see if those brainless sycophants of hers will still swarm around her after she loses her status as the Lynch family’s pampered daughter. I wonder if they’ll be willing to openly offend our entire family for her sake."
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