The night grew even darker, and the chill more biting. Guarded by Jonathan Allen's n, Orlando Evans remained seated in the backyard of the villa, trembling with cold as the dew grew heavy.
She had no idea how much ti had passed, but it was probably after 3 a.m. when Jonathan Allen's n finally escorted her away from the Horne Family villa. After that, she never saw Glades Horne again.
She had been terrified and slapped only twice. Despite the fact that they had initiated an investigation into her parents, she had still managed to leave alive. Orlando Evans felt she had gotten off lightly, and her panic subsided sowhat.
Yet, the thought of her parents being investigated by the Discipline Inspection Commission filled her with dread. She was terrified that sothing might actually be uncovered. If so, she would lose everything.
After striving for so many years, she didn't want to lose everything she had worked for, only to end up worse off.
When she finally managed to drag her frightened heart back to the Evans Family compound where she lived, she froze. The compound was fully lit. Everyone was gathered downstairs at her building, looking at sothing. The Discipline Inspection Commission's car was parked in the courtyard, along with a police car. As she entered the courtyard, her parents were just being escorted downstairs by several uniford officers.
Her face turned pale, and her heart seed to stop beating. She stood frozen, watching her parents being handcuffed. Their faces were ashen as uniford officers shoved them into a police car.
Had my parents really broken the law? she wondered. Had they been caught?
Her mind was in complete disarray; her thoughts were a blank. Why did my parents keep secrets from ? If they were indeed corrupt, why didn't they spend the money on ? Why did they constantly push to leech off Adele Horne's wealth and endlessly support my pursuit of Glades?
"That's their daughter, Orlando Evans," soone said upon noticing her, alerting the officials from the Discipline Inspection Commission.
Am I going to be arrested too? Orlando felt even weaker with fear.
"This was found in your parents' safe. I think you need to see it," said a man in his thirties, walking up to her. He handed her a piece of paper and a birth certificate.
Orlando took the docunts from the man with shaking hands. As she looked at them, her face lost all color, and her hands trembled violently. Tears stread ceaselessly down her cheeks. She looked so wretched that anyone who hadn't watched her grow up would not have recognized her.
The paper was an agreent—a contract of sale. It stated that she was not the biological daughter of Rylee and Mrs. Evans. She had been bought by them. Her birth mother, Mrs. Evans's sister, had abandoned her because Rylee Evans was infertile. He and his wife had wanted to adopt or buy a child to avoid damaging his career.
Since Mrs. Evans's sister closely resembled her, Orlando also looked very much like Mrs. Evans's own daughter. Her biological aunt had given Orlando up to conceal the birth of a son. After living with the Evans family for twenty-two years, Orlando's features, particularly her brows and eyes, had even co to resemble Rylee Evans.
No one knew she was a child sold by her biological parents.
Three thousand yuan. That was all her biological parents had taken to sell her off so cheaply.
No wonder I'm so base, she thought bitterly. It's because I'm not a true child of a high-ranking official, not a real lady of wealth. I share no blood relation with the Evans Family at all.
That birth certificate confird her true origins.
Such lodrama, such a soap opera plot, has actually happened to .
At that mont, Orlando Evans suddenly understood. She realized why Rylee Evans and his wife, despite embezzling money, dared not spend it: they were afraid. She understood why they, as her parents, had always encouraged her to siphon money from Adele Horne. Why they had always supported her obsession with Glades Horne, insisting she find a way to marry into the Horne Family. It was because they wanted to use the Horne Family's imnse wealth and influence as a pretext to openly spend the money they had embezzled.
I was just a pawn they had been manipulating all along.
How laughable! While I was manipulating Adele, I myself was being played.
As the birth certificate and the contract detailing her sale slid from her hands, her heart plunged into an abyss of pain.
The police car drove past her. Rylee Evans and his wife saw her, not with apologetic eyes, but with resentful ones. They probably blad her for being useless, for failing to secure Glades Horne after so many years of pursuit. Their grand plans for the vast sums they had embezzled had co to nothing, and they hadn't even had a chance to spend any of it before being caught. Their futures were ruined; they would now spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The Evans Family's property was seized, and her car was impounded. Everything belonging to the Evans Family was now untouchable. All her bank cards were frozen.
Just overnight, she beca penniless.
No, I still have my uncle! Isn't he very rich?
In her utter despair, Orlando Evans thought of the uncle who had always doted on her as if she were his own daughter. Frantically, with a terrified heart, she rushed to Blue Sky Gardens. She traveled overnight and arrived at the Evans Family villa by sunrise the next day, but her uncle refused to see her.
He said she wasn't his niece anymore. From now on, whether she lived or died was of no concern to the Evans Family.
It was an act of self-preservation. Her uncle feared being targeted by Glades Horne, so he had hurriedly disassociated himself from her. Moreover, with her parents exposed for their cris, who would dare associate with their family now? Everyone would stay as far away as possible. That was the harsh reality of society. When you have power and influence, everyone treats you like a brother. When you're powerless, even a dog could chew you up.
Undeterred, she begged outside the gates of the Evans Family villa for most of the day, only to be heartlessly chased away by the servants.
Penniless and burdened with the reputation of a corrupt official's daughter, she was filled with anger, hunger, shock, and fear. As Orlando walked along the concrete path of Blue Sky Gardens, she felt as though the entire world had abandoned her.
All of this... whom can I bla? Whom can I resent? she thought. The bla lies with . The resentnt is for myself.
In the eyes of the public, she was the howrecker intent on destroying the marriage of the Horne Family's Young Master and Young Mistress. Her downfall, rather than being orchestrated by Glades Horne, seed more like a twist of fate, a punishnt from the heavens themselves.
She had believed she was pursuing the man she loved. She thought she was doing so honorably and that everyone had the right to chase happiness. However, she had completely overlooked the concept of morality and had stubbornly ignored the fact that Glades Horne felt no love for her.
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