CHAPTER 529: SHE HAS IT TOO?

Selina rubbed her eyes. "Mm."

Logan draped a coat over her shoulders. "Stay home and rest for a few days."

Selina arched a sharp brow. "Something’s going on, isn’t it?"

Logan inclined his head, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "The Morris Family has collapsed. Quite a few people are looking for you."

Selina wasn’t naive. "The Morris Group shareholders?"

"Yes. Kyle is nothing but a useless playboy, Hannah and Angela are despised, and now the Morris Family is finished. But if you were willing to ’forgive’ them, the shareholders might still find a way to breathe for a little longer."

Selina didn’t even have to think. She was stunned instead. "In the eyes of Morris Group shareholders, I’m that kindhearted?"

The Morris Family had exploited her, tormented her mother, and now they wanted her forgiveness?

Logan chuckled lowly. "That’s why I’ve kept them all outside."

No matter how badly the shareholders wanted to manipulate public opinion, they had no way forward. Selina was the victim. Unless they wanted to join Joe in prison, they would never dare to make a spectacle of pressuring her to forgive.

With the Morris Family’s affairs put to rest, Selina no longer gave them any thought. Instead, her mind turned to that elderly lady. "What about Mrs. Cole?"

"She was afraid you’d be upset that the family didn’t come for you all this time. I asked her to return home with us, but she refused. She’s staying at a hotel under Reid Group for now. Should I arrange a meeting for you two?"

Selina nodded.

By the afternoon, Selina met with Mrs. Cole. The meeting wasn’t long—an hour later, she walked out of the hotel.

Logan was waiting outside the door. His brow arched slightly. "Housekeeper Cole isn’t coming back with us?"

Selina shook her head. "Let’s go."

At last, she understood her mother’s origins, and why her mother had possessed so many priceless treasures. She was from the Hill Family of City N.

She had once wondered if her mother had been abandoned by her parents. That would explain why, when she was bullied, no one ever stood up for her.

Now the question had been answered. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to come—it was that they couldn’t.

Selina sighed. Her grandfather had passed away, her grandmother had only recently recovered from a long illness, and her uncle had fought tooth and nail to reclaim his place in the Hill Family. The cause of all this chaos was the second son of the family—the adopted one—Matt.

"Grandma Cole told me that my great-grandfather and great-grandmother weren’t unreasonable people. They adopted Matt, their chauffeur’s son. The chauffeur had fallen ill and died unexpectedly, leaving behind a ten-year-old boy. They couldn’t bear it, so they took him in, hoping he’d also be a companion for my grandfather."

In truth, it wasn’t a complicated story.

The Hill patriarch’s chauffeur had served the family for twenty years, but was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. His greatest worry was his ten-year-old son. Out of loyalty and compassion, Great-grandfather decided to adopt the boy, giving the chauffeur peace of mind.

The chauffeur’s son, Matt, was a year younger than Charles, and naturally became the younger brother.

Though Charles knew Matt wasn’t blood, he never treated him differently. In fact, he was fiercely protective, and one could say Matt grew up under Charles’s shelter.

As they grew older, the Hill Family never mistreated this adopted son. They gave him a company, wealth, and shares. The family headship was always decided by ability, and Charles had already proven himself by fifteen with extraordinary talent. He had long been designated as the heir.

Later, Charles inherited the Hill Family, married Helen, and had a son and a daughter. Under his leadership, the Hill Family flourished.

But thirty-two years ago, everything suddenly changed.

The once-reasonable great-grandparents abruptly demanded that Charles hand over the group’s shares and controlling power, insisting on supporting Matt to the top.

By then, Charles was already the rightful head of the family, while Matt was nothing but a spoiled young man who loved to play around. No one could understand why the great-grandparents would do such a thing. They had a perfectly capable son, yet they turned to elevate the adopted one instead.

Matt gradually lost himself to power. He kept scheming, setting traps, and suppressing Charles. Though his efforts didn’t yield much, they still left Charles deeply disheartened.

His own parents—and the boy he had grown up with as a real younger brother—Matt—were now glaring at him with hungry eyes, desperate to see him gone. Why?

Charles could endure the burden placed on him, but he would never allow Great-grandfather Hill and Matt to threaten Helen or their two children. He decided he would not tolerate it any longer.

And that was when it happened—thirty years ago.

A single car accident ended everything.

After finishing, Selina exhaled a long breath. "What came after, you already know. Grandma Cole said Great-grandfather Hill’s behavior had been far too abnormal. And there were even rumors that Matt possessed some kind of drug that could alter a person’s heart and mind..."

"I suspect that even if such a drug didn’t exist, Matt must have done something to them. Grandma Cole also said..."

Great-grandfather and great-grandmother Hill had, of course, already passed away. But before they died, it was as if they experienced a final moment of clarity, fully aware of everything they had done over the years.

They had driven their eldest son to his death, left their daughter-in-law a vegetable, lost track of their grandson, and allowed their granddaughter to be abused and tormented by Matt and Hannah.

In the end, Great-grandmother wept herself to death, while Great-grandfather’s last words were a broken, murmured "I’m sorry" before he too departed this world.

Their actions could not have been voluntary—otherwise they wouldn’t have shown such overwhelming remorse at the very end.

"If all of this truly happened because of Matt," Selina said, closing her eyes in grief, "then Great-grandfather’s kindness back then became the very source of the family’s destruction, the reason his son died so miserably."

If he hadn’t adopted the chauffeur’s son, none of this would have happened. If he hadn’t raised Matt as his own, maybe Matt would never have dreamed of seizing the entire Hill Family.

But the blame couldn’t fall on her great-grandparents. They never could have imagined that kindness wouldn’t be repaid with kindness.

Selina suddenly looked at Logan. "There’s one more thing. Before coming to City A, Grandma Cole investigated you. She looked into your family..."

She fell silent for a while. "She believes Amelia may have given Grandpa Perry, Mr. Perry the Second, and even Mr. Perry himself that same drug."

That matched Selina’s own suspicions.

The Perry men’s favoritism toward Amelia was utterly illogical.

Mr. Perry the Second and Mr. Perry himself were illegitimate sons—so their dislike of Anna, the legitimate daughter, could still be explained.

But did that mean they had to love Amelia?

Anna was Grandpa Perry’s firstborn child. Even if he disliked her, would he really want her dead?

Killing his own daughter for the sake of an adopted one—who would believe that?

Even if, at the very worst, Grandpa Perry didn’t like his daughter—would his two sons also dislike her? They were, after all, the sons born from Grandpa Perry’s so-called "true love." He went to great lengths to bring them into the Perry Family, raising them as legitimate heirs. And yet, once Amelia appeared, he didn’t even care about his own sons anymore.

So the most likely explanation...

Was that Amelia also had that drug—and used it to control the Perry Family.