CHAPTER 124: THIS CAN’T BE TRUE!!

Author’s POV

Lia caught on quickly; she understood what Emma was trying to say without a word being spoken.

And before anyone could stop her, she stepped forward with her hands shaking, and her voice trembling.

"S-Sir..." she stammered as her eyes flicked toward Alistair. "I... I have something to say."

Alistair was still asking questions to Asher about the content Emma had forwarded to them. But when he heard that someone had finally decided to speak up, he turned his head toward them.

"What is it?" he asked sharply.

But before Lia could even open her mouth again, the other staff interjected.

One of them stepped forward fast, trying to cut her off, and shoved her back.

"What are you doing, Lia?" the maid hissed under her breath, gripping her arm. "You don’t work here anymore! Why are you even back?"

Another chimed in, eyes darting nervously between the brothers and Mrs. Lancaster’s shadow, who was still sitting on the couch far away in the living room.

While all the ruckus was happening at the entrance of the house.

"Young Master," the maid said quickly, "she’s already resigned. She has no right to speak here."

But Lia didn’t move. She hadn’t come back to beg for a job.

She was here to rip the mask off of that sinister mother and daughter.

If Lucien had been reachable and answered her calls, she would’ve never stepped foot in this place again.

She wasn’t stupid. The moment she was hired by Lucien, she sensed something was off about this house. And when Mrs. Lancaster came back, it proved to be true.

But now that Lucien wasn’t here, she still needed to speak up and tell the truth.

"Wow," Emma clapped dramatically in disbelief. "Just like Sera had mentioned in her diary."

The maid who had pushed Lia back flinched. Her expression twisted, but she still pretended to be normal.

"What do you mean, Miss?" she spat, trying to sound calm, but her voice betrayed her.

Emma didn’t even look at her. Because she already knew what this was. She’d seen it in Sera’s diary.

Even though Asher had wiped out the old staff and fired every last one who stood by and watched Seraphina suffer, the new ones weren’t any different.

They were also the same... The kind you could buy with fear or money.

Mrs. Lancaster didn’t need loyal people. She needed quiet ones, who’d shut their mouths for a few thousand and pretend they didn’t see a girl being almost killed.

However, Lia was different. She wasn’t one of them, and her loyalty lay elsewhere, with Lucien.

"Even the maids here have more rights than my friend," Emma growled sharply. "I wonder if I’d be killed later for speaking up for my friend?"

Emma had simply said what Sera had written, but Melissa, who was standing at the entrance, casually leaning against the door frame, looked up at her as if she was asking Emma how she knew!

"Speak!" Asher’s voice thundered through the room as he glared at the maid who had dared to stop Lia. His tone was so dangerous that it made the temperature drop and everyone freeze.

The maid’s lips trembled, but before she could gather herself, another one stepped forward in a panic, trying to cover her.

"But, Third Young Master..." she began in a shaking voice, but the second Asher’s sharp and cold eyes landed on her; she swallowed her words and backed off immediately.

And just then, they all thought that everything had ended... Mrs. Lancaster finally stepped out of the living room and walked straight into the storm. Her expression too calm as if she wasn’t bothered whether Seraphina lived or died.

"You were the one who hired these people, Asher," she said with a slight lift of her brow. "And now you’re doubting them?"

Asher didn’t answer as Mrs. Lancaster wasn’t wrong.

But Alistair let out a bitter laugh that didn’t reach his eyes. "Yes, he hired them," he said in a frosty tone, shifting his gaze to his mother without even flinching. "But I don’t trust either his people... or Asher himself, so it really doesn’t matter who brought them in, does it?"

Alistair didn’t wait for her response or give her a chance to manipulate the situation any longer. He turned straight to Lia instead and gestured for her to speak.

"Just say it."

But Lia didn’t speak. Without a word, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, walking up to Alistair and holding it out with a trembling hand.

"Here," she said quietly, as she handed her cell phone to him. "You can see what they did to the Young Miss!"

"What?" Melissa’s whole body almost gave up as she gazed at Lia, as if she had decided whom to target next.

Alistair looked at the video that was playing on Lia’s cell phone.

Although the audio quality wasn’t clear, it could be seen clearly... Mrs. Lancaster threw hot water at Seraphina, slapped her, and dragged her across the floor mercilessly.

Asher saw it too, and was in disbelief.

"Mom!!" Alistair’s voice thundered in the room as he turned back to look at her, his entire body shaking with disbelief and rage.

"Who the hell gave you the right to lay a finger on her?" he shouted, eyes locked on the screen, his eyes turned red with rage.

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Lancaster said casually, without caring that she had been caught.

"I was trying to discipline her... After all, didn’t you all say that she was my daughter?"

Alistair gazed at her in disbelief as if he had never known this woman in his entire life. "You call that discipline?"

His chest heaved, hands shook as he gripped the phone, trying his best not to kill someone.

"You have touched my sister! She was mine! I should have protected her... But you... You don’t really deserve to by my mother anymore!" Alistair declared as tears glistened at the corner of his eyes.