Chapter 194
Chapter 194
[After my parents died, Marshall took over the Boleyn Family. Even before the family went bankrupt, he dumped Claire and me in an old house. Apart from a monthly stipend, he never once checked if we were dead or alive. I worked my way through college—paid my own tuition. He says he raised me, and that's true. But what he doesn't say is that the money he spent on me came from my parents' inheritance, not his own pocket. Later, when he couldn't hold onto the Boleyn Family and squandered everything my parents left behind, he remembered the marriage arrangement between our family and the Seymours. So he pushed Claire into it.]
[It's not that I don't want to acknowledge him as my uncle. It's that I can't acknowledge someone who spent my parents' money, threw my sister into hell, and then tried to force me to see him.]
[I've had this evidence ready for a long time. I didn't release it immediately because the police were investigating certain matters and needed my cooperation. Now that the case has been resolved, I can finally speak out.]
Within the first hour of posting the essay, it had been shared over a hundred thousand times.
The comments shifted from overwhelming criticism to overwhelming support.
[So that's what happened! Octavia's been through so much!]
[Marshall took the Seymours' money for himself and pushed Claire out like that? Is he even human?]
[Gambling debts, assault charges, embezzling an inheritance—and this guy has the nerve to cry in public? Disgusting!]
[I cursed at Octavia before. I'm apologizing now. I'm sorry. I was an idiot.]
[Every word Octavia wrote was measured. She didn't play the victim or manipulate emotions—just laid out the facts. Compare that to Marshall's fake sob story. The difference is night and day.]
[Where are all the people who were trashing Octavia? Come out and apologize!]
Still, some dissenting voices remained. A few people brought up Claire in the comments.
[Maybe Octavia was wronged, but what about Claire? The stuff she did at school—that wasn't fake, was it? The things she said about Leopold—those weren't fake either, right? The Seymour Group still hasn't responded. Are they trying to sweep this under the rug?]
The comment racked up likes, but it was quickly buried under a flood of support.
Octavia didn't reply to any comments or accept any interviews.
She'd said everything she needed to say. The rest, she'd leave to time.
That afternoon, things took an even bigger turn.
The Emberfall City Police Department issued a statement: Marshall had been formally arrested on multiple charges, including embezzlement, fraud, and murder.
The statement didn't mention Octavia or the Boleyn Family's history—just Marshall's crimes.
But everyone knew. This statement and Octavia's essay were about the same thing.
Octavia shared the police statement with a single line: [The truth may be late, but it never fails to arrive. Starting today, I can finally face my parents without shame.]
Public opinion exploded again.
[Wait, what? Murder? What does that mean?]
[I don't know. The police only gave a brief statement. Does anyone know what's going on?]
[Octavia's clearly saying Marshall killed her parents! Oh my God, the man who murdered her parents was right there, online, directing people to attack her. If I were Octavia, I'd probably be depressed.]
[Didn't someone dig up that Octavia's parents died in a car accident? So the accident was Marshall's doing?]
[Must be. That's how these wealthy family feuds always go.]
[Octavia's amazing. She endured all these years and finally caught her enemy.]
[But what's the point? Her parents are gone, the family fortune was destroyed by her enemy. What does she have left?]
[Octavia, please be happy from now on!]
In the comments, fans and netizens flooded the thread with support. The comment about Claire was completely buried. No one mentioned it again.
Public opinion has a ripple effect. Once people stood behind Octavia again, Claire and the Seymour Group—both connected to her—naturally benefited from the shift in the narrative.
Besides, this level of controversy was nothing Leopold couldn't handle.
Thinking of Leopold made Octavia feel dazed.
She was still in Veridian. With a six-hour time difference from home, it was bright and sunny here, but it should be dusk where Leopold was.
Octavia closed her social media and opened her chat with Leopold.
Their last conversation was from a few days ago. She'd asked, "Are you there?" He hadn't replied.
She knew he was busy—the shareholder meeting, the PR crisis, the Seymour Group's stock price. Each issue demanded his attention.
But she also knew his silence wasn't just about being busy.
The things Leopold said to her that day—she hadn't argued back. Because she couldn't.
He'd spoken the truth. She'd always known he was powerful, known he would help her. But at the end of the day, she'd never truly trusted him.
She didn't believe that when the truth came out, he'd still stand by her side.
How could someone who hated being deceived the most possibly side with a liar?
Yet sometimes, Octavia entertained a sliver of hope. Since Leopold said he liked Octavia, maybe—just maybe—for the sake of that affection, he'd forgive her lies?
At the very least, he'd already done so much for her.
The driver who'd been behind the wheel the day her parents died had disappeared for years. After she'd exhausted every lead and still couldn't find him, he suddenly reached out on his own.
A few days ago, they met. Everything he told her lined up perfectly with the clues she'd gathered.
And he gave her a crucial piece of evidence: proof that Marshall had the car tampered with. The brake failure wasn't an accident.
The driver said that after the crash, he'd been critically injured and hospitalized. Marshall gave him a huge sum of money and told him to leave Emberfall City and never come back.
Terrified, he ran. He'd been hiding abroad all these years, too afraid to return or contact anyone.
His story was that he'd seen Octavia on the reality show and felt guilty—felt he owed her parents. So he decided to come forward.
Octavia didn't believe him.
This driver was good at hiding. Someone had been helping him. She and Sierra had searched for years and never found him. There weren't many people who could've tracked him down before they did.
And that person would also need sufficient leverage—or enough intimidating power—to convince the driver to willingly contact Octavia's people after all these years.
Octavia quickly formed a theory about Leopold's role in all this.
Only he had the ability to slip the lead to Sierra without her noticing.
And only he would do something like this without telling her.
He'd done so much for her. He knew how important uncovering the truth was to her, so he'd been working behind the scenes all along.
Hadn't she known this from the start? Leopold was a good person—misunderstood, but truly good.
Yet now, Leopold was angry with her.
She wanted him to stop being angry. They weren't really husband and wife anyway. Now that Marshall had been arrested, whatever she had to do next—whether it was reclaiming her mother's company or something else—she couldn't keep troubling him.
At that thought, Octavia felt lost. Her heart twisted sharply.
Marshall had been brought to justice. The truth about her parents had been uncovered. The thing she'd been preparing for all these years—she'd finally done it.
She should be happy. She should feel relieved.
But she didn't.
She just felt empty. Empty in her heart, empty in her mind. Like she'd been hollowed out.
She remembered that night when Leopold took her to see the river. He'd stood beside her, close.
She hadn't really looked at the view then. Now she wanted to, but it was too late.
Her phone buzzed, interrupting her thoughts. It was a message from Sierra.
[I'm on my way to Veridian. What are you planning to do next? Are you going back to the Seymour Family?]
Octavia stared at the words for a long time.
[I don't know,] she replied.
Sierra sent a hugging emoji and didn't press further.
Octavia truly didn't know. The driver's lead had come so suddenly. With his appearance, she'd gained complete evidence, and the police had been able to charge Marshall quickly.
It was like running a marathon that never seemed to end—and suddenly passing the finish line.
So fast she hadn't had time to think. It seemed like she should leave now.