Chapter 211 She Was Hypnotized Long Ago
Alexander had already stepped onto the staircase when his foot suddenly gave way. His body lost support and he fell to his knees.
"Sir!"
Mark rushed forward, trying to help him up.
But Alexander pushed away Mark's outstretched hand.
Mark said anxiously, "Sir, your leg..."
Alexander did not respond. He gripped the handrail beside him, forced himself to stand straight, and tried to take another step.
The next second, he fell heavily to his knees again.
As if he could not feel the pain, Alexander stubbornly forced himself to stand up again and again, continuing forward.
"Sir, please, stop torturing yourself! Let me carry you up, or at least let me help you! Please!"
Mark finally could not hold back and rushed forward to support Alexander.
Alexander's movements stopped.
He lowered his head, staring at his own bleeding knees, his shoulders shaking violently.
"It was all for these reasons... it was all for these reasons..."
Tears suddenly fell from the corners of Alexander's eyes. He was laughing through tears, his voice nearly out of control.
"Just because Edith did not like Caroline, just because Edith wanted to take her anger out on Caroline, she faked her death and set up such an elaborate scheme... making me hate and torture Caroline for years..."
He wished Edith would die, wished he could destroy her completely.
But Alexander hated himself even more.
Alexander pounded his chest, but could not ease the intense pain deep in his heart.
If only he had trusted Caroline even a little back then, if only he had paid attention to her strange behavior, he would have discovered she was innocent.
But he had not.
He had personally ruled out all possibilities.
Like a blind man, like a fool, he had pushed her into the abyss, killed her, killed their child.
He was the one who deserved to die. This was something that no amount of taking it out on Edith and Celeste could ever make up for.
Alexander covered his face and broke down crying.
Mark knelt behind him, also in tears.
He did not know how to comfort him, could only keep calling out "sir" in a low voice.
Suddenly, a cold female voice came from the top of the stairs.
"The person is already dead. What is the point of crying so sadly now?"
Alexander's crying stopped abruptly. He looked up through his tear-blurred eyes.
Mark spun around and shouted, "Who?!"
Standing at the top of the stairs was Lina.
Mark recognized her, his brow furrowed, and he angrily scolded the guard following behind Lina. "How did you let her in? Did not I say no one was allowed near without Mr. Hamilton's permission?"
The guard's face went pale, stammering an explanation. "Mark, I tried to stop her, but she..."
Lina did not wait for the guard to finish, speaking for herself.
"I will leave naturally after I say what I came to say, no need to drag this out."
She shook off the guard's hand on her arm and walked down the stairs step by step.
Under Alexander's tear-filled gaze, she pulled a stack of documents from her briefcase and held them out to him.
"After we met at the hospital that day, I have been investigating something," Lina said.
"I found it strange why Caroline was so certain that she had caused Edith's death. Was it just because Edith died saving her, making her feel deeply guilty?"
Lina did not think so.
Losing a loved one was painful, but in her psychological understanding, this was not an unresolvable issue.
"From the first time I did intervention therapy with her, I suspected Caroline's memory had problems. She was too obsessed, obsessed in a way that did not seem like ordinary PTSD. I asked her about it, and she firmly denied any memory problems, stubbornly believing she had caused Edith's death."
Alexander's hand trembled as he reached for the envelope.
Lina continued, "So during this time, I used some channels to investigate. Finally, I found something interesting."
Alexander's hand stopped. He looked up, his eyes flickering.
He probably already guessed what cruel truth was hidden in those documents.
Meeting his gaze, Lina said word by word, "After Caroline collapsed at the dock, she was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment. While she was unconscious, besides the regular medical team, a strange doctor entered her room under the pretense of a psychiatric consultation and stayed alone for a long time."
She paused, watching Alexander's pupils suddenly contract, and said slowly, "At that time, Caroline was hypnotized. That psychiatrist's name was Tony Gibson. Mr. Hamilton, you should not be unfamiliar with that name."
Tony.
Alexander's heart jolted.
That was the doctor who had been responsible for Edith's health for years.
After Edith died, when he was arranging positions for the servants who had taken care of her, he had met Tony once.
Tony had told him many things about Edith, especially the reasons for her poor health.
Back then, Tony had hinted that because Caroline and Edith were twins, Edith had been deprived of too much nutrition by Caroline in the womb, which led to her weak constitution.
This had become one of Alexander's major reasons for hating Caroline.
He had reasonably concluded that Caroline was naturally evil.
If she could compete with Edith for nutrition before birth, she could naturally kill her out of jealousy.
"As for the specific content of the hypnosis, do I need to tell you, Mr. Hamilton?" Lina asked coldly.
No need, the truth was already clear.
That day, the mafia had clearly come to kill Caroline. Once she woke up, she would have told the truth.
But at the scene, besides Edith's people, there were only Celeste's people. Celeste's people had all died, and Edith's people would never testify for Caroline.
So Caroline was isolated and helpless. The only thing that needed to be altered was her memory.
What an elaborate scheme.
Alexander suddenly started laughing, his laughter tinged with madness.
Five years, a full five years.
For these five years, even Caroline herself stubbornly believed she had caused Edith's death, making her accept everything without resistance, endure all that punishment and torture, just wanting to atone a little for the guilt in her heart.
But in reality, even her memory had been maliciously altered.