Chapter 118
Freya
I was receiving the files Zane had sent me. They contained everything about the Brown family father and son. I silently flipped through the documents, my frown deepening with each page.
Lucas glanced at me from his hospital bed but said nothing, just leaned lazily against the headboard.
I hadn't expected Ethan to be such a complete bastard. The man had done every evil thing imaginable - drinking, gambling, whoring, the works. All with the deliberate goal of corrupting Flynn.
As Ian got older, Ethan had even taken him to certain special establishments. The files showed these places catered to high-level clientele - powerful people from the upper echelons of society, but some of them had particularly twisted appetites.
There was a blurry video clip that made my hands start shaking. It showed a man cheerfully approaching Ethan, saying a few words, then Ethan's eyes lighting up with greed. The man handed him money and picked up the dirty, frightened Ian, only to have Ian bite down hard on the man's neck, nearly severing his carotid artery.
The man flew into a rage and violently threw Ian to the ground. The force was so brutal that wine glasses on the table shattered everywhere. Ian's forehead struck the table corner, immediately drawing blood from the gash.
Little Ian crawled up from the floor and began crawling toward the exit, blood streaming down his face.
I stared at the phone screen, my eyes growing red and watery. My fingertips were unconsciously extending into sharp claws as my wolf roared to life.
A crushing sense of guilt and fury rose in my chest. If I had paid attention to Ian earlier, he wouldn't have suffered through all that. My hands were trembling as the screen blurred before my eyes.
At this moment, I could completely understand why Ian's attitude toward me had changed so drastically.
If he had no relatives, he would have accepted his fate. That would have been his lot in life.
But he clearly had a sister who could have saved him. I completely could have pulled him out of that hellish abyss of suffering.
"He should hate me," I said, setting down my phone with a bitter smile that tasted like ashes.
My originally clear gaze had grown dim and shadowed.
I felt deeply guilty - I had failed Ian. When Celia was dying, she had specifically instructed me to take good care of Ian, but in the end, I hadn't done right by him.
Lucas let out a soft sigh. "You could look at it from another angle. Maybe this was a good growth process for him. I can see you two really are siblings - you can both emerge from adversity and become more outstanding."
I knew he was trying to comfort me.
"What do you plan to do about the Brown family father and son?" Lucas asked.
Right, I'd almost forgotten that the Browns were still being held captive.
While Richard was the mastermind, there was no doubt that the Brown family had been his willing accomplices. The evidence was solid - they had to pay a heavy price for their actions.
With this thought, my eyes turned cold and I smiled chillingly. "Of course we can't let them off. They love eating free meals so much - let them eat for the rest of their lives."
Lucas nodded, understanding my meaning.
That was fine. Freya had evidence in hand anyway. If nothing else, child abuse and gambling were enough to keep them in prison for many years.
So I pulled out my phone and directly instructed Zane to send the Brown father and son to the police station.
My phone buzzed with a message from Richard, his tone noticeably more conciliatory as he asked me to come home. I wasn't surprised - I'd been waiting for this call. In fact, if they hadn't called, I would have called them.
About Ian's situation, I needed answers.
Of course I would go back - and I'd bring Lucas with me.
Lucas naturally agreed to my request. He seemed to relish this feeling—it meant he was now fully involved in my life.
When we entered the Welch family villa, Richard was already waiting in the main hall with a welcoming smile plastered across his face.
"Freya, you're home," he said, his smile carrying an obvious note of flattery.
Lyra sat in a corner of the sofa, not bothering to get up to greet us, though her face wore a docile smile.
"Freya, the reason I asked you to come home today is because I wanted to discuss something with you." This was the first time in all these years Richard had been so polite to me.
I remained silent.
"Ian's situation was my mistake. I never imagined the Browns would be that kind of people. They're the real culprits—please don't pursue this any further, alright?" Richard said this with a shameless, ingratiating tone.
Finally, he'd gotten to the point. I smiled coldly. "Alpha Richard, I just want to ask you: years ago, I knelt right here and begged you to spare Flynn, to give him a chance at life. What did you do?"
"How could you treat him that way? You smiled and told me you'd spare him, but from beginning to end, you never intended to let him go." I practically spit out these words through gritted teeth, my eyes beginning to flash with golden wolf-light.
Faced with these accusations, Richard still wasn't ready to give up. He snorted coldly, his anger rising. "What did I do wrong? Why should I treat him well? It was that bitch Celia who betrayed me!"
He looked at me with a strange expression, his voice turning hoarse. "You don't understand anything. You don't know what my feelings for her were. But she dared to betray me, hurt me, and gave birth to that bastard!"
His emotions were spiraling out of control now, his eyes beginning to emit a crimson light—not the golden glow of normal wolf-sight, but something more disturbing.
He glared at me as if we'd never known each other.
"He disgusts me, just like you do!" He spoke through clenched teeth, the words seeming to scrape from his throat.
I retorted, "Feelings? You don't deserve to talk about feelings! You were the one who betrayed my mother first!"
Suddenly, Richard's expression twisted into an exaggerated laugh, like he'd lost his mind. "You have no idea what you're talking about! I betrayed Celia? You actually think I was the one who betrayed her?"
"She never intended to mark me from the beginning! She sought me out only because I looked like someone else. I was just a substitute for that man."
He stared at me with bulging eyes, as if he wanted to devour me whole. "Do you know why I hate you and that bastard? Celia was already pregnant when she with me. The child wasn't mine."
"But I didn't care! I loved her so much. Yet she never truly treated me with sincerity. She even told me I could go find other women to play with."
I was completely stunned, my body nearly collapsing as Lucas caught me. My face had gone completely pale.
This was the first time I'd heard anything like this.
Could it be that I wasn't the daughter of Celia and Richard?