Chapter 179: The Hidden Hand Behind the Secrets of the Past
Ethan and Matthew's expressions immediately turned pretty ugly!
Matthew's mouth twitched, and the friendly smile he'd been maintaining was about to crack.
"Are you kidding me?"
Catherine smiled lightly, tilting her head up to look at the somewhat flustered Matthew with an air of arrogance.
"Whether I'm kidding or not, you'll have a chance to find out. But once it's not a joke, I'm afraid you won't be able to handle the consequences."
"Isn't Moon afraid of being condemned for doing something like this?"
Catherine shrugged. "Whatever. If Abyssal Blades had what it takes, they wouldn't still be ranked third. Why aren't you the number one assassin organization on the dark web? Is it because you don't want to be?"
Of course it's because you're not strong enough!
Thinking that just Abyssal Blades could get all the organizations on the dark web to condemn Moon? Dream on.
Alexander chuckled along. "It's not that complicated anyway. If they die here, no one will know about it."
The smile on Matthew's face completely collapsed.
"What do you want to know? Just say it. You know my brain isn't good, so I might not remember a lot of things."
"First thing - what happened when the Howard family's child was born?"
Matthew let out a long sigh and gestured to Ethan beside him to stay calm.
"Simply put, they killed the mother to take the child, then put on a show of switching babies. Can you understand that?"
Timothy pulled out his gun and aimed it at Matthew's head!
"You better show some respect! If you dare talk to her like that, I'll kill you and feed you to the fish!"
Matthew smiled and shook his head, reaching out a finger to push Timothy's gun away.
"Don't be so gross. My brain doesn't taste good. Have some pity on your fish."
"We didn't put in much effort on that matter. It was mostly the Howard family's own internal fighting."
That massive internal conflict in the Howard family also caused Alexander to lose his mother.
No wonder the Howard family has been declining ever since.
Catherine frowned. "Second thing - was Grandma's child born at Vinehill Hospital?"
Matthew nodded calmly.
"Yes, and then we took the child away. We happened to run into a stupid woman who wanted to marry Marcus - no brains but full of ambition. We gave her the child, though I heard Marcus still divorced her."
"Where did Elodie go after that?"
"Elodie lost her memory. We just gave her a random child, and she left with the kid."
This matched what Jacob had said. If he was right, the child Elodie casually took with her should be Oliver.
Matthew added, "Later Lila actually helped us quite a bit. Otherwise your mother wouldn't have given birth at Vinehill Hospital. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships really have been a problem since ancient times."
Catherine had heard from Marcus before that Aurora went to Vinehill Hospital to give birth entirely because Lila insisted she go there.
Looks like Lila did it on purpose back then!
Lila wanted her niece to marry Bethany also because she knew Bethany wasn't her biological child - she was paving the way for her own family.
As for treating the Windsor family children badly, that goes without saying, especially since she had her own granddaughter Esme by her side!
"Third question - who exactly is the person who asked you to do all these things?"
Matthew rested his hand on his head and, meeting Ethan's concerned gaze, gently shook his head.
"Since you're the leader of Faceless Ones, you must have been making a living on the border for a long time. Have you heard of an organization?"
"What?"
Matthew said seriously, "Galactic Aurora Collective!"
Catherine frowned slightly, suddenly feeling a storm surge in her heart.
"You're saying the people who asked you to do these things are from Galactic Aurora Collective?"
Matthew nodded lightly, his eyes filled with deep fear!
"They're very mysterious. Maybe you've come into contact with this organization before, but what you encountered must have been just the tip of the iceberg. Our orders come from Galactic Aurora Collective, but we don't know who gives the orders."
"They're terrifying. Guess what kind of people would gather geniuses from all over the world and forcibly develop their intelligence?"
Just talking about what he experienced at Galactic Aurora Collective still made Matthew shudder.
He couldn't imagine how terrifying those geniuses would be if they could successfully survive Galactic Aurora Collective's inhumane experiments.
"The failures among them get brainwashed. The brainwashing process doesn't always succeed either - if you're unlucky, you become an idiot."
"I once went to Galactic Aurora Collective, but they didn't think much of my IQ, so they let me go."
Catherine caught the key point in Matthew's words.
"You weren't brainwashed?"
"Right, because I didn't want to become an idiot. Look, I still have family to take care of. They're pretty dumb and can't survive without me. So I became a pawn for Galactic Aurora Collective, driven by them."
"Who at Galactic Aurora Collective contacts you?"
Matthew shook his head heavily.
"I don't know. The messages I receive are all fragmented. Last time, it wasn't actually Timothy who wanted Marcus killed. In fact, the order we received was to kill Marcus and Felix!"
So that's it!
The setup in the hospital room last time was originally aimed at Marcus and Felix!
Speaking of Galactic Aurora Collective, Matthew seemed somewhat pained.
"They're too terrifying. I simply don't dare disobey them!"
He clutched his head and began to struggle, falling into severe pain. Those bad memories came flooding back, making Matthew's brain, which was still in recovery, unable to cope.
Ethan quickly crouched down to massage his head.
Catherine frowned as she watched them, her heart also in turmoil.
She knew better than anyone what Galactic Aurora Collective was like.
Wasn't she someone who survived Galactic Aurora Collective?
If all those things were orders issued by Galactic Aurora Collective, Catherine's gaze fell on Timothy, whose eyes were flickering.
"Who is Elodie's teacher?"
"I don't know either!"
"If you don't tell me, I'll never see you again in this lifetime."
Timothy immediately got anxious. "I really don't know! Elodie didn't know my teacher was from Ironclad Jail either, but Elodie did go to Galactic Aurora Collective once."
Timothy didn't know anything more.
"Even though we're biological siblings, in those days, just knowing the other was alive was good enough. Elodie and I rarely contacted each other to avoid implicating one another. That photo is the only thing I have related to Elodie."
That's also why Timothy was so angry when Elodie suddenly died and Marcus married a new wife!
Alexander's gaze had been on Catherine the whole time.
He knew she had countless connections to Galactic Aurora Collective. Perhaps she was once one of those geniuses lying in the laboratory having their intelligence forcibly developed!
Thinking that all those inhuman tortures had once fallen on Catherine's slender body, Alexander's heart began to ache faintly.
What deep darkness Catherine must have experienced!
He reached out to hold Catherine's hand, restraining the heartache in his eyes.
"Whatever else you want to know, we'll investigate slowly. I'll be with you!"
Even if it means going deeper into darker depths to investigate the secrets hidden by an organization that has already disappeared, he would be with her!
Matthew took his medicine and let out a long breath of relief.
"Catherine, I think my brother is a poet. What do you think?"
Ethan pointed at himself, very confused. "Me?"
Timothy rolled his eyes. "You're more like a dead man!"
A poet?
Catherine thought of what Jacob had said after drinking.
Every sentence replayed in her mind. Those originally confusing words suddenly had a pattern, as if hiding some code.
Catherine's eyes lit up.
She looked at Alexander beside her and spoke seriously.
"Alexander, I think Juniper's mother might still be alive!"