Chapter 211 Identity Exposed!
The car door was shoved open with great force, and Stefan stepped out of the limited edition vehicle.
He wasn't wearing his dinner jacket—just a high-quality white dress shirt with the top two buttons undone, revealing his sharply defined collarbones.
His usual gentle, composed facade was completely shattered. Stefan radiated an aggressively cold aura, identical to Rufus's at this moment.
Stefan walked straight to the rear door of Rufus's car, his slender fingers curling as he knocked forcefully against the window.
The dull knocking echoed distinctly across the silent overpass.
"Amelia, come to me."
The atmosphere inside the car instantly tightened to breaking point.
Before Cecilia could even process this sudden turn of events, Rufus let out a cold laugh.
He kicked the car door open with force.
Bang!
Rufus got out, radiating hostility, facing off against Stefan across the expensive sports car.
Two equally tall, commanding men who controlled Harmony City's economic lifelines stood in confrontation on the empty bridge.
The night wind howled past, whipping at their clothes, the air thick with the scent of imminent explosion.
"Stefan, seems the lesson I gave you last time wasn't enough." Rufus's eyes churned with undisguised murderous intent. "Looks like you've really got a death wish!"
"That's my line to you." Stefan's tone was equally forceful, more than ever before.
"Are you two done yet!"
Cecilia finally couldn't take it anymore. She shoved the car door open and stood decisively between the two hostile men.
She first shot Stefan a cold look, her eyes carrying clear warning and distance.
Then she turned to Rufus, her face full of uncontrollable irritation.
"I don't have time to watch you two put on a childish pissing contest!"
"I'll say this one last time—my business has nothing to do with either of you!"
At that moment, Rufus's phone vibrated sharply in his pocket, like a death knell.
Louis again.
Rufus answered with extreme impatience, his voice laced with ice: "Speak!"
On the other end, Louis's voice carried unprecedented urgency and panic, even breaking slightly.
"Mr. Chapman, we've got a problem! Big problem! The woman you had us looking for—she, she's shown up at the 'Eternal Cecilia' cemetery!"
Eternal Cecilia?
The name made all of Rufus's thoughts screech to a halt.
Brookside Road.
He'd thought that place name sounded familiar.
Yes, the "Eternal Cecilia" cemetery was located at the end of Brookside Road.
That was the resting place he'd chosen for Cecilia.
Why would a crazy woman run there like her life depended on it?
An absurd thought, one that made his blood flow backward, began growing wildly in his mind.
Rufus's gaze snapped to Cecilia, his eyes full of shock and scrutiny. He stared at her intently, trying to find even the slightest crack in her expression.
The moment Cecilia heard "Eternal Cecilia," all color drained from her face.
She instinctively avoided Rufus's interrogating gaze.
This tiny evasive movement, to Rufus, became the most terrifying confirmation.
Stefan took in the entire bizarre shift in atmosphere between them.
Though Stefan didn't know exactly what was happening, he keenly sensed that he'd just touched upon some core secret between Rufus and Amelia—something that absolutely shouldn't be touched.
On the phone, Louis's panicked voice continued.
"She, she's smashing the cemetery gates with rocks, keeps shouting something about her daughter not wanting to stay in there, saying her daughter's afraid of the dark and cold, that she wants to take her daughter away."
"Security's been trying to stop her, but she's fighting like crazy to get in, doesn't even care that she's hurt."
Rufus couldn't hear anything anymore.
His world contained only ringing in his ears.
He grabbed Cecilia's wrist, leaned down, and spoke word by word, each sentence ground out from between his teeth.
"That woman—is her name Bronte?"
Cecilia's body shook violently, beyond her control.
And that reaction gave Rufus his final answer.
At these words, Stefan's expression also changed slightly.
Bronte? Wasn't that Rufus's deceased wife, Cecilia's birth mother?
The crazy woman Amelia was looking for was Bronte?
When several luxury cars screeched to a halt in front of the "Eternal Cecilia" cemetery gates, the scene before them was chaotic like an absurd tragedy.
The cemetery's heavy ornate iron gates were battered out of shape, and several large security guards were forcibly dragging a wildly struggling woman out.
That woman was Bronte.
She wore an ill-fitting, oversized hospital gown, her hair disheveled, her face covered in grime and dried tear tracks, but her crazed strength was astonishing—the burly men could barely control her.
"Let me go! All of you let me go!"
"Cecilia doesn't want to stay here! It's too dark here, too cold! I need to take her home! I need to take my daughter home!"
"You bad people! You're the ones who locked her up! Let her out! Please let her out!"
Bronte screamed herself hoarse, kicking and clawing with hands and feet, letting out the most desperate wails.
Rufus stood by the car.
He watched Bronte's current deranged, manic state, listened to those heart-wrenching cries from her mouth.
Countless tests finally had their conclusion.
Countless suspicions without reason finally had their answer.
Countless sharp and certain instincts finally had their cause.
Rufus finally understood.
He finally understood why Amelia hated him so much.
So that was it.
Because Amelia was Cecilia.
The wife he had killed with his own hands.
At the same time, Cecilia stood not far away, watching this absurdly extreme scene, all strength instantly drained from her body.
She wanted to step forward, but her feet felt heavy as lead.
What right did she have to approach?
As some stranger named Amelia, completely unrelated?
Or as Bronte's daughter who should have "died," Cecilia?
Just as Cecilia was torn apart inside, caught between advance and retreat, Bronte, being dragged forcibly by security, suddenly turned her head back during her frantic struggle.
Bronte's gaze pierced through the chaotic crowd and landed precisely on Cecilia's face.
In that instant, all of Bronte's madness and struggling came to an abrupt halt.
In those murky eyes, a brilliantly bright light suddenly burst forth. It was a mixture of extreme joy, deep confusion, and one last glimmer of uncertainty.
Bronte stared blankly at Cecilia, her lips trembling violently, and in a voice so weak it was almost inaudible, filled with infinite trembling and pleading, she softly called out:
"Cecilia?"