Chapter 440 Lachlan's Background
"Lachlan... is not Grandfather's biological son."
The moment Alaric said this, the study fell silent for an instant, followed by a collective gasp.
"Is this true?"
Joshua and Gregory were the first to lose their composure.
Especially Gregory, who was only a year or two older than Sophia and as innocent-minded as Cillian.
Benjamin also looked shocked, unable to believe his ears.
"Alaric, are you sure?"
Alaric nodded solemnly and explained in a low voice, "I accidentally overheard this secret when I was little, but I don't know the specifics of Lachlan's background."
"If Lachlan isn't Grandfather's child, why hasn't anyone else discovered this?"
The elite circle was both small and large.
Usually, when any family had any news, it wouldn't be long before the entire elite circle knew about it.
If Lachlan really wasn't a child of the White family, how could no one know?
And all these years, Preston had never shown favoritism, treating both his sons equally.
Alaric shook his head gravely. "I remember Grandfather saying that when he brought Lachlan home, Lachlan was only this small."
As Alaric spoke, he made a gesture.
That size was basically a tiny baby.
This explained why no one suspected Lachlan's identity.
—Because at that time, Preston's wife Octavia White was in poor health, rarely went out, and didn't socialize much with other wealthy ladies.
So even if Octavia hadn't been seen for a while, or if she was pregnant and gave birth, it wouldn't seem strange.
Alaric frowned and continued, "I suddenly remembered something else. When I was four, a woman came to the door claiming to be Lachlan's biological mother."
He was too young at the time, so now he only had a vague impression.
He vaguely remembered that the woman was very beautiful, but after arriving, she seemed to go crazy and rushed toward Preston.
Preston nimbly dodged her attack and pointed at the woman, telling her to leave.
The woman cursed Preston with hatred, and then the next day, major news media exposed the story of Preston's mistress coming to the door.
Preston's reputation took a big hit at the time.
Preston and Octavia were deeply in love and had a wonderful relationship. He had only ever been with Octavia in his life.
When this incident came out, Preston was furious.
After that day, he never saw that woman again.
"You mean Grandfather personally admitted that Lachlan wasn't his biological son?" Sophia's mouth dropped open in surprise.
Alaric nodded. He had heard this with his own ears—it couldn't be false.
Benjamin's expression turned cold, feeling like he was still missing some important piece of the puzzle.
He sneered, "But even so, Lachlan should be grateful, not harm people."
"So there must be secrets we don't know about."
"But Grandfather's health hasn't been great lately. If we tell him about this... I'm afraid he'll lose control emotionally."
Preston's ongoing illness wasn't because of poor health, but because of something weighing on his heart.
His burden had always come from Benjamin's death, and with Benjamin's return, that burden was lifted.
But his body had truly deteriorated.
Although Sophia had been carefully helping him recover, she could only maintain the status quo and keep things stable.
If he found out about this and got upset, the consequences would be unthinkable.
Benjamin's eyes narrowed, and a cold aura suddenly emanated from him.
"Grandfather won't easily tell others about this kind of thing. Now there's only one person left we can look for."
"Who?"
"Magnus."
Facing this father who had abandoned him, Benjamin didn't even want to use a proper title and called him by name directly.
Alaric understood his thinking and just sighed quietly without correcting him.
He nodded in agreement. "Indeed, we can only look for him now."
"But will he really show up? He didn't even appear at Benjamin's funeral two years ago."
Sophia couldn't help but worry, and couldn't understand how someone could be so cold as to not even attend their own son's funeral.
She hadn't attended because she firmly believed Benjamin wasn't dead.
But why didn't Magnus attend Benjamin's funeral?
Thinking about how much Benjamin had suffered growing up, her heart ached for him.
"Never mind, let's try to find him first. Only the few of us know about this—don't let it leak out." Alaric's expression was serious as he instructed them.
The others nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, we know what to do."
At this point, Benjamin spoke again. "Actually, there's another reason I called you here today."
As he spoke, he picked up a document from the table beside him and handed it to them.
This was also sent to him by M. The people he sent out had already found several GeneCipher Society locations.
"This is... you found them this quickly?" Alaric was secretly surprised and became even more curious about M.
Although the White family was powerful, all their business operations were legal—they had never done anything shady.
This was why the White family could stand firm in Silverlight City and throughout all of Novaria.
So while many wealthy families began cultivating their own forces, the White family always focused on business development.
Alaric and Benjamin rarely dealt with these matters, so their investigations hadn't gone smoothly.
Fortunately, they had M's help.
Benjamin shook his head, feeling this was far from enough. "Actually, it's not that fast. M has been watching GeneCipher Society for many years."
"They're pretty smart though, knowing to split up their forces. There's no pattern to where the GeneCipher Society locations are either." Matthew, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly spoke.
These locations were all scattered throughout Celestria—some on uninhabited islands, others in ordinary residential buildings.
They had previously assumed that GeneCipher Society would definitely be established in the safest places.
These residential buildings weren't even in their investigation scope.
And during Benjamin's two years in GeneCipher Society, he was often out on missions and rarely went back.
So he only knew of one location, and when he later went to investigate, he found it had been abandoned.
Benjamin nodded, looking at Matthew with approval.
"Anyway, finding them is a good thing. Now the key question is how to catch them all in one sweep."
Whether it was a deserted island or a densely populated residential building, neither was easy to approach.
The island was surrounded by sea on all sides—if any boats approached, they would definitely be spotted.
As for the residential buildings... checking door to door would be too troublesome and could easily alert them.
If they ended up harming the surrounding residents, that would be bad.
"What do you plan to do?" Matthew closed the document and looked at him intently.
Benjamin's lips curved into a meaningful smile. "I remember that GeneCipher Society locations all have a defense program installed."
As he spoke, he instinctively turned his gaze to Sophia.