Chapter 508

Chapter 508

The room was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

Simon passed out from fear, then woke up from the pain. When he saw the familiar yet strange smiling face right in front of him, his eyes filled with terror.

The butler sitting nearby curled his lips into a creepy smile. "Surprised? Why are you staring at me like that? Is this face handsome? After all these years, I can finally show my true self."

"You're shocked to see me, huh? Back then, if it wasn't for you, the two of us would've been together ages ago. But you got him—why didn't you cherish him..."

If anyone were there right then, they'd see the butler looked totally different from usual. No more sloppy, worn-out face—instead, he seemed smug and sharp, handsome as hell.

He was middle-aged, but his face showed no tiredness. It even had a scholarly vibe.

With gold-rimmed glasses on, he looked gentle and refined, just like a gentleman.

He suddenly grabbed Simon's neck. "Do you know how long I've waited for this day? Back then, we could've been together from elementary school through middle school, high school, college—we were inseparable, about to get married..."

In the end, the butler burst out laughing. "It's all because of you rich families and your arranged marriages! No feelings, no love, but you force people to marry anyway."

"You ruined his whole life, and now you're after his daughter too. If I wasn't here protecting Adelaide in secret, you would've killed her long ago."

Simon stared at the man, like something dawned on him, and his fear grew even deeper.

The butler sneered. "I know what you're thinking. You're wondering where the guy who grew up with you went, right? See how selfish you are—you didn't even notice when the person by your side changed."

"Back then, your original butler died in a car crash. I got plastic surgery to look like this and took his place. You didn't know, did you? I was related to your old butler, so we already looked alike."

The butler gripped Simon's neck tight, his eyes ice-cold. "Now talk. What's the secret on your computer? Give me the password, or I'll choke you to death right now—and make every day a living hell for you."

Seeing Simon's desperate look, the butler's eyes gleamed with wild glee.

He'd hidden by Simon's side for years, and now he could finally get revenge.

Not just revenge—once he got the password, he could leave the country smoothly and start fresh far from this painful place.

He pulled out a box of needles from somewhere and jammed a silver one hard into the root of Simon's thigh.

He grinned wickedly at Simon. "Seeing you so miserable makes me so happy. You have a daughter, a wife, a mom, a sister—but none of them care about you. You deserve it! Spill the password, or I'll torture you every day..."

Simon felt the searing pain, tried to scream but couldn't, passed out from it, then woke up from more pain...

It was destined to be a sleepless night.

The whole night, Simon was tortured until he was barely alive.

But the others living in the same house knew nothing about it.

Early morning.

Adelaide went back to school to keep working on her research.

But she got an anonymous email—with a password.

Adelaide was skeptical but went to Sebastian anyway. She entered the password first and—it actually unlocked the first layer.

Then, she eagerly opened all the files.

Seeing the research results and patents, tears streamed down her face. "Look, this is my mom. Even when she was so sick, she still thought of me."

The patents clearly named her as the sole heir.

It meant her mom's depression was already really bad back then—sometimes she wasn't even fully aware—but she'd still prepared everything perfectly.

The will here was crystal clear. Even if someone got the patents, they'd have to work hard to crack and change a ton of stuff to use them.

Plus, there were lots of little secrets just between her and her mom.

Adelaide's fingers flew over the keyboard, quickly fixing some minor bugs, revealing the real research breakthroughs.

She threw herself into Sebastian's arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "This is from Mom, all of it from Mom..."

With these patents, not to mention anything else, she could carve out a spot for herself back home.

They were originally meant for Simon.

Her mom was truly grateful to the Montagu family—they'd helped her in her darkest times, lent a hand when she needed it most.

Too bad those people didn't deserve it.

Sebastian didn't know much about the patents, but seeing some of the technical terms still shocked him.

His investigation had already shown Adelaide's mom was a medical genius, always coming up with unique ideas for drug formulas.

And these files proved it.

A real genius.

Sebastian patted Adelaide's shoulder to calm her down. "Okay, okay, I know you're upset. But we have bigger things to do."

They'd clearly cracked the first layer, but plenty more puzzles lay ahead.

While Adelaide fixed those small bugs, a few words popped up: they needed more password combos to unlock the final secrets.

So these outer patents were just the tip of the iceberg—the important stuff was deeper inside.

And only Adelaide could access it, using the little games she and her mom played to fix the bugs. Otherwise, others would just get scraps.

Even without meeting her, Sebastian admired Adelaide's mom more. She planned everything so carefully, with super tight thinking.

Adelaide wiped her tears. "The email was anonymous, so can I reply now?"

The sender's email was a virtual one.

Routed through multiple proxies from overseas.

Whoever it was, they were super secretive, not wanting anyone to know their identity.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "We don't know their goal, but we can keep working with them. Send a reply—tell them you got the stuff but need the other passwords."

Even if they didn't know if the person was friend or foe.

They could still use each other.