Chapter 135: The Secret Asher Hid in the Basement

Chapter 135: Chapter 135: The Secret Asher Hid in the Basement

"Cece..." Julian started to say, but I’d already told the butler to shut the door.

Madeline Quinn and Zeke Shaw stopped Julian. "President Fletcher, if you actually die out here, it’ll make things very difficult for the doctors."

Mrs. Fletcher’s face was ashen. She looked at Julian, her expression a mixture of anger and disappointment. "Julian, I think you’ve truly gone mad."

Mrs. Fletcher was a modern, independent woman. I could see the exhaustion in her eyes, and even a hint of disbelief.

She probably never imagined her son would end up like this.

I shook my head with a sigh and walked into the living room.

After I left, Madeline Quinn texted me. She said Mrs. Fletcher was about to be driven mad by Julian. She was wondering if her son was being haunted by a ghost or if his body had been taken over by something else. She’d even had her assistant look for the best spiritual master in Meridia to come to their house for an exorcism to ward off evil.

I was stunned for a long moment, then let out another helpless laugh.

Everyone knows the dead can’t come back to life. But Mrs. Fletcher was Julian’s mother, after all. Even now, she was still looking for some external cause to blame.

’I guess Mrs. Fletcher must hate me now. She must regret bringing me into the Fletcher family, regret letting me ruin her son.’

’It was because of me that her son turned out this way.’

...

Sure enough, before I even reached the location Lucas Grant had arranged, Madeline Quinn texted me that Mrs. Fletcher had taken the master to my grave.

She was there to exorcise evil, ward off disaster, and suppress a ghost. That ghost was me.

She wanted to perform a proper ritual to help my soul find peace, to stop my lingering spirit from haunting her son.

"Ma’am, we’ve arrived."

’Since when had the Lancaster family’s driver stopped calling me Young Mistress and started calling me Madam? That part didn’t really matter. What was strange was that they had started calling Asher "Sir."’

’As in, the master of the Lancaster family.’

I didn’t think too much of it. After all, Dylan Lancaster was in a vegetative state with almost zero chance of waking up, and Master Lancaster was now paralyzed in bed from a stroke, an invalid who couldn’t even care for himself or make the simplest decisions.

’The Lancaster family truly did belong to Sebastian Lancaster now.’

I got out of the car and looked around.

Cygnus University, located on the border between Meridia and Cygnus, was the best university in the country. It was also the only one with a "genius program."

I didn’t know why Lucas Grant had asked me to meet him here, but I was starting to get annoyed. I was three minutes late due to traffic and had expected him to be angry. To my surprise, he wasn’t even here yet!

’I’ve never liked people who aren’t punctual. Julian was extremely particular about time, down to the minute and second. If I was late, or if I displeased him in any way, he would find all sorts of ways to punish me.’

’It made me incredibly sensitive about time. Whenever I agree to meet someone and they don’t show up, I start to get anxious.’

’Was I being played again?’

I pulled out my phone and called Lucas Grant. "Weren’t you the one who told me to be at the location on the note at a specific time?"

On the other end of the line, Lucas Grant’s voice was tight with anger. "And I told you not to tell that psycho, Sebastian Lancaster."

"..." I froze. "I didn’t tell him. I threw the note in a hospital trash can right after I read it. Nobody saw it. Sebastian doesn’t know."

"Hah..." Lucas Grant scoffed, then hissed in a sharp breath as if in pain. "I knew I couldn’t hide it from that psycho. He must have seen it. He had someone beat me up ahead of time. Now I can’t show my face in public!"

Lucas Grant cursed over the phone. "It was definitely him! There’s a code about not hitting the face, but he knows my face is the one thing I care about most, so of course he’d have his guys aim right for it!"

"..." I was displeased. "Don’t you dare slander my husband. He needs me and an assistant just to get through the day. If he were capable of hiring people to beat you up, he wouldn’t be getting pushed around by everyone."

’If Asher really had the power to have someone beat up Lucas Grant, he wouldn’t have let Master Grant and Dominic Grant bully him so badly back then.’

’Sometimes I wonder... maybe he really isn’t the killer? What kind of murderer with that kind of power would allow himself to be abused so horribly?’

"So, are the people who bullied him all safe and sound now?" Lucas Grant asked pointedly over the phone.

My heart dropped, and my eyes flew open.

"What do you mean..."

"His father, Marcus Lancaster, didn’t die of natural causes. His uncle, Dylan Lancaster, was inextricably involved, and even the Lancaster family’s ’Third Master’ and others had a hand in it. You’ve seen what happened to Dylan Lancaster. And Master Lancaster, who enabled the murderers, is now bedridden. Do you really think Sebastian Lancaster has nothing to do with any of this?" Lucas Grant’s voice dropped to a cold sneer.

I fell silent. I knew, deep down, that I didn’t completely trust Asher. But I also knew him when we were children. I knew he was a good person at his core...

"That psycho thinks a swollen face will stop me from showing you? Hah, he underestimates me." Lucas Grant sounded like he was spoiling for a fight with Sebastian Lancaster. He was mumbling so much over the phone; ’just how swollen is his face...?’

’Lucas Grant had such a cool, aloof look. It was hard to imagine him with a swollen face.’

"You’re at Cygnus University?" he asked again.

"Yeah, I’m here." I glanced around.

"Go up to the entrance, hand your phone to the security guard. I’ll talk to them, and they’ll let you in. Then, just follow my directions."

I had no idea what Lucas Grant was up to, but I did as he said, crossing the entire Cygnus University campus.

He then directed me across the athletic field, through a small side gate, and toward a row of apartment buildings behind the school.

"Are you messing with me?" I asked through gritted teeth, my patience wearing thin.

"Why would I mess with you? I’m right behind you. What’s there to be afraid of?" Lucas Grant teased.

I glanced back. No wonder I’d felt like someone was following me.

He had the brim of his hat pulled low, and he was wearing a mask and sunglasses. He even had a hood pulled up over his baseball cap. Anyone would have mistaken him for a celebrity trying to go incognito.

"Is all that really necessary?" My lip twitched.

"I’d rather die than be ugly! If he ruins my face, he won’t even have to kill me. I’ll jump off a building myself," Lucas Grant said through clenched teeth.

My lip twitched again. ’When I saw him at the hospital, he seemed so aloof and spoke with sky-high arrogance. I thought he’d be difficult to get along with. I didn’t expect him to be a total goofball.’

"The third row of apartment buildings." Hanging up, Lucas Grant walked over to me.

I snuck a peek. Through his sunglasses, I could see two black eyes, just like a panda’s.

’...Did Asher really have him beaten up? No, that’s impossible. The man’s eyes well up with tears if his hands get wet. How could he possibly order someone to beat another person up...’

Lucas Grant led me into the apartment building and down toward the basement.

I felt a little scared. For some reason, the place felt sinister and cold.

"Scared? Hah... After marrying a psycho, I thought you’d be a little braver." Lucas Grant had a sharp tongue, but he didn’t seem like a bad person.

"This is a private apartment building. It’s that psycho’s exclusive territory. The only reason I can get in is this face." Lucas Grant said with a hint of pride, implying he’d won over the building manager with his good looks.

I followed behind him, my feet feeling inexplicably heavy.

The basement of the old apartment building was gloomy and cold, but since it was a semi-basement, it wasn’t too damp.

The walls were covered in graffiti, along with various formulas and numbers.

’It was clear Asher had lived here the entire time he was in the genius program.’

"He was already acknowledged and taken in by the Lancaster family when he was in the genius program. Why would he live in a basement like this?" I asked, confused. As my fingers gently brushed against the wall, I felt a sharp, electric pang in my heart.

"He’s like a ghost that can’t stand the light. He just likes dark, gloomy places," Lucas Grant said through clenched teeth. He pushed open a basement door, and the iron slab groaned with a CLICK-CLACK.

I followed him inside. The room was spacious and empty. There seemed to be bookshelves lining the walls, all of them covered by black cloths.

Lucas Grant reached out and ripped the black cloth away. In that instant, I froze to the spot.

Fear... crept up from the tips of my toes.