Chapter 385: Don’t Mention the Dark History

Chapter 385: Chapter 385: Don’t Mention the Dark History

"What are you two doing here? Don’t you have school today?"

Arabella Donovan stood at the top of the stairs, looking puzzled at Sean and Iris Donovan, who had appeared in her living room.

When the two of them saw Arabella Donovan, their eyes lit up, and they called out enthusiastically, "Serena!"

Arabella Donovan was taken aback by their greeting. She couldn’t help but remember their first meeting when they had stormed into her room, full of aggression. They had belligerently threatened her, telling her to stop causing trouble and bullying their sister Eloise, or they’d make her pay. Their attitude now was a world apart from back then.

The two of them stiffened with guilt. ’...’ ’The past is too painful to recall. Let’s not bring up that cringey history, thank you very much!’

Eloise Donovan saw their awkwardness and almost let out an unkind laugh.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, the years of sibling affection held her back. She stepped in to explain for them, "Something happened at their school, so they can’t attend class for now. Our aunt got them excused and had them come to our house to lie low for a bit."

Arabella looked completely baffled. "Huh? What happened that’s so serious they can’t even go to school?"

’Besides, why come to our house to lie low? Couldn’t they just stay at their own place?’

Iris looked embarrassed but answered truthfully, "It’s about my dad... no, it’s about that Mr. Croft."

Arabella shot upright on the sofa, her sudden interest a perfect illustration of the saying, "If you’re going to talk about that, then I’m wide awake."

"It’s about him? What’s going on? Hasn’t he already divorced Aunt Lillian?"

It turned out that after Lillian Donovan and her children accidentally learned of Julian Croft’s marriage fraud—a scheme to seize the entire family fortune—while visiting the Donovan home, they took action. With the help of Mr. Donovan and others, Lillian decisively gathered evidence of Julian’s bigamy and illegal asset transfers. Before Julian, his insatiably greedy and snobbish parents, or his so-called "sister"—who was actually his lover and "original wife"—could even react, she filed for divorce. She pressed charges and moved to legally reclaim all marital property that Julian had siphoned off during their marriage.

The outcome was predictable. Faced with irrefutable, hard evidence, Julian Croft had no room to argue.

The sudden exposure of his long-buried secret caught the entire Croft family off guard. Julian Croft’s first reaction was to find Lillian Donovan and beg for forgiveness.

In his mind, women were soft-hearted. They had, after all, more than a decade of history and two children together. He was sure that while the exposure of his affair with his "sister" would infuriate Lillian and drive her to do something rash, he just needed to humble himself and beg for her forgiveness. He believed that would be enough to make her reminisce about their many happy years, drop the charges, and return to their old life.

This line of thinking revealed that no matter how well Julian feigned kindness, deep down he harbored a condescending, chauvinistic attitude. He believed that no matter what he did wrong, a simple apology was all it took to manipulate the woman who had borne him two children.

This time, however, he had truly underestimated Lillian Donovan’s determination to cut all ties with him, send him to prison, and turn his entire family into beggars.

Disgraced, Julian Croft rushed back to the home he shared with Lillian and their two children, only to find it empty. To avoid his harassment, Lillian had already moved out with the kids. She had even put their house up for an emergency sale, and it now belonged to someone else.

Unable to find them or get through to Lillian’s phone, Julian reluctantly returned to his parents’ house.

He never imagined this was only the beginning of his family’s suffering. Because Lillian had sued him for transferring marital assets, all of Julian Croft’s personal assets were frozen.

As for his job, that was even easier to handle.

Although Lillian’s father had agreed to his daughter taking a live-in husband, he wasn’t a fool. He wouldn’t hand over the massive business he’d spent his life building to an unrelated outsider instead of his own daughter.

For years, Julian Croft had worked at the company Lillian’s father left behind. Under the title of the Donovan family’s live-in son-in-law, he appeared to have significant power. In reality, all the items that could influence company decisions, like the share certificates and official seals, were in Lillian’s hands. He was nothing more than a glorified employee, a figurehead put on display.

After unceremoniously kicking him out, Lillian used her authority as the company’s largest shareholder and ultimate decision-maker to fire Julian on the spot. She then moved quickly, leveraging the network her father had built and cashing in on favors with old family friends to have Julian blacklisted throughout the entire industry.

Julian’s assets were frozen, he’d lost his job, and he was blacklisted with no source of income. On top of that, the court ordered him to repay the marital assets he had diverted over the years to support his parents, his mistress, and his illegitimate son. The house he had bought for his parents, Willow Croft, and Caleb Croft was also subject to seizure.

To avoid ending up on the streets, the Crofts decided to play dirty and act like deadbeats, stubbornly refusing to move out. They figured they had nothing to lose. Besides, they were used to the house and weren’t afraid of a confrontation. ’As long as we don’t leave willingly,’ they thought, ’can they really drag us out by force?’

Lillian had already anticipated their line of thinking. Using her connections, she went through some special channels and sold the house at a low price to a local gang of professional debt collectors.

These guys dealt with all sorts of characters on a daily basis and knew exactly how to handle scoundrels like the Crofts.

And so, the Crofts, who had been determined to squat, were treated to a "family combo" trip to the hospital that very same day. After their neat and tidy one-day tour of the emergency room, the entire family moved out the moment they were discharged. They became remarkably cooperative, proving that sometimes it takes a villain to handle a villain.

After this ordeal, Julian Croft finally realized that his affair with Willow Croft had truly crossed a line, turning him and Lillian from lovers into mortal enemies. His feigned attempts at appeasement curdled into pure hatred, and his mind was consumed by a single, vindictive thought: if he was going down, he was dragging Lillian down with him.

However, before he could act on this, he was "gifted" a prison sentence, losing any chance to carry out his plan.

When Arabella Donovan heard that the social-climbing freeloader had really been sent to prison by her aunt, she couldn’t help but want to clap and cheer.

’It’s normal to be selfish—everyone is. But you can’t be that greedy. You can’t have it all, wanting what’s in your bowl while still eyeing what’s in the pot.’

’Her Aunt Lillian is beautiful and rich; it’s not like she couldn’t find another husband. Why did she insist on hanging herself from a crooked tree like him? She gave him her heart and body, and almost her life. What for?’

’From this, it was clear that Julian Croft and his family completely deserved their fate.’

But if Julian Croft was already in prison, why were the two kids still too afraid to go to school because of him?

So, she asked the question out loud.

As the older sister, Iris looked embarrassed for a moment before explaining truthfully, "Strictly speaking, it’s not really because of him... it’s because of those two old folks from his family..."