Chapter 478: Is This Something a Human Would Do?

Arabella Donovan stretched and was about to go upstairs to rest when she felt her phone vibrate again.

She pulled it out to see a familiar notification from a familiar account—and a familiar bank transfer!

‘…What was wrong with this guy? Didn’t I tell him to stop sending me money? Why did he do it again? Did he have money burning a hole in his pocket?’

The astonishment on Arabella’s face was so obvious that Justin Donovan couldn’t help but laugh. “Just take it. He’s so grateful and genuinely can’t think of any other way to repay you, so all he can do is keep throwing money at you.”

Justin’s tone was casual, but Arabella was left a little speechless. “No wonder they say men who dote on their wives have good fortune.”

Just looking at the few guests she met on the show with Hector Donovan, there was Milton Lambert, for instance. He adored his wife and daughter, had never been involved in a single messy scandal, and his career was flourishing. He could coast on his past achievements for the rest of his life and never have to worry about a thing.

Then there was Serena Taylor. With a virtuous husband by her side, she might be in a temporary slump, but a comeback was definitely not out of the question.

And then there was Mr. Dawson. His wife may have passed away long ago, and his ability to spot a scheming woman might be lacking, but he was the epitome of a faithful husband. Otherwise, after all these years, despite a certain someone’s persistent attempts at seduction, it wouldn’t have been a case of her making eyes at a blind man, failing to earn so much as a single proper glance for all her efforts.

On the other hand, there was Mr. Coleman, whose wife had also passed away young. He couldn’t wait to marry a new woman shortly after, and that was him supposedly being considerate of the business partnership between his company and his late wife’s family. It just went to show how little he must have cared for his first wife.

And now look at him. Thanks to a series of wild antics from his new wife, while he might not be on the verge of immediate bankruptcy, he had likely suffered devastating losses and taken a major hit. It was a pathetic sight, really.

Although her older brother told her to keep the money, Arabella thought it over and ultimately chose to donate it in the name of Dylan Dawson’s younger brother. She considered it a way of accumulating good karma for him, hoping he could extricate himself smoothly before that lawless mastermind was brought to justice, avoiding as much entanglement as possible.

However, to Arabella’s surprise, after several days of waiting, there was no news about Guinevere Rhodes or the mastermind. Instead, headlines exploded with news of Faye Collins’s falling out with her family.

It all started when Faye Collins’s parents went live online, accusing their daughter of being unfilial. They claimed they had sold everything they owned to support her dream of becoming a star. But once she got famous and started making money, she began to look down on her impoverished parents and her humble family, casting them aside without a second thought.

They might have let it slide in previous years, but this year, her father was unfortunately diagnosed with lung cancer and needed a huge sum of money for treatment. The elderly couple claimed they had no choice but to swallow their pride and ask her for the life-saving funds, only to be verbally mocked and thrown out.

They even said that her own brother couldn’t stand by and watch, so he went to reason with her, only to have her call the police and get him arrested.

Now, with one of them gravely ill and the other at a complete loss, their only son—their pillar of support—was also in trouble. The family, they cried, was left with no way to survive, so they felt they had no choice but to expose Faye Collins to the media, hoping that for the sake of their blood ties, she would let their son go.

To really roast Faye Collins over the flames of public opinion, the couple even kowtowed to the camera during the live broadcast.

As expected, regardless of the other details, the very act of parents kneeling to their own child crossed a line for most people.

Public opinion surrounding Faye Collins instantly exploded. All sorts of accusations and slander were hurled at her relentlessly. Even the fact that she’d had a daughter out of wedlock years ago was exhumed and used as “proof” of her promiscuous lifestyle and poor character.

Brands that had endorsement deals with Faye Collins began to jump ship, announcing the termination of their contracts. This only further convinced many drama-loving netizens that her parents’ story was true.

“Ms. Collins is being targeted,” Hector Donovan remarked. Having been in the industry for a while, he recognized the low-level smear campaign for what it was immediately.

“It’s probably some of her competitors. They’re worried her comeback will cut into their resources, so they’re trying to sabotage her before she can get any traction.”

Eloise Donovan frowned as well. “Serena already warned her about this. I can’t believe she still couldn’t protect herself and her daughter from the influence of her toxic family.”

“No, Serena’s warning was effective,” Hector countered. “Otherwise, the trending news wouldn’t be about her brother’s arrest and her parents’ online pity party. It would be about her being forced into marriage and hospitalized for domestic abuse. Now it’s all up to her management team to see if they can clarify this mess and clear Ms. Collins’s name.”

Hector’s analysis was both reasonable and prophetic.

Sure enough, just as the scandal reached its peak and netizens were about to pass their final judgment—crucifying Faye Collins on the pillar of shame—her management team finally issued a series of statements.

First and foremost were Faye Collins’s complete bank records, dating back to the start of her career. These records showed that since her debut, she had been continuously transferring funds to her parents’ account, amounting to a sum of no less than eight figures. This represented nearly ninety-nine percent of her entire career earnings.

So much for the “cold-hearted” daughter who, according to her parents, had despised her poor family ever since she became famous, ignored them completely, never gave them a dime, and refused to even help with life-saving medical expenses.

While some netizens got sidetracked, marveling that even a “washed-up, second-tier singer” could earn that much and wondering just how astronomical the earnings of A-listers must be, most people felt a chilling realization. They began to strongly suspect the real reason Faye Collins hadn’t given her parents the “life-saving money” was that these vampires had already bled her dry. She probably had nothing left to give.

As for the netizens who were already sensitive to the issue of children being exploited by their families, one look at Faye Collins’s family situation and they understood everything.

After debunking the rumor that Faye Collins had never given her parents any money, her team released details of the extensive training funds her agency had invested in her after signing her. This served to refute her parents’ laughable lie about “selling everything they owned” to support her dream of becoming a star.

This worthless pair couldn’t even cover her tuition fees during her mandatory schooling, let alone pay to cultivate their daughter’s talents; a then-underage Faye Collins had to earn that money herself. Who knows where they got the audacity to pat themselves on the back and claim they had sacrificed so much for their daughter.

Faye Collins’s team strategically avoided directly addressing the issue of her having a child out of wedlock. They hoped to bury it under the other revelations, preventing her child from being dragged back into the spotlight and subjected to public speculation.

Thus, the team wisely shifted the focus to the arrest of Faye Collins’s brother.

In reality, her brother wasn’t arrested because he felt sorry for his parents or because he went to “reason with” his sister for their medical bills. He was arrested for breaking and entering, and for attempting to kidnap his own sister to marry her off in exchange for a hefty bride price he could then squander.

The general public, which had been braced for a plot twist but never one of this magnitude, was collectively floored: “???”

‘What the hell? Say that again. Is that something a human being is even capable of doing?’