Chapter 566 - 564: The Sky Has Fallen, Why Would He Become the Princely Heir

Chapter 566: Chapter 564: The Sky Has Fallen, Why Would He Become the Princely Heir

"Go on, quickly."

After her old servant left, Mrs. Dawson waited in her courtyard until the servants brought her son back. When Mrs. Dawson got a clear look at her son’s current state, she sucked in a sharp breath.

’Is this my son?’

The person before her, reeking and looking like he had just crawled out of a sewer, was truly her son. Mrs. Dawson’s expression was a sight to behold. His face was covered in... something, to the point that she almost didn’t recognize him.

Mrs. Dawson rose from her chair, feeling a bit unsteady on her feet. As she drew closer, a wave of pungent stench—a mix of something rotten and pig manure—assaulted her senses. The smell was truly overwhelming.

The odor made Mrs. Dawson’s stomach churn, and she couldn’t help but bend over and vomit. When she looked up at her son, a flicker of disgust crossed her eyes. ’He’s so filthy! What on earth has this child been doing? Could he really be possessed by some evil spirit? Otherwise, how could he do such things? Crawling through a dog door, falling into a pigsty... I can’t believe my own son, Arthur Jacobs, did this.’

When Arthur Jacobs, who had been brought back by the servants, saw his own mother vomit at the sight of him, he noticed the disgust in her eyes. A twisted feeling coiled in his heart, and his face contorted into an ugly expression.

’Look at that...’

’This is my own mother. She sees her son come home injured, and instead of a single word of comfort, she just vomits. She really doesn’t see me as her own son.’

The thought of the disgust in her eyes made him feel deeply wronged.

Arthur Jacobs couldn’t move his head, so he glared at her sideways from his awkward, crooked posture. "You’re disgusted by me, too... You’re disgusted, aren’t you? You think I’ve embarrassed you?"

Hearing her son’s accusation, Mrs. Dawson finally snapped out of it, realizing her reaction must have hurt his feelings. But it wasn’t really her fault. As the dignified General’s Lady, she had lived a life of luxury and comfort; when had she ever smelled such a terribly foul odor?

With that, she said, "What nonsense is this child talking about? You are my own son, the flesh of my flesh. How could I ever be disgusted by you?" She then motioned to the servants. "Someone, prepare water for the young master’s bath."

Arthur Jacobs was not moved in the slightest. ’She’s calling for servants to wash me. It’s because she thinks I’m dirty and doesn’t want to touch me. It proves this woman doesn’t love me; she doesn’t see me as her son at all. How dare she, after I’ve ended up like this?’

’Isn’t she my mother? She should be the one to wash me.’ At this thought, Arthur Jacobs refused to let the servants near him touch him.

"Get away! All of you, get away!"

"I only want Mother to wash me! The rest of you, get lost!"

As he spoke, his gaze fell upon Mrs. Dawson. The look made her face freeze. Her eyes swept over her son’s body. ’What is that? Is that... pig manure?’ The thought of her own hands having to touch something so filthy was completely unacceptable.

Besides, there were servants; there was no need for her to do it personally. She was sure her son would understand. With this in mind, she said, "Arthur, it’s not that Mother won’t wash you. I’ve recently caught a cold, and the doctor said I must rest well. The servants are here, so it’s all the same."

’A cold? How come I can’t see any sign that my mother has a cold? It’s obvious she just doesn’t care about me. If she doesn’t want to do it, she should just say so instead of making excuses.’

Arthur Jacobs had already been on the verge of a breakdown after everything he had been through that night. Now, feeling that the woman before him didn’t truly care for him or see him as her son, he was overwhelmed. A storm of complex emotions surged through him, and he finally exploded.

"Get out... Get out!"

"You don’t see me as your son at all, just admit it! You don’t love me! You don’t care about me one bit! Don’t think I didn’t see the disgust in your eyes!"

"Whose fault is it that I’m like this? It’s your fault! If you hadn’t lost me when I was a child, I wouldn’t have been taken in by a beggar! It’s all your fault! Why don’t you just die?! I should have been living a life of luxury since I was a child, but what about me? Because of your negligence, I never had enough to eat or warm clothes to wear. I had to fight with a bunch of beggars over a single steamed bun."

’Actually, that wasn’t true. When he lived with the old beggar, the man always gave him the best of whatever food he had. He truly treated him like his own son. But later, the beggar became a cripple and was just a burden. So, death was a release for that old beggar. It wasn’t my fault.’

Mrs. Dawson pointed a finger at her son.

"You... you... You scoundrel! Is this how you speak to your mother?"

"No! You don’t deserve to be my mother!"

Driven to a breaking point by the night’s humiliation of crawling through a dog door, Arthur Jacobs spoke without thinking. Moreover, he felt no real affection for his so-called biological parents. So, in his moment of collapse, he simply felt that they had wronged him, that they owed him.

Mrs. Dawson’s hands trembled with rage. Overcome by a fit of anger, her vision went black and she fainted. Perhaps she had never imagined that her own son, for whom she had planned everything, would speak to her like this.

A chill crept into her heart. ’Will this son truly be filial to me in the future?’ For the first time, Mrs. Dawson had her doubts.

Her thoughts turned to the boy she had driven out of the General’s Mansion—Nathan Jacobs, the one who had previously held the place of her biological son. That child had been so obedient and sensible. When she was sick, he would personally brew her medicine and ask with concern if she was feeling better. But even so, he was not her biological son, so she didn’t like him at all. In fact, she loathed and detested him.

After her own son was found, she had Nathan Jacobs’s name struck from the family registry and sent him away. In the end, fearing the boy might return and compete with her real son, she secretly sent people to kill him.

She had always had a feeling that if that boy wasn’t dead, he would surely take everything from her son. He was just too smart. Even though she had never hired a tutor for him, he could learn anything just by seeing or hearing it once. A child that clever was the greatest threat to her own son.

But why, now, did she feel a pang of regret for sending people to kill that child? How desperate must he have been at the moment of his death? ’No... I don’t regret it. He was just a bastard child picked up from the roadside to ward off disaster for my real son.’

’All these years, I gave him a place to live and food to eat. That was the greatest blessing I could have bestowed upon him. Without us, that child might have starved to death on the roadside. What future would he have had? He was never meant to survive. The fact that he lived for so many years was already a stroke of fortune.’

Of course, that was just what she believed. Even if Aaron Sinclair hadn’t been picked up by them back then, he would never have starved to death. After all, he was no ordinary person.

The news that Arthur Jacobs had crawled through a dog door last night and fallen into a pigsty today was too shocking. In less than a morning, his name had spread throughout all of Atheria.