Chapter 236 - 235: Found It

Half an hour later.

Yvonne Lowell and Zachary Jacobs walked out of the small, dark room, leaving behind only a pale and dazed Sheryl Avery.

Leo Loster saw them come out and quickly greeted them, "Young Lady, Young Master Jacobs."

"Uncle Lowell, let her stay here for the next few days. Have people watch her in shifts. No need to do much, just make sure she doesn’t starve to death."

"Understood," Leo Loster replied.

Yvonne Lowell and Zachary Jacobs returned to the study in the main building. Each held a laptop, lounging carelessly on the sofa.

Zachary Jacobs stared at the screen full of messy code and a small window crowded with ID photos, his head starting to ache.

"Sis, this woman doesn’t know anything. And that guy, Hogan, is a total opportunist. He’s brown-nosed so many people, this is like finding a needle in a haystack."

Just now, Yvonne Lowell had used her Spiritual Ability to get information out of Sheryl Avery, but she hadn’t learned anything useful.

The woman was clueless, talking only about her dramatic love affair with that man, Brian Hogan.

Things like ’love at first sight for all eternity,’ ’destined to be together forever,’ and ’willingly risking it all for love’.

She even said, "In love, the one who isn’t loved is the real homewrecker."

After listening to her melodramatic, rambling monologue, their entire worldview was shattered.

You couldn’t even call her love-struck; she was just plain brainless.

Brian Hogan had just fed her a few sweet nothings and got her completely confused, enough to make her willing to sacrifice herself to do his bidding.

Besides, he only got to where he is today by relying on the Yates Family’s influence. How could he possibly divorce his wife and marry her after all this was done?

After it was all over, it wasn’t even certain that Sheryl Avery wouldn’t "accidentally" meet with some misfortune.

"I never expected to get any useful information out of her anyway. I just wanted her to personally admit to the poisoning and her affair with Brian Hogan," Yvonne Lowell said nonchalantly, lighting a cigarette.

Yvonne Lowell hadn’t smoked since she started dating, and Leo Grant had even started to slowly quit with her.

But this whole mess today was genuinely frustrating, making her want to randomly pick two lucky people from a crowd and slap them to death.

Leo Grant: I must stay healthy! Exercise regularly! Maintain my figure! Quit smoking early to prepare for a baby! Yeah! (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)

Zachary Jacobs was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "I don’t get it. Elaborate?"

"Brian Hogan’s father-in-law may not hold a high position, but he’s managed to stay out of trouble all these years, and like my younger uncle, he’s neutral. Besides, did you forget what you found? He still has no idea what ’good deeds’ his seemingly respectable son-in-law has been up to behind his back."

Zachary Jacobs finally got it and clicked his tongue. "No wonder you had me record a video. You’re helping the father-in-law see his ’good’ son-in-law for who he is, letting him cut his losses before his own interests are damaged. That way, even if he doesn’t side with our uncle, at least our uncle won’t have another enemy."

’As expected. You can offend anyone but my sis. She’d mastered every trick in the book—killing with a borrowed knife, currying favor with borrowed gifts, and always finding an easy way out.’

"Let’s not rush this. Let him run wild a little longer. First things first," Yvonne Lowell said, pulling out the note Caleb Lowell had written.

"This is the list of suspicious individuals my younger uncle wrote down. Pull up a list of everyone Brian Hogan has been in contact with, too. Let’s start by checking for overlaps."

Seeing the long list of names, Zachary Jacobs couldn’t help but twitch his lips. "Our uncle... he’s quite the lone wolf, huh."

That was the most neutral term he could come up with...

Yvonne Lowell shot him a lazy glance. "You sure have a nice way of putting things. Unlike me, I’d just tell him to his face that he has no friends."

"Impressive. That’s you alright." Zachary Jacobs silently gave her a thumbs-up.

Suddenly remembering something, he added, "Oh, right. Felix found the drug on the dark web. It’s called ’Drunken Life, Dreamy Death,’ and a single dose sells for 100,000 dollars.

"One part is taken orally, and the other is a catalyst. Besides this difference in administration, the described effects are exactly the same as Beauty Intoxication’s.

"The seller is called K, claims to be a Poison Master, and we traced the IP address to Country X. But they just appeared out of nowhere and have never even been on the leaderboards."

Yvonne Lowell tapped her chin. "Grandpa and Grandma only took it for a week. I wonder if it’s because Grandpa has a bigger appetite and thus a larger dosage, which is why the poison acted up in him earlier than in Grandma.

"And Sheryl Avery administered the poison according to the instructions. This means the drug isn’t as stable as they claim. It might even still be in the experimental stage."

Old Mr. Lowell: ...Is our family so poor now that we have to skimp on my few bites of food? They say a good appetite is a blessing, but my good appetite turned me into a guinea pig?

"But... didn’t Madam Bloom say she used to live in Country X? And that she only went to Apeiron because she was backstabbed by a useless, traitorous apprentice, lost a few formulas, and nearly died?"

"You’re saying that K is her apprentice?! No way, that person is such trash!"

Zachary Jacobs didn’t agree with this idea. After all, he knew how high Madam Bloom’s standards were for accepting apprentices.

"The fact that they dare to sell this immature, crappy drug and copy the effects of Beauty Intoxication just means they’re betting that the real Beauty Intoxication will never see the light of day, right?"

Then, a sly smile curved Yvonne Lowell’s lips. "It doesn’t matter if it’s not them. Just tell Madam Bloom her work has been plagiarized. You think she won’t explode?"

Kai Preston had already given her an answer. None of the Beauty Intoxication in Apeiron was missing, the records for material usage in the medical research lab were normal, and they hadn’t found any suspicious personnel or questionable online transactions.

’This means the problem wasn’t internal. So, she mentally kicked herself for a moment for suspecting the elders who watched her grow up and the other members of Apeiron. But she wouldn’t change her methods.’

’If she were to overlook such a possibility just because of her personal feelings for them, she wouldn’t be the Yvonne Lowell they had so carefully trained. They would probably be the ones scorning her instead.’

"Got it! I’ll tell her right now!" Zachary Jacobs accepted his mission and started typing on his keyboard.

Yvonne Lowell lowered the projector screen and started a video call with Felix Knight and William Lynch.

William Lynch had been "packaged and delivered" by Leo Grant, who said that until this matter was over, William was at her exclusive disposal.

Yvonne Lowell assigned them their respective tasks. The four of them then took their assignments and began to work diligently. For the rest of the time, the study was filled with only the CLACK-CLACK-CLACK of keyboards and occasional conversation.

They didn’t stop until the sun had set and dusk gradually enveloped the earth.

The study looked the same as before, only now there were two half-eaten, completely cold meals and a pile of burnt-out cigarette butts.

Yvonne Lowell rolled her sore neck, looking at the organized evidence, list of participants, and the mastermind behind it all displayed on the screen.

A bloodthirsty, murderous glint flashed in her eyes. "Found you," she murmured.

She hadn’t just found evidence of the poisoning; she had dug up every dirty deed these people had ever done.

An eye for an eye was never her style. She preferred to pay people back a hundredfold.

’What did she do wrong? She was just an ordinary, unremarkable girl who was fiercely protective of her own.’

Finally, Yvonne Lowell bundled all the evidence together and sent it to an email address she knew by heart.