Chapter 604 So This Is the True Cause of Mother’s Death

"You..." Miles Mercer impulsively lunged forward, ready to strike him.

This was a naked threat—using their grandfather’s life as leverage, no less. What’s more, Jason Summers’s nonchalant attitude was absolutely infuriating.

However, Ivy Sherwood spoke up, "I can talk with you."

Ivy had long suspected that Jason wanted something from her and that he had been keeping tabs on her for a while. He definitely had an ulterior motive; otherwise, he would have made a move against her long ago. Now, she finally had a chance to uncover his true objective and see exactly what he was after.

"Ivy, you can’t let him mess with your head," Miles was the first to object.

Quentin Blackwood and Xavier Mercer remained silent. Miles turned to his brother. "Xavier, you’re not actually going to let her talk to Jason alone, are you? That’s like throwing her to the wolves!"

Quentin interjected, "She won’t be alone. I’ll stay, or at least one of us will stay with her."

Jason thought about it for a moment. "Fine. You can stay."

"I’m staying too!" Miles demanded. If Quentin was already staying, what difference would one more person make?

"We’ll wait outside," Xavier decided after a brief pause, dragging Miles away with him. Miles was reluctant, but since Xavier was leaving, he had no choice but to follow.

Soon, only the three of them were left in the room. Jason was tied up, rendering him harmless for the moment.

"It’s just the three of us now," Ivy said, taking a seat opposite Jason, maintaining a safe distance between them. "Tell me. What exactly will it take for you to hand over the antidote?"

Knowing that a true word rarely left Jason’s mouth, Ivy knew she would have to carefully weigh whatever he was about to say.

"It’s very simple. When your mother passed away, did she leave anything behind for you?"

Sure enough. Just as Ivy had suspected, Jason was after a specific item.

"My mother left me plenty of things," Ivy replied neutrally. "I don’t know what you’re referring to."

Jason couldn’t specify exactly what it was either. He didn’t know the format in which Winter Mercer had stored the information. Perhaps it was on a USB drive, or hidden inside some other object. It was hard to say.

"Bring out all of your mother’s belongings and let me search through them myself. Once I find it, I’ll give you the antidote."

"Why should I believe you?" Ivy stared him down. "Do you honestly think you have any credibility left? And another thing, how exactly did my mother die back then? What did you do to her?" This was what Ivy wanted to know most of all.

"Isn’t it obvious? I poisoned her, of course. It was the same chronic toxin I used on that old man. I had it specially developed. I just used a much stronger, heavier dose on the old man. Combined with his old age, the symptoms flared up quickly. Otherwise, if it were someone like Miles taking it for six months to a year, the poison would slowly seep into their bone marrow until they wasted away."

Jason wasn’t bothering to put up a front anymore. Since they already knew Winter’s death was tied to him, there was no point in hiding it.

"You bastard!" Ivy shot to her feet, trembling with rage.

Her mother had actually been poisoned by that insidious drug. She had spent her whole life not knowing how her mother truly died, and now the awful truth was laid bare.

"Jason, how exactly did my mother ever wrong you? Why did you have to kill her?!"

"That’s none of your concern." Jason entirely dismissed Ivy’s outrage. It didn’t matter; Ivy wasn’t going to kill him now anyway, was she?

Back then, he and Winter Mercer had indeed been colleagues. They conducted research together, and Winter was a renowned figure in the scientific community. She was brilliant and innovative, having developed something incredibly powerful—something Jason desperately needed.

However, a deep rift formed between them regarding their work. Winter believed that if her creation fell into the wrong hands, it could endanger the world. She insisted on destroying it and refused to continue the research. But Jason suspected that her change of heart came from meeting Ovillette around that time. He believed Ovillette had influenced her into giving it up.

Jason’s initial reason for poisoning Winter had actually been to use her own life as leverage to control and threaten her. Even back then, his ambition was boundless. He was already secretly conducting numerous shady, illicit operations behind the scenes. His righteous facade was nothing but a sham.

Winter seemed to have caught on to this, leading to a massive argument between them. He knew that the only reason she hadn’t completely cut ties with him then was because she was secretly gathering evidence against him.

If Winter hadn’t fled and changed her identity, Jason would have undoubtedly hunted her down. Had Jason found her back then, there was no telling what terrible fate would have befallen her. Knowing just how far Jason’s sphere of influence reached, she had chosen to disappear quietly, ensuring that the Mercer Family wouldn’t be implicated. She hadn’t just changed her name; she had even altered her physical appearance. That was why Jason had searched for so many years without turning up a single clue.

Ivy finally understood everything. Her mother’s escape all those years ago had definitely been because of Jason. She had been terrified of him finding her, refusing to hand over whatever it was he desperately sought.

Ivy wasn’t sure if her mother had known about the poisoning at the time, but the mere thought of what Jason had done made her stomach turn. He was truly despicable.

She clenched her fists tightly, her eyes burning with pure fury. She harbored a deep, visceral hatred for Jason. If it hadn’t been for him, her mother wouldn’t have died!

Yet, amidst her rage, a sudden realization flashed through Ivy’s mind.

"No... That doesn’t make sense..."

Her expression abruptly shifted, turning deadly serious. If her mother had known early on that Jason was an evil man, how could she possibly have conceived his child and chosen to carry the baby to term?

Although Ivy hadn’t spent much time with her mother, and the woman’s face had faded in her memories, Ivy knew one thing for certain: her mother had loved her deeply. When she was little, her mother would often stare at her in a daze, a soft smile resting on her lips. But there had always been complex emotions hidden within that smile—emotions a young Ivy couldn’t possibly comprehend.

She used to think her mother was simply happy to look at her. Now, Ivy realized that her mother might have been looking at someone else through her.

If her guess was right, that person couldn’t possibly be Jason. Her mother would never gaze so lovingly at the child of the monster who had forced her into hiding and separated her from her own family. That left only one possibility: she wasn’t Jason’s daughter at all.

Perhaps, her mother and Ovillette...

The pieces finally clicked together in Ivy’s mind!

She sat back down, staring straight at Jason. "So, you lied to me earlier. You told me I was your daughter just so you could use me to get what you wanted?"

"How could I lie to you, Ivy? I really am your father, and you are my child. We’re a family. Whatever your mother left behind rightfully belongs to me."

Having figured out the truth, Ivy was no longer going to let Jason manipulate her. Her expression turned freezing cold as she spoke, exuding an aura of absolute certainty.

"Drop the act. I’m not your daughter at all. My real father is Ovillette, isn’t he?"