I Read Their Tragic Fates, and My Family Reads My Mind?

Chapter 355: Chapter 355: The Chosen Unlucky One

Melody Lynch couldn’t understand. "But didn’t his mother drug Master Gallagher and make him sterile? Shouldn’t he hate that child to the bone and refuse to even lay eyes on him? Why does he dote on him so much instead? It just doesn’t make any sense!"

The light ahead turned red, and Caspian Rhodes stopped the car. He glanced over at her and shook his head. "You’re still so naive."

Melody Lynch shot him a glare. "Cut the crap. If you have something to say, say it. Don’t make it a personal attack."

"What do you think, Arabella?"

Arabella Donovan mused, "I think Master Gallagher might... admire his mother."

"Who?" Melody Lynch whipped her head around to look at her.

"You know... the young Master Gallagher’s mother."

Melody Lynch found that even more absurd. "Admire what about her? That she drugged him and made him sterile?"

Arabella Donovan gave an awkward laugh, but her expression said it all.

"...Why?"

"It’s probably because Master Gallagher has no moral compass himself. He must admire his mistress’s willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve her goals, even taking desperate risks. After all, people like kindred spirits. The only condition is that they have to present a united front and not turn on each other."

"In other words, if she’d pulled that trick on someone else, he might have enthusiastically applauded her for it. It’s just a shame he was the target. So, even though he admired what she did, that didn’t stop him from getting his revenge and having her killed."

Arabella Donovan paused. "You just mentioned how love for someone can extend to those around them, and the same goes for hate. His feelings for the mother would naturally affect the child. So he passed that admiration on to the son, hoping the boy would inherit his mother’s ruthless, do-whatever-it-takes attitude. Mr. Rhodes, am I right?"

"Correct. There’s another reason: A partner can be an ally or an enemy, but a child is the continuation of your bloodline—an undeniable ally. I suspect he not only wants the boy to inherit his mother’s vicious resolve, but also his own business acumen, to become a force to be reckoned with.

You only need to look at Howard Gallagher’s family, who you met today, to guess what happened. Of Master Gallagher’s forty-plus previous children, they either became meek and incapable of handling real responsibility under his immense pressure, or they were mediocre types who aimed high but were all talk. The few with integrity failed to win his favor. In short, nine out of ten of them turned out ’crooked,’ and he didn’t care for the ones who didn’t."

The two women in the car were speechless. ’They’d heard of emperors selecting consorts, but this was the first time they’d heard of someone being so ridiculously picky about choosing a son. This guy must think he’s God.’

"The young Master Gallagher’s mother gave him hope, so he pinned all that hope on the child and took the boy under his wing to teach him personally. It seems he’s fairly satisfied with the results of his tutelage. It can’t have been easy—after having so many children, he finally got one that suits his tastes. For him, you could say his life is now complete."

The two women were speechless again. ’What kind of sick joke was that?’

After his little speech, Caspian felt it was all rather bizarre himself. He glanced at Melody Lynch again and scoffed, "Even your little sister here could figure it out, but you, the big sister, couldn’t wrap your head around it. Isn’t that embarrassing?"

Melody Lynch winced and gave him a dead-eyed stare. "I’m just too normal to get on the same wavelength as certain perverts."

Arabella Donovan jumped. "Melody, are you calling me a pervert?"

"...No, I’m talking about the one driving."

Caspian Rhodes, at the wheel: "..." ’Great. No One Survives this round.’

"So, that Master Gallagher really is a pervert. He despises anyone devoted to him but adores the ones who dare to pull a tiger’s whiskers. It’s just twisted, no matter how you look at it."

’He’s always been a pervert. What kind of normal person makes a move on his own daughter-in-law?’

Melody Lynch was silent. ’Okay, she had to admit that was a fair point.’

"By the way, Mr. Rhodes, do you know how old the young Master Gallagher is?"

"I don’t know the exact age, but he’s supposedly a year older than the old man’s eldest son’s eldest daughter."

"His eldest son’s eldest daughter?"

’Isn’t that Genevieve Gallagher? That means Jason Gallagher is a year older than Genevieve. And if the rumor about the mistress sterilizing Master Gallagher is true, then Genevieve can’t possibly be Master Gallagher’s daughter. Setting aside whether Charles Gallagher and his wife know about it, Master Gallagher definitely does.’

Yet he stood by and watched the couple emotionally abuse Genevieve Gallagher for over twenty years, right under his own nose.

Arabella Donovan didn’t believe for a second that with the old man’s control over the Gallagher family, he couldn’t see the reason for Mrs. Gallagher’s resentment toward Genevieve.

But he never once put a stop to it. This amoral, perverted old man was even more debased than she had imagined.

In fact, she was starting to suspect that Mrs. Gallagher might genuinely not have known that Genevieve was her own biological daughter. The paternity test produced after Master Gallagher’s death—the one that helped her younger son rise to power—was probably tampered with by that old bastard. Or perhaps he’d sent someone to secretly manipulate Mrs. Gallagher and plant the idea in her head.

Intuition told Arabella that the old man definitely had a hand in this. His goal was to eliminate Genevieve Gallagher—the potential heir who, in Caspian’s words, "hadn’t turned out crooked" but whom he disliked—without lifting a finger, allowing that idiot puppet Howard Gallagher to take her place.

Besides, he never had much of a reputation to begin with, and he certainly wouldn’t have to worry about it after he was dead. Using something so trivial to clear the path for his favorite son was an absolute bargain in his eyes.

Mrs. Gallagher’s family of three were nothing but idiotic cannon fodder, used and discarded. They were both pathetic and detestable. But the biggest victim, Miss Gallagher, was just purely, tragically pitiful.

’Used as a punching bag for her parents’ resentment during her childhood, then forced to be a human shield for the hand-picked heir as an adult. She was squeezed dry of all her value by her own flesh and blood, only to be kicked to the curb by the very people she held dearest and ground into the mud, never to rise again.

SOB... It’s so tragic! As a fellow chosen one of bad luck, I relate so hard. She’s the real-life version of the ’beautiful, strong, and tragic’ trope, complete with a ’doomed to a bad end’ halo. If she were in a novel or a web series, it would be a crime not to give her a rebirth plotline!’

Hearing this, Melody Lynch couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming wave of pity for her, especially after what they had just seen at the hospital.

’To finally have one decent, normal person in a family of morons, only for her to be the one getting abused... It makes you wonder if there’s any justice in the world!’

Thanks to Caspian Rhodes, Arabella Donovan had gotten the full scoop on the Gallagher family drama. But instead of feeling satisfied, she just felt sick with indignation.

She was so dejected when she got out of the car that both the Lynch and Donovan families assumed something bad had happened to her on the ride, and they all turned to glare daggers at Caspian Rhodes.

Caspian Rhodes was speechless. ’I swear on my honor, this has nothing to do with me!’

Ostracized by the crowd, "Dolores Rhodes" had no choice but to beat a strategic retreat and go find Zane Lynch.

"Didn’t you say you had something to discuss with me? Let’s go, we can talk privately."

Zane Lynch was speechless. ’Is it too late to say it was nothing?’