Chapter 366: Public Humiliation

Chapter 366: Chapter 366: Public Humiliation

"No, Howard, you’ve misunderstood. I never said my cousin bullied or abused me..."

"..."

"You’ve been frail since you were little, and without your parents around. It’s one thing that their family didn’t take good care of you..."

"..."

"The worst of them all is that Melody Lynch..."

"..."

"Howard, please don’t say any more. I did all those things willingly..."

"..."

Listening to the fully recorded conversation, Cassandra Lynch’s face turned pale as a sheet. She swayed unsteadily, looking as if she might faint at any moment.

Arabella Donovan, on the other hand, couldn’t help but applaud.

’Back then, I was so focused on eavesdropping on those two in the hospital room that I didn’t even notice my cousin recorded their whole conversation. This is perfect—a public shaming. She was only supposed to lose face in front of the two of us, but now she’s being humiliated in front of a huge crowd. My dear cousin, that was a brilliant move. Absolutely brilliant!’

Hearing Arabella Donovan’s silent praise, Melody Lynch stood even taller.

"You... You..."

"What about me? I bet you didn’t expect this. The day you went to the hospital to see Mr. Gallagher, I happened to forget something and had to go back. By sheer coincidence, I overheard your conversation. And by another sheer coincidence, I turned on my recorder and captured the whole thing."

Cassandra Lynch was speechless. ’How could there be such a coincidence? Do you really think I can’t tell you did it on purpose just because you said that?’

"Perhaps even the heavens couldn’t bear to watch our family’s years of sincere kindness be wasted on an ungrateful stray, so it orchestrated this whole thing for me to expose your true colors. If not for this, I might never have known that all our kindness, indulgence, and affection for you over the years were nothing but humiliation and abuse in your eyes. What a colossal joke! The thought alone is laughable—utterly ridiculous!"

At that moment, the person running the livestream—the "insider" who had first brought up the Lynch Family—saw that the viewers were all asking whether the claims in the recording were true.

He glanced sympathetically at the Lynch Family nearby and offered an explanation.

"I can’t speak to the other claims, but it is true that Cassandra Lynch never attended kindergarten or elementary school. However, from what I know, the Lynch Family hired several highly qualified tutors to homeschool her one-on-one. They were even concerned she’d be lonely without playmates her own age, so they frequently invited the children of relatives and friends over to keep her company."

The streamer’s words sent the live chat into another frenzy.

[So the whole bullying and abuse story was a lie? This is insane!]

[This fake heiress is so obviously a green-tea bitch. She says, ’you’ve misunderstood,’ but when he gets indignant on her behalf, she gets all vague and says she ’did it willingly.’ Isn’t that just a roundabout way of confirming his accusations are true? She’s trying to play the victim and the instigator at the same time. Definitely not a good person.]

[Honestly, we don’t even need the streamer’s explanation. You could tell she was lying just from her reaction when the family showed up. Someone who was supposedly bullied and abused for years would jump at the chance to get away; they wouldn’t be able to run fast enough. Why would she seek them out and try to suck up to her supposed tormentors? Acting all sweet and pouty with the people who allegedly abused you?]

[No wonder the Lynch Family kicked her out and disowned her. Raising an ungrateful viper like that is worse than raising a dog. At least a dog will wag its tail when you feed it. You show kindness to her, and she’ll just twist your words, turn right into wrong, and bite the hand that feeds you!]

"How could this be? How could this be? This isn’t how it’s supposed to go." Cassandra Lynch couldn’t accept that her long-cherished scheme to seize the family fortune had crumbled at the final step. She muttered the words over and over, as if she’d lost her very soul.

Hearing her words and seeing her state, the expressions of the Lynch family members darkened.

’She’s right, this isn’t how it was supposed to go,’ they thought. ’If it weren’t for Arabella Donovan, our family would never have overcome Cassandra Lynch’s plot armor. We would have become stepping stones for her rise to power, our family shattered and ruined because of her.’

At this thought, Melody Lynch’s expression grew even colder.

"Cassandra Lynch. No, perhaps I should call you Miss Wagner. You did this. You said those words. No one framed you, and no one is deliberately making things difficult for you. You brought all of this on yourself. It’s just as Serena said: the only way to keep a secret is to not do it in the first place. For all these years, the Lynch Family has treated you with nothing but kindness. Our conscience is clear. Meanwhile, you ate our food, lived in our house, and spent our money. And how do you repay us? By spreading rumors that we abused you. Even a dog would know to wag its tail at us, to say nothing of a person like you."

"A dog? That’s right, you just see me as a dog! Something to play with when you remember I exist and toss aside when you forget. Ready to abandon me whenever it’s convenient. If you truly saw me as your own daughter, like you always claimed, why would you treat me this way?"

The Lynch Family: "???"

Mr. and Mrs. Lynch were so exasperated they actually laughed. "That’s right, we raised you like a dog," Mrs. Lynch began. "What family ’raises a dog’ by hiring a team of maids and nutritionists to attend to it twenty-four hours a day? My own mother fussed over you like a head-nanny, constantly thinking up new supplements to give you, terrified you might go hungry or lose weight."

Melody Lynch added, "You had your pick of designer clothes, jewelry, and bags for every season."

Zane Lynch chimed in, "We took you on vacation every single year for a change of scenery. You even picked the destinations, and the entire family planned around your schedule."

Mr. Lynch concluded, "You had everything other kids had, and you could get anything they didn’t have if you just asked. If there was ever only one of something in the house, your brother and sister never fought you for it. After all that, it turns out we were raising an enemy in our own home."

Hearing the Lynch Family’s anguished litany, even Arabella Donovan couldn’t help but look at them with sympathy.

"And they call that raising you like a dog?" she scoffed. "What kind of dog was it, the emperor’s Corgi? A royal lapdog? You were treated better than a princess!"

At this point, Cassandra Lynch was in such a frenzy that she lost all composure and accidentally blurted out what she was really thinking.

"What do you mean, ’what kind’? They just admitted it themselves! They raised me like an amusing little pet. They’d dote on me and spoil me, sure, but the second their own interests are on the line, they’ll turn on me in a heartbeat! If that’s not true, why have they held onto the inheritance my parents left me for all these years instead of giving it back? You’re all just coveting my parents’ legacy! You say all these nice things, but you can’t hide your greedy, hypocritical true colors."

"And don’t give me that nonsense about accommodating me all these years with a ’clear conscience.’ If your conscience was so clear, why would you shower me with so many gifts? Why would you treat me even better than your own biological children? Admit it! You were deliberately trying to ruin me with kindness, setting me up to be spoiled and arrogant so that when you finally took everything, it would seem justified!"

The Lynch Family: "..."

Arabella Donovan: "..."

The other customers in the café and the viewers in the livestream: "???"