Chapter 446: Changing the Guardian

Chapter 446: Chapter 446: Changing the Guardian

Jude Underwood’s face turned deathly pale at her words. Hector Donovan also recalled something from the beginning of the show; when that guy ran over to greet their Serena, Serena herself had mentioned it.

"On this show, the children are the main stars. It doesn’t matter if Jude Underwood forgot to bring a gift for me, as long as he didn’t forget the gifts for the children."

At the time, Hector Donovan hadn’t thought anything was wrong with her words. But now, hearing her bring it up again, he belatedly realized that his sister had probably sensed something was off even back then.

It was just that no one paid any mind at the time, including the culprit standing right before them.

Although Jude Underwood had brought many small snacks at first, they were all just for show.

He had distributed most of the snacks to the other guests’ children at the very beginning of the show. By doing so, he made a good impression on everyone while also indirectly justifying his reason for bringing snacks.

Right now, only one unopened bag of filled marshmallows remained in his bag.

After hearing what Arabella Donovan said, someone immediately took the bag of marshmallows to be tested. The results came back quickly.

The marshmallows were laced with sleeping pills.

Arabella Donovan wasn’t surprised by this result. She glanced at Chloe Coleman, who was curled up in her arms, and asked in a low voice, "Zora, do you like marshmallows?"

"Yes."

"Then how about Mr. Donovan and I take you out to buy some marshmallows, okay?"

Chloe Coleman’s eyes lit up slightly. "Okay."

At this point, the truth was already obvious.

This bag of marshmallows was what Jude Underwood had prepared for Chloe Coleman. The goal was likely to make Chloe drowsy and lose consciousness as soon as she reached the market today, making it easy for those traffickers to spirit her away without anyone noticing.

Unfortunately for him, Hector Donovan’s script-shredding antics first severed his connection with Chloe Coleman. Then, he was pestered by that troublemaker, Riley Coleman, leaving him unable to be in two places at once. He had no way to get close to Chloe Coleman and build a rapport with her in the limited time he had, so the bag of marshmallows naturally never got its chance to be used.

When Jude Underwood saw that the secret of the marshmallows had been discovered, his face turned a ghastly, ashen white. But he knew he absolutely could not admit to it. If he confessed, his life would be over.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and denied that the marshmallows had anything to do with the child trafficking incident. He claimed only that he carried them for his own use due to his chronic insomnia and that it had nothing to do with anyone else.

But just because he wouldn’t admit it didn’t mean it wasn’t true. Mrs. Coleman was already in the process of being arrested, and the police had also requested records of his recent activities. They would surely have results soon. His current stubbornness was nothing more than a last-ditch struggle.

Arabella Donovan’s focus for this trip to the police station was still on the traffickers. She had Hector Donovan take the child to give a statement first, while she herself followed a few officers into the traffickers’ interrogation room.

By the time she came out again, evening had fallen and the sky was growing dark. Hector Donovan was waiting for her in a nearby lounge, holding the child. He immediately went up to her when he saw her emerge.

"How did it go?"

"It’s handled. These people have been moving between provinces for years, trafficking a lot of children. The police have already expedited the search, so there should be results soon."

Hector Donovan’s expression darkened. "These despicable traffickers deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces!"

In his arms, Chloe Coleman was perhaps frightened by his ferocious expression. She shrank back and struggled to get down.

Only then did Hector Donovan realize his outburst. He quickly soothed her, "Don’t be scared, I’m not talking about you."

Chloe Coleman nodded, her expression less panicked, but she eagerly reached her arms out for Arabella Donovan to hold her.

"..." ’Alright then.’

Hector Donovan helplessly handed Chloe Coleman to Arabella Donovan while recounting what had happened after she went into the room. "The production team called me about suspending the show. After something like this happened during a live broadcast, it’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to resume filming."

Arabella Donovan nodded. This was to be expected. They had long been mentally prepared, so it wasn’t a surprise.

"By the way, Mrs. Coleman has been arrested. It’s all over the news reports."

Hector Donovan pulled up a news report that had just come out that afternoon and showed it to Arabella Donovan.

In the accompanying photos, although Mrs. Coleman tried hard to keep her head down, she couldn’t evade the resourceful reporters. Several pictures captured her face clearly, which conveniently allowed Arabella Donovan to extract some information she hadn’t noticed before.

’I see.’

Hector Donovan: "???" ’What’s going on? Is there more tea?’

’This Mrs. Coleman is pregnant. She probably had a test done and knows she’s having a girl. To ensure this new child is the only one in the Coleman Family and to secure a larger portion of the inheritance in the future, Zora, the child of the first wife, absolutely could not be allowed to remain in this world.’

This was why she had meticulously planned this whole scheme. It was worth mentioning that neither Jude Underwood nor the traffickers knew that Mrs. Coleman had never intended to let the poor girl live.

From the very beginning, her plan was set. Once the traffickers took the child and she received the call from the production team, she would immediately report it to the police and provide the traffickers’ escape route, directing the police to pursue and corner them.

One could easily guess that this move wasn’t a pang of conscience, but rather a way to force the traffickers into a desperate situation.

The people who do this kind of work are mostly desperate fugitives. If they were pursued too closely, they would surely abandon the burden they were carrying and flee on their own.

And as the abandoned burden, she would most likely not escape unscathed. There was a high probability that the group would take the opportunity to drown or strangle her in some remote place to distract their pursuers.

From this, it was clear that Mrs. Coleman was plotting to kill with a borrowed knife. She wanted to use these crazed traffickers to eliminate Chloe Coleman, the stumbling block that might threaten her own two children’s inheritance of the Coleman Family fortune!

Hector Donovan: ’!!! That’s just too vicious!’

’No wonder Zora had the look of someone destined for a violent death. I was wondering if it was because she would resist after being taken by the traffickers, or get beaten for crying to go home after being sold... Turns out, the root of the problem was this stepmother all along.’

Hector Donovan pursed his lips. ’No wonder when I first said I was going to stir up trouble to get the show canceled early, Serena said it was useless and wouldn’t change the child’s fate of a violent death. The would-be murderer is in her own home. If one plan fails, she’ll just come up with another. The child is completely defenseless. How could she not fall victim?’

"So what do we do about this child now? The person trying to harm her is in her own house, and her dad is just some..." ’useless fool blinded by infatuation.’

In the end, Hector Donovan restrained himself and didn’t badmouth her biological father in front of her. He said irritably, "He can’t protect her at all. If we just let her go back like this, who knows what kind of abuse she’ll suffer next."

"That’s simple. We just get her a new guardian."

"A new guardian?" Hector Donovan was stunned. Before he could think more on it, a policewoman approached them.

"Is this child Chloe Coleman? There’s an adult outside looking for her. They say they’re... her relative."