Silly Bride novel (Winnie and Xavier)

"What?" Rufus gasped with surprise before he said with certainty, "Impossible! That's absurd! I sent someone to check on them decades ago and found them dead. All of them! How can a dead person be coming after you? What's going on here? Did someone come up to you and say something? Why didn't they look for me? Did you get scammed?"

"No." Winnie explained, "No one is scamming us. We were the ones who found out everything. Every detail written on that document is real, Grandpa Rufus. Did you really have a son with her?" Rufus had no plans to keep it a secret any longer by that point.

"That's right. A long time ago, my private plane crashed on a mountain, and I broke my leg. A family of farmers saved me. I'd already married Xavier's grandmother and had Xavier's father by then. In that era, communications were outdated in the mountains. It was difficult for me to contact the outside world, so I planned to thank that family once I recovered. Yet that family used despicable means to make me sleep with their daughter. I wasn't aware their daughter had already gotten pregnant with my child after that one time. When the family came looking for me, I immediately gave them some money and sent them away. I thought that was the end of it. However, a year later, that family came looking for me with the child in tow. They wanted more money, claiming the child was my son. I was furious. Not only did they drug their daughter, but they even used a child as a bargaining chip for money. They claimed their daughter had gotten married and didn't want the child. I took the child from them in a fit of anger and chased them away. After that, I tried searching for them, but all I got was news of their death. So many years had passed, and that family never came looking for me again. Thus I'm not sure why you're bringing this up today."

Rufus' narrative was about the same as the information Winnie found, but he never mentioned the child's identity.

"Grandpa Rufus, is the child you mentioned in your story Xavier's second uncle, Stuart Fairchild?" Winnie asked.

"Yes!" Rufus frowned. "It's him. He's the illegitimate child I had out of wedlock!"

He sighed. "That's one of the reasons why I'm biased against Stuart's family. Greed and pettiness were engraved in their bones just like that family."

Winnie agreed. "Yeah, they are indeed greedy." With furrowed brows, Winnie looked at Rufus and questioned, "Can I ask you one more question, Grandpa Rufus?"

"Sure."

"All right. If that woman reappeared in front of you after all these years, would you still be able to recognize her?"

"No." Rufus didn't even pause to think before answering, "It had been so long ago. I'd only seen her from afar a few times when I was recovering from my broken leg at their home. Despite the incident that happened between us after, I didn't get a good look at her."

So that's how it is. Winnie's gaze darkened. "No wonder you didn't recognize her."

"What do you mean, Winnie?" Rufus stared at Winnie with a perplexed look. "Are you saying I've already met Stuart's mother? But isn't she dead?"

Winnie forced a smile. "To be honest, I hope she's not who we suspect she is. We were nearly done with our investigation, but a crucial piece of evidence was destroyed in a fire. We need some hair samples from you and Stuart for a DNA test. After all, a DNA test doesn't lie."

Catching the sad look on Winnie's face, an uneasy feeling rose within Rufus. "Winnie, tell me who you are referring to."

Winnie paused in contemplation before answering, "My granny."

"What?" Disbelief consumed Rufus. "How is that possible? How can there even be such a coincidence?"

Winnie said, "Actually, there have always been clues. It's just that none of us had ever thought to run such a thorough investigation. Granny had wanted to find her grandchild in the Fairchild family at first. In fact, not just her grandchild. She wanted to look for her son too. Grandpa Rufus, can you help us get some hair samples from Stuart? I already got Granny's."

"Sure!" Rufus was still in shock. "You don't have to run a paternity test for Stuart and me. I'd done it decades ago. I even stored a sample of his blood in the hospital. It should still be usable if you use it now." "That's great! We were still scratching our heads on how to get some hair samples from Stuart, but now it looks like this is no longer an issue. I'll return to the hospital now," Josiah said excitedly.

He tacked on, "What about you, Winnie? Are you coming with me?"

Winnie nodded. "Let's go."

Seeing they were about to leave, Rufus added, "I'll authorize you to take Stuart's blood, but I won't be going with you. I need some time to straighten out this mess too."

Winnie and Josiah rushed to the hospital.

Running a DNA test would take at least three hours, so the two had no choice but to wait outside the laboratory.

Winnie wasn't in the mood to talk during the wait. She decided to start digging through Jacinta's phone.

Winnie could tell that something was wrong when she noticed that the phone had no data whatsoever. Every piece of information in that phone had been erased. There wasn't even one contact saved on it. To verify her doubts, she urgently called her number with Jacinta's phone. Realization dawned upon her.

The phone wasn't the one Jacinta frequently used, and the number was also not Jacinta's usual number.

"How can this be?" Winnie stared down at the string of unfamiliar numbers on her phone. "How careless of me! Granny had two phones that looked alike! I thought just taking her phone was enough. She tricked me! I can't believe I let my guard down!" she exclaimed.

"What's wrong? What do you mean by letting your guard down?" Josiah saw Winnie's strange reaction and instantly peered over her phone.

Nevertheless, Winnie didn't spare a moment to answer Josiah's questions.

She was already calling Mary's number.

However, the line kept trilling, and no one picked up the call.

Hearing the continuous trilling of the line, Winnie muttered, "Come on, pick up!"

Josiah finally realized something was wrong. "What's wrong? Did something happen to your granny?"

"Yes, most likely!" Winnie shot to her feet. "I need to return immediately!"

"Are you not going to wait for the result?"

"This can't wait!"

"I'll accompany you."

The two hurriedly raced back to Aqua Moana.

Winnie glanced around the house and found Mary lying unconscious behind the couch on the floor with blood on her forehead.

There were signs of a struggle, and Jacinta was nowhere in sight.

She actually fled after hurting Mary....

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