Chapter <b>423 </b>


    :.


    “Donald, it was thanks to your cleverness back then that you swapped Betty with your wife’s child and got rid of that worthless brat,” Jenny said. “It’s just a shame that brat is still alive and now ruining Betty’s life.”


    Jenny’s voice was soft and seductive. Jenny traced circles on Donald’s chest with her hand.


    “Betty is our daughter, so naturally, I’m looking out for her. Don’t worry, as long as I’m around, Betty won’t suffer any injustice. Whatever wrongs Betty is facing now, I’ll make sure she gets revenge one day.” Donald enjoyed Jenny’s sweet talk.


    Their conversation hit Maelis like a bolt of lightning. She couldn’t believe the Betty she had raised was actually her husband’s mistress’s daughter.


    Unable to ept this truth, Maelis copsed to the floor. Her face was terrifyingly pale.


    “Impossible…” she murmured hoarsely, her throat feeling sore.


    No woman could ept that the daughter she raised and spoiled for over a decade was actually her husband’s illegitimate child. Maelis felt like she was losing her mind.


    Sofia and the others didn’t know any of this. Hearing the audio, they also felt a surge of fury.


    From the conversation in the surveince video, it was clear that Zinnia was the one swapped by Donald.


    Maelis had beenpletely in the dark before. Now, learning that Donald cheated, and suddenly realizing he was behind swapping the two children, she lost allposure and couldn’t recover for a long time.


    Jackson said, “Maelis, Betty is the daughter of Donald’s mistress, and your real daughter, Zinnia, was deliberately swapped by Donald so that his mistress’s child could live a wealthy life.


    “Over the years, Donald has favored Betty because she is the child of him and the woman he loves.


    “Do you know why he dislikes Zinnia and why he pushed for you to send Zinnia away? Because he feared Zinnia would threaten Betty’s position in the family.


    “Do you still think everything is Zinnia’s fault? Everything has been wrong from the start. Zinnia’s return only uncovered Donald’s shame.


    “If Zinnia hadn’te back, you would have kept raising the child of your husband and his mistress, worrying over her, nning for her, and hurting your real daughter.


    “Donald and Betty have seen all this. They purposely drove a wedge between you and Zinnia, and you foolishly believed them. They must be thrilled seeing you argue with Zinnia, saying all those harsh things, even breaking ties with her for their sake.


    “And you and your three sons happily live as one family with Betty.”


    Seeing Maelis unable to respond, Jackson’s expression remained cold as he stated everything step by step. Henry and the others silently listened.


    17:59 <b>Mon</b><b>, </b>Oct 6


    “It’s impossible. I don’t believe it. You’re all lying to me.” Maelis said. “You’re all trying to get back at me for


    Zinnia.


    “Was it Zinnia who put you up to this? She’s a jinx. She’s already destroyed my life, and now she wants to destroy everything I have.”


    Hearing Jackson reveal the painful truth, Maclispletely fell apart. She screamed, beating the ground with her fists knotted so tight that her knuckles turned white.


    She couldn’t ept that Betty was Donald’s illegitimate child. There was no woman who could easily handle: her own husband’s betrayal–much less the painful realization that the child she had nurtured with all her love was a symbol of his betrayal.


    Maelis felt she was going mad; her emotions were on the edge of copse. Whatever she was hearing now was more uneptable to her than all the struggles the Shaw family had gone through recently.


    <b>** </b>


    In the adjacent box, Yannis reached over and ruffled Zinnia’s hair. “Zinnia, you poor thing.”


    The two of them could hear everything from the neighboring room. Naturally, this was because Yannis had used his influence to disable the two suites‘ soundproofing.


    As he listened to the heated exchange, Yannis sighed inwardly.


    “I’m not poor. I have my master. You’re the poor one.” Zinnia held her orange juice and looked up at him in protest. Yannis always liked to tousle Zinnia’s hair; she was afraid he’d soon scrub it all away.


    “Alright, you’re not poor.” Yannis smiled. “Zinnia, you’ll be the happiest person in the future. All these obstacles will disappear, and your future will be filled with light.”


    Noticing Zinnia ignoring the conversation next door and bickering back at him, Yannis couldn’t help but break into a small smile. His voice waszy, yet a bit serious.


    Zinnia snorted and took another sip of her orange juice. She chewed on the bouncy pulp while tilting her head to listen in on the conversation again. Yannis sat beside her and straightened the messy hair she had gotten all knotted up.


    Zinnia couldn’t pretend Maelis’s hurtful words hadn’t gotten under her skin. She messed up her little braids in a nervous tug.


    So Yannis called the internal phone and asked for a ss of orange juice to be brought in. That seemed to ease Zinnia enough to let go of her braids.


    <b>***** </b>


    Jackson furrowed his brows. “You still don’t believe it?”


    He hadn’t expected Maelis to be this obsessed – unwilling to face reality and insisting on putting all the me on Zinnia. Jackson sighed and shook his head. It was hard to wake someone who didn’t want to be woken up.


    But Jackson insisted that Maclis face the truth. Otherwise, she’d keep causing trouble for Zinnia. All of this was Donald and Betty’s fault; it should be them who suffer the consequences.


    He walked over to the door and opened it. A inly dressed woman stood outside. She came in quietly.


    “Please tell everyone the truth about the children being switched back then.” Jackson said to her. <fn2c83> Th? link to the orig?n of this information r?sts ?n Find~Novel</fn2c83>


    For the past few days, Jackson had been investigating what really happened when Zinnia was switched.


    Seventeen years ago, surveince hadn’t been well developed. Maelis was close to her delivery date when she went with Donald to a small town for an inspection.


    The bumpy journey made Maelis, who had been delicate and sheltered all her life, go intobor suddenly, and she ended up delivering in a small town hospital.


    The town’s hospital was poorly equipped, and there were no surveince cameras there. When Maelis was delivering, Jenny was also inbor in the same hospital. That was because the town Donald was inspecting was Jenny’s hometown.


    More than a dozen years had passed, and the hospital’s doctors and nurses hade and gone. Back then, surveince was far from universal. It took Jackson a lot of effort to find the nurse who had assisted in delivery that day.


    The nurse was elderly now and already retired, staying home to care for her grandchildren. When Jackson’s men first came to find her, she was afraid and kept silent, worried it might be some kind of trouble.


    But Jackson’s men assured her there was no danger. They promised to guarantee her safety and pay her a sum of money afterwards, as long as she honestly revealed the whole story. Later, they safely brought her back to Jinston.


    The nurse was found and brought back just yesterday. Jackson hadn’t gotten a chance to bring up the story to Maelis yet, but now Maelis’s outburst was a perfect opportunity.


    AD