Chapter 607: Events of the Past
When Lucas saw Cheyenne turn as pale as a sheet and start swaying unsteadily, his heart ached, and he quickly went forward to hold her. “Cheyenne!”
Cheyenne had now lost all her strength. If Lucas wasn’t holding her, she would have probably already collapsed straight to the ground.
William was livid and hollered at Karen in fury, “b.i.t.c.h, shut up! Only a vicious and vile woman like you would blame everything on a child who knew nothing about the matter! Regardless of whether she’s biologically related to me or not, Cheyenne is still my daughter! I’m not like you! Don’t project your narrow-mindedness and malice on me and casually make wild speculations to denigrate the relations.h.i.+p between Cheyenne and me!”
Although Cheyenne was indeed not his biological daughter, he had long regarded her as his own after having adopted her for over two decades. Yet the abominable Karen actually accused him of abhorring Cheyenne and deliberately tried to hurt her while sowing discord between their father-daughter relations.h.i.+p. William absolutely resented her!
Seeing how miserable Cheyenne was and how exasperated William was, Karen felt a twisted sense of accomplishment.
She continued to say smugly, “Haha! You’re not even biologically related to each other, yet you say that you treat her as your own. How ridiculous!
“Cheyenne Carter, no one wanted you ever since you were born, and even your biological parents didn’t want you. Clearly, you’re a huge failure!
“Do you think your husband Lucas Gray really loves you? No, he’s only attracted to your beauty. If you were ugly or old, he’d definitely leave you immediately!
“Also, do you think William Carter loves you? No, he just treats you as a cash cow because you’re rich now, thanks to Lucas Gray! Think about it. Did William ever treat you nicely when you were just a pathetic n.o.body that everyone in the Carter family bullied every single day?
“And…”
“Shut up!” Lucas suddenly roared, interrupting Karen from continuing to hurl vicious and hurtful comments at Cheyenne. He said to the two men in military uniforms next to him, “Take her away immediately! After all the evidence has been collected, you will be judged severely!”
The two men acknowledged and immediately grabbed Karen’s arms, each holding onto one. Ignoring her struggles, they dragged her away.
At the same time, Nikki was also taken away.
After the two of them were taken away, everyone looked at Cheyenne worriedly.
Her eyes were gla.s.sed over and completely lifeless, seemingly no longer able to react to anything in the outside world.
Feeling extremely pained to see her like this, Lucas held her in his embrace and spoke into Cheyenne’s ear several times before she reluctantly came back to her senses.
But the moment she came to her senses, she recalled the words Karen just said, and it felt like sharp daggers were stabbing her heart. Tears immediately poured out of her eyes and pattered down one by one onto the back of Lucas’s hand. The warmth of her tears made him feel heartbroken.
When Damon and Bruce saw this, they knew that everything that would happen next was Lucas’s family matters and that it would be inconvenient for them to remain. So being self-aware, they immediately bade farewell and left.
Charlotte’s face was stained with tears as she asked William tearfully, “Dad, was… what she said just now true? Is Cheyenne really not your biological daughter? What about me? Was I also adopted by you two, just like Cheyenne?”
Looking at his daughters crying incessantly, William felt miserable and sorrowful.
Sitting in his wheelchair, William let out a long sigh before making up his mind and saying, “In fact, there are some secrets that I wanted to hide from you guys and take with me to my coffin so that you will never find out about them in your lifetime. But since things have already come to this, I have no choice but to tell you the truth.”
He raised his head and saw that only his family remained in the villa. Then he said slowly, “Although Karen ran her mouth and said lots of absurd things just now, there was one thing she wasn’t lying about, and that is you’re indeed not our biological daughter, Cheyenne.”
Cheyenne s.h.i.+vered and closed her eyes in despair as her tears trickled down her face even faster.
Before William spoke, she still had the last trace of extravagant hope in her heart, hoping that Karen was just telling an absurd lie to take revenge on her. But after hearing William’s confirmation, her very last glimmer of hope was dashed.
Charlotte’s heart sank, but she soon continued to ask nervously, “What about me? Am I not your biological daughter either?”
“No.” William shook his head and then looked at Charlotte with a complicated gaze. “You’re different from Cheyenne. You’re our biological daughter.”
After hearing this answer, Charlotte didn’t know whether she should feel relieved, lost, or sad.
She was indeed William’s daughter, which made her feel somewhat relieved. After all, it also meant that she wasn’t an abandoned child whose parents’ whereabouts were unknown.
But this also meant that she and Cheyenne were no longer biological sisters. For the past twenty-plus years of her life, Charlotte had always treated Cheyenne as her sister and the closest person she relied on. But their relations.h.i.+p was now ruthlessly damaged.
She was at a loss for what to do, and she even felt a wave of extreme panic, which made her immediately hold Cheyenne’s hand, for fear that her sister would leave her.
“Sis, regardless of whether we’re blood-related or not, you are still my sister, and it’ll never change in this life, Cheyenne!” She hugged Cheyenne, and they immediately burst into tears while holding each other.
Lucas stood silently by the side, looking at Cheyenne with a gentle gaze of concern in her eyes.
Even if Cheyenne wasn’t a Carter and didn’t know who her parents were, she had always been the most important person in Lucas’s life.
After crying, Charlotte and Cheyenne calmed down slightly. Charlotte wiped her tears clean and asked, “Dad, wh-what exactly happened?”
William looked at Cheyenne and Charlotte with a heartened gaze in his eyes.
A look of reminiscence appeared in his eyes, and he felt emotional at the thought of the past 28 years.
“We’ll have to start from twenty-nine years ago. At that time, Karen and I had just gotten married, and we were in a loving relations.h.i.+p at the beginning. She got pregnant soon after we got married.
“After learning the news of her pregnancy, she was overjoyed and looking forward to the birth of our baby every single day. She was excited, and she kept thinking about what she should name the child.
“She thought about it every day for several months, and she finally chose a name. She decided that if it was a boy, she would name him Chester, and if it was a girl, she would name her Cheyenne.”
At this point, Cheyenne’s fingers trembled slightly.
Indeed, her name was meant for Karen’s daughter!