Chapter 93 – Divorced! Now What to Do?

“Your treasure did something unacceptable to my treasure, and what you should do is educate and discipline her, not say that she’s innocent. Besides…“

Bethan raised her eyes and looked at Natasha coldly. “ Ms. Peterson didn’t get punished at all, am I right?

She’s even studying abroad in Australia right now, learning professional knowledge about how to be a director. Since she doesn’t even have to pay a price for her mistakes, why are you so adamant in clearing her name?“

Natasha pursed her lips as she looked at Bethan deeply. Within a few seconds, she stuttered, “Cynthal didn’t leave the country… She’s still in Banyan City.“

Bethan frowned and gave a feeble smile. ”How’s that possible?”

She saw the news broadcast in the supermarket when she was there with Neil last night, and it showed that Cynthal had boarded the plane and even displayed a photo of her posing in front of her university in Ausland. That meant she could not possibly be in Banyan City anymore.

”It’s true.” Natasha sighed. She lifted her head as her red-rimmed eyes stared straight at Bethan. ”Actually… Brettley isn’ t as good a person as he pretends to be. He faked the news about Cynthal going abroad. Even the images and footage of her boarding the plane and arriving at her university were staged.”

Natasha broke at that moment as tears trickled from her eyes, and she dabbed her cheeks with tissue paper. She let out another sigh before she continued, ”He’s imprisoned Cynthal, truth be told. She’s now locked up somewhere with people guarding her day and night. She can’t escape.”

Bethan’s brow furrowed upon hearing this ; she could not believe what she had heard. ”That’s impossible.”

Brettley’s unwavering faith and devotion toward Cynthal was something Bethan had known as far back as six years ago. According to what Bethan knew about Brettley, he definitely would have chosen to send Cynthal abroad instead of punishing her after discovering what she had done. What Natasha indicated sounded ludicrous, and Bethan did not believe that Brettley would imprison Cynthal.

”It’s true ! ” Natasha sobbed as she clung to Bethan’s arm. ”Ms. Bethan, Cynthal is truly imprisoned somewhere right now—she told me that herself. She somehow found a way to get in contact with me without the guards knowing and told me that herself, but when I tried to contact her again, I couldn’t get through at all.”

Her grip on Bethan’s arm tightened as she became more and more agitated. ”You must know where she is, don’ t you? You’re the one who claimed that Cynthal tried to get rid of Nellie, and you’re the one who brought out the evidence. You must know what Brettley is planning to do to Cynthal! “

Natasha gazed into Bethan’s eyes, her face etched with distress and even a hint of anticipation. ”I’m not asking you to free Cynthal. All I ‘in hoping is that you… you can help me get to the bottom of this. Help me find out who’s trying to frame her. I know my daughter the best, and I know she’d never do anything like this—not in a million years! ”

Bethan’s lips twisted into a smirk as she removed Natasha’s grip on her arm. ”There’s no such thing as Cynthal being framed, Mrs. Peterson.”

”What about Bethan? ” Natasha raised her head to fix her gaze on Bethan. ”What if my eldest daughter is trying to frame her sister? What if Bethan got Nellie to deliberately provoke Cynthal? That’s even likely. I know that Bethan hasn’t returned yet, but what if she’s doing this to frame Cynthal and get rid of her so she can get Brettley back?”

Bethan closed her eyes at that. ”Mrs. Peterson, Bethan Peterson is also your daughter. Why are you so adamant that she’s trying to frame her own sister? Why do you believe your daughter Cynthal, but you don’t have a single shred of trust in Bethan at all?”

Natasha’s face paled when she heard Bethan’s pointed question. After a moment’s hesitation, she lowered her head and replied, ”I don’t trust Bethan because… because of what she did in the past. I don’t think I can ever trust her again, after what she did.”

”She claimed to have loved Brettley, that he was the only person she loved, yet in the end, she left with another man. She even faked a car accident.

Everyone was so worried about her ! She gave birth to her and Brettley’s children, but the only thing she did was send the kids back, and she didn’t even bother bringing the children back herself. She’s an irresponsible, cold-hearted liar… I don’t trust someone like her, ” Natasha spat.

Bethan felt like her entire heart had been submerged in ice.

”Ms. Bethan.” Natasha heaved a sigh and handed Bethan a slip of paper. ”These are the IP addresses that Cynthal contacted me with after she got imprisoned. I’ve sought the help of several IT professionals, but they told me that these addresses were forged. However, I know that a really experienced hacker can figure out the real address through the forged sequences. Please Natasha bit her bottom lip and proceeded to pull out two bank cards. ”I know that since you’re working at Blue Bay Villa as a maid, you’ re probably in need of money. You can take all the money in this card… ” As she spoke, Natasha slipped one of the cards into Bethan’s hand. ”This card contains all my life savings. Please, take it and help me find Cynthal.”

“I ‘m not a local from Banyan City, and I don’t know anyone apart from you and the Morrison family…“ Bethan tried to protest.

Before she could finish, however, Natasha shoved the other card into her hand and said, “Take this card as well… There’s a lot of money in this one, too. You can have both cards, as long as you help me find evidence that Cynthal was framed.“

Bethan lowered her gaze to look at the two cards Natasha had given her. She could recognize both of them. One of them was Natasha’s personal account which contained all her life savings; Bethan herself had helped Natasha set up the account. The other one, however, was a card she had given Natasha just before she got married to Brettley. The card contained all of Bethan’s own savings and assets. At that time, Bethan knew it was rough for her parents to raise her till adulthood, yet because she was getting married so young, she did not know how to repay them, so she accumulated all her savings into an account and decided to gift the card to her mother.

Little did Bethan know that many years later, this card would make its way back to her. She cou1dn’t believe that, in a twist of fate, she would one day stand before her mother with a new face and identity and that her mother would offer her this money to help clear Cynthal’s name.

“Mrs. Peterson, what if even after I investigated, the evidence still points to Cynthal being guilty?“

Natasha froze. It was obvious she never expected that Bethan would ask her this question.

After a moment’s hesitation, she let out a sigh and answered, ”Well, in that case… I have no choice but to accept the truth.” After finishing her sentence, Natasha closed her eyes.

”I have only two daughters. It’s one thing to be disappointed by my eldest, but if the other one turned out the same… ” Natasha lamented, but she trailed off before she could finish.

Gazing at Natasha’s sunken and languish face, Bethan bit down on her bottom lip. She did not know how to describe her feelings at that moment. It was a maelstrom of feelings rioting in her simultaneously.

Bethan felt painfully disappointed that her own mother did not trust her at all, yet at the same time , she knew she could not blame Natasha for feeling that way. It must have been unbearably agonizing for Natasha to have to come to terms with her daughter’s betrayal. Perhaps, in the past, Natasha had struggled to believe that Bethan would do something like that, just like how she struggled to believe otherwise in Cynthal.

”Alright, I’ll help you, ” Bethan finally said after a long silence. She heaved a sigh and stuffed the two cards back into Natasha’s hand. ”I don’t want your money. If in the end, I managed to find evidence that suggested Cynthal was guilty, all I ask of you is that you try to step into your eldest daughter’s shoes. It probably hasn’t been easy for her all these years. ”

With that, Bethan got up and left the room.

Natasha chewed on her lip nervously. She frowned as she watched Bethan’s retreating figure get further and further away. She could not put her finger on it, but that woman, who shared the same name as her eldest daughter, felt vaguely familiar to her.

After coming out of the hospital, Bethan immediately sent Nigel the IP addresses that Natasha had given her.

“What’s going on?“ Nigel asked as he turned on his computer and began working on cracking the fake IP addresses.

“I want you to help me find the location of the real address. Cynthal might be imprisoned there. Your grandmother asked me to help track Cynthal down and prove her innocence, “ Bethan replied.

Nigel fell into silence on the other end of the line. “Did you agree?“ he eventually asked.

“Yes, “ Bethan murmured. She heaved a sigh before continuing, “I wanted to do one last thing for my mother.“ She wanted to let Natasha know that Cynthal was not as innocent as she seemed.

Bethan arrived home from the hospital. As soon as she sat down, however, she received a call from Nigel.

“Mommy, I’ve managed to confirm the address. The IP address that Cynthal used to contact Grandma seems to be coming from a hospital. I’ve sent you the location of the hospital, “ said Nigel over the phone.

Bethan glanced at the address Nigel sent. It seemed to be a mental institution located on the outskirts of Banyan City.

‘Is it true that Cynthal hasn’t been sent abroad to Ausland? ‘ Bethan thought to herself. ‘Since she was still in Banyan City, why did Brettley fake the news that she went abroad? He even went to the extent of forging photographs and footage of Cynthal landing in Ausland. Was it simply because he wanted to find an excuse for her sudden disappearance? Why did he imprison her then, and in a mental institution, no less?’

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