CHAPTER 352

Bryson was so humiliated that he wished he could bury himself underground right there and then.

With his head lowered, he argued, "At that time, Penny's mother had fallen seriously ill, and I sent people to look for Ava. I spent a lot of resources looking for her, but we couldn't get a single hint as to where Ava could have possibly been after searching for over two weeks. Many said the possibility of ever getting her back was little to none when we couldn't find her after so long…"

"Many? Is that your daughter or theirs?!" Eddie trembled in anger. "She's your daughter! Did you expect them to look for your daughter instead?!"

Bryson mumbled for some time before saying with dejection, "I… I know I've done wrong, Dad, and I regret it. I regretted my decision long ago… All these years, I would constantly dream about that child. In my dream, she lived miserably, and it pains me terribly every time I wake up from it. It feels like… I'm being strangled by a rope…"

"You… You…" Eddie pointed toward Bryson's nose exasperatedly, having difficulty putting his anger into words.

Just how did I end up with such a useless son?! No wonder he took a fancy to Penny back then and would only ever marry her. Someone as idiotic as him sure is a perfect match for that woman!

"Mr. Bryson, do you know whose daughter you are raising?" Sebastian suddenly chimed in.

"Sorry?" Bryson went blank for a moment before coming to himself. "Ava's an orphan. We brought her back from an orphanage…"

"Did you choose the child, or did your wife do it?" Sebastian pressed on.

"My wife," Bryson answered. "I was focused on looking for my daughter back then while my wife went to check out the children at the orphanage and got the procedures done. After that, the two of us picked the child up from there."

Eddie now understood what was up.

Since Bryson and Penny couldn't find their missing daughter, and to avoid Penny's mother dying of guilt for losing the child, the couple chose a child from an orphanage to trick everyone into thinking Ava had been retrieved. That included him, the patriarch of the family and the grandfather of the missing child!

The revelation made him so furious that he couldn't help but hurl another teacup toward the irresponsible couple. "You disgraceful swines! Kneel, both of you! Now!"

"Dad…" Bryson looked pleadingly at his father with an obvious suggestion. We still have guests here, Dad. Please don't show me up so badly.

As if Eddie could care about his son's pride when he was already beyond livid. "I said, kneel!"

Intimidated, Bryson slowly dropped to the floor.

Similarly, Penny kneeled next to her husband. Her face was ashen and ghastly pale, for she had been stupefied by Sebastian's questioning, so much so that she couldn't be bothered about the fact that Ava wasn't their biological daughter had been brought to light.

Sebastian actually asked Bryson if he knows whose daughter Ava is… What is he trying to say? Does he actually know who Ava's father is? No, impossible!

They had abandoned Ava at the entrance of the orphanage so covertly back then that no one would have known who her parents were—not even the staff that took the child in.

Decades have passed since then, and Sebastian is so young. There's no way he'd actually know who Ava's biological parents are!

That's right. He doesn't know. He definitely has no clue.

I've only gotten paranoid. I should calm down; I must calm down and not expose myself.

She kept telling herself to calm down, but because she was conscience-stricken and fearful that her deepest, darkest secret would be brought to light, her heart cramped in fright. At the same time, her body shuddered like a fragile leaf in the winter wind.

"You… You b*stards…" Beyond livid, Eddie pointed at the couple and thundered, "Someone, bring the plank out again!" Content is property © .

"No!" Penny screamed in horror. "You can't do that to me, Dad! Have you gone mad?!"

She was the matriarch of the Penham Family's senior branch and the future matriarch of the family. How could she ever face outsiders if she was punished out in the open?

"Dad, take a deep breath." Brandon poured some tea for the elder and coaxed softly, "It was indeed wrong of Bryson to do such a thing, but he was just a young man in his twenties back then. It's

inevitable that he'd make mistakes…"

"Mr. Brandon's right." Sebastian smirked and snorted. "Mr. Bryson was young back then and had been deliberately schemed against. After all, it'd be hard for an innocent man to guard against someone who schemed against him. Therefore, it's excusable."

"Had he been deliberately schemed against?" Eddie looked toward Sebastian with a frown. "What are you saying, Sebastian?"

"I'm saying that your granddaughter's disappearance wasn't an accident but human-induced." Sebastian no longer kept everyone guessing but revealed the truth concisely. "Also, Ava wasn't brought to this family by fate; it was through human means!"

"That's absurd! Absolute nonsense!" Penny screeched in horror. "It was an accident that my daughter went missing! I only brought Ava home because she looked about my daughter's age, and they were around the same size. They shared very similar facial features too. She was the best-fitted girl in the entire orphanage! How can you spout nonsense when you know nothing?!"

"I know nothing, do I?" Sebastian quirked a brow as he looked at the conscience-stricken woman. "I hate to break it to you, but I know a lot. For instance… how you had a boyfriend named Walter Hudson before marrying Mr. Bryson. He was your bodyguard and childhood sweetheart. You two grew up together, and you—"

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Penny screamed at the top of her lungs, her eyes bloodshot and her face sinister, looking like she wanted to swallow someone whole. "You're bullsh*tting! I didn't! Walter was just our family's bodyguard. What was between us was innocent, and I'm going to sue you for slander!"

"I didn't say that you two had anything going on, though." At that, Sebastian took a leisurely sip of his tea. "I'm just saying Ava is Hudson's daughter. I didn't say that Ava's your child with Hudson, did I? I'm merely stating a fact. It can't be considered slander, can it?"

"No! That's not true!" Penny shuddered in fear. Her voice was terribly shaky as well. "Ava is just some child Bryson and I brought back from an orphanage. I don't know who Ava's birth parents are, and she's not Walter's daughter. Why are you making such accusations?! Must you ruin Ava and me just because she insulted your sons a little?! You… You fiend!"

Meanwhile, Bryson, who was kneeling next to Penny, had been rendered stupefied. All that Sebastian had said traveled into his ears like grenades and exploded in his head one after another.

It wasn't an accident that my real daughter had been abducted. It was human-induced, and it wasn't fate that led us to take Ava home but because someone wanted me to do so.

Ava is Penny and her childhood sweetheart boyfriend's daughter. In other words, Penny deliberately let people abduct our daughter and replaced the child with her and her childhood sweetheart boyfriend's daughter?

As the notion crossed his mind, the hairs on the back of his neck stood, drenched in a cold sweat.

No, this can't be. No way. This definitely isn't true! How can there be such a cruel mother in this world?

No way is this real! I must've assumed wrongly. Yes, I must've assumed wrongly!