She was more puzzled by Eliza’s words.
When Mason saw Eliza deliberately bumping against Rachel, he also unhappily pushed away Eliza’s hands that were holding his arm. He asked indifferently, “Why is grandpa looking for Rachel early in the morning?”
Eliza crossed her arms. Her attitude became a little colder, “How do I know, he’s just asking her to go there anyway, he wants to talk to her.”
Rachel didn’t dare to ignore Old Master Hill’s order. After all, she and Ewan appeared in the ancestral hall last night. She feared that it was because of this matter…
“Then I’ll go find grandpa. You guys go to morning exercise,” Rachel smiled lightly at Mason, and said apologetically, “Mason, I’ll accompany you to morning exercise tomorrow, let Eliza accompany you today.”
When Mason was about to speak, Eliza immediately spoke first, “You won’t need to accompany Mason from now on, I’ll be the one to accompany him.”
It was not the first time that Eliza was fighting for attention, and Rachel was used to it. She showed a bitter smile, and calmly replied, “Well, okay.”
After saying that, she turned and walked towards North Garden.
Mason wanted to catch up, “Rachel…”
Before he could say anything, Eliza immediately pulled Mason’s arm, hugging him to keep him from chasing after her. She said with coquetry, “Mason, don’t call her anymore, I will accompany you from now on.”
Mason took a deep breath resignedly. He picked at his short hair and said in a heartfelt voice, “Eliza, are you really clear about that I am your second brother.”
Eliza twitched her mouth, “I know.”
“Then please restrain your possessiveness.”
Eliza stomped her foot and said angrily, “Rachel is also your sister, why can you have feelings for her but not for me?”
“She’s not blood-related to me,” Mason sighed and warned her with extreme seriousness, “Remember, you’re my immediate family, my blood-related cousin, don’t…”
“I don’t care,” Eliza was so angry that she burst into tears and interrupted him with a growl, “I don’t care about blood, I love you, I’m just so plainly in love with you. I’m not a three-year-old child. I know what kinship is and what love is.”
Mason licked his dry lips and put his arms akimbo in distress. He tilted his head up towards the sky and breathed deeply, then deeply again.
Eliza confessed to him before.
He thought that this cousin would become normal when she grew up, but it was even worse.
He muttered faintly, “Eliza, this feeling of yours is abnormal, absolutely impossible.”
Eliza forced a bitter smile, but her eyes were filled with tears. She murmured, “I just want to follow my heart. I don’t care about any morality or whether it’s abnormal. I only know that I want to be with you for the rest of my life. Only when I’m around you, I’m not afraid of the dark and feel safe. The only man in the world who is not a devil is you. All the other men should die.”
As Eliza was saying that, the tears in her eyes flowed out drop by drop. Bean-like glistening tears were flowing on her cheeks.
Her eyes became fearful and full of hatred.
Mason panicked and hugged Eliza into his arms, warmly coaxing, “Eliza, it’s over, it’s all in the past, and don’t remember those bad things.”
Eliza hugged Mason tightly, her tears wetting his clothes. Only when she was beside Mason, she would show her weak side.
She would never forget the trauma during her childhood for the rest of her life. She cried in his arms and murmured, “Mason, the better you treat Rachel, the more I hate her, I hate her so much…”
Mason caressed her head in understanding. He could only felt heartache at this moment. He didn’t know how to correct her wrong thoughts.
At that time, Eliza, who was only ten years old, was kidnapped. The kidnapper was not after money. He purely was a paedophile. She was trapped in a dark cave, humiliated and nearly killed.
The kidnapper accidentally died in a car crash while the police were chasing him. Before he died, he could only give the name of a mountain.
The whole family went looking for her. They even hired thousands of people, firefighters, police and others to find Eliza.
He was the one who first found the dying Eliza in the darkness.
He knew that the devil who abused her sister was dead and had been punished. So, he secretly rescued Eliza and didn’t inform anyone else.
He found a private doctor to treat her. He also told the doctor to hide the fact that she was abused.
After taking care of her for two days, her health condition was improved. Then, he notified the family.
Only then did Eliza have the courage to smile at her family and friends, smile at this ugly world, and say optimistically, “I’m okay.”
Her privacy was well protected by him.
Mason was unable to harden his heart against this cousin. He could do nothing but to accommodate her and pamper her.
He gently pushed Eliza’s shoulders away and bent down to look into her tear-filled eyes, coaxing, “Eliza, don’t hate Rachel, she didn’t do anything wrong.”
Eliza sniffed and looked at Mason, “She is wrong for making you fall head over heels for her. As long as you don’t like her, then I can love her to death.”
Mason smiled bitterly and shook his head resignedly. He held Eliza’s hand and went out, “Come on, let’s go for morning exercise.”
–
Rachel walked to the door of North Garden.
Looking at the road to the ancestral hall, her heart still panicked. She remembered the faint woman’s voice that she heard yesterday and a chill went down her spine.
Should she look for the answer, was it a hallucination or was it a real voice?
Just then, she saw a group of people appeared on the road.
Bishop Elton was pushing Old Master Hill back from the side road, followed by her second uncle Charles Hill and fourth brother James Hill.
Rachel felt awkward seeing Bishop and did not dare to look him in the eye. She bowed slightly while looking at Old Master Hill, “Good morning, grandpa, uncle, James.”
Old Master Hill smiled kindly and asked, “Rachel, why are you here so early?”
Rachel suddenly realized that she had been tricked by Eliza. Grandpa wasn’t looking for her at all.
Rachel clenched her fists and gently bit her lower lip, forced a light smile at Old Master Hill, “I came over to see grandpa, it’s been a long time since I came to see grandpa.”
Charles said with a smile, “Rachel is so kind, no wonder grandpa loves you so much. None of these biological grandchildren has such filial piety.”
James put his hands in his pockets, calmly said with a hint of sarcasm, “Because she’s not grandpa’s biological granddaughter, so she’s trying harder than us to please him.”
Rachel slowly looked towards James.
This man’s lust for money was so obvious, how afraid he was of people snatching his fortunes?
Despite his gentle appearance, the temperament of a profiteer and the smell of money on him were on full display.
Because of James’ words, everyone was silent.
After a moment, Old Master Hill opened his mouth and broke the awkward silence, “Rachel, come in and have a chat with grandpa.”
“Okay.”
Rachel then followed them into the North Garden Villa.
It was clear from the conversation that Bishop didn’t tell Old Master Hill about her and Ewan’s nighttime intrusion into the ancestral hall.
Rachel stayed in the North Garden to have breakfast with Old Master Hill, while everyone else went to work.
At the dining table, Old Master Hill suddenly became concerned about Rachel’s marriage.
“Rachel, do you have a boyfriend?”