According to Marcus and Sebastian, there was a mad servant locked up inside. Is that really the case?
Caitlin was too curious and couldn’t control herself any longer. She walked toward the small building.
The door was locked from the outside, but this wasn’t a problem for Caitlin. She quickly picked the lock with a wire.
As she pushed the door open and stepped inside, the first floor was pitch black.
Caitlin turned on her phone’s flashlight to dispel the darkness. The house emitted a faint musty odor, probably because it had been shut up for so long, and the air had stagnated.
She found the stairs leading to the second floor and slowly ascended. The closer she got to the top, the clearer she could hear a woman’s moaning.
The door upstairs wasn’t locked. Caitlin took a deep breath, pushed it open, and walked in.
The room smelled bad, and under the dim light, Caitlin saw a woman lying on the bed.
She had a chain around her neck, her long hair was disheveled, and she looked half-human, half-ghost, with a glint of despair in her eyes.
“Water… water…” the woman mumbled, trying to reach for a glass of water on the bedside table, but she was just too weak to grab it.
Caitlin was stunned by the sight before her. For a mad servant, why hadn’t they sent her to a mental hospital? Why had they kept her locked up here? What was even more shocking was the fact that they had chained her up like an animal.
Seeing the woman struggle to reach the cup, Caitlin stepped forward, picked it up, and handed it to her.
The woman’s trembling hand finally grasped the cup and drank the water.
After drinking, she seemed to lose all her strength. The cup slipped from her hand and fell to the floor, shattering.
She collapsed back onto the bed, facing Caitlin, and with a hoarse voice, asked, “Who are you?”
Caitlin was taken aback. From the way she spoke, this didn’t sound like a crazy person at all.
“I’m just passing by. I heard you calling and came to see. Who are you?” Caitlin asked.
“Shh-” The woman made a silencing gesture. “Don’t speak so loudly. They’ll hear you!”
“Miss, kind-hearted Miss, please help me. Save me… Take me out of here…”
“Who are you exactly? Why are you locked up here?” Caitlin asked carefully.
“My name is Octavia. Eliza Lopez is my sister. She’s the madam of The Vanderbilt Family…”
“Please save me, kind-hearted Miss, please…”
When she introduced herself, Caitlin was shocked.
Eliza was Sebastian’s biological mother, and Octavia was Sebastian’s aunt. It wasn’t supposed to be a mad servant they were hiding here, so why was it Octavia?
Caitlin now realized that this matter was far more serious than she had imagined. It seemed like Sebastian himself didn’t even know that his aunt had been locked up here. What was the reason behind it?
Caitlin didn’t have time to think further when she heard footsteps approaching. She quickly told Octavia, “Someone’s coming. I’ll hide!”
She quickly stepped into a hidden corner of the room.
Not long after, hurried footsteps ran up the stairs. It was Marcus, bringing food.
When Marcus saw that the door outside was unlocked, he realized something was wrong and quickly ran upstairs to check. When he saw the woman still lying on the bed, he relaxed.
“Did anyone come here earlier?” Marcus asked, placing the tray down.
“I don’t know…” Octavia answered weakly.
Seeing that she seemed fine, Marcus moved closer, helped her sit up, and began to feed her.
Caitlin, still hidden in the shadows, was deep in thought. Why was Marcus lying? He knew the person locked up wasn’t a mad servant. Why was he lying?
What was their true purpose for keeping Octavia here? Did her disappearance have anything to do with Eliza’s?
What happened next sent a chill down Caitlin’s spine.
She had thought Marcus was an upright person, but to her horror, after feeding Octavia, he actually pinned her down and assaulted her.
From the familiarity of his actions, it seemed like this wasn’t the first time he had done such a thing to Octavia. She could only silently endure.
When Marcus was done, Caitlin heard him say to the woman, “Don’t make noise. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
Marcus left, locking the door to the first floor behind him.
After confirming that he had left, Caitlin stepped out from the shadows and looked at the woman on the bed. Her eyes were filled with a hopeless expression.
“Does Marcus often do that to you?” Caitlin asked.
Octavia nodded with tears in her eyes.
“Do you have anything to prove your identity? I need to verify who you are before I can save you!” Caitlin asked.
Octavia thought for a moment and said, “Look at the back of my neck. I have a purple birthmark, it’s a birthmark!”
Caitlin leaned in to look and indeed saw a purple birthmark. “Alright, I understand. Wait for me.”
After telling Octavia to wait, Caitlin left the small building.
She couldn’t leave through the front door, so she jumped out of the second-floor window and landed lightly on the ground.
Back at the Vanderbilt estate, Caitlin took a shower and then returned to her bedroom.
Her son Bruce was already asleep in his little bed, but Sebastian hadn’t gone to bed yet.
When he heard her footsteps, he spoke up, “Where did you go for so long?”
Caitlin didn’t answer right away. She sat down on the bed, looked at him, and asked, “Sebastian, do you remember if your aunt’s name was Octavia?”
“Yes, that’s right. Why?”
“Do you know where she went?”
“My aunt left the country many years ago and hasn’t returned, but she sends me postcards every year.”
Sebastian briefly explained that his aunt left shortly after his mother’s accident.
“Where are those postcards?”
“In my study, in the drawer.”
Caitlin went out, and not long after, she returned with a bunch of postcards. One by one, she examined the postmarks, which came from all over the world.
“These postcards came from different countries.”
“Yeah, my aunt loves to travel and visit different countries. Why are you asking about my aunt all of a sudden?”
In Sebastian’s memory, his aunt had gone abroad to travel. But was the woman in the small building really his aunt?
“I’ve seen a photo of you and your aunt on the wall. I was just curious. Do you know if your aunt has any notable features?”
Sebastian thought for a moment and replied, “My aunt has a purple birthmark on the back of her neck. It looks like a butterfly.”
That’s right!
He was correct!
The woman in the lonely mansion was indeed Octavia!
So, his aunt hadn’t gone abroad to travel or immigrated. Instead, she had been maliciously locked away in the Vanderbilt family’s isolated mansion. To cover it up, they had spread the lie that she was a mad servant.
Now that Caitlin understood the situation, she spoke seriously, “Sebastian, I need to tell you something. After you hear it, you’ll probably be too shocked to sleep.”
“What is it?” Sebastian asked, suddenly feeling uneasy.