CHAPTER 481: UNDERSTOOD THE INTENTION

"Miss Carter, you might not know this, but my brothers absolutely adore me."

Selina froze mid-step. "...?"

Was the imposter... bragging?

She honestly couldn’t wrap her head around this woman’s thought process. Selina stood there in silence for a full ten seconds before asking, "So?"

The imposter hadn’t understood earlier why Aiden and Gavin had looked so cold, but now she thought she did.

In Aiden’s eyes, this "Sophia" walked in the door already bristling, every word sharp-edged and aggressive.

So of course Aiden and Gavin had called Sophia out to the back garden — they were definitely going to stand up for their "little sister."

The imposter was practically glowing inside.

Would they warn Selina? Order her to leave City A? Or maybe teach her a harsher lesson outright?

Either way, Selina would end up crying and screaming that she was the real Selina.

But Aiden and Gavin wouldn’t believe her.

And when Selina saw her doting brothers siding with the imposter to scold her... what would she feel then?

She’d be crushed.

The imposter grew more delighted the more she imagined it, her excitement bubbling until she couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from curling upward.

Logan, watching all of this, simply took a slow sip of tea, his expression flat.

Fine. Let the imposter enjoy herself for a few more days.

...

The back garden.

By the time Selina arrived, Aiden was already waiting.

Gavin looked between the two of them, his expression tangled, conflicted. Finally, he blurted out, "I think..."

"Selina, sit." Aiden’s voice cut in, cool and steady — and dropped a bombshell.

Gavin’s eyes went wide, his words stumbling. "Second brother, y-you... you recognized—"

Aiden turned to Gavin, mildly surprised. "Hm? You recognized her too?"

Gavin blinked at him, thrown off. Why did that sound so surprising?

Then Aiden nodded, almost approvingly. "I thought your brain wouldn’t catch on. Looks like I underestimated you. You didn’t let me down."

Gavin: "...?"

What do you mean, you thought my brain wouldn’t catch on?

Do you really think I couldn’t tell whether my own sister is real or not?!

Selina stared between them, her face shifting from serious to startled to utterly incredulous.

She walked over, sat down in front of them, and asked, "When did you two figure it out?"

Gavin wanted to say it was when the imposter spoke — the tone was all wrong.

But then Aiden said calmly, "The moment she walked in."

Gavin fell silent.

Selina propped her chin on her hand and blinked at them, surprised. "You figured out she was an imposter the second she walked in?"

Aiden nodded. "Once I knew she was fake, your identity was obvious."

Then he went straight to the point. "You called me here just to expose the imposter? If that’s the case, why stop me from speaking up earlier?"

Selina shook her head. "I brought you here for three reasons.

First, so you’d know the current ’Selina’ is an imposter.

Second, to tell you who I really am now — and you need to come up with a reason to take me out of the Carter Family.

And third..."

Her brows furrowed, her confusion clear. "I want to ask you, second brother — do you have any memory of this imposter? Who is she? Who would go so far as to replace me?"

Aiden’s eyes darkened.

"In a bit, I’ll have my assistant contact the Carter Family," he said. "I’ll use my mother’s name to invite you to stay at the Foster Family for a while. But Selina — why don’t you just expose her outright?"

Selina shook her head. "Because I still don’t know who the imposter really is."

And she still needed the upcoming shareholders’ meeting to wipe out Owen’s faction in one strike.

Another thought hit her, and she added, "And when the time comes... you two don’t expose her either."

Gavin finally understood.

"So we see this imposter pretending to be you, and we don’t expose her? Hissss... that’s like giving someone hope just to crush them again."

"But she brought this on herself. She impersonated you, worked with Jacob to kidnap you, tried to destroy your life... heh."

Aiden, though, was thinking about something else entirely.

"Selina, if we can tell she’s an imposter, Logan will figure it out too."

Gavin stopped mid-sentence, a realization dawning on him.

"If that’s the case... why is the imposter so certain she can keep the Mrs. Reid position forever?"

Even setting aside whether Logan knows she’s fake — even if he didn’t — she openly backed Owen.

Doesn’t she think Logan would resent that, even just a little?

And if Logan gets removed from his position, if she’s handing Owen the throne on a silver platter — how can she be so sure he’ll still love her the same way afterward?

Not to mention... Logan obviously knows she’s fake. He’s not even pretending otherwise.

So what’s the point of her impersonation at all...?

Selina blinked.

"I overheard the imposter talking to Jacob once. She mentioned... some kind of drug."

"They say if someone takes it, it changes their heart. No matter how deep their feelings were before — they vanish."

"Afterward, every bit of love, affection, loyalty they have... all goes to the person who drugged them."

Gavin frowned, skeptical.

"A drug like that? That’s... impossible, right?"

But Aiden’s pupils tightened, like something had clicked.

"You didn’t mishear?"

"No. I didn’t mishear."

Aiden’s expression grew solemn.

"Selina, I used to wonder why Grandfather insisted on adopting you. Later I learned... it was because he had a bond with your mother."

"He once let slip that your mother was a pitiful woman — because her grandparents took a drug that completely destroyed their minds. They caused the death of her father... and left her mother in a vegetative state."

"That’s why she grew up without parents, relying only on her older brother."

Selina felt a strange, familiar tug in her memory.

"Aiden... that story... it sounds familiar."

"Selina," Aiden continued, voice low, "I suspect... your mother’s grandparents — they might have taken that same drug.

And as for where the drug came from — Gavin, I think you know better than I do."

Gavin’s face darkened, something dawning on him.

"It’s... the Hill Family of City N.

Our family is a branch of the Hill Family. They built their fortune on medicine, and they have their own labs."

"I’ve heard rumors of a banned drug from the Hill Family... and its effects are exactly like what you’re describing."

Selina fell silent, her mind racing — and then, suddenly, things started to click together.

She thought of her mother’s past.

She’d heard this before — somewhere.

Logan had told her: Over forty years ago, the Hill patriarch suddenly turned on his eldest son.

He doted instead on the useless second son, Matt — even orchestrating a car accident that killed the eldest son, Charles, and left Charles’s wife in a coma.

Charles and his wife had two children — one boy, one girl.

Years later, the daughter returned to the Hill Family — only to become a "foil" for Matt’s daughter, Hannah.

Eventually, she was cast out, vanished without a trace — and Hannah fully took over her life.

If — and this was a big if —

Hannah’s so-called "foil," the real Hill heiress, was actually her mother...

Then the imposter’s identity sitting in that drawing room...

was suddenly, painfully clear.