At these words, the banquet hall suddenly fell silent. Many of the Donovan relatives, who had been secretly observing Arabella Donovan, widened their eyes in unison, looking as if they’d just seen a ghost. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Justin Donovan and the others had anticipated this. They secretly took note of which close relatives and friends had a change in expression, planning to go over and "reminisce" with each of them shortly.

Among them, the most shocked was the man standing before Arabella Donovan—her fifth uncle. He was the youngest son of Arabella’s second great-uncle, a full twelve years younger than Mr. Donovan. Because an elder in his family had once been swindled by charlatans, he loathed all so-called supernatural phenomena.

Yet now, he looked completely dazed, as if he were dreaming. "This... She..."

Mr. Donovan grabbed the hand pointing at Arabella Donovan and said with a faint smile, "The two girls look so much alike, don’t they? Even though they didn’t grow up in the same place, their looks and personalities ended up being quite similar. It must be fate."

The fifth uncle froze for a moment. But he wasn’t a fool; he could tell his elder cousin didn’t want him to expose the truth. He let out an awkward laugh. "Yes, yes, they really do look alike."

Arabella couldn’t bear to watch.

’Dad, how can you lie so brazenly without even twitching? Never mind our personalities—who in their right mind would say a sweet, girl-next-door type and a cool, sophisticated beauty look the same? Look, you’ve completely stumped Fifth Uncle.’

Upon hearing this, the fifth uncle’s expression contorted once more. ’I’m not stumped by your dad,’ he thought. ’I’m scared stiff by you, you little brat!’

Seeing that the initial test was showing results, and wanting to avoid further complications, Mr. Donovan shot a look at Eloise and the other girls. He signaled for them to take Arabella away for a moment, while he, Justin, and his other son led their fifth uncle and the others to greet the rest of the guests.

Based on the observations of Mr. Donovan and his group, the relatives who could hear Arabella’s thoughts were almost all on good terms with their family. Moreover, most were Arabella’s elders—people of upright character and integrity.

This confirmed their earlier suspicion: people who harbored malice toward Arabella or were of poor character couldn’t hear her thoughts, regardless of their familial connection.

With this established, the anxious members of the Donovan family could finally relax a little.

After a brief silence, the surrounding chatter grew noisy again.

Some guests chose to remain quiet and see how things would unfold. Others watched thoughtfully as Mr. and Mrs. Donovan split up, then wisely made their way toward the three Donovan men—the father and his sons—to find out what was going on.

Of course, there was still a small group that chose to approach Mrs. Donovan and the girls directly. However, they didn’t immediately aim their questions at Arabella, which would have made her suspicious. Instead...

"What in the world is going on? How did your family suddenly end up with another daughter? Don’t tell me you gave birth to twins all those years ago?"

The speaker was a woman in her early fifties, dressed in a long, black evening gown. She was slightly plump with a round, fair face that gave her a look of good fortune.

Right now, she stood before Mrs. Donovan with her arms crossed and her chin slightly raised, looking quite imperious. For some reason, however, she reminded Arabella of their next-door neighbor’s odd-eyed Persian cat, which liked to wander into their yard every day.

’Is it my imagination? Or did the end of that woman’s sentence sound a little... sour?’

Eloise, who knew the woman well, almost burst out laughing. Mrs. Donovan, too, was struggling to hold back a smile. Only Rochelle Rowland’s expression stiffened. She wanted to lash out but had to restrain herself, feeling utterly indignant.

After hiding her laugh, Eloise quickly pulled Arabella aside and whispered, "That’s Fourth Aunt."

"Fourth Aunt?"

"Yes." Seeing that Arabella was still confused, Eloise quickly continued her explanation.

"Fourth Aunt is Fourth Uncle’s wife. Fourth Uncle and Fifth Uncle—the one from just now—are both Second Great-Uncle’s sons. Our great-grandfather had four children in total: our grandpa, Second Great-Uncle, Third Great-Uncle, and a fourth great-aunt. Grandpa only had Dad. Second Great-Uncle had four children: Second Aunt, Third Aunt, Fourth Uncle, and Fifth Uncle. As for Third Great-Uncle, he only had one daughter, Miss Lillian."

Arabella was stunned for a long moment before she managed to untangle the family connections. "So we’re actually pretty closely related."

"We are. It’s just that Second Great-Uncle’s wife is from Yarrow Province. After he married her, he volunteered to go to the branch office there to expand the business, and they ended up settling down in Yarrow Province. Now, those aunts and uncles mostly live there too, so we don’t interact much. We only gather for major holidays, not like Miss Lillian, who drops by our house all the time."

"I see." Arabella nodded, then glanced at Rochelle Rowland, who was speaking somewhat awkwardly with Mrs. Donovan nearby. "But I get the feeling Fourth Aunt and Mom don’t get along."

Eloise seemed to recall something, and her smile grew even wider. "They’re not in conflict. They’re just... too familiar with each other."

"Too familiar?"

"Yes. Mom and Fourth Aunt were classmates in elementary school. Fourth Aunt’s family lived next door to our maternal grandfather. You could say they grew up together. They’re the same age, went to the same schools, and were sometimes even in the same class, so their parents inevitably compared them. From little things like hobbies, weight, and height to big things like college, grades, degrees, and careers—if it could be compared, they were compared on it."

"...So who won and who lost?"

"They both had their wins and losses, I suppose, but Mom probably came out on top a bit more often. Otherwise, Fourth Aunt wouldn’t be so fired up every time she sees her."

"You’d think they would’ve called a truce after graduating and starting their careers, but then Mom fell for Dad, and Fourth Aunt fell for Fourth Uncle..."

Arabella was speechless. ’Wow,’ she thought. ’That’s... something else. Should I just chalk it up to fate?’

"So they started competing again after that?"

"Comparing husbands, children, their children’s grades, and... the number of children they had."

Arabella was baffled. "The number of children?"

"Yes."

Arabella was silent. ’No wonder Fourth Aunt sounded so sour when she brought up our family having another child.’

"How many kids does Fourth Aunt have?"

Arabella assumed Rochelle Rowland must have had three or four kids herself, which would explain why she was so fixated on their family gaining another one.

But Eloise’s answer was completely unexpected: "One. Fourth Aunt only gave birth to one child."

"One?"

"Fourth Aunt had a difficult childbirth with our cousin Hugh, and it took a toll on her health. Fourth Uncle doted on her, so he didn’t want her to go through that again. But she did adopt an orphan—from a family that has been friends with hers for generations—as her younger daughter. So technically, their family has two children."

"Oh, I see." Arabella listened to the gossip, sipping her juice. Halfway through her drink, a thought suddenly struck her and her eyes flew wide open. "Wait, what did you say our cousin’s name was? The son?"

"Uh, Hugh... Hugh Donovan."

"And what about the daughter she adopted?"

"I think she’s called Sabrina. Sabrina Donovan."

Arabella was speechless.

’Holy crap! I can’t believe that super popular, angsty but sweet doting novel—the one about the pseudo-incestuous couple where the girl gets pregnant and runs away—was based on Fourth Aunt’s family!’

Rochelle Rowland, who had just been discussing Arabella with Mrs. Donovan: "???" ’Orthopedics?’ she thought, utterly confused. ’We don’t own a hospital. What’s all this about orthopedics?’