30 Days of Passion and Revenge-Chapter 162: The Painful Truth

The bodyguards ushered Lily and the maid into a bathroom. The maid immediately stepped forward, attempting to help Lily with her pants. Lily quickly stepped back. "Don’t touch me!"

"Miss Anderson, didn’t you say you needed to use the restroom?" the maid asked, confused.

"Do you realize that by helping those people outside, you’re aiding and abetting a crime? That makes you liable under the law as well." Lily shook her bound hands. "This is kidnapping. Do you understand that?"

"I-I’m just a maid. I don’t know anything," the maid stammered. She was young and clearly inexperienced, visibly frightened by Lily’s words.

"Why don’t you help me escape?" Lily tried to persuade her, looking at her sincerely. "Let me go, please? If you’re scared, you can come with me, and we’ll find the police to help us."

"No, no... I can’t..." The maid backed away in fear, glancing at the bathroom window. "Even if you manage to escape, many people are guarding outside. You won’t get far."

"Many people?!" Lily was shocked, her eyes wide.

She had thought there were only a few bodyguards... Bill Carter had covered all his bases, determined not to let her leave the estate.

"Y-Yes," the maid stuttered.

Lily couldn’t help but feel discouraged. Was it really impossible to escape from the Carter estate?

Bang—

As Lily was contemplating, the bathroom door was suddenly kicked open from the outside, and a bodyguard was sent flying into the room.

"Ah—"

The maid screamed, and both she and Lily took a step back.

Lily looked outside to see two groups of men dressed in black fighting in the hallway. She was dumbfounded. What was going on? Where did this other group come from?!

"Miss Anderson, hurry up and go!"

Someone shouted at her—it was Cipher Stone.

Ethan’s bodyguard?!

Could the phone call earlier have been from Ethan? Had he come to rescue her?!

For some reason, Lily felt a wave of relief wash over her. Without overthinking, she carefully weaved her way through the group of fighting men, avoiding the brawlers, and then broke into a run...

Suddenly, someone grabbed her hand.

Lily gasped in shock and turned her head, only to see her father, Henry Anderson, standing beside her, dressed in a Carter estate servant’s uniform. The white outfit with gold buttons and a cap pulled low over his head made him look unrecognizable. He leaned in close and whispered, "Come with me."

"Dad?! What are you doing here?" Lily stared at him in disbelief.

Who had called her earlier?

How had her father and Ethan’s bodyguard shown up simultaneously?

"We’ll talk later. Come on," Henry said curtly, pulling out a Swiss Army knife to cut the ropes binding her hands. He then grabbed her hand and led her out of the Carter estate.

Outside, the two groups of black-clad bodyguards were still fighting fiercely. Henry shielded Lily as they navigated through the skirmish.

Once outside, Henry pushed Lily into a car, climbed into the driver’s seat, and sped away.

"Dad, what’s going on?" Lily asked as the sudden acceleration jerked her in her seat. She hurriedly buckled her seatbelt. "Was it you who called me earlier?"

"What call? I came here specifically to pick you up for Carter Group’s centennial celebration," Henry replied, not taking his eyes off the road.

It wasn’t her father who had called?

Does that mean the call for help had gone through to Ethan?

Meanwhile—

Ethan raced toward the Carter estate in his sports car, pushing the vehicle to its limits.

As soon as he arrived, Cipher Stone, already bruised and disheveled, rushed up to him.

Ethan glanced around but didn’t see Lily. His fury erupted. "Where is she?! Where did she go?!"

No one had been able to find Lily for the past two days. While watching the news about the Carter Group’s centennial celebration on TV, Ethan had tried calling Lily’s phone again. To his surprise, the call had connected.

Before he had time to feel relieved, he had heard Lily’s desperate plea for help.

That old man Bill Carter! He had locked Lily up.

Ethan had rushed over as fast as he could, but still, Lily was nowhere to be found.

Damn it!

"Someone took her away during the chaos," Cipher Stone reported, his face bruised from the fight. "But it looked like Miss Anderson was willing to go with him. We couldn’t stop them."

Willing to go with him?!

Was it that old fox, Henry Anderson?!

"Head to Carter Group’s new mall right now! Search every inch of it until you find Lily!" Ethan bellowed, his voice hoarse with rage.

That old fox Henry still wanted to carry out his plan today, using his daughter to bring down Carter Group in one fell swoop...

Lily had already confessed her feelings for him.

Whether or not today’s plan succeeded didn’t matter to him. Damn it, he didn’t want to see Lily cry anymore!

Henry pulled the car up outside Carter Group’s newly opened mall. He grabbed Lily’s hand and led her through the crowd flooding into the mall. The crush of people was overwhelming...

Inside the mall, the place was packed to the brim with frantic shoppers and media. It was even more chaotic than what had been shown on TV...

Henry dragged Lily up the crowded stairs. It took them a long time to reach the tenth floor, where Henry led her into an employee break room and locked the door behind them.

Suddenly, everything was quiet.

"Phew..."

Lily was so exhausted she nearly collapsed.

She’d never seen a mall this crowded before. The stairwells were packed with people. If a fire broke out now, how many people would be trampled to death?!

"There are still three hours until the banquet. We’ll wait here for now," Henry said, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

Was her father really still planning to attend the banquet?

Lily clutched her chest, still short of breath. She had almost thrown up in the car earlier and hadn’t been able to ask the questions she desperately needed answers to.

After a while, her heart finally calmed down a little. She asked, "Dad, why are you here?"

"I’m here to take you to the banquet." Henry smiled indulgently at her, his tone gentle. "Did you forget? Alex is going to announce your engagement today. It’s a big event. How could we miss it?"

He didn’t even ask why there had been a fight at the Carter estate?

It was as if her father already knew everything...

"Dad, are you still planning to keep this from me?" Lily asked, her heart heavy with frustration. "I’m your daughter. Is there something you can’t tell me?"

"What’s wrong, my dear?" Henry asked, looking puzzled.

"I overheard Uncle Bill and his wife talking. The person responsible for destroying our family was Uncle Bill. Bill Carter, wasn’t it?" Lily asked directly.

Henry’s smile frozen, and the look on his face confirmed everything. The dark truth swept over Lily like a suffocating wave.

It was all true...

No wonder the adults from both families have been acting strangely, differently from how they used to.

It turned out... Bill Carter was the one who had ruined her family.

"So, you know everything now?" Henry sighed. "Well, either way, you would have found out today."

Lily knelt before Henry, looking up at him, her eyes filled with confusion. "Then why would you still want me to marry Alex? Are you planning something? What else are you hiding from me?"

If Bill Carter was their enemy, her father couldn’t possibly want her to marry Alex.

"What else did you overhear?" Henry asked instead of answering.

"Bill Carter said he... slept with your woman. He wasn’t talking about Mom, was he?" Lily asked weakly, her voice trembling, her eyes full of hope. "It can’t be Mom, right?"

"It was your mother."

Henry’s words shattered her hopes. His previously calm face twisted with hatred. "Let me tell you how I was framed back then."

"Businessmen often take shortcuts, and Bill Carter and I did the same. We had never gotten into trouble... until Bill Carter became jealous of our Anderson Mall’s profits compared to his."

"Do you know why I was convicted? It was because your mother stole my confidential documents and gave them to Bill Carter. He took those documents to the authorities, and they had all the evidence they needed. That’s how I ended up in jail."

"Your mother didn’t jump to her death because she couldn’t handle the pressure. She was tricked by Bill Carter. He had no intention of marrying her. In her despair, she chose to die."

"Lily, now do you understand what happened back then?"

Lily collapsed to the floor, her body trembling uncontrollably from the cold.

Did her father even realize what he was saying?

Her mother had an affair with Alex’s father and betrayed their family by stealing her father’s confidential documents...

How could this be true...

Everything she had known was being turned upside down.

In her memory, she had a perfect, happy family. Her parents loved each other profoundly and cherished her like a treasure. Those beautiful memories sustained her during the nine years she lived under someone else’s roof.

Now, it was all being destroyed...

"No, no..."

Lily hugged her head, muttering, "I don’t accept this... I don’t accept it... This isn’t how it was... It can’t be..."

"Lily, I knew you wouldn’t be able to handle it, so I didn’t tell you until now," Henry sighed, stroking her hair.

"Mom wouldn’t have had an affair with Bill Carter!" Lily shouted. "She was a good woman. She loved you! She loved our family... She wouldn’t have done something like that!"

Her father must have misunderstood something...

Her mother couldn’t have betrayed their family. It was impossible...

"Your mother came to see me before she died. She confessed everything. She told me she had destroyed our family. She and Bill Carter had been involved for a long time."

"No..."

Lily couldn’t accept it.

Everything she had believed in had been turned upside down...

What did the smiles in their family photos mean now? Were they all fake? Why did everything have to turn out like this?

Why did her once happy family have to end up like this...

Someone tell her this wasn’t real, that it was all just a lie...

"Lily, don’t be like this." Henry reached out to pull her up, trying to calm her down. "If you need to cry, let it out. You’ll feel better."

Lily pushed his hand away. She didn’t cry. Instead, she said, "I need to be alone for a while, Dad. Please give me some time."

Lily shakily got up from the floor and walked toward the door.

This had to be a nightmare. It couldn’t be real.

She was sure she was just having a nightmare. When she woke up, everything would be fine.

"Where are you going?" Henry stepped forward to stop her. "The banquet is about to start."

The banquet...

Could she really still attend the banquet?

Her mother had an affair with Alex’s father, and Alex’s father had destroyed her family... And now she was supposed to attend the Carter family banquet?

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind, making everything clear.

In that moment—

She finally understood why her father had been pushing Alex to publicly announce their relationship in front of the media for the past several days. It was all for today — to deliver a crushing blow to the Carter family.