Chapter 83

Brandon Lowell smirked and shrugged indifferently. "Who knows? That bitch disappeared for five days and came back covered in blood."

He spat in disgust. "What bad luck. Why didn't she just die out there?"

He was only ten at the time, but he remembered Evelyn Laurent's disheveled return vividly.

In the Lowell family, Evelyn had always been invisible. Vincent Lowell found her gloomy and called her a worthless burden. With Brandon constantly bullying her, her status was lower than the servants.

For the first two days of her disappearance, Margaret Hill pretended to search for her. But after he distracted her with some whining, the matter was quickly forgotten.

Brandon had hoped she would never return.

Yet five days later, Evelyn crawled back on her own.

A glint flashed in Sophia Lowell's eyes. "Brandon, do you remember the details of her kidnapping?"

"Sis, why do you care?" Brandon frowned in confusion.

That was ancient history—ten years ago.

Besides, Evelyn meant nothing to the Lowells. Vincent couldn't even be bothered to report her disappearance to the police. They just took her to some small clinic to patch her up, afraid she'd die and taint their home.

Somehow, the bitch survived.

But after that, she became even weirder, screaming in the middle of the night. Annoyed, Brandon convinced Vincent to send her to a mental institution before dumping her in the countryside to rot.

After rambling through the story, Brandon hung up impatiently.

Sophia stared at her phone, her nails digging into her palms.

She quickly pulled up Ethan Sullivan's profile, scanning it repeatedly. But his impeccable resume showed no record of any kidnapping.

Either it never happened... or the Sullivans had erased every trace of it.

She had stumbled upon the necklace among Evelyn's old belongings. Its unique design caught her eye, so she kept it. She never imagined it would connect to Ethan.

Sophia's red lips curled into a cold smile.

If Evelyn could use that past to get close to Ethan, why couldn't she?

Her fingers brushed the necklace at her throat, ambition burning in her eyes. If she could secure Ethan, she would crush Evelyn beneath her heels forever.

——

Top floor of Sullivan Group headquarters.

Harrison Whitmore placed a stack of documents on the desk respectfully. "Mr. Sullivan, here's the full background check on Sophia Lowell."

Ethan's long fingers flipped through the pages, his gaze growing colder.

The report showed Sophia had been adopted as a child, excelling academically before being reclaimed by the Lowells and becoming a wealthy heiress.

But there was no mention of any kidnapping.