Chapter 279

Denival frowned, dropped his tool, and glanced around. "What's buried underneath?" he asked.

Undeterred, Callum immediately made a phone call. He instructed others at other pits. "Get someone to dig up all these pits. Let's see"

Before long, the bodyguards arrived. They moved quickly, and soon every pit had been dug open. To their surprise, beneath each pit, about 1.5 feet deeper, a strong, sickening stench of blood filled the air. The bodyguards assumed it was blood.

Once the investigation was done, the bodyguards left.

"How is this possible?" Callum was visibly shocked. Instead of just dead bodies, there were more things buried beneath.

"No wonder Odalys wanted to come back here to check again," Percival muttered, his voice low. "Seems like this place has hidden depths."

"The first time she came, she killed the old man, which led to Sophia's backlash. The second time, she saved Francis and drew the police, leading to the discovery of the bodies. If this was a place she kept returning to, it had to be significant."

"It looks like Odalys's intuition was right," Orson remarked with some awe.

Percival stood there for a moment, scanning the pits. After a pause, he said, "Get in touch with the police and see if they've identified these bodies."

"Since these pits are full of mixed blood and mud, the people buried here must be someone of importance," he continued. "Brandon tried to use the negative energy of his dead grandson to tap into the Stewart family's luck," Percival muttered grimly. "Maybe these people who died here were all from wealthy or high-ranking families."

He wasn't sure if his guess was correct, but something about the situation felt wrong.

"I think there's a strong possibility of that," Orson agreed.

Callum, listening to their conversation, spoke up in a low voice, "I'll head over to the police station."

"Be careful. Don't let anyone notice you," Percival reminded him. After all, they had been followed by Finnian that night.

"Don't worry, Mr. Stewart. I'll be careful," Callum replied before hurrying off, driving Percival's car.

Once Callum was gone, Orson and Percival began covering the pits to prevent the contents from being washed away by the rain. When they finished, Orson got behind the wheel and headed back.

"Back to the Stewart Villa?" Orson asked in a low voice.

Percival pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. He noticed that Odalys hadn't sent him any messages.

"Let's go to Freya's apartment," Percival said quietly.

Orson was momentarily taken aback. While Freya was the Stewart family's adopted daughter, Percival wasn't particularly interested in women, and he didn't usually interact much with Freya. "Why is he suddenly going to her apartment?" Orson wondered.

"Odalys must have gone to her place earlier, and something must have happened," Percival explained.

Hearing this, Orson immediately floored the accelerator and sped off toward Freya's apartment.

At Wookin Apartment, as soon as Odalys arrived and stepped into the elevator, she received a video call from Percival. When she saw Sophia's tempting figure in the frame, she immediately knew that Sophia must have been following Percival out.

Chapter 270

Sophia's fate seemed tied to Finnian, so it was most likely related to Finnian. And Finnian's background was terrible. Just the other day, Odalys had said that he was likely going to do something extreme. She hadn't expected it to happen so soon, but the fact that Finnian had targeted Percival and his group seemed like a death wish.

"With his bad luck, it's no surprise. If the heavens want you to suffer, there's no escaping it," Odalys mused. But Finnian, it seemed, had picked the most ruthless option to go after them.

With a loud sound, the elevator doors opened, and Odalys quickly stepped out. She saw Edie, holding a fire extinguisher, pounding on the door, clearly frustrated as it remained locked.

"Freya, you better come out!" Edie's voice lacked the commanding tone from last night. Her hair was disheveled, and she had kicked off her high heels in her rage.

With a soft click, Freya opened the door. As soon as Edie saw her, she threw the fire extinguisher aside and stood tall, her posture dripping with arrogance.

"I thought you were some nobody," she sneered. "My husband adopted you into the Stewart family, raised you up, and now you think you're all high and mighty, huh?"

Freya's heart tightened at Edie's words as tears filled her eyes. Freya never spoke of her past, nor did she ever use the Stewart family's influence to push others down. Because of that, the resources she had hoped for were always taken by Sophia, and the Stewart family never stepped in to support her. Now, Edie was bringing up Freya's adoption as if it were some kind of insult, aiming straight for the heart!

"You have a problem," Freya's voice was icy.

Suddenly, Edie lunged at her. Freya didn't react fast enough and was knocked down onto the carpet, the two of them crashing hard onto the floor. Freya quickly pushed Edie away, but before she could get up, Edie pulled out a needle. Freya's pupils contracted.

"Now that Percival has kicked me out of the Stewart family, you, the adopted daughter, have become my only way back in," Edie sneered, her eyes cold. "Let's see how you deal with this." With that, Edie aimed the needle at Freya's neck.

Just as the needle was about to pierce Freya's skin, a strong hand grabbed Edie's wrist. A gust of wind swept through the room, and with a loud slap, Edie was struck hard across the face. Dazed, she regained her senses and realized her wrist was now firmly held by someone else. And the needle she had been holding was now pointed right back at her.

"No, please, no!" Edie screamed in terror. Before she could pull away, the needle was plunged into her own flesh. Odalys had acted quickly, and the syringe's contents were now being injected into Edie's body. As the liquid flowed through her veins, Edie's face turned pale, and a look of sheer panic spread across her eyes as she realized what was happening.

"Clink!" The syringe fell from Odalys's hand, hitting the floor with a soft thud.

"You… you injected me?" Edie's voice was trembling, disbelief washing over her. She stared at Odalys, unable to process the fact that she had actually done it.

"You wanted to harm her, right? Well, I thought I'd let you do it yourself. I'm sure this medicine is very expensive, don't you think? Wasting it on an adopted daughter like Freya seems like such a waste," Odalys said with a calm smile, her tone almost mocking. "But using it on you? That's the perfect use."

Fixing her eyes on Odalys, Edie opened her mouth, but the agony from the injection forced her to take a step back, collapsing heavily onto the floor.

2/3

"Call an ambulance! Someone, please, call an ambulance!" Edie shouted weakly. But Odalys didn't move. Neither did Freya. Both stood at the door of the apartment, looking down at her with cold, unmoving eyes. She had lived almost fifty years without ever feeling so abandoned. She had once been the wife of Percival's father, treated with the utmost respect. Even a small cut on her finger would have had doctors attending to her immediately, and the finest overseas physicians would examine her. But now, after a single night, she was nothing.

After waking up in the hospital, she realized just how quickly everything had unraveled. Even Oliver, who had once been close to her, was now avoiding her. She had spent the entire day in the hospital, but Oliver never showed up. Not a single wealthy matron who had once been her friend had come to visit either. It wasn't until she saw the official announcement from the Stewart family that she truly panicked. She tried to use her credit card to settle the bill, only to find her bank accounts frozen. Her properties had been reclaimed. In just one day, she had lost everything.