Chapter 199

“What?” Horatio and the others turned their heads simultaneously toward Lisette.

Lisette’s reaction was intense, looking like she knew something they didn’t.

“I can’t say!” Lisette blurted out, shaking her head vigorously at Horatio and the others, quickly sealing her lips shut.

“What do you know?” Zelda asked suspiciously. “Lisette, what did Calliope do? Spill it!”

“Yeah, Lisette, just tell us. If you don’t, we’re in the dark!” Valerian frowned with concern on his face.

Lisette shook her head. “I’d better not. It’s just a hunch. Callie couldn’t possibly be that kind of person.”

“What are you guessing at?” Ulysses asked, his brow furrowing even more. “You can tell us, Lisette. There’s no outsiders here. Just say it.”

After a moment of hesitation, Lisette finally spoke up cautiously, “People might say that, but I think it’s all rumors!”

“Let us be the judge of that. Just tell us,” Valerian urged.

“It’s really just a guess. I might be wrong. Since high school, I noticed Callie hanging out with many older men. She was often seen getting into fancy cars. Back then, there were rumors at school too. They said Callie was being ‘kept’ by these older men for money. They said she was selling herself.”

“But no way, right? No matter what, Callie wouldn’t stoop that low, would she? Our family isn’t struggling for cash. She doesn’t need to do something like that! And those men are so gross!” Lisette glanced at Zelda and the others as she spoke.

Seeing the complicated expressions on their faces, she narrowed her eyes slightly. It seemed she might finally get Calliope out of the Jewell family picture. They all looked pretty angry. Although Lisette hadn’t confronted Calliope back then, she had snapped a few photos on occasion.

“It must be a misunderstanding,” Lisette said. “Callie wouldn’t be so reckless! If word got out, it’d be a shame!”

“No, she would do anything!” Zelda said, her face darkening. “She’s the kind of person who would. So, that fortune teller called her a jinx!”

Horatio and the others didn’t look pleased either.

“Who would want anything she gave, all bought with filthy money!”

“Callie can’t be like that. She shouldn’t be,” Lisette insisted. “I took some photos back then. I can’t believe Callie was really involved with those older men, can she?”

“Where are the photos? Let us see,” Horatio said, his expression stern.

Lisette obediently pulled out some photos of Calliope and showed them.

In the pictures, Calliope was indeed getting into different luxury cars with a different older man each time. One was older and uglier than the next, and the youngest must have been in his fifties.

Moreover, the timeline stretched back to when Calliope was just starting middle school.

Their faces turned ashen. The more they looked at the photos, the more shocked they became.

Some of these men were quite well-known and wealthy. Who would’ve thought Calliope had gotten mixed up in this mess so young, becoming someone’s mistress or secret lover?

No wonder she had the money to give such expensive gifts. It was all tainted money.

The three brothers felt their anger rise like a tidal wave.

“We’ll return those gifts to her,” Horatio said, his previous guilt toward Calliope replaced by a singular thought: if she was involved in such disgraceful deeds, he never wanted to acknowledge her as his sister again.