Married First, Loved Later : A Flash Marriage with My Ex’s "Uncle" - Chapter 613

Capítulo 613: The Real Father

The studio had a good location, though it looked a little old.

It wasn’t in the heart of the city’s prime district—it sat inside a building that had been put up more than twenty years ago. But why would Hannah, back when she was still the Hill Family’s precious heiress, set her sights on this place?

Selina’s thoughts stirred. Maybe… she should look into the investors behind this building.

Back at Sapphire Valley Villa, Logan stepped out to greet her. “You’re back?”

Selina nodded. “I probed Hannah a little. She should be second-guessing now, thinking I’ve already uncovered something.”

Logan paused for a couple of seconds, then chuckled. “Mrs. Reid… that’s a risk-free gamble with all the profit on your side.”

In truth, Selina hadn’t discovered anything concrete. Today’s visit had been nothing more than a bluff. But if Hannah panicked and slipped up, she’d expose herself.

“Any leads from the orphanage?” Selina asked.

Logan’s gaze narrowed. “It’s been too long. There’s not much left to dig up. The only thing that kept coming up was the surface details—like how Hannah did use some tricks back then to catch Matt’s attention and get brought into the Hill Family.”

“But just as Hannah said herself—she was twelve. A child trying to secure a better life with a few small schemes isn’t exactly beyond belief. If that’s all we’ve got, no one would think she plotted against the Hill Family, let alone convict her of anything.”

Logan added calmly, “I sent people to track down the orphanage staff from that time. Word is, before Hannah was taken in by the Hills, she had dealings with a butler from another wealthy family. But in the end, she wasn’t chosen.”

Selina tilted her head. “A wealthy family’s butler…”

Could Hannah’s scheming path to becoming Matt’s adopted daughter have something to do with that butler too?

…

Meanwhile, on Hannah’s side.

The more she turned over Selina’s words in her mind, the deeper her fear grew.

The past absolutely could not be exposed. If it ever came to light, it wouldn’t just be a matter of the death penalty—her name would be nailed to the pillar of shame for centuries to come.

She’d destroyed the evidence back then. But… there were still things she’d kept!

No—she had to find a way to check on them!

…

Two days later, the Hill Family held their ancestral rites.

The Hill legacy had finally returned to its rightful heirs, and the impostors who had usurped it for so long were driven out.

Jeff and Helen stood at the front, gazing at the memorial tablets, their eyes wet with tears.

Helen’s soft gaze fell on her daughter’s tablet. Then she turned to Jeff and said, “Put up a monument for your brother-in-law as well.”

Jeff nodded, then looked at Selina. “Selina, I haven’t properly introduced you to your father yet.”

Selina had never known who her biological father was. She only knew he had once been her mother’s fiancé. But if they already had her, then why hadn’t they married? Why had their relationship stayed hidden? Why…?

All her questions found an answer as Jeff finally spoke.

“Selina, your father’s name was Curtis Brooks.”

Curtis Brooks… That name sounded familiar.

Wait—Curtis Brooks?!

She had seen that name in her textbooks!

Curtis Brooks, the renowned pharmaceutical researcher, a leading member of the Academy of Sciences, the man who developed multiple life-saving drugs still used in hospitals today. Countless treatments had their roots in his discoveries.

But tragically, he was unfortunately involved in a car accident while out…

Her father… was none other than the famous academician, Curtis Brooks?!

Selina had never heard any of this—not a word of it appeared in her mother’s diary, either.

Jeff answered the questions in her eyes. “Back then I was in hiding and cut off from the Hills. Our father was dead, our mother was in a vegetative state, and Victoria… she was barely surviving in the Hill household. Hannah forced Victoria to break off her engagement to your father—she did everything she could to marry Curtis herself.

“And with Joe pressing her too, Victoria never acknowledged her relationship with Curtis in front of outsiders.

“After that, Curtis died in a car crash. So that love had to be buried in her heart.”

Selina pressed her lips together and, after a long moment, asked, “My father’s car crash… was it really just an accident?”

Jeff nodded helplessly. “It was. His death shocked the whole country. Of course they investigated thoroughly, and the conclusion was that it truly was an accident.”

As for the other crash thirty years ago—that one Matt engineered.

Jeff was fifteen then, and Victoria was thirteen.

The two children were torn apart.

Driven to the brink by the Hills, Jeff became a fugitive in all but name. Matt, who had seized control of the family, wanted him dead, and plenty of people eager to curry favor helped along the way. Jeff hid from place to place, changed his name, stayed out of high society, and couldn’t even attend school. He didn’t dare use his real identity and scraped by working off the books in a small shop. He lay low, but he had no way to challenge the Hill behemoth.

At twenty-five, Jeff heard that Curtis had died and went numb.

He’d kept tabs on the family and stayed in secret contact with Victoria. He knew Curtis was her fiancé—his future brother-in-law. And now the brother-in-law was gone. What would happen to his sister?

Jeff would never forget that chapter of their lives. If he struggled to accept it, how much harder would it be for Selina?

Selina stared quietly at the headstone for a long time without speaking.

Learning that Curtis was her father finally answered the question that had haunted her for years: Why hadn’t her biological father come looking for her and her mother? Why had her grandparents never sought her out, leaving her to be tormented in the Clark family?

Because they were dead.

After Curtis’s death, his parents passed away from grief, one after the other.

A family of scientists, extinguished just like that.

Before they died, they’d apparently been working on a new kind of drug, but when their belongings were sorted, no related materials were found. The matter was dropped.

The more Selina thought, the more wrong it felt. “Uncle… as I recall, Hannah was infatuated with my father.”

Jeff nodded.

Selina thought of Joe—how he claimed to be her father and her mother’s husband—and how Hannah had gone mad trying every trick to marry him. She didn’t love Joe; she wanted to steal what belonged to her mother. You say you’re her husband? Fine, then I’ll take you.

It was pathological jealousy. Hannah wanted Victoria stripped of everything—family and love alike.

So what, exactly, were Hannah’s feelings for Curtis?

Selina’s focus shifted. “Uncle, you don’t happen to know what kind of new compound my father was researching back then, do you?”

Jeff frowned. “I really don’t.”

He even suspected the Brooks family might not have been working on a drug at all—everyone who chased that angle came up empty.

Selina knit her brows, thinking hard.

“All right, it’s starting to rain. Let’s head back,” Jeff said after checking the time. “It’s been over twenty years with no answers. People have been digging this long; you don’t need to rush it.”

“But tell me—why are you so curious about what the Brooks family was researching back then?”

Why was she curious?