Married First, Loved Later : A Flash Marriage with My Ex’s "Uncle" - Chapter 615

Capítulo 615: In My Name

Aaron hurried after her. “Should I have someone start digging?”

Selina smiled faintly. “Cousin, do you think Hannah has been watching me?”

Aaron caught on. “You mean—”

“Yeah. Whoever was backing Hannah seems to have abandoned her. She’s on her own now, so she’s going to be extra vigilant. She’s afraid Hill Family will find something that could convict her, so she’s been on high alert lately. The moment anything looks off, she might bolt.”

Selina finished with a smile. “So I need Hannah to know I’m looking — but I can’t let her know I’ve actually found anything.”

Aaron wasn’t an idiot. “You want to throw her off? That’s not easy.”

Selina shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.”

Hannah wouldn’t risk it.

Logan stood by calmly. He stepped up and knocked on the garden wall — it was solid. Selina, meanwhile, stared at the orange tree and closed her eyes for a long moment.

If you wanted to hide something and make sure no one else would find it, but that your lover and daughter would know exactly where to look, where would you hide it?

The Brooks place wasn’t big, but the yard had space. If Selina had to dig blindly, it would take forever, and she didn’t want to tear the whole place up — not only because she didn’t yet know what her father left behind, but because she had to keep everything secret from Hannah.

So she planned to do the digging herself. But if she had to search the entire yard, it would take ages. Selina looked again at the orange tree.

Because it faces south and gets more sun, the branches on that side leaned over the wall, giving deep shade. In the center of the yard sat a sundial. Sundials are mostly ornamental now; Selina wondered why the Brooks yard had such a large one. She walked around it. “Has anyone dug under this?”

Aaron nodded. “Of course. Matt would never have left it alone. He thought the sundial hid something and had people digging there for a long time. They never found anything, but Matt wouldn’t give up.”

Selina asked something that seemed unrelated. “James said my name was chosen by my mom, that James gave me a different name first but Mom insisted on ‘Selina.’ Do you know… was that a name my mom had picked out long ago?”

Aaron thought about who James was before he realized — James was that Clark Family man who tricked and married Selina’s mother, treated her badly, and let his mistress torment her. “I don’t really know. I’ll ask Dad.”

Aaron called Jeff. Jeff went quiet for a moment when he heard the question. “How did you find that out? Yes — Victoria and Curtis had chosen the name together. They both wanted a girl; if they had a daughter, they planned to name her Selina. In Greek it means ‘moon’ — the moon rises in the east, brings hope, and guides the night. Victoria liked that meaning.”

Jeff fell into recollection, voice full of regret. “Victoria and Curtis never married. After Victoria was imprisoned by that bastard Joe, she and Curtis were forced apart. She gave birth while imprisoned — the child was your older brother. Before Victoria was imprisoned, she was already pregnant with Curtis’s child. During her captivity, Curtis never stopped trying to free her. Later, when Victoria escaped Joe, she and your father were briefly together and then fled the city with you. They might have had plans, but we don’t know. Not long after, your father died in that accident.”

“We always thought Kyle was your biological brother, but after Joe fell, it turned out Kyle isn’t related to you. That means your brother wasn’t with the Morris family — where he was placed and under what identity, nobody knows. He’s missing to this day.”

Hearing the full story of her parents, Selina felt a stab of sadness and a fierce resolve: Mom and Dad, I will get you justice. I will find my brother.

Settling her emotions, Selina kept searching for clues. When she first saw the sundial, she thought it was conspicuous. If she were hiding something and didn’t want anyone to find it, she’d also expect a searcher to be drawn to something so obvious. At first she thought maybe something was buried under the sundial. Now she suspected the sundial might be a decoy — something meant to draw Matt’s attention.

Her father knew Hill Family’s secrets and suspected his time was limited, so he left everything in a way that would attract Matt. But he actually hid the real thing somewhere only Victoria and Selina could find. How would he convey that? The name.

Aside from blood, the only connection between Curtis and Selina was the name — the name Curtis and Victoria chose together. Its meaning — the moon rising in the east — might be the key.

Selina considered it a while and checked the weather forecast. “We wait until night. First, let’s make a show of coming and finding nothing, to put Hannah off.”

Selina took a casual walk around the neighborhood, scanning her surroundings before arching a brow and returning to the courtyard. Grabbing her bag, she made it look like she was leaving.

Half an hour later, she received a message from Logan and quietly went back inside.

Aaron frowned. “Someone’s really watching?”

Selina nodded slowly. “Hannah would never just sit still. So, don’t tell anyone about this—not yet. We can’t make a scene.”

Aaron nodded. “I’m not stupid. Relax, I only told my dad. Oh, right…” He checked the time. “You said whatever’s hidden can only be found at night? Why?”

Selina didn’t answer. “Just a hunch. We’ll see tonight.”

When evening came, the sky was clear and cloudless, with the stars and moon shining bright.

Selina turned off all the courtyard lights and gazed upward, searching the sky until she locked onto a direction.

“What are you looking for, Mrs. Reid?” Logan asked, standing beside her.

Selina spoke calmly, “The Hill Family never cared whether I existed.”

Logan knew she meant Matt and his side of the family. He raised a brow. “So?”

“Since Matt never cared about me, he wouldn’t have paid attention to my name. In his mind, his greatest threat was already gone—Grandfather was dead, Grandmother was a vegetable, Uncle had vanished, and my mother had been driven to City A and forced to marry James.”

“To him, that branch of the family was finished. So why would he ever think twice about me?”

“Tell me, do you really think my parents—two of the smartest people I’ve ever known—wouldn’t have seen that coming? My mother was forced to leave, my father knew his days were numbered. If he wanted to leave something for me to find, it had to be connected to me somehow.”

Aaron looked a bit lost, but Logan understood. “Your name—chosen by your parents—means ‘the moon rising in the east,’ a symbol of guidance.”

Selina lifted her gaze. “Exactly.”

She looked toward the east. “It should be that way.”

Aaron gathered a few trusted men, and they began digging along the eastern wall. After about thirty minutes, someone called out in excitement, “We found a box!”

Aaron’s eyes lit up. “Hurry! Bring it up!”

Selina stepped closer. The box was small, uncorroded, and unlocked. Aaron flipped it open, and everyone gasped.

Inside was a massive dove-egg-sized pearl, shimmering with a soft lavender-pink hue. Its luster was breathtaking. At auction, it could easily fetch millions.

Aaron didn’t touch it barehanded; he slipped on gloves. Despite its value, as the Hill heir, he wasn’t easily impressed. He frowned slightly.

“Just one pearl? That’s it? Don’t tell me the great secret of the Brooks Family—the thing Matt spent years chasing—was just this?”

What could possibly be so special about a pearl that the Brookses would hide it for decades… and die for it?

Aaron was about to speak again when he noticed the intensity in Selina’s eyes.

“Keep digging,” she said.

Aaron blinked.

Logan smiled faintly. “The best way to hide something… is to bury it beneath something attention-grabbing.”

Logan recognized the pearl. “This pearl belonged to a princess of Country Y fifty years ago. And now it turns up buried here, in the Brooks courtyard. If Matt had been the one to find it, what do you think he would’ve thought?”

Selina’s gaze sharpened.

Why had Hannah been so terrified of her mysterious backers? Who were the people powerful enough to destroy both the Brooks and Hill families just to steal their research?

What if it wasn’t a single family… but an entire nation?

And what if that nation was Country Y?

If Matt and Hannah were working as agents for Country Y, then when Matt dug up this pearl, he would’ve assumed Curtis had discovered their secret. To him, the pearl would be a coded warning—a message meant to be silenced.

So once Matt found the pearl, he’d believe the secret was out… and stop digging any deeper.

Selina looked down at the ground. “Matt stopped digging—but I won’t.”

Aaron, no fool himself, had already pieced it together from Logan’s words:

Hannah and Matt… were tied to Country Y.