Chapter 546
The staff had tried bringing Cindy meals, but she refused to let anyone in. Octavia had no idea how to face her own daughter, so she didn’t even try. Instead, she went looking for Claire.
She showed up at Claire’s place, but Claire wasn’t home. She was still in the lab, totally absorbed in her work. Octavia rang the doorbell over and over until she nearly attracted security. She called Claire’s phone a couple of times, but each call went unanswered. Octavia was starting to boil with frustration, but there was nowhere for her anger to go.
Finally, Claire picked up on the last ring. She had just wrapped up her experiments and was heading out of the lab.
“Octavia, you called me so many times. What’s going on?” Claire sounded calm, almost bored, as if she couldn’t imagine anything urgent enough for this much fuss. Did something happen to Cindy? Not that it had anything to do with her.
Octavia didn’t beat around the bush. “Claire, did you know about Fallon the whole time? Did you already know the truth about where you come from?”
Octavia had always suspected Claire might’ve known. If she had known the truth this whole time and still decided to stay with the James family, pretending nothing had happened, Octavia could understand. Who wouldn’t choose a luxurious estate over the countryside? No one would give that up to go live in some tiny village, right? Or so Octavia thought. But Claire never cared about wealth or status.
“If I’d known earlier, I would’ve gone back to my grandmother in the village a long time ago,” Claire replied. “Why would I stay here all these years? And Octavia, you’re really something. Playing the blame game like a pro. I bet you always knew I wasn’t your real daughter, didn’t you? Why else would anyone treat their own child with so much coldness from day one? Honestly, I still don’t get how you could just stand by and watch your biological daughter left out there while you raised a girl who wasn’t even yours.”
The truth was, Claire actually respected Octavia, if only for her nerve. She was so good at keeping secrets and acting like nothing ever happened.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Octavia snapped, refusing to admit anything. But denying it didn’t make the truth go away.
“Let me put it another way,” Claire pushed forward. “You must have found out a long time ago that Cindy wasn’t Latham’s child. Is that why you switched the babies?”
Octavia’s eyes narrowed. Claire was way too quick. That’s why she never liked Claire and even felt threatened by her. This girl’s mind worked faster than most adults. Add Pandora’s guidance on top of it and Clare was more formidable than ever. Octavia always felt a little uneasy around
her.
“Stop spouting nonsense, Claire. Who told you Cindy isn’t Latham’s daughter?
Where are you getting this from?”
For a split second, Octavia
wondered if Fallon had gone to
Claire too. Did Fallon even know her own daughter wasn’t Latham’s?
eln
After thinking it over, Octavia decided that was impossible.If Fallon really knew, she wouldn’t have bothered with a baby swap
wired She’d have marched with a DNA test and ended it right there. No, there’s no way Fallon knew. So how did Claire figure it out? Did it have something to do with the person who mailed those photos today?
Just thinking about the photos almost falling into Latham’s hands made Octavia break out in a cold sweat.
“No one told me,” Claire replied
evenly. “I figured it out myself. If
Cindy was really Latham’s biological daughter, you would never have let anyone just take her away Who could stand the pain of losing their own child like that? No one but a fool.”
Her logic was solid, and there was nothing Octavia could say to refute it.