Silly Bride

Chapter 331

child you mentioned in your story Xavier’s second uncle, Stuart Fairchild?” Winnie asked.“Yes!” Rufus frowned. “It’s him. He’s the illegitimate child I had out of wedlock!”He sighed. “That’s one of the reasons why I’m biased against Stuart’s family. Greed and pettiness were engraved in their bones just like that family.”Winnie agreed. “Yeah, they are indeed greedy.” With furrowed brows, Winnie looked at Rufus and questioned, “Can I ask you one more question, Grandpa Rufus?”“Sure.”“All right. If that woman reappeared in front of you after all these years, would you still be able to recognize her?”“No.” Rufus didn’t even pause to think before answering, “It had been so long ago. I’d only seen her from afar a few times when I was recovering from my broken leg at their home. Despite the incident that happened between us after, I didn’t get a good look at her.”So that’s how it is. Winnie’s gaze darkened. “No wonder you didn’t recognize her.”“What do you mean, Winnie?” Rufus stared at Winnie with a perplexed look. “Are you saying I’ve already met Stuart’s mother? But isn’t she dead?”Winnie forced a smile. “To be honest, I hope she’s not who we suspect she is. We were nearly done with our investigation, but a crucial piece of evidence was destroyed in a fire. We need some hair samples from you and Stuart for a DNA test. After all, a DNA test doesn’t lie.” Catching the sad look on Winnie’s face, an uneasy feeling rose within Rufus. “Winnie, tell me who you are referring to.”Winnie paused in contemplation before answering, “My granny.”“What?” Disbelief consumed Rufus. “How is that possible? How can there even be such a coincidence?”Winnie said, “Actually, there have always been clues. It’s just that none of us had ever thought to run such a thorough investigation. Granny had wanted to find her grandchild in the Fairchild family at first. In fact, not just her grandchild. She wanted to look for her son too. Grandpa Rufus, can you help us get some hair samples from Stuart? I already got Granny’s.”“Sure!” Rufus was still in shock. “You don’t have to run a paternity test for Stuart and me. I’d done it decades ago. I even stored a sample of his blood in the hospital. It should still be usable if you use it now.”“That’s great! We were still scratching our heads on how to get some hair samples from Stuart, but now it looks like this is no longer an issue. I’ll return to the hospital now,” Josiah said excitedly.He tacked on, “What about you, Winnie? Are you coming with me?”Winnie nodded. “Let’s go.”Seeing they were about to leave, Rufus added, “I’ll authorize you to take Stuart’s blood, but I won’t be going with you. I need some time to straighten out this mess too.”Winnie and Josiah rushed to the hospital.Running a DNA test would take at least three hours, so the two had no choice but to wait outside the laboratory.Winnie wasn’t in the mood to talk during the wait. She decided to start digging through Jacinta’s phone.Winnie could tell that something was wrong when she noticed that the phone had no data whatsoever. Every piece of information in that phone had been erased. There wasn’t even one contact saved on it.To verify her doubts, she urgently called her number with Jacinta’s phone. Realization dawned upon her.The phone wasn’t the one Jacinta frequently used, and the number was also not Jacinta’s usual number.“How can this be?” Winnie stared down at the string of unfamiliar numbers on her phone. “How careless of me! Granny had two phones that looked alike! I thought just taking her phone was enough. She tricked me! I can’t believe I let my guard