She’s Back, and Hell’s Coming with Her novel Chapter 358

358 /368

Trying to reason with a murderer is like preaching to a brick wall—utterly pointless.

No use wasting my breath.

So Sabrina cut straight to the point. “Where are your adoptive parents? They’re not in Woodville anymore. The neighbors say they moved away years ago. You haven’t been honest, have you?”

At the question, Hester flinched, her whole body tense. She rushed to explain.

“I really don’t know. My adoptive mother told me to wait at the foot of Verdant Hill, said someone from a wealthy family would come for me. I did what she asked, and then my grandmother showed up and took me away. She wanted to hide that I was an orphan. After I left with my grandmother, I didn’t dare contact my adoptive parents—I was afraid she’d find out. All these years, I never reached out to them, never even went back to Woodville. So I had no idea they’d moved.”

“What about the monk—Father Benedict—up on Verdant Hill?” Sabrina had no interest in the adoptive parents anymore.

She suspected that after Hester was taken in by Octavia, Sommer must have made sure the adoptive couple disappeared. It was the only way Octavia could legally adopt Hester—by making it seem like the girl had no family left. Probably only Sommer knew where they’d gone.

When Sabrina mentioned Father Benedict, Hester had to think hard before answering. “All I know is that my grandmother respected him a lot. That’s it. I don’t really know anything else about him.”

She glanced nervously at Sabrina, who, as expected, looked unconvinced. Sabrina’s brow was slightly furrowed, eyes narrowed in suspicion. She didn’t believe her.

Hester could almost feel the weight of two more hostile gazes on her—both brimming with menace.

She swallowed, hesitated a moment, then pressed on.

“I grew up in my adoptive parents’ home. Until I was eight, when they told me I was actually the daughter of a wealthy family. My real mother couldn’t acknowledge me publicly, they said, so I was to wait at Verdant Hill for an old woman from her family to fetch me. She was supposed to give me the life I deserved, and I’d finally be a real heiress.

At the time, I didn’t get it. I thought my mother just didn’t want me, so my adoptive parents had found someone else rich to take me in.

After my mother and I were attacked with acid and rushed to the hospital, she begged the doctors to save me first—even though she’d only known me for just over a month, and had adopted me so recently. There was no reason for her to care that much.