Chapter 228 The Truth Behind the Curtain
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The Sue family had been an established household overseas for over a century–becoming the wealthiest wasn’t something achieved overnight.
As soon as Eliza stepped out of the car, she was ushered inside.
She’d visited Henry’s home before. The Foster family, also an old Westbrook lineage, didn’t even come close to matching the scale of the Sue family estate.
“This way, miss,” the butler said, leading her upstairs.
Eliza had heard about the man who ran the Sue family.
He should be nearing thirty now–the eldest son of the family. A child prodigy once known across continents by the age of twelve. Gifted beyond compare, though frail in health. Ruthless, unreadable, his methods swift and shrouded in mystery. The entire rise of the Sue family had happened under his hand.
The butler knocked gently on the study door. Only after receiving permission did he push it open and invite Eliza in.
Just outside the doorway, she saw the man seated inside–Tristan.
He looked nothing like Ronaldo, Christian, or even Halbert.
In truth, the four brothers bore almost no resemblance to one another.
Tristan’s frame was lean, dressed in a crisp white shirt, not a hair out of place. His face carried a sharp, androgynous beauty–more delicate than most women’s. His eyes were long, narrow, and impossible to read, with a trace of a smile that never quite reached the surface.
Just seeing that face made Eliza’s heart thump wildly.
Even when smiling, he exuded a suffocating sense of pressure.
Tristan stared at her for a long moment–not as if sizing her up, but simply looking.
At last, he spoke in a soft, steady tone. “Please, Ms. Cassandra, have a seat.”
“Yes,” she replied.
The butler led her to a sofa. Christian remained at the door without entering, and the butler quietly exited after serving tea.
Now, only the two of them remained in the room.
“These years… have you been well?” Tristan asked, his concern unmistakable.
Eliza answered coolly, “I’m alive. Sp, not bad.”
Tristan didn’t take offense. A soft smile curled on his lips. “You’ve suffered quite a bit all these years. It’s my fault for not finding you sooner, All of it is my fault.”
Her heart gave a faint tug at those words.
Tristan opened a drawer and took out a photograph.
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Chapter 228 The Truth Behind the Curtain
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It was of a beautiful woman surrounded by three young boys–the Sue family’s three eldest sons. In her arms was an infant: Halbert.
Eliza forced herself to stay calm. “Why are you showing me this?”
“You came back to see her, didn’t you?” Tristan said. “I’ve kept this photo a long time. It’s about time I gave it to you myself.”
He placed it gently in her hand.
Eliza stared at the woman in the photo. Their resemblance was striking–she clearly took after her mother.
As she looked at her mother’s face, her nose stung with emotion.
It was strange.
Something she had long wrestled with–family–seemed to find an answer in this single moment.
“Your mother loved you dearly,” Tristan said softly. “She was a good woman.”
“What about my father?” Eliza asked, her tone sharp. “They say he was a philanderer. That he had a wife overseas but took a mistress in Westbrook. That my mother couldn’t take it and died because of him. Is that true or not?”
Tristan answered calmly, “Our father did have a wife overseas. She was the daughter of a major conglomerate. A political marriage. He never loved her. She didn’t love him either. Even before marriage, she was addicted to drugs–and she never quit. Their relationship was distant from the start.”
“What do you mean, ‘distant“?” Eliza pressed, feeling like something earth–shattering was coming.
“They never shared a real marital relationship,” Tristan said slowly. “And… they never had children.”
Eliza froze.
No children?
Then what about Tristan, Ronaldo, Christian, and Halbert?
As if reading her thoughts, Tristan continued without pause. “The Sue family needed heirs. But due to her long–term addiction, the woman became increasingly unstable–violent, paranoid. To cover up the truth… all of us were adopted.”
Eliza was stunned.
All of them–adopted?
“The marriage between our father and that woman was in name only,” Tristan said. “And your mother knew that. But she didn’t forgive our father because of that.”
Eliza blinked. “Then… why?”
“She forgave him,” Tristan said quietly, “because of us.”
