Chapter 705
âYour question wasnât rude or anything, itâs just that you hit the nail on the head, and thatâs a bit awkward for meâ
Well, since we were already on this topic, Granny Luisa spilled her doubts. âI had suspicions that Brennen might have wanted to harm Marc, but unfortunately, I didnât have any proof, so the matter was left at that.â
Comelia was taken aback by this. âGranny, when did this happen?â
Granny Luisa sighed deeply, and then said, âThis happened many years ago. Back then, Marc was just a threeâfourâyearâold kid who was still craving his parentsâ love. One day, Brennen, who didnât really like him, said he was going to take him to a theme park, and he went in high spirits.
âAround nine in the evening, Marc hadnât returned, so I called Brennen, and he said the driver had already picked Marc up. But the driver responsible for picking up Marc said Brennen told him he could leave, that he would take Marc home himselfâ¦.
âWe didnât know who was telling the truth, but Marc didnât come home that day. We sent many people out looking for him, even called the police, and they helped us look for him too.
âThat night, hundreds of people searched all night, but we couldnât find him. The next day, a staff member on patrol found him unconscious in a haunted house in another theme park about ten kilometers away from the amusement park that Brennen had mentioned.
âSuch a small child, yet someone had taken him to a terrifying haunted house. I canât imagine how many times he was frightened, or how scared and desperate he mustâve feltâ¦
âAnyway, when we got there, Marcâs little body was quietly lying on the ground, looking lifeless.
âMany people thought he was dead, but I refused to believe it. I had Dr. Lester and others rush him to the hospital immediately, contacted the best doctors around, and after a day and night of rescue, Marcâs life was saved.
âBut in the following month, Marc didnât say a word. In the hospital, he would curl up into a ball under the blankets, and when he got home, he stayed in his room and wouldnât let anyone close his door. If someone closed his door, he would scream and shout, and he was even afraid to go to the bathroom by himselfâ¦â
Comelia clenched her fists as she listened. Such a small child, locked in a haunted house overnight, only a heartless person would do such a thing.
Cornelia speculated that the root cause of Marcusâ claustrophobia might have been this incident. If the cause was found, he could be treated specifically and helped to cure this disease.
That dayâs events were still fresh in Granny Luisaâs mind. âMarc was less than four years old, locked in a haunted house. Can you imagine how scared, how desperate he mustâve beenâ¦.
âWhat made me most angry was Brennen. The child had an accident, and he only came home to check on him on the third day. He even said, âIsnât the kid still alive? Youâre making a big fuss about it, making it seem like someone in our family has died.
âAt that time, I understood that he was actually hoping for Marc to die. Once Marc died, there would be no legal heir to the Hartley Group, and his illegitimate child outside could have the opportunity to return to the Hartley family and inherit the familyâs wealth.
âAfter this incident, I made it clear to him that unless I die, his illegitimate child would never step foot in the Hartley familyâs door. The Hartley family only had Marcus and Briana. He still had some respect for me as an old woman, so he no longer dared to openly target Marc.â
The more Cornelia heard about this, the more heartbroken she was for Marcus. She knew he had some unpleasant experiences when he was a child, but she didnât expect so many terrible things to have happened to himâ¦
If Brennen had a shred of humanity left, he shouldnât have done this to his own child.