Chapter 213

Eric trembled, trying to slip through with a mix of truth and lies He lowered his head in guilt, not daring to look at Yvette.

Yvette smiled faintly and said in a soft voice, “Sit back down.”

Eric froze, thinking he had misheard her. He hesitated and asked uncertainly, “W-What did you say?”

Yvette’s brow twitched in slight impatience. Seeing her gesture, Eric instinctively recoiled against the wall.

He knew he hadn’t misheard her. Crawling back onto the chair in the interrogation room, he sat still, not daring to move.

Yvette took an old-fashioned pocket watch out of her pocket, its cracked surface making it look worn with age.

Eric saw the pocket watch and felt puzzled, wondering what she was planning to do.

Yvette stared at Eric, and her delicate hand gently swung the old pocket watch. As Eric stared at the watch, his eyes began to lose focus, and everything around him seemed to blur, including Yvette’s exquisite face.

The watch swung faster and faster until Eric completely lost consciousness. His eyes went vacant, losing all sense of sanity.

Yvette pursed her lips, put the watch away, and softly asked, “Who told you to crash into Zachary’s car?”

Eric’s eyes were blank and his voice was dull. “It was my brother, Jason Wilson. He told me that Zachary’s brakes had failed. All I had to do was wait at Marine Road’s middle section, wait for his car to come out, then crash into it. Afterward, I just had to pretend it was a case of overworking at the police station. He promised that he would get me the best lawyer to defend me and even offered me 1.5 million dollars to buy a house and marry a wife back home.”

Yvette, with her pale hand resting on her face, casually leaned back, nonchalantly asking, “Does Jason have a grudge against Zachary?”

Eric’s face turned pale as he shook his head. “No. It’s because of the Smith family. Jason is the Smith family’s butler, Jason Davis. No one knows that his real name is Jason Wilson. He’s been working for Dennis for years. He knows that the Smith family went bankrupt because of the Chambers family, so he’s been trying to find ways to get revenge on them. The brake failure was also his doing.”

Yvette’s eyes were indifferent. Slowly, she snapped her fingers.

Eric suddenly snapped back to reality, but he couldn’t remember anything from earlier. He just felt like his mind had been blank for a few minutes. He looked up at Yvette, still unaware of everything he had just confessed. He stubbornly said, “You don’t need to investigate further. I did it on purpose. No one hired me.”

Yvette sneered, crossing her legs and raising an eyebrow. “Is your brother Jason Davis or Jason Wilson?”

Eric stared at Yvette, shocked. His face drained of color and he struggled to deny it. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

Yvette had already obtained the information she wanted, so she lost interest in continuing the interrogation. She stood up and walked toward the door. Then she paused for a moment, her voice laced with coldness. “You know that your brother is just using you. If he really cared about you, you wouldn’t be in the situation you’re in now, not even able to marry a wife. Do you know how much the gardener at the Smith family makes a month?”

After that, Yvette pushed the door open and left. Behind her, Eric’s cries echoed as if his last hope had been taken away. He;

collapsed onto the table, crying uncontrollably.

He had known all along that since childhood, Jason had been looking down on him. When he failed the exams, Jason went to university and left their hometown, not returning for twenty years. When he finally did come back, he asked him to harm others.

Eric had desperately clung to that fragile sense of familial bond, but now, he regretted it. The very family affection he longed for had ruined his life.

In the room next door, they had witnessed the whole process. Seeing Eric hunched over the table, crying his heart out, Wyau sighed. He felt that Eric was indeed a pitiable man, used by his brother, still trying to protect him. He didn’t expect the Smith family’s involvement in this case either.

Not long ago, the Smith family’s bankruptcy had caused a negative impact on Seacrity’s economy. Zane didn’t know the history between the Smith and Chambers families, but he thought the family grudges here were truly terrible. He didn’t expect that a butler would end up harming others for his employer who had already died. What surprised him even more was that Yvette knew hypnotism.

A few years ago, he had discussed hypnotism with a psychologist he had worked with on cases. He knew that timing, environment, and the hypnotist were all important. The human mind was the most complex thing, and hypnotism wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Looking at Yvette, he thought, ‘Sure enough, Jeremiah’s woman can’t be an ordinary one!’

Andrew pinched his chin, his eyes gleaming with curiosity. He turned to Jeremiah, saying with a flattering smile, “Yvette is so impressive. I always thought that hypnotism was something you only saw on TV. I didn’t expect that she could do it. How did she hypnotize him? Was it just with a pocket watch? I’ve got to ask her where she bought it. I might get one for myself.”

Andrew’s words made Jeremiah smile with pleasure.

After Yvette left the room, Jeremiah turned his gaze away and tilted his head. Shadows flickered across his face as he spoke.

“From the moment she entered the interrogation room, she was already laying out everything step by step. She guided Eric’s emotional changes all along. In the end, when Eric’s mental defenses collapsed, she seized the perfect opportunity to hypnotize him.”

As Jeremiah spoke, he chuckled softly, wondering just how many surprises Yvette still had in store.

Zane looked at Andrew and added, “Hypnotism is a technique that uses psychological suggestions to communicate. It bypasses the conscious mind and enters the subconscious, where verbal or non-verbal cues are used to influence the individual. It’s a form of psychological suggestion. The practitioner uses language, voice, gestures, and eye contact to plant these suggestions into the subject’s subconscious, ultimately changing their thought patterns and behaviors. The depth of hypnosis varies depending on the individual’s sensitivity to hypnosis, as well as the practitioner’s authority and skill.”

Zane paused for a moment, his face full of admiration as he continued, “I’ve seen this a few times during investigations, but those psychologists usually need a lot of tools and time to get a suspect into a deep state. The speed at which Ms. Zeller hypnotized Eric with just an old pocket watch impressed me.”

Zane’s words were full of genuine praise. He thought that if Yvette were willing to help the police with such a skill, surely there wouldn’t be any case they couldn’t crack. However, he knew that would be impossible. He dared not even mention it.

Zane’s explanation was quite professional, showing that he had some research and understanding of hypnotism. Andrew understood it after listening to it. Right now, he only knew that Yvette was incredible, and everything else didn’t matter. As Yvette stepped out of the interrogation room and was about to knock on Jeremiah’s door, she saw it open. Jeremiah stood in the doorway, taking her hand and rubbing it gently. He said in an intoxicating voice, “Hypnotism, huh?” Yvette paused for a moment, letting Jeremiah hold her hand. “I just know a little bit,” she said.

The other three got it. She was just being modest.