Dear Sweetheart novel

Chapter 733 The Secret Under The Foundation

Rayna had never touched the flowers in Cassidy's courtyard, so she could not make a comparison. However, the

rose petals in her hand felt as smooth as skin.

“This...” She glanced at Curtis. Seeing that, he reached out to touch the petals and was similarly surprised by their

texture.

Naturally, their reactions did not escape Ashley's notice. She said slowly, “The soil in my garden is from Cassidy's

house.”

Rayna was stunned for several seconds after hearing that. She was about to say something when Ashley piped up

first, “I know you must be wondering why soil from the Gilroy residence would wind up in my garden. You don't have

to be afraid. There's nothing special about the soil. It's merely a medium for breeding.”

“A medium?” Rayna echoed, not fully understanding what Ashley meant.

It was Curtis who seemed to realize something instead. His deep voice rang out as he asked, “Is it a medium to

breed Serekos?”

Upon hearing that Curtis knew of the existence of Serekos, Ashley did not feel the need to hide anything any longer.

She slowly walked toward them while saying, “That's right. It seems the two of you know much more than I had

anticipated. I presume you have a pretty good grasp of the situation already.”

He pulled Rayna close and fixed Ashley with an icy stare as she approached them. “I'm guessing there are a lot of

Serekos larvae beneath the foundation of this house.”

He sounded so sure that Rayna turned to him with an incredulous expression. It was clear she could hardly believe

her ears.

Ashley was also in disbelief. She had wanted to walk closer to them, but her husband grabbed her arm and stopped

her. “Be rational, Ashley.”

His voice was rough, but his tone was gentle.

Rayna could hear the man's love for Ashley in his voice and shifted her gaze to study him. From the front, his

appearance was quite ordinary. There was nothing particularly outstanding about his looks. From his side profile,

however, he looked rather handsome.

“It's not like I bite.” Ashley turned around, narrowing her eyes at him before pulling her hand out of his grasp. Then,

she looked at Curtis and said, “Mr. Faymon, it appears you've done a fair bit of research into our residence.”

Rayna swept her gaze over the other flowers and plants in the courtyard. All of them looked normal except for the

roses.

“Curtis, are you saying that there are Serekos underneath this house's foundation?” She still found what he said a

little hard to believe. However, Ashley's earlier statement that the soil used for planting the roses had come from

Cassidy's house seemed believable to her.

“Yes. There are larvae,” Curtis answered in a firm tone. Noticing the flash of doubt in her eyes, he lowered his voice

and said, “You'll find out everything when we go to the city center later.”

She stopped looking elsewhere and glanced at him, who was still holding her protectively. She did not say anything

else after that.

The corners of Ashley's lips curled upward as she took in their little exchange. Crossing her arms in front of her, she

narrowed her eyes and surveyed the flowers and plants in the courtyard. “It looks like we can't keep these things

here much longer.”

Rayna was puzzled by that statement. “Do you know what she means by that?”

“I can more or less guess what it means.” He looked down at her and added reassuringly, “Everything is fine.”

His response made the already confused Rayna even more perplexed. At first, I only suspected the foundation of

Cassidy's house concealed some secret. It never crossed my mind that the same thing would happen at Ashley's

house. What's even stranger is I've no clue when Curtis familiarized himself with all the information. I thought I was

the only one who could figure things out.

Just as she was puzzling over the matter, an elderly person came out of the house.

“Ashley, I can't light the fire. Come in and help me.” Hunched over, the elderly woman walked to the door to the

living room. She narrowed her eyes slightly at Rayna and Curtis before talking to her son, “The water pump doesn't

seem to be working. Go and check what's wrong with it.”

After saying that, she turned and returned to the house.

The pair whom the elderly woman had instructed to help her exchanged glances before going off in different

directions and busying themselves.

Rayna and Curtis were the only ones left in the courtyard. She looked up at him and asked, “Shall we head back?”

Curtis swept his dark eyes over the courtyard. “What made you realize there was something strange about the

flowers?”

I came here previously and didn't sense anything. Yet, as soon as Rayna arrived, she noticed something different

about the roses with just a glance.

“By its vibrancy. The color of these flowers is just as vibrant as those at Cassidy's house. In fact, it's even more so,”

she replied while gazing at the flowers in the garden. “What do you think Mr. Zeller is plotting?”

“Let's go,” he replied while gently stroking her hair.

Following him obediently, she turned and left Ashley's house. “Why do I feel like we didn't manage to get any

information?”

“That's not true. At the very least, we know something is up between Ashley and Cassidy. Ashley doesn't lack food

or clothing, so why would she come to work as our cook?”

“To dig for information and suss out the situation?” she ventured grimly.

Curtis nodded. “We can't rule out those possibilities. Maybe there's more to her father-in-law's death than it

appears.”

After mulling over the matter for a while, Rayna more or less came to a conclusion.

When they arrived at Cassidy's house, they saw a Lincoln parked at the door.

Rayna broke free from Curtis' embrace and hurried into the courtyard. Once there, the scene that greeted her left

her dumbfounded. “Cassidy...”

Cassidy was holding a pair of scissors and pointing them directly at the man in front of her. “It'd do you well not to

forget your roots, Fernando.”

At that moment, Curtis rushed in behind Rayna. He was also somewhat stunned to see Fernando, who was sharply

dressed in a suit, standing in the courtyard.

Rayna walked up to Cassidy cautiously and tried to calm her down. “What's going on, Cassidy? Whatever it is, we

can talk it out. It wouldn't do if you accidentally hurt yourself like this.”

“My godfather asked me to come and pick you up. He means no harm.” As Fernando spoke, he stretched out a

hand and grabbed the scissors Cassidy held in one swift motion. “It's just a meal. Is it necessary to put up such a

fight?”

“I think your godfather has brainwashed you,” she snapped. Furious that he had taken the scissors from her, she

reached out to snatch them back. However, he quickly grabbed her arm and said, “My godfather has told me that

he'll help to make our marriage happen as long as you agree to go and have a meal together. After our wedding, I'll

get you out of here.”

While speaking, he took an embroidered box from his pocket and was about to open it when she smacked it out of

his hand. “Don't come here and disgust me.”

Rayna watched as the embroidered box rolled on the ground several times before stopping. She raised her head

and glanced at Fernando, who appeared calm, then at Cassidy. These two don't seem anything like an engaged

couple. In fact, they don't even seem to share the closeness that boyfriends and girlfriends usually have.

She tugged at Cassidy's sleeve and pulled the latter aside. “Calm down, Cassidy. Let's go through this with a cool

head. This... This meal that Fernando's godfather has arranged... Why don't you want to go?”

The way I see it, this is an excellent opportunity. It'd also be great if Cassidy happened to garner some useful

information from Mr. Zeller. Nonetheless, the most important thing now is to calm her down to avoid endangering

anyone's life.

“If you don't have time today, I'll come by tomorrow with Yuna.” With that, Fernando spun on his heel and left.

It was not until he had walked out of the courtyard and they heard the sound of the car starting that a thought

suddenly occurred to Rayna. She dashed to the door, but the car had already sped off.

Curtis looked at her in confusion. “What's wrong?”

“I wanted to ask him about Ashley.” She sighed and turned to Cassidy. “Ashley said there are Serekos larvae under

the foundation of her house. Do you know about that?”

Cassidy looked stunned upon hearing that.

“You didn't know?” Based on Cassidy's surprised reaction, Rayna thought the former was unaware of that.

Cassidy shook her head in response. Then, she turned and went into the house.

Glancing at Curtis, who had walked over to her, Rayna asked, “What are your thoughts about all this?”

“I think there's a story behind Cassidy and Mr. Zeller.”

She stood rooted to the spot, shocked by that one sentence. “How can that be?”

“Perhaps... your earlier assumptions will be disproved,” he teased with a smile.

Hearing that, she furrowed her brows slightly. “How is that possible? I don't believe it.”