Chapter 461 Catching His Father's Adultery?
Nicolette was taken aback. "Ms. Grey, I can't accept this. I'm just a servant."
"Servant or not, my grandmother told me you've been with the Banks family for decades. You're practically family now. Even though the Banks family has fallen on hard times, you're still here, which makes you one of us." Katniss handed her the milk. "Drink up. Grandma's a bit tired, so let's get some sleep."
Hearing this, Nicolette finally drank the milk, then took the three cups to wash them before returning to turn off the lights and go to bed.
Katniss and Charlotte shared the bed. In the darkness, Katniss's clear eyes reflected the bright moonlight outside the window.
The quiet room was filled with the sound of the wind howling outside, and soon, the steady breathing from the sofa could be heard.
Katniss held her phone and chatted with Tristan for a bit. When she mentioned she was going to the city tomorrow, his excitement practically overflowed through the phone, enveloping her.
Even though his reply was quite reserved.
[Evie heard you're coming back and she's thrilled.]
Katniss was skeptical. [Does she even understand what that means?]
[She doesn't, but there's a special bond between father and daughter.]
He meant that if he was happy, Evie was happy, too.
After a few exchanges, Katniss couldn't help but chuckle softly.
"Katniss, are you married? Is that cousin of yours your husband?" Charlotte suddenly whispered.
Katniss quickly turned off her phone and switched on the bedside lamp.
Her sudden movement startled Charlotte. "You'll wake Nicolette."
"No, I won't." She shook her head, sat up, and put on a robe. "I put a sedative in her milk."
Charlotte had started talking because she heard Nicolette's steady breathing and assumed she was asleep.
But Katniss had been prepared.
Upon hearing this, Charlotte immediately tried to get up, but Katniss gently pushed her back down.
"Grandma, you stay lying down. I'll listen to you. Why are you pretending to be sick?"
Daryl had said Charlotte's health was just frail due to old age, not bad enough to need a wheelchair. So the whole "dying and wanting to see her granddaughter one last time" was just a pretext.
"If I didn't do this, how could I force them to find you and bring you back?" Charlotte sighed. "After you went missing, your mother was deeply affected. I was busy taking care of her, so the task of finding you fell to Dwayne and Violette. But years passed with no news, until your mother passed away."
Not being able to find Katniss had become a thorn in Charlotte's heart.
But by the time she realized it, the Banks family had already fallen into Dwayne's hands, and she had no power left.
She could only repeatedly urge Dwayne to find Katniss, and after a long time, some news finally came.
"So, the Banks family isn't really in decline. They were lying to me," Katniss questioned.
Charlotte nodded. "They convinced me by saying they didn't know your true nature and were worried you might covet the Banks family fortune with ill intentions. But I know they just wanted an excuse to get rid of you."
As long as Katniss saw there was nothing worth coveting here and chose to leave on her own, the Banks family would naturally fall into Dwayne's hands.
"The Banks family has probably been bought off by Dwayne. Other than being somewhat filial to me, they all follow Dwayne's lead. After all, the Banks family now relies on Dwayne."
"Grandma, what do you want to do? What do you need me to do?" Katniss got straight to the point.
Charlotte gritted her teeth and said, "The Banks family has a legacy spanning a thousand years. It can't be destroyed by your father! If Dwayne takes over the Banks family, he'll definitely change everything, and the Banks family will become the Larson family!"
"Grandma, if you're just worried about the Banks family fortune, I have a way." Katniss wasn't sure what the Banks family meant in Northern Grassland City, but she believed that either Zenith Group or Synergy Global Corporation could easily take back the Banks family.
But before Katniss could finish, Charlotte immediately patted her hand to interrupt. "It's not as simple as you think. The Banks family has a tradition of passing the family fortune to daughters, not sons. Every woman has to marry a man who joins the family. To ensure the women choose their husbands carefully, the ancestral rule is that couples must be buried together to be allowed into the Banks family ancestral tomb."
Now, since Katniss's mother had passed away first, she could only be temporarily buried outside.
She would have to wait until Dwayne died and they were buried together to be allowed into the ancestral tomb.
"Katniss, Northern Grassland City is vast, but there's an old saying: never become a wandering ghost, or you won't be able to reincarnate. Whether you can reclaim the Banks family fortune doesn't matter to me. Money is meaningless after death. But you must ensure your mother is buried in the Banks family ancestral tomb!"
The Banks family ancestral tomb was deep in the mountains, where some of the Banks family members lived. Only couples buried together with their permission could be laid to rest there.
Katniss furrowed her brow. How could she manage this? She couldn't just kill Dwayne now...
"Besides burying Dwayne with your mother to get her into the ancestral tomb, there's another way. You need to find evidence of Dwayne's infidelity and expel him from the Banks family. Your mother can then be buried alone in the ancestral tomb as a divorced woman."
Charlotte gripped Katniss's wrist tightly. "Katniss, no matter what, you must help your mother get into the ancestral tomb!"
Katniss didn't fully understand what the ancestral tomb meant in this day and age.
She clearly remembered that Tristan's mother had also been troubled by Travis, unable to enter the ancestral tomb.
Now that Tristan had officially taken over the Forbes family, those people couldn't control him, and he arranged for his mother to enter the ancestral tomb.
Saying that being buried outside meant becoming a wandering ghost was just superstition. But if she couldn't achieve this, it would remain a thorn in Charlotte's heart.
"Do you know if Dwayne has someone outside?" Katniss asked Charlotte.
Charlotte shook her head. "I don't know. He doesn't come back often, but I've heard some rumors at the company. However, he knows the Banks family rules, so he would hide it well and not be blatant."
Having understood the situation with the Banks family, Katniss felt anxious.
She hadn't expected to face such circumstances upon returning.
Finally able to talk freely, Charlotte refused to sleep, chatting with Katniss about various topics until dawn.
Early the next morning, Katniss got up while Charlotte was still asleep, asked another servant who was preparing breakfast to pass on a message, and then left with her suitcase.
Outside the Banks Manor, a sleek and luxurious Range Rover was parked by the roadside.
The window was partially rolled down, revealing Tristan's chiseled features. Hearing footsteps, he turned to look, his deep eyes slightly raised.
The rear window also rolled down, and Evie, sitting in her car seat, waved her little arms enthusiastically at Katniss.
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