Chapter 1441

“Do you want to know what this is?” She squinted her eyes, waving the pill in her hand triumphantly at Neera.

Neera’s feelings of uneasiness intensified and gripped her heart with such anxiety that she even forgot to tremble. “W-What exactly do you want to do?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, her lips quivering slightly.

Phoebe’s eyes lit up when she heard her voice, and she laughed heartily as she said, “It hasn’t been easy, has it? You’ve finally decided to speak up, huh? It seems like you’ve figured something out, haven’t you? Well? Are you scared now?”

Neera gritted her teeth and said nothing in response.

Phoebe didn’t mind, though. Suddenly focusing on the small pill in her hand, she started recalling something at a leisurely pace.

“Once, I wanted to give this pill to my cousin, but I failed. It was almost impossible for me to get close to him. He was always so cold and never really looked at me. Even though I am his cousin, I never received any special treatment because of our relationship. But I don’t care about that at all. In fact, I even despise being his cousin. Why? Why did my foster father adopt me as his daughter? Why didn’t he just keep me by his side and nurture me? I wouldn’t mind even if I was just his subordinate or his servant! I’d have stood a much better chance with those options than being cousins.”

Neera pursed her lips after hearing Phoebe’s sudden confession. Seizing the moment of her inner turmoil, she said, “Perhaps, you and Mr. Cox simply aren’t destined to bet together. Being able to become the daughter of the Cox family is a good thing in itself. Given Mr. Cox’s temperament, there might not have been any interaction between you two if you had become a servant or a subordinate instead.”

Phoebe suddenly sneered, the look in her eyes turning ominous as she said, “What do you know?

You’ve never truly understood him! I do, though! I’ve been brought up in the Cox family since I was a child, so I’ve been watching him every minute and every second. I dare say, there’s no one in this world who understands him better than I do! He may seem cold on the surface, but he’s a man who, once truly in love, would willingly give everything for it. He’s so wonderful, so why can’t he be mine?”

Neera took a deep breath and glanced at the pill. Her heart pounded fiercely, her mouth was dry, and her tongue was parched. All her attention was focused here, to the point where she couldn’t even feel the chill running through her body.

“Phoebe, I can see that you truly love him.”

She swallowed, hoping that this acknowledgment would help Phoebe calm down.

To her, Phoebe was at her most dangerous at the moment. It was as if she had lost her sanity, behaving as though she had gone mad, Provoking her at this point would not be a wise move.

Neera was not afraid of the torment from this woman. However, if it was a different form of harm, it had already caused her a lifetime of pain. Just thinking about it, she had already begun to despair.

So, the only thing she could do was buy some time by engaging Phoebe in conversation and persuade her to hold off on any actions for the moment.

At this moment, Phoebe was deeply immersed in her feelings for Avery. Hearing Neera’s approval, her gaze suddenly became distant, as if she had fallen into a memory.

“Yes, I truly love him. I’ve never told anyone about this, not even a single word. I dare not reveal it. In the eyes of others, even in the eyes of our extended family, we are cousins, distant cousins at that. If others knew about my feelings, I can’t imagine how they would see me. I’ve been hiding my feelings like this, over and over again. It’s so painful, yet the moment I see him, I feel it’s all worth it. Even if he has never shown me a smile, even if he has hardly spoken a few words to me, I still think it’s wonderful.

He doesn’t want to get close to me, nor does he want to deal with me. That’s fine; it’s no problem. I’ll take the initiative to get close to him instead. I threw a tantrum with my foster father, insisting on moving into the Cox family’s main residence. My foster father sees in me a resemblance to his deceased daughter, so he’s quite lenient with me.

Moreover, he himself wanted to move into the main residence as well. I knew he had always been ambitious about my cousin’s position, so he didn’t object. As expected, he moved into the main residence with me. Even when he angered my cousin later on, and my cousin asked him to move out, I stayed there and refused to leave. Living under the same roof, sharing our daily lives together, even if we don’t speak much, I feel an unprecedented closeness to my cousin.”

Upon hearing that Albert also wished to move into the main residence, Neera’s eyes flickered slightly.

She remembered their previous encounter at the Bartitsu Guild and how she had once again saw Albert and the people from the guild. She then began to probe carefully without revealing any emotion.

“Has your foster father always been at odds with Mr. Cox? Is that why you’re caught in the middle and find it hard to choose sides?”

Phoebe was toying with the pill in her hand, chuckling with a half-smile on her face.

“Caught in the middle? Torn between two sides? Ha! If it weren’t for my foster father, why else would my cousin treat me so coldly! Everything is because of my foster father! It’s all his fault! He nearly destroyed all my hopes! If it weren’t for his disgraceful behavior in the Cox family, he would have been causing trouble since the time my cousin’s parents were alive. He’s incapable, yet he stirs up trouble instead of behaving himself. How could my cousin not dislike him? It’s because of his disgrace that I’m also implicated! My cousin dislikes me now because of him!”

Upon hearing that Albert had been causing all sorts of trouble since he took over as the head of the family, Neera couldn’t help but feel that something was off.

However, this was not the time to ponder on that matter. If she wasn’t careful, she could end up provoking Phoebe further. Therefore, she could only temporarily set aside her doubts, and muster all of her energy to deal with Phoebe’s unpredictable moods.

When speaking of Albert, Phoebe showed not a shred of gratitude for being adopted. Instead, she was filled with resentment, her eyes brimming with malice.

“Why is he so incapable and worthless! If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be this upset! I can only watch my cousin helplessly, unable to get any closer to him! I hate everyone! I hate the people in the Cox family! They all see Avery and I as mere cousins! And I hate those women outside even more for coveting Avery!”

As if she had gone mad, she suddenly burst into a fit of laughter. Her laughter was so loud that it was almost ear- piercing.

“Those fools! They really thought I would help them! They thought by getting close to me, I could put in a good word for them in front of my cousin. They thought I would create opportunities for their infatuation, but what they didn’t anticipate was that seeking me out was the beginning of their nightmares!”

Neera understand it all at once.

“Those people…”

Before she could even ask, Phoebe confidently nodded, “That’s right! I’ve outsmarted them all! Their reputations are completely ruined, all thanks to this pill…”