Chapter 458: Chapter 458: Calamity of Confinement
Mr. and Mrs. Lambert were stunned for a moment, then looked embarrassed.
But since their little scheme had been exposed, they decided to stop being coy.
"To be honest, Miss Donovan, we didn’t just come here to thank you. The most important reason is for our child." Mrs. Lambert lovingly stroked her daughter’s small head.
"We both heard what you said about our child that night. We only have this one daughter, and when it comes to her safety, we can’t be careless about anything. We thought it over and over, but we still felt uneasy. So we took the liberty of coming today to ask, Miss Donovan, if you have any treasures that can ward off evil and avert disaster, something that can help our child avoid this calamity?"
As Mrs. Lambert spoke, she gave her daughter a little nudge. The little one was clever and immediately played along, calling out to Arabella Donovan pitifully, "Serena..."
"..." ’They’re really using their child as a ploy!’
Arabella Donovan met the family of three’s earnest, pleading gazes and had to admit she had no resistance to cute, well-behaved children.
"I do have something, but possessing it doesn’t mean you, as adults, can let your guard down. There are still things you need to be careful about."
The Lambert couple’s eyes lit up. "Of course. We’ve always been extremely cautious when it comes to our child. We’re only asking for this to find some peace of mind. After all, no matter how careful we are, we can’t guarantee she’ll be under our watch twenty-four hours a day."
Only then did Arabella Donovan nod and take out a familiar small brocade bag.
Inside the brocade bag was the exact same type of peace charm that Arabella Donovan had previously given to Elder Lyons’ granddaughter. With the endorsement of a previous user’s experience, Arabella was quite confident in the item’s effectiveness.
However, she had given that one to the child for free to thank Elder Lyons for taking care of her third brother, and because the girl had taken a liking to her. Now, facing the three members of the Lambert Family, she certainly couldn’t just hand one over for free as she had before.
"This is a peace charm I drew myself. If you trust me, then..."
"We do, we do! We trust you! Just name your price. We’ll buy this peace charm."
"..." ’They’re this quick on the uptake?’
Arabella Donovan cleared her throat and, feigning an air of mystique, said, "One hundred thousand for one. Non-negotiable."
"One hundred thousand?" The Lambert couple exchanged a look of surprise.
Seeing this, Arabella Donovan’s heart skipped a beat. "...Too expensive?"
"No, no, no! It’s too cheap! Your price is unexpectedly low."
What Milton Lambert said wasn’t a lie. In his opinion, this price wasn’t expensive at all; it wasn’t even considered expensive in the entire industry.
After all, if it was truly a peace charm that could ward off evil and avert disaster as Arabella Donovan claimed, there were plenty of wealthy people willing to offer stacks of cash to buy such peace of mind.
At this thought, Milton Lambert couldn’t help but chuckle slyly, rubbing his hands together fawningly like a fly. "Serena, do you have any more of these peace charms? Can we buy four more? Oh, no, six more... that still might not be enough. How about this: however many you have on hand, can you sell them all to me? No upper limit, the more the better."
"..." ’I was too hasty. I underestimated the spending power of these wealthy people and set the unit price too low. It actually made this guy think about buying wholesale!’
Arabella Donovan’s mouth twitched, and her temples throbbed. "Limited quantity, purchases are currently restricted. One per person... uh, no, one per family."
She was here to work and accompany her second brother on a variety show, not to sell local specialties on the side. How could she possibly carry around so many talismans for them to fleece her?
Mr. and Mrs. Lambert immediately looked regretful, as if they had just missed out on hundreds of millions.
But right now, their child’s safety was the most important thing. Despite their regrets, their movements to pay and take the brocade bag were not slow at all.
In less than a minute, the brocade bag was already around their daughter’s neck.
Faye Collins watched from the side with envy. "Um, Serena, can I buy one too?"
Arabella Donovan glanced at her and said truthfully, "You can, but this charm can only protect you and your daughter from harm. It can’t completely solve your family’s problems."
Faye Collins froze, her face turning slightly pale. "Then, in your opinion, how should my family’s problems be solved?"
"If you trust me, from now on, don’t go home alone or with just your child."
The "home" Arabella Donovan mentioned was not, of course, the independent home Faye Collins shared with her daughter, but her parents’ home.
The moment these words were spoken, not only Faye Collins, the person in question, but also the members of the Lambert Family and the onlooking Donovan Family all turned to look over with curiosity. Faye Collins seemed to have guessed something, and her expression grew even uglier.
"What would happen if I went back alone, or with my child?"
"Judging from your current destiny, your stars are in a configuration that often leads to a ’disaster of imprisonment.’ However, your key life aspects aren’t afflicted by legal trouble, and your finances aren’t seriously impacted. This suggests that at this stage, the ’imprisonment’ isn’t literal jail time, but more likely a personal and subjective form of confinement."
After saying this, Arabella Donovan met the blank, confused stares of the crowd and chose a simpler explanation.
"Simply put, your problem lies in how you handle your family relationships. Like I just said, if you go back alone, or only with your child, you will face the predicament of being confined and losing your freedom."
Arabella Donovan was still being tactful. To put it bluntly, the moment Faye Collins returned home, her family would lock her up directly. It would be even trickier if she brought her child, as the child could be used as a bargaining chip to threaten the confined adult.
Faye Collins wasn’t stupid. Combining Arabella Donovan’s warning with her own recent situation at home, she could easily imagine what her parents might do to her, and their reasons for doing it.
That day, Arabella Donovan had warned her that the blind date her relative had set up was bad news. If she gave in to her parents’ pressure and agreed to marry him, she would be stepping into a bottomless abyss.
Faye Collins was horrified, especially after realizing that her parents and relatives very likely knew about this but chose to hide it from her, even going so far as to push her into this fiery pit. It sent a cold sweat down her back.
After returning from the dinner party that night, Faye Collins had called home. Her parents rarely asked about her work except when they wanted money, and they didn’t care whether she had been on TV or where. So, when she called them, Faye Collins assumed they hadn’t seen the live broadcast and tried to probe them indirectly.
Unexpectedly, her probing actually worked. Her parents’ attitude towards her blind date was off. Even if they didn’t know what he was truly like, they definitely knew he wasn’t someone she could entrust her life to!