Ch. 1096..1100: The Secretly Rich Man Chapter 1096-1100

Chapter 1096

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1096 The question had come from Giya.

“…It’s a long story. Regardless, just rest easy and focus on healing for now… I’ll tell you more about it in the future…”

Now that he had located the eternal coffin, it only made sense for Gerald to return to his family as soon as he could. After all, there were still multiple mysteries that had yet to be solved.

It was the second reason why he had called the helicopter over. The main reason, of course, was because he was extremely worried about Giya’s condition.

“We’re nearing the island now, Mr. Crawford. However, it seems that something is happening at the mouth of the island. Quite a lot of people are currently down there…” said one of the Crawford bodyguards who were present in the helicopter.

“…Hmm?” said Gerald as he immediately stood up and looked out the helicopter’s window.

Just as the bodyguard had said, his grandfather and many others could be seen standing at the mouth of the island. However, they seemed to be discussing something with a woman he couldn’t quite recognize, at least from his current height. As a result, he was at least sure that they definitely weren’t standing there to welcome his return.

“Take care of Miss Quarrington. I’ll be heading down there to have a look!” ordered Gerald as he slid the helicopter’s door open before jumping off!

“Gerald?!”

“Mr. Crawford!”

‘By god! We’re currently over two thousand feet above the ground!’ Thought both of them, feeling completely astonished as cold sweat dripped down their foreheads.

However, they had clearly forgotten that Gerald was now no longer an ordinary man. Due to that, he landed quite easily before the crowd, greatly shocking several of his family’s present bodyguards.

“…W-what… M-Mr. Crawford is back!” shouted several of the guards in both respect and fear.

How the hell had Mr. Crawford safely descended from the sky like that?!

Even Daryl and Dylan—who had been standing at the side—found themselves slightly shocked.

Quickly getting over his surprise, Daryl’s eyes lit up with excitement as he delightfully said, “Gerald! You’re back!”

“Indeed I have, grandpa. Were you worried about me?” said Gerald as he walked closer to the group.

At that moment, Gerald watched as the woman from before squeezed out from the crowd, a baby in her arms. The moment her eyes met Gerald’s, she immediately looked at her baby before saying, “Haha! Mable, look! Your father’s home!”

Hearing that, the dismayed Daryl and Dylan turned to look at each other, their expressions suggesting that they didn’t even know whether to laugh or cry.

“…Alice? What do you mean, ‘your father’s home?’ Whose baby is that?” said Gerald as he took in a deep breath, his eyes widened.

Ever since Alice had made him drunk—which caused him to fail to meet up with Mila before her disappearance—he hadn’t contacted her. After all, he honestly still resented her for that.

To think that she had managed to find out where he lived a year and a half later.

“Why, she’s our daughter, of course! She’s now six months old! Her name is Mable, you know?” said Alice with a smug expression on her face.

“…Our daughter? …But… Back then, didn’t you say that we didn’t…?” replied Gerald, his eyes wider than ever now.

“Well, if I had told you the truth that morning, would you have let me go that easily? Knowing you, you certainly wouldn’t have allowed our daughter to be born in the first place!” said Alice as she tied her hair, now looking very much like a young mother.

“You… How despicable!” shouted Gerald, filled with remorse.

“…What… What did you say? Did you just call me despicable?” replied Alice, slowly getting anxious.

Turning to look at the slightly dazed Jessica, Alice then said, “Sister! Did you see how he treated me?!”

Jessica, however, simply turned to look away as she scratched the back of her head,

Seeing that, Alice then turned to face Yulia before adding, “Mom! Just look at how he’s treating both me and my daughter!”

Displaying a stiff smile, Yulia then replied, “I’d rather you refrain from calling me mother just yet, girl. Regardless, the most important thing now is for us to get to the bottom of all this. After all, Gerald has never told us about this incident before…”

“…You’re right! Since this child truly is a Crawford, go ahead and take as many paternity tests as you want!” said Alice as she turned to look at Gerald.

Looking at Dylan next, she then shouted, “Dad!”

“…Aye! Well, whatever the case is, don’t get too nervous first, child… It’s a bit windy out here so bring the child into the house first… I’ve already arranged for a few doctors to run the required tests…” replied Dylan as he shook his head, feeling a headache coming.

Gerald himself had yet to break free from his daze.

“…Have I truly become a father now…?”

 

Chapter 1097

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1097 “…No. This is too much of a coincidence! I’m not sure what sort of tricks Alice is up to now, but all I remember is me giving her a few hundred thousand dollars to let her lead the life she wished!” muttered Gerald to himself as he frowned slightly.

This sudden turn of events was honestly quite strange to him. After all, ever since he had gotten tangled up with the Moldells’ disputes, he had focused most of his life on training, rarely ever getting involved with city life.

To think that such an incident would happen not long after he finally returned to his old lifestyle… While it was already extremely hard for him to accept the fact that he now had a daughter, it was even harder to believe that the mother was Alice!

Knowing that both Giya and Lyra would become aware of this soon as well, Gerald found himself being cornered into an increasingly difficult situation.

‘…Bah! There’s no use thinking about it! I’ll just wait for the paternity test results!’

With that, Gerald entered the mansion and waited outside the door—where the test was being held— together with his grandfather and father.

Alice herself was in the room, holding onto Mable for the paternity test.

“I think it’d be better if you removed the jade charm from the baby, Miss Bradford… After all, it’s rather dangerous for a baby to wear such a thing around her neck,” said one of the doctors present in the room.

The doctors had told her to remove the charm—which looked similar to the one Alice was currently wearing—since they knew there was a chance that they were dealing with Mr. Crawford’s daughter. As a result, they were all well aware that they couldn’t afford to be careless.

“Humph! But I refuse! There’s no reason to, is there? Just hurry up and run the test already!” retorted Alice.

Hearing that, the doctors didn’t dare to refute and simply began running the test.

A short while later, the test results were finalized.

Upon hearing that, both Dylan and Daryl simultaneously—and anxiously—asked, “What are the results?”

“…Congratulations, old master, master, and Mr. Crawford! Based on the test results, this truly is Mr. Crawford and Miss Bradford’s child! She has the bloodline of the Crawford family!” replied the doctor respectfully as he smiled.

“…A-ah… She… She’s really my great-granddaughter…?” said Daryl, an expression of great joy on his face.

Jessica and Yulia, however, had slightly unpleasant looks. Quite frankly, both of them severely looked down on Alice.

‘Who even was she? How could she just become a part of the Crawford family all willy-nilly?’

Both the women also disliked the fact that Alice was so scheming. After all, it was clear that she had deliberately waited for the baby to be born before making her presence known to their family. Due to her meticulous planning and Mable being born, Gerald now had to marry Alice no matter what.

What about Lyra, then? Both Jessica and Yulia didn’t even know how to break it out to her.

“Look, Gerald! You now have a daughter!” said Dylan as he held the baby intimately while showing her to Gerald.

In response, however, Gerald simply frowned.

In fact, he continued doing so until his father and the others had left.

Seeing that they were now alone, Alice stood behind Gerald and said, “You need to take responsibility for me, Gerald!”

To her shock, Gerald instantly grabbed her by her collar and pulled her to the side before replying, “What exactly happened? There’s no way in hell that I could’ve had a child with you. You may be able to deceive everyone else, but I’m sure that she isn’t my child!”

Gerald’s eyes were so ferocious that Alice instantly began trembling as he continued staring at her. It was almost as though glare could see through everything.

Gulping, Alice then cried out, “A-are you even still a man…? The paternity test results are out! It truly is our baby, even if you refuse to admit it! If you still choose to deny that she’s our child, then I may as well just cease to live! After all, this is already the second time you’ve humiliated me!”

 

Chapter 1098

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1098 “Still unwilling to tell the truth? While I have no idea how you altered the paternity test machine’s results, I know for a fact that you weren’t even the one who had given birth to the child. Look, since we’re ex-classmates, I’m willing to let you off if you tell me the truth,” said Gerald coldly.

Hearing that, Alice immediately became stupefied, fear reflected in her eyes as she thought, ‘When did Gerald get this powerful…?’

“Now that I think about it, could you be doing all this because you have some sort of motive?” asked Gerald.

Since he had been thinking about the death prophecy throughout his trip home, he couldn’t help but be extra wary.

“I… I have no idea what you’re talking about! Unhand me!” denied Alice.

“Still reluctant to tell the truth, huh? Fine, then! I’ll treat this child as my own and raise her… But I’ll toss you into the ocean to be food for the fish!” declared Gerald as he instantly lifted her up.

Alice was now extremely terrified. After all, the Gerald she once knew was both timid and weak. No matter how cruel the old Gerald was, he simply couldn’t bear to look at crying women, which usually resulted in him instantly dropping his cruel façade.

However, despite the fact that she was now crying so much, Gerald’s ferocity and murderous intent remained.

He had completely changed, and Alice was now more certain than ever that what he had declared was no joke.

“F-fine! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! Just put me down first!” squealed Alice in fear.

Hearing that, Gerald tossed her onto a bed where she promptly—and extremely bitterly—shouted, “Y- you’re right! The child truly isn’t ours!”

The moment she said that, however, she was instantly hit with immense remorse.

“So where did you get the child? Did you steal it? As far as I remember, I’ve already given you a lot of money. How could you still be so dissatisfied to the point where you’re even willing to do all this?” said Gerald coldly.

“N-no! I didn’t steal that child! Don’t look down on me, Gerald! While I may not be a nice woman, I wouldn’t do such a cruel thing! I simply adopted the child from an orphanage!”

“Explain how the Crawford doctors came to the conclusion that the child was ours.”

“That… I’m not too sure about that either… An old master taught me that tactic…” said Alice as she gently touched her hurt neck while getting off the bed before taking a few steps back.

“If that’s the case, then go clear things up with my grandpa and father. Once you do that, I’ll hand you a large sum of money that’ll be enough to comfortably sustain you and your family for at least three generations,” replied Gerald.

Hearing that, Alice immediately stood up anxiously as she said, “I… I don’t need money! Gerald, did you honestly think that I did all this just for money…? While it’s true that I once looked down on you for being a pauper, all of that is in the past now… Don’t you know that I’ve already fallen for you for quite some time, Gerald…? I wish to be with you! Even if you go penniless now, I still want to be yours!”

After saying all that, she immediately threw herself onto Gerald, attempting to hug him.

Gerald, however, simply used a hand to push her aside before calmly saying, “Cease your nonsense and tell me what you truly want already.”

“You!” shouted Alice who was so angry that she began stomping her foot.

“…Look, just let me stay, alright? You can’t just drive me away, Gerald! I mean, just have a look outside! Can’t you see that grandpa and dad are taking turns holding Mable? They’re already treating her as part of the family and they look so happy too!” added Alice as she pointed out the window.

“Besides, I’ve already heard that you and your grandpa are about to embark on a long journey and won’t be back for quite a bit… I’ve even been told that grandpa may end up never coming back… Now that he’s filled with hope after meeting his great-grandchild, don’t you think the beautiful lie should be kept alive?” cried out Alice.

“You’d better stop twisting your insincere words to sound beautiful. Tell me what you have up your sleeves or I won’t let you off that easily!” shouted Gerald, his voice now extremely frigid.

Just as he was about to pick Alice up to toss her out, Lyra’s voice could suddenly be heard saying, “Oh? Whose child is that, dad? Grandpa? She’s so cute! Speaking of which, I heard that Gerald’s back… Where is he? There’s something I need to speak to him about

Chapter 1099

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1099 “…Lyra? Ah…” said both Daryl and Dylan rather awkwardly.

Daryl himself now realized how uncharacteristically he had been behaving today, though it’s not like he could help it. After all, he was fortunate enough to meet his great-granddaughter before participating in the pledge of the holy water, an event which he knew he wouldn’t be able to return alive.

Since God had answered his prayers for a chance to meet Mable, one could easily imagine how excited Daryl had been once he found out that the baby was his great-granddaughter.

Now that Lyra was here, however, he instantly felt ashamed. After all, Lyra was the legal daughter-in- law of the Crawford family. From what he had heard, Lyra had even been the sole person who was in charge of all the Crawford family’s affairs—regardless of whether they were major or minor—for a great number of years.

“…Oh! I’m not too sure either… I just thought that this child was really cute so I brought her over!” replied Daryl in an increasingly awkward manner.

Hearing that, Lyra simply nodded silently.

As Daryl handed Mable to Dylan, he noticed that Lyra was holding onto a white scroll of sorts.

Reasserting his regular master-like attitude, he then asked, “So, why did you want to meet Gerald, Lyra?”

“Well, a few strange images appeared when I looked at the picture of the sun again a few days ago… Since Gerald had tasked me with locating the woman in white, I feel that the picture of the sun may

have given us new leads…” replied Lyra.

Ever since Daryl had realized that—unlike regular people—Lyra’s eyes were capable of deciphering the picture of the sun’s predictions, he had made her responsible for the picture.

“Did the picture provide us with more guidance? Hmm… Alright, let’s head to the study to discuss this together!” said Daryl with a slight frown.

A little later, all those who were relevant found themselves in the study as Lyra spread the white scroll open, presenting a drawn picture.

As Daryl and Gerald looked at it, Lyra hurriedly said, “Yesterday, Gerald told me to ask the picture of the sun for the woman in white’s location. According to Gerald, the woman seemed to have some sort of connection with him… However, even after asking it several times, it only revealed the picture— which I drew—on that scroll… Since you’re so anxious to find her, I’m assuming you found some major clues during your trip in the desert, Gerald?”

“Indeed… I wasn’t able to tell you about all that happened there during the call, but just know that everything that took place throughout my trip in the desert felt incredibly weird. Somehow, all that I experienced there felt related to the woman in white, and this includes the prophecy of my death. Call it a gut feeling, but once the woman in white’s location is finally found, I feel that all the mysteries in my heart will be solved,” replied Gerald.

Just as Gerald was about to tell his grandfather about the divine general, Gerald couldn’t help but frown when the corner of his eye saw the picture on the scroll again.

“…How odd… Where have I seen this before…? It seems so familiar…” muttered Gerald.

Hearing that, Daryl then asked, “You’ve seen this image before, Gerald?”

Gerald simply remained silent, continuing to frown for a bit as he remained deep in thought. Eventually, realization dawned upon Gerald, prompting him to lift his head while shouting, “Alice!”

Upon hearing that name, Lyra gave Gerald a curious look.

“That’s it! That jade charm Alice was wearing! It looks exactly like the picture on the scroll!” added Gerald.

“You’re right! Mable seemed to be wearing a similar jade charm around her neck as well!” replied Daryl.

With that, Gerald immediately rolled up the white scroll and took it with him as he rushed toward Alice’s room.

“G-Gerald! You’re finally willing to come meet me!” cried out Alice.

Completely ignoring her statement, Gerald rushed in front of her before grabbing the jade charm that had been hanging around her neck. Now in his hand, he compared the charm to the picture on the scroll. As was expected, both of them were identical.

“So I was right! Alice, where did you get this jade charm?” asked Gerald!

“I-I don’t know!” squealed Alice anxiously as she immediately shook her head.

“Do I need to force the answer out of you?” growled Gerald coldly.

 

Chapter 1100

Gerald Crawford:The Secretly Rich Man Novel (Invisible or Poorest) Chapter 1100 “I-I’ll tell you as long as you promise to take me in!” said Alice as she held onto Gerald’s arm.

“Just tell me already!” replied Gerald as he pushed her hands away.

Wiping her tears away, Alice then began by explaining, “…It… all began on the night when we were at the seaside hotel…”

After listening to her explanation for a bit, Gerald began seeing the bigger picture. Essentially, Alice had drugged him that night with the intent of sleeping with him to hopefully get pregnant. Her thought process at the time was that if she managed to conceive his baby, then she would definitely be able to be part of a wealthy and prestigious family.

Alas, her period came ahead of time so her plans instantly crumbled! At the time, Alice was so angry with herself that she badly wanted to slap herself senseless!

However, she did smear the bedsheets with some blood, under the guise of it being the result of her losing her virginity to him.

With that in mind, it was already clear that she had lied to Gerald about Mable being his biological child.

Regardless, Alice had been filled with resentment and anger the moment Gerald had told her that he needed to rush off to meet Mila back then. As if to add insult to injury, Gerald even gave her twelve million dollars and told her to live elsewhere before running off!

‘I love you so much… How could you treat me like this…?’

Deeply saddened by all this, she decided to make a mountain out of a molehill. She would look for the Crawford family’s island—which belonged to Gerald’s sister—and take things into her own hands!

Though she immediately bought herself a ship that morning to locate said island, she simply couldn’t find it no matter how hard she tried!

Soon enough, night came. Feeling the ocean breeze blow against her face as she looked out at the vast ocean, Alice was just about to return in disappointment when she came across an odd fleet of ships.

Deciding to ask them about the island before giving up for the night, Alice was delighted when the people aboard one of the ships promised that they would bring her to Jessica’s island.

To her eventual dismay, she soon found that she had been lied to when they brought her to an unfamiliar coast, where the Minshall family resided.

The young master of that family went by IssacMinshall, and he had been charmed the moment he saw her while they were still out at sea, prompting him to lie to her so that she would be his.

While Issac definitely wasn’t a nice man, he couldn’t lay a finger on her upon hearing that she was pregnant. It was due to one of the many rules that had been set within that place.

“Of course, the part about me being pregnant was a complete lie… Regardless, I promised to marry him after giving birth to the child… That seemed to work since he gradually let his guard down around me.”

Sometime later, Alice found a way to escape.

Thankfully, she had heard of an exceptional person who went by the name of Master Ghost during her stay there. The man was supposedly an expert in both astronomy and geology, and was famed for

being able to make meticulous calculations to speculate events with extremely high accuracy. He didn’t belong to any particular forces either.

With all those reasons in mind, Alice thought that he was the perfect person to seek out. Naturally, the price of hiring him was by no means a small amount. Nine million dollars, to be exact.

Once she paid that amount, however, she would be left almost penniless. What was the use of even getting away if she had to live like a pauper afterward? That made her think about Gerald, which sparked her interest in attempting to search for the island again.

Before making her escape, she met up with Master Ghost first. After hearing her monetary fears, Master Ghost shared a relevant thought with Alice. According to him, the Minshalls’ ancestors had dug up a pair of jade charms from the king of the ocean’s tomb many, many years back. The charms themselves were said to have the power to link bloodlines between three people.

Even if she managed to get the charms, however, she would still need a personal item of the person with the bloodline the charms were attempting to replicate. Due to Alice leaving the hotel in a hurry the morning after she had drugged Gerald, the only personal item of his that she had was his shirt. She had held on to it at the time to be used as proof of their intercourse when she eventually met Jessica.

Hearing that, Master Ghost told her that while the effectiveness would be slightly weaker, common machines wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between bloodlines that easily.

Following that, Alice stole the jade charms before fleeing from the Minshall Manor. Once she managed to do that, she also adopted the most suitable baby she could find at an orphanage.

After Master Ghost managed to locate Jessica’s island, he shared the information with Alice. Before ending his service, he also told her that she was born to become a distinguished and wealthy lady.

That was what drove her to continue on with her dreams till the events of today finally took place.

Though she had escaped a year ago, she spent about half a year hiding from the Minshall family who was still actively looking for her all over the place. Of course, she eventually made it to the island safely.

After hearing all that, Gerald finally understood most of the situation. However, there was now a new problem with the equation.

Lyra had earlier said that the picture of the sun had displayed the jade charm on multiple occasions whenever she asked it to tell her where the woman in white was.

Could the woman in white’s location be where the jade charm was found? In other words, the ancient tomb?