Unmasking the Heiress

Thanks to Yessica, Yale knew Lydia's history like the back of his hand.

"Lydia was raised in an orphanage, and because she was always so competitive, she didn't exactly fit in. She had just left the orphanage and started working when she bumped into your dad, Andrew. Back then, Andrew was on the rise in Avalon City, thanks to your mom's savvy in business, and Lydia set her sights on him..."

Yale did not need to spell out the rest; everyone there got the picture.

"So, Lydia doesn't really have family here. Your dad, Andrew, has been under my thumb for a while, and the only daughter, Julia, she's vanished into thin air..."

"Wait a minute!" Evangeline cut in, stopping Yale mid-sentence. "Uncle Yale, Julia didn't vanish. And if I'm not wrong, she's already back in town."

A flash of Minnie's face crossed Evangeline's mind.

The woman bore a striking resemblance to Julia, and her obvious affection for Walter made it hard for Evangeline to shake off her suspicions.

Yale and Holden perked up at her words.

"You guys know Julia's been sweet on Walter for ages, right? And Minnie, ever since she popped into our lives, has been glued to Walter's side. You might not have seen much of her, but I've seen plenty. She's got a bunch of quirks that are dead ringers for Julia's "However, they only sort of look alike, and Julia's been gone for such a short time. Even with the fanciest surgery technology, there's no way she could heal up and look like this so fast..."

Yale, with his special ops training, hit the nail on the head.

That was the exact reason Evangeline had not been able to conclude that Minnie was Julia.

"I've been wrestling with that too. If Julia went under the knife to turn into Minnie, the timing's all off for a recovery. However, maybe she found another way to change her looks? "Still, with things being so critical, maybe it's worth rolling the dice?"

Took a chance on family ties, on the hunch that Minnie was Lydia's daughter, Julia.

"We've got nothing to lose by trying now."

Yale nodded earnestly. "If all else fails, we just snag Lydia back. That's way better than keeping her here and not being able to squat."All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.

With that, the trio was in sync.

Evangeline quickly hit a snag.

"Uncle Yale, how can we make Lydia sense the danger?"

The security tower of the Foster family's fortress was no secret to anyone.

"And it's gotta be so risky that Lydia would bolt to find her kin..."

Yale's eyebrow quirked up. "I've got this. Just sit tight for my update."

Yale hit the service bell, and a bodyguard in black approached.

Yale murmured some hush-hush stuff to the guard, who nodded like he got the whole picture, and then he was off.

In the questioning room, Lydia was totally lost watching all that go down. Nothing was happening.

With Lydia's eyes wide with surprise, Yale just... took off without doing a thing?

The bodyguards, business as usual, took Lydia to her own room and then vanished into thin air.

Lydia stared at herself, unscathed, and could not believe it. After Yale's big scare tactic, he... did nothing?