Chapter 269
The elder turned his head, glaring at Helena with obvious disdain.
“How exactly are you people running this house? I know his health has improved, but he’s an old man. You can’t be careless! Why wasn’t someone holding his arm on those stairs p>
“Exactly. This is sheer negligence,” another voice chimed in, dripping with judgment.
Helena kept her head bowed, not daring to utter a single word in her defense.
She bit her lower lip, taking the scolding like a chastised servant, with no other choice but to endure it.
Standing at the back of the crowd, Sienna had remained perfectly still, but her brow furrowed into a tight knot.
She knew Arthur’s physical condition better than anyone.
While the old man could walk slowly on flat ground, his legs were still incredibly stiff and weak.
He had already brushed with death once; he knew the value of his life and was more cautious than anyone else in the house.
He always used his private elevator. He never stubbornly tried to conquer the stairs, and he absolutely would not have attempted to climb them alone.
So why was his blood at the foot of the stairs?
Sienna stared at that crimson stain for a long time.
There was a sinister, twisted logic to this scene that didn’t add up.
Suspicion clawed at her mind, and she took a step forward, intending to examine the blood more closely.
Just then, a figure drifted out from the adjacent hallway.
Sienna looked up to see Celeste Carlyle being pushed in a wheelchair by a maid, slowly coming around the corner of the hallway.
She looked like a tragic painting—fragile, quiet, and pitiful.
Celeste’s wheelchair glided smoothly to a stop, perfectly blocking Sienna’s path and positioning itself right by the staircase.
Her maid hovered loyally behind her.
Celeste instructed softly, “Clean this up quickly. Don’t leave any stains, or the elders might slip and fall p>
“Right away, Ms. Carlyle p>
The young maid nodded and immediately spun around to fetch a mop.
Only then did Celeste turn her head to face the gathered elders.
She pressed her lips together, casting her eyes downward in hesitation.
Finally, she murmured, “I don’t know if it’s because Grandpa has been feeling so much better lately, but I think it gave him a false sense of security. He kept acting like he was young again, insisting on taking the stairs instead of the elevator p>
She lowered her eyes further, shaking her head in theatrical guilt. “l caught him doing it a few times and stopped him I even lectured him about it, and made him promise he would stick to the elevator p>
Her voice grew fainter, tears welling up in her eyes. “I just never thought… he would still p>
She let the sentence trail off, her shoulders slumping in a picture-perfect display of grief and helplessness.
Her words washed over the crowd, instantly solidifying the narrative.
Everyone wholeheartedly believed that the stubborn old man, overly confident in his recovery, had tried to take the stairs and suffered a tragic accident, leaving them shaking their heads in sorrow.
Seeing this, Helena immediately stepped up and patted Celeste’s shoulder, her voice oozing with sympathy.
“There, there, stop crying. Your legs are already injured, you shouldn’t be stressing yourself. No one blames you for what happened to the old man. We all know you have a good heart p>
The other elders quickly chimed in. “Silly girl, you need taking care of yourself. Stop putting all the blame on your own shoulders p>
Celeste nodded fiercely through her tears, choking on a sob. “I should have been with him every day. I should never have left his side. If I had just been there, he wouldn’t have p>
Everyone was completely hooked by Celeste’s seemingly innocent, grief-stricken confession.
Everyone except Sienna, whose eyes remained as cold as ice.