Chapter 451: Chapter 451: Pressing In Step by Step, Leaving No Way Out for the Lancaster Family
"I see." Nathaniel Sloan nodded. "But on my arm..."
Chairman Lancaster’s brow twitched. He quickly corrected himself in an even tone, "I remembered wrong. It was on his arm."
Nathaniel then looked down at his forearm and furrowed his brows. "Actually, it’s on my wrist..."
Chairman Lancaster coughed. "Yes, how did you know Theodore had a birthmark on his wrist?"
Nathaniel curled his lips into a smile. "Chairman Lancaster, although I have zero interest in your Lancaster family, I think it’s best to clear the air about Ms. Miranda Lancaster once and for all." His expression returned to its usual indifference, though a hint of a mocking smile lingered. "What do you say?"
Chairman Lancaster’s heart skipped a beat, a bad premonition washing over him. Feigning composure, he replied, "Of course. But no matter what you say, you can’t change the facts!"
"If that’s the case, then what are you panicking for?" Nathaniel’s tone was so calm it bordered on nonchalance.
Then, a lawyer stepped forward. "Hello, Chairman Lancaster. Allow me to introduce myself. I am an apprentice of Mr. Neil Foster. Twenty years ago, Mr. Foster was Ms. Miranda Lancaster’s exclusive legal counsel."
Chairman Lancaster panicked inwardly. He wondered, "Wait, Miranda’s exclusive lawyer? Since when does she have an exclusive lawyer?"
The lawyer stated calmly, "Before Ms. Miranda Lancaster passed away, she left a will transferring all assets and real estate under her name entirely to Mr. Nathaniel Sloan. Furthermore, she instructed Mr. Foster not to disclose any of this information before Mr. Sloan turned eighteen. The will was only to be made public once he reached adulthood.
"Were you aware of this?"
Chairman Lancaster’s cheek twitched uncontrollably. He had just proclaimed himself a doting father who loved his daughter dearly, yet he had been completely oblivious to the fact that Miranda had secretly hired a lawyer to leave her inheritance to Nathaniel! He had always wondered who she left all that money to. He assumed she hadn’t left a will and that Ethan Sloan had simply swallowed up her estate.
But if he admitted to knowing about it, the situation would become even more bizarre. Why would Miranda leave her inheritance to an "illegitimate son"? If Chairman Lancaster knew, wouldn’t he have investigated? And if he had investigated, would he still consider Nathaniel an "illegitimate son"?
With just one sentence, the lawyer had completely backed Chairman Lancaster into a corner!
The lawyer kindly asked again, "Chairman Lancaster, were you aware of this?"
Chairman Lancaster felt a lump form in his throat. "...I was not aware of this. Miranda was a grown woman who made her own decisions. As her father, it wasn’t my place to interfere too much."
The lawyer nodded. "So you didn’t know. It seems you and Ms. Miranda Lancaster weren’t as close as you claimed. But now that you do know, may I ask why Ms. Lancaster would leave her entire inheritance to Mr. Sloan, an ’illegitimate son,’ when she already had a ’biological son’ of her own?"
Chairman Lancaster’s expression faltered.
Estelle Lockwood raised an eyebrow, feigning intense curiosity. "Yes, exactly. According to what you just said, Chairman Lancaster... you were worried Miss Lancaster’s biological son would be mistreated in the Sloan Family, so the Lancaster Family took the baby away the moment he was born.
"Miss Miranda Lancaster passed away when the child was seven years old. Even if she was bedridden and isolated from the world for two years... it’s impossible for her not to know that her biological son was living with the Lancaster Family, right?
"Why didn’t she leave a single cent to her biological son, but instead gave it all to Nathaniel, a man she supposedly believed was an illegitimate child?"
The onlookers kept their eyes downcast and stayed dead silent. She had a point.
Back when Laura Jennings showed up at the door with Nathaniel to force her way into the family, Nathaniel was branded an "illegitimate son." Why would Miranda, the lawful wife, leave her inheritance to her husband’s illegitimate child instead of her own flesh and blood? Unless this illegitimate child was exceptionally wonderful and she had no idea her own biological son existed, it defied all human logic for her not to leave at least something to her own child.
But Miranda hadn’t. That left only two possibilities. First: Miranda didn’t know Theodore existed. Second: Miranda knew Theodore existed, but she also knew he wasn’t her son.
Whichever it was, neither aligned with the Lancaster Family’s narrative.
Estelle smiled brightly. "Hurry up and answer, Chairman Lancaster. I’m genuinely curious."
The veins on Chairman Lancaster’s forehead bulged as he glared daggers at Estelle. It seemed he never expected to be cornered so ruthlessly by someone from the younger generation. "Miranda... she didn’t know about Theodore..."
Estelle nodded, tilting her head in feigned curiosity. "Oh... so Ms. Miranda Lancaster didn’t know Theodore existed. In that case, leaving her inheritance to Nathaniel makes sense.
"But—Ms. Miranda Lancaster passed away seven years after giving birth. It wasn’t immediate. Did the Lancaster Family really need to keep it a secret from her?
"Theodore was her ’biological child.’ In those seven years, did they never meet even once? Did Ms. Lancaster truly live her whole life in ignorance of his existence?"
Chairman Lancaster gritted his teeth. "We were just afraid Miranda would be heartbroken..."
Estelle shook her head and narrowed her eyes. "But Ms. Lancaster thought her son was dead. Everyone, think about the information we were told before. What was the story?
"We were told that Ms. Miranda Lancaster and Laura Jennings were pregnant and gave birth at the same time, but Ms. Lancaster’s son was stillborn. Heartbroken, she fell gravely ill and never recovered.
"But now, Chairman Lancaster claims her son didn’t die. He survived and is Theodore Lancaster, and the Lancaster Family simply took him away right after birth.
"If that’s the truth, why didn’t the Lancaster Family tell Ms. Miranda Lancaster? Why let her suffer for nothing, succumb to postpartum depression, and worsen her illness? Why let her live out her final seven years in misery before dying in despair?
"Chairman Lancaster, could I assume that your actions were a calculated mental torture, designed to intentionally drive Miranda to her death?"
Chairman Lancaster and Yvonne Lancaster choked on their words, entirely speechless for a long moment.
The crowd finally caught on. Estelle was absolutely right. They kept claiming they took the baby away because they feared he wouldn’t survive in the Sloan Family. Fine, take the baby away. But why keep it a secret from the child’s own biological mother? Why make her believe her baby had died and drive her into severe depression?
If Miranda had died immediately after childbirth, the Lancaster Family could have used the excuse that things were too chaotic and they simply didn’t have the time to tell her. But for seven whole years, did the Lancaster Family just "forget"? For seven years, did they never once think about letting their daughter see her grandson?
Their daughter had only married into the Sloan Family; she wasn’t dead.
Using the guise of protecting the child to secretly take him away was one thing, but was it really necessary to hide him from his own mother? And to let her die of depression, falsely believing she had lost her child?
There were only two possible explanations for this. Either Theodore wasn’t Miranda’s biological son and the Lancaster Family knew it, hence why they didn’t dare let the two meet. Or, the Lancaster Family wanted Miranda dead from the very beginning. By using this bloodless method to drive her to the grave, they could conveniently pin all the blame on the Sloan Family.