The next day, on Wynn Shaw’s floor at the Preston Group.
Wynn Shaw was handling an important document Vincent Preston had recently sent her when her phone rang.
It was an unknown number.
She stared at it for a long moment before answering.
On the other end of the line came Jaden Lancaster’s voice, deliberately softened and tinged with a measure of “sincerity.”
“Wynn, it’s me.”
Wynn Shaw’s brow furrowed slightly.
She didn’t respond.
Following the script he had “rehearsed” with Summer Sullivan, Jaden Lancaster began to explain:
“Wynn, I know you’re angry.
It’s my fault.
I didn’t handle things well.
About the money on that wedding card…
listen to my explanation.
I used that money for a short-term investment, and I just got the principal back.
I haven’t touched a single cent.
That’s always been our wedding fund.
Why would I give it to someone else?”
He deliberately emphasized the word “wedding,” listening carefully for any reaction from the other end.
Wynn Shaw clutched her phone, her heart filled with icy disgust as she listened to his lie-riddled explanation.
‘Got the investment back?
What a convenient excuse.’ She could almost picture him and Summer Sullivan scheming up ways to deceive her.
She remained silent for a few seconds.
In that brief time, he was on pins and needles.
Just as Jaden Lancaster started to panic, thinking he had failed to coax her again, she finally replied with a single, cold word:
“Mm.”
Though it was just one word, it was enough to send Jaden Lancaster into a state of ecstasy.
He nearly jumped for joy.
‘See!
I knew it!
She does care!’
‘The moment she heard the wedding money was back, she responded immediately!
All her previous coldness and distance must have just been her throwing a tantrum to get back at me.
Her real goal is that she can’t let me go.
She still wants to marry me!’
Jaden Lancaster’s head was buzzing.
He quickly said,
“Wynn, just give me a little more time.
Once I sort out the things I’m working on, we can properly discuss the wedding, okay?” He struck while the iron was hot, his voice brimming with the joy and confidence of someone who has “won back what was lost.”
Hearing the undisguised, self-satisfied smugness in his tone, the corner of Wynn Shaw’s mouth curved into a scornful arc.
“We’ll see.
I’m busy.”
She hung up the phone and gazed out the window, her eyes sharp and clear. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
‘He’s still living in his pipe dream, thinking I’m the same Wynn Shaw who can be easily manipulated by the mention of marriage.’
‘Fine.
Let him think that for now.’
‘The more arrogant they are, the harder they fall.’
That fifty million was supposed to be hers.
Whether Jaden Lancaster genuinely intended to return it or not, she would get it back—just not in the way he imagined.
Jaden Lancaster hung up.
No matter how cold Wynn had been, he could tell she had ultimately forgiven him.
‘After all these years, how could he not understand her?’
After she gave her perfunctory response, the harassment from Jaden Lancaster finally stopped.
Otherwise, he would just keep switching numbers to pester her, and if it continued, she wouldn’t be able to focus on her work at all.
「The Lancaster family’s living room and the landing of the stairs.」
Jaden Lancaster hung up the phone with Wynn Shaw and walked into the living room, a look of relief mixed with faint triumph on his face.
Rhea Shepherd, who had been waiting anxiously, immediately rushed over.
“How did it go?
What did she say?” Rhea Shepherd asked urgently.
Jaden Lancaster let out a breath, his tone certain.
“Mom, don’t worry, it’s fine now.
Wynn won’t find out about us.
She was just throwing a tantrum because I’ve been too busy and neglected her lately.
See?
The moment I mentioned that the wedding card money was from an investment return, she replied right away.”
His words were filled with absolute confidence in his knowledge of Wynn’s “weakness.”
Hearing this, Rhea Shepherd’s anxious heart finally settled.
She patted her chest.
“That’s good, that’s good…
Then you should hurry up and get her to come back!
The company is a mess right now.
A lot of our old clients are specifically asking to work with her, and she’s the only one who really knows the core data.
Jaden, listen to your mother,”
She lowered her voice, her tone a mix of helpless pragmatism and calculation.
“After we get through this corporate crisis and Wynn helps us stabilize the situation, you find a chance…
and break things off with her for good.”
She sighed, a look of genuine regret on her face, as if wanting to give credit where it was due.
“Honestly, that girl, Wynn, is countless times better than Summer Sullivan.
She’s sensible, capable, and truly loves you.
I’m honestly reluctant to let go of this future daughter-in-law…”
Hearing this, the expression on Jaden Lancaster’s face stiffened, and for a moment, he was at a loss for words.
“What a shame!
That bitch, Summer Sullivan, just had to get pregnant with a Lancaster heir!
If it weren’t for that…”
As if remembering something, her anger flared up again.
“And this time, if she hadn’t been so irresponsible—just leaving me to deal with everything while she ran off—would Wynn have even seen her when she suddenly came back?
She had the nerve to say she was going out for something important.
Who knows if she just took your money to go have a good time?!”
In an instant, Jaden Lancaster’s brow furrowed at his mother’s barrage of words.
A headache was coming on, and he cut her off impatiently.
“I know, I know!
I’ll talk to her!
We just had a huge fight yesterday, it’s so annoying!”
He was completely unaware that in the shadows of the second-floor staircase, Summer Sullivan was clamping a hand over her mouth, holding her breath, and hearing every single word of the conversation between the mother and son below.
When she heard Rhea Shepherd call her a “bitch” without a second thought, and heard Jaden Lancaster’s impatient “it’s so annoying,” Summer Sullivan’s eyes filled with shock, rage, and the bone-deep chill of utter betrayal.
‘Why isn’t anything going my way!?’
‘She could understand Jaden’s earlier attempts to win Wynn back, to placate her so she would return to slave away and save the company from its crisis.’
‘But Rhea Shepherd…
on the surface, she accepted her because of her grandchild, but deep down, she had never respected her.
She was even secretly plotting to have Jaden abandon her someday when she got tired of her!’
‘Then what did that make her, Summer Sullivan?
A tool for bearing children?
A temporary item that could be replaced and discarded at any moment?’
An overwhelming sense of crisis and humiliation washed over her.
The sliver of fantasy she had cherished—of marrying into the Lancaster Family and living a peaceful life—was now utterly shattered.
She gripped the wooden banister so tightly her nails nearly dug into it.
‘She couldn’t just sit back and wait for her doom.
With Rhea Shepherd scheming like this, it was only a matter of time before Jaden was completely brainwashed.’
‘She had to forge a more secure path for herself and her son!
Wynn wants to come back?
Not so fast!
She, Summer Sullivan, would never give up her position, and she would never let those who looked down on her get what they want!’
Summer Sullivan retreated silently back into the depths of the shadows, the earlier anxiety of eavesdropping gone from her face.
All that remained was an icy resolve and a jealous gleam in her eyes as her mind began to race with frantic calculations.
As Jaden Lancaster silently let his mother continue her complaints about Summer Sullivan, the corner of his eye suddenly caught a shadow quickly retracting at the turn of the second-floor stairs.
He recognized the color of the hem—it was the beige dress Summer Sullivan was wearing today.
His heart sank.
He immediately cut off Rhea Shepherd’s increasingly sharp accusations:
“That’s enough!
Mom, don’t say any more.”