In the living room.
Serena Sherwood watched the drama unfold from the sidelines.
When she felt the time was right, she hurried over, took James Vaughn’s arm, and gently patted his back to help calm him down.
“Uncle, please don’t be angry.
My sister has never been to school, so she’s just very blunt.
She doesn’t mean any harm.”
“No harm?” Her words only fanned the flames of James Vaughn’s anger.
“She means no harm, yet she brazenly steals your room?
She doesn’t greet her elders, she’s utterly insolent, and has no manners whatsoever.
If she stays in the Sherwood Family, she’ll bring disaster upon us all sooner or later!”
He glared at Iris Dalton, his eyes filled with a dark, piercing glint.
“You ignorant little brat.
Someone like you wants to get into the advanced program at Lumin-Umbra High School?
Do you have any idea what kind of place that is?
Are you even worthy?
You should crawl back to whatever hole you came from!”
With that one sentence, he had sealed Iris Dalton’s fate.
“That’s enough!” Leona Vaughn, her face flushed red with suppressed anger, finally spoke up.
She had held her tongue for as long as she could, but she couldn’t take it anymore.
She had only wanted to invite her brother and sister-in-law’s family over to formally introduce Iris Dalton to them.
Who would have thought that James Vaughn would unleash such a torrent of abuse, belittling the girl as if she were utterly worthless, without a single kind word to say!
Calling a daughter of the Sherwood Family a country bumpkin, a good-for-nothing who wasn’t worthy of the advanced program—wasn’t that an indirect insult to the Sherwood Family itself?
Leona Vaughn wasn’t a fool.
She could easily recognize his belittling and condescending words for what they were.
“Brother, you don’t need to worry about Iris.
I will take care of my own daughter.” Her tone was cool as she changed the subject.
“Dinner is ready.
Please give Mervin a call and tell him to come over soon.”
Leona Vaughn grew up in Valerium and had only met this brother a few times during their childhood.
It was only after she married into the Sherwood Family and settled in Stellan that she began to interact with James Vaughn more.
She respected her brother and sister-in-law, but that didn’t mean she had to tolerate James Vaughn’s attitude about everything!
“Fine.
Very good.
I couldn’t care less about your daughter!” James Vaughn’s face was ashen with fury, as if he’d just been slapped.
He was both embarrassed and humiliated.
Iris Dalton, who had been leaning against the staircase with a look of indifference while fiddling with her phone, froze for a moment when she heard Leona Vaughn’s words.
She put her phone back in her pocket and slowly lifted her gaze to Leona Vaughn.
The woman was nearly fifty, but after years as the wife of a magnate, she had maintained herself extremely well and looked to be in her thirties.
Today, she wore a haute couture suit from Dior, her figure slender and graceful.
With her light makeup and perfectly shaped brows, she looked even younger than Vivian Morton.
Iris Dalton lowered her gaze and straightened her posture slightly.
She seemed a little dazed.
‘Leona Vaughn just spoke up for me.
It’s like…
she was protecting me.’
A soft spot in Iris Dalton’s heart was touched, like the gentle brush of a feather, yet it left a strange, aching sensation.
‘Ryan once said that a gentleman judges by actions, not intentions.’
‘As long as someone shows even a hint of goodwill, it doesn’t matter if it’s real or fake.
You don’t need to second-guess it; just accept the sentiment.’
Iris Dalton pressed her lips together, her long lashes lowered as a glint of moisture flickered in her eyes.
The next moment, a sweet and docile smile appeared on her face.
She ran to Leona Vaughn and threw her arms around her in a sudden hug.
“Mom!”
Leona Vaughn: “…!!!”
The young girl’s body was soft and warm.
Her slender arms wrapped tightly around Leona’s waist, and her fair, delicate face, tinged with a faint blush, was close to her ear as she murmured, “Thank you…”
Her voice was soft and delicate, laced with anxiety and helplessness, as if she were choking back a sob.
Leona Vaughn was struck to the core.
It was as if a tender shoot had broken through the soil in a corner of her heart, instantly uncovering a long-dormant warmth.
Iris Dalton turned and went upstairs, leaving Leona Vaughn still processing what had happened.
She only felt a sudden emptiness in her arms, as if something important had left her, filling her with a strange sense of sadness and unease.
The impact Iris Dalton had on her today was immense.
When Leona Vaughn came back to her senses, her heart felt as if it had been dipped in honey, a sweet sensation spreading through her.
Ignoring everyone else, she turned and went to the kitchen to give some instructions.
“From now on, prepare an extra serving of a nourishing tonic soup.
Have Iris eat it every day when she comes home from school.”
“That child is too thin, so frail.
It breaks my heart to see.
She needs to be properly nourished…”
Serena Sherwood, who had witnessed this scene: “…”
She pouted, her eyes welling up with tears.
‘Why?’
‘Am I not good enough?
Why are you showing favoritism to Iris Dalton!’
Just as Simon Sherwood came downstairs, he saw Serena Sherwood with her fists clenched, staring daggers at Leona Vaughn with a look of pure hatred in her eyes.
It was as if she were looking at an enemy!
Simon Sherwood’s expression darkened, his eyes turning grim and unreadable.
“Serena!” He walked down the stairs, flashing his phone screen at her as he questioned her sternly, “Tell me, what are these trending topics all about?”
The butler had also noticed the situation online and quickly warned Serena Sherwood, “Second Miss, check your phone, quickly.
Something has happened.”
He had just accidentally seen two trending topics.
One was about the Second Miss complaining that the Third Miss had stolen her room, and as soon as the post went up, fans started insulting the Third Miss.
Then there was a reversal, and the Second Miss’s fans were being attacked by another group of netizens.
The entire trending list was filled with these topics.
With such a major incident, he hadn’t known whether he should inform the heads of the household.
“What happened?” Serena Sherwood suddenly grew tense and scrambled for her phone.
She had deliberately put her phone on silent earlier, not wanting the notification sounds to be a disturbance and hoping to keep everyone in the dark for a while.
Once public opinion exploded online and Iris Dalton was ruined beyond recovery, even if her parents blamed her, there would be no way to clear Iris’s name.
At most, she’d get a scolding from her parents, but she felt it would be worth it to vent her anger!
Now, as she opened her phone, she found over a hundred unread voice messages and texts, and more than fifty missed calls.
“…!!!”
One look at her social media, and Serena Sherwood nearly fainted.
#SerenaSherwoodDeservesTheHate
#PlotTwistSerenaSherwoodPlayingVictim
#SerenaSherwoodApologizeNow
#SerenaSherwoodClassicGreenTea
#MoronicFansHadItComing
#NetizensFurious
#ClickfarmGoesBankrupt
#SerenaSherwoodLosingFollowers
#HeiressBecomesPublicLaughingstock
#SocialMediaCrashes
…
Iris Dalton returned to her room upstairs, glanced at her phone, and put it back in her pocket, leaving no trace of her involvement.
‘Serena Sherwood wanted to be famous, didn’t she?
Even paid for trending topics.’
‘Well, I’ll let her trend to her heart’s content, so much so that it’ll be impossible to take it down.’
‘I’ll make her so famous she turns infamous, so infamous she turns notorious!’
‘After all, hate-fueled fame is still fame!’
‘Big sis wants to be famous, so little sis will help her soar and make her a top star.’
‘That’s pretty generous of me, right?’
“Slick, how many followers does Serena Sherwood have?”
[Slick]: “Over ten million.
More than half are bot followers the company bought, not real people.”
“Then help her get rid of them.
It’ll be better for her to focus on her career for real.”
The entire Pike: “…”
‘Isn’t being a little celebrity nice enough?
Why did she have to offend Your Highness, the Pond Lord?’
‘So self-destructive!’
In the living room.
All eyes turned to Serena Sherwood.
Everyone instinctively pulled out their phones to check the trending topics.
A string of ten trending topics, all related to Serena Sherwood.
They clicked on the top trending topic, #SerenaSherwoodDeservesTheHate, which contained a high-definition video.
In the video, Serena Sherwood was dressed like a little princess, snuggled up to Leona Vaughn on the sofa, a provocative expression on her exquisitely made-up face.
“Mom, my sister just got back.
She must not be used to living in a villa.”
“Why don’t we buy a small apartment for her?
I heard that in the countryside, three generations squeeze into a house of a few hundred square feet.
Oh my god, that’s smaller than my bathroom.”
As Serena Sherwood spoke, she pretended she couldn’t help it and covered her mouth as she burst out laughing.
The malice in her eyes was completely unconcealed.
Netizens: “…!!!”
‘What a vicious woman.
This so-called high-society darling is terrifying.’
‘We’re all traumatized!’