Estelle Lockwood curled her lips into a faint smile.
Laura Jennings was dumbfounded. She wondered what Estelle was doing and who had told her to say those things. Furious, she immediately roared, "Estelle Lockwood, stop talking nonsense!"
Acting as if she had been startled, Estelle replied in a timid, soft voice, "B-but... you were the one who told me to say these things..."
The guests were shocked. Their sharp gazes pierced through Laura as if trying to slice her into pieces.
Laura clutched her chest in anger. Estelle had used the exact same words Laura had instructed her to, but delivering them with such a pitiful, on-the-verge-of-tears demeanor completely changed their meaning! And now, Estelle was claiming that Laura had put her up to it. Although it was true, Laura realized with a surge of frustration that they had been completely played!
She immediately wanted to expose how Estelle had threatened them with the shares, but Ethan Sloan yanked her aside with a dark expression. "You useless fool! You can’t do anything right!" he hissed through gritted teeth.
Stunned by the sudden scolding, Laura squeezed her eyes shut and shrieked in shock, "How is this my fault?! You planned all of this! Why are you blaming me?!"
Theodore Lancaster surveyed the chaotic funeral. He watched the guests surround Estelle with words of comfort and saw the accusatory looks they shot his way. Taking a deep breath, he slowly closed his eyes. The Sloan family had lost again; they had been completely outsmarted by Estelle. And all of this...
Theodore glared at Laura with disgust. "Stop crying and shut up!" he snapped, his voice as cold as a blade.
He couldn’t understand why Ethan had ever fancied such an idiot, let alone kept her around. If Laura were dead, he would be Miranda Lancaster’s sole surviving son, and no one would ever question his identity! But this idiot Laura was useless for anything other than making mistakes, screaming, and throwing hysterical fits. How could she ever compare to Miranda, the eldest daughter of the Lancaster family? Why couldn’t he truly be Miranda’s son?
Even though Laura verbally claimed he was Miranda’s son, she constantly found ways to get close to him, acting as if she wanted the whole world to know he was actually her illegitimate child. Conversely, she treated her supposed illegitimate son, Nathaniel Sloan, with unreasonable harshness. Anyone with eyes could tell there was something suspicious about the identities of the two sons.
How could Laura be so stupid? She couldn’t even pretend properly! And now, after ruining everything, she had the audacity to make a scene!
Theodore turned and stormed off. Ethan also let out a cold snort, having lost the last of his patience, and followed suit.
Laura stared blankly at her husband and son. Panic flooded her face before she slumped to the ground, abandoning all grace as she wailed at the top of her lungs. She wondered who she had done all this for. Who was she making these sacrifices for?
After speaking a few more sentences at the funeral, Estelle stumbled, playing the part of someone weak from excessive grief.
Unable to bear watching her suffer, one guest spoke up gently. "Miss Lockwood, you should go back and rest. You don’t need to explain anything here... we all know what’s going on."
"That’s right. The Sloan family is being completely unreasonable, leaving you to clean up their mess. We understand perfectly. Please, go home."
Taking the opportunity, Liam Sloan smoothly slid forward. "Let me take you back to Imperial Crest. There’s no point staying with the Sloan family anymore!"
Estelle silently wiped her face. For some reason, Liam’s dramatic declaration struck her as somewhat humorous, like a classic underdog proclaiming their eventual triumph. She cast a sorrowful gaze over the guests and offered another slow, deep bow. This only made the crowd’s hearts ache for her even more.
While the prominent guests wouldn’t post anything recklessly on the internet, they certainly couldn’t resist gossiping with their friends and families. Within an hour, Crestfall’s entire high society knew the truth: Estelle Lockwood wasn’t dead, and her "death" had been intentionally staged by the Sloan family. They had hosted this massive funeral to declare her legally dead. When their conspiracy was exposed, they even tried to force her to take the blame and clean up their mess. The Sloan family was simply too unreasonable!
The gossip didn’t stop there. People pointed out that Mr. Sloan was absent from the funeral. Furthermore, Theodore, the rumored legitimate son, had been incredibly close with Laura, the mistress. Laura treated Theodore like her own flesh and blood. Combining this with the events of the funeral, many speculated that they might actually be biological mother and son, and Theodore was simply trying to eliminate anyone who stood in his way.
For a time, the rumors grew increasingly outrageous.
Meanwhile, Estelle had already returned to Imperial Crest.
"Mommy!"
The three little ones crashed into her embrace. Christian and Mia had red rims around their eyes, while Zachery’s eyes were swollen like walnuts. Christian and Mia were calm and observant; they definitely knew their mother was still alive. But Zachery was pure-hearted and straightforward. His mind didn’t process complicated schemes, meaning he likely truly believed she had died.
Estelle hugged them tightly, her heart aching. "Mommy is back."
The usually cool Zachery buried his face in her chest. No matter how much she comforted him, he refused to pull away, silently gripping her clothes as his tears flowed.
Though Christian and Mia were calm enough to suppress their surging emotions, they were still only five years old. They couldn’t hold it back entirely.
Mia’s voice trembled with a sob. "Mommy, have you been okay these past two weeks?"
Fighting back his tears, Christian demanded, "Mommy, it was the Sloan family, wasn’t it? It was Theodore!"
Estelle kissed each of their foreheads. Nathaniel Sloan wouldn’t want the children to understand hatred at such a young age, so he wouldn’t have told Christian the exact details of who was responsible for her two-week disappearance. However, Christian was smart enough to figure it out himself.
He understood the dynamics of the Sloan family and could sense his grandmother Laura’s disdain for him. When Theodore returned, Christian’s sharp mind had probably pieced everything together immediately. The Sloan Group cared deeply about its reputation. Now that their conspiracy was exposed, they would definitely need a scapegoat. Christian knew the Sloan family must have tried to push the blame onto his mother.
He indignantly wondered why she should. His mother had suffered so much, and now she had to take the fall for them! Christian didn’t know that Estelle had already handled the public opinion crisis. He assumed she was still being unjustly blamed and berated.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He turned to Zachery. "Zachery, you’re a genius hacker, right? Can you hack into the network and expose the Sloan family’s true colors?"
Estelle was confused. She wondered when her cool little boy had earned the title of a genius hacker.
Zachery stiffened mid-cry. He suddenly remembered mentioning to the young master a few times that his dream was to become a genius hacker. He hadn’t expected Christian to actually remember it!
Feeling a bit guilty, slightly aggrieved, and quite embarrassed, Zachery swallowed hard under Christian’s furious gaze.
"Th-that’s just my dream..." he muttered softly.
There was a big difference between dreams and reality. Why was it a dream to be a genius hacker? Because he wasn’t one yet.
Christian fell silent.
Amused, Estelle burst into laughter. "Alright, alright. I know you’re just looking out for me, but the Sloan family didn’t gain any advantage over me. Don’t worry, everything is resolved."
Now, all she had to do was wait for Nathaniel to come home.