"Josephine, shut up!" Grace was panicking. She grabbed her son’s arm. "Officer, don’t listen to her nonsense.
"She’s a daughter of the Sterling family. When adults discipline children, it’s normal to get a little physical, but we absolutely never beat her like she claims."
The investigating officer ignored her and looked at Josephine. "Do you want to file a police report?"
"Forget it. That’s in the past. I only want to deal with the current situation." Josephine hadn’t kept any evidence of the beatings she suffered as a child. If she actually filed a report, the investigation would take far too long, and she didn’t want to waste any more time. Besides, they had beaten her to death in her past life. Even if she called the police now, their punishment would be too light. That simply wasn’t enough!
Josephine looked at the Sterling mother and son. "You know exactly why I cut ties with the Sterling family. To force me back, you didn’t hesitate to spread rumors and slander me online.
"But I can tell you right now, I am never going back. Give up on that idea.
"As for the rumors, I demand a public apology and a guarantee that you will never slander or frame me again. Otherwise, I will keep going to the police."
Josephine’s overbearing attitude made the Sterling mother and son’s hearts skip a beat. They wondered if Josephine was actually serious about never returning to the Sterling family. How was she supposed to survive without them? Did she really think the Sinclair family would take care of her for the rest of her life?
Grace was furious. Josephine was supposed to be a stepping stone for Stella. Her usefulness hadn’t been fully exploited yet, so how could she just leave like this? That little bitch could dream on. Even if she refused to come back now, sooner or later, she would come crying and begging them to take her in. Just wait. Once her eldest son’s company acquired the Sinclair Group, they would deal with her.
Caleb couldn’t help but shoot Josephine a glance. He suddenly found this sister of his entirely unfamiliar. The events of the past few days, in particular, felt incredibly surreal to him. Back then, Josephine had kicked up a huge fuss about studying medicine with him. She couldn’t bear to see him staying up late or going hungry. Not only would she pull all-nighters to monitor his experiments, but she would also always have delicious food ready for him.
It was just that she was incredibly stupid. Her experiments had never succeeded, and over all these years, she had barely produced any research results. Now that her research had finally succeeded for once, she was throwing a tantrum about getting officially promoted. Dad had clearly promised that as long as she changed the author of the research results to Stella, he would make her an official researcher. But she was still dissatisfied and insisted on blowing things up like this!
Why couldn’t she just be obedient like before and quietly stay in the laboratory? She was so stupid. Once she left the Sterling Group’s research lab, who else would be willing to hire her? They were clearly doing this for her own good. It was bad enough that she didn’t appreciate it, but she even had to make the matter known to everyone. She was truly a disappointment.
"Josephine, think this through," Caleb said. "If you really do this, I will never forgive you for the rest of my life. Don’t even think about treating me like family ever again."
Josephine used to care about him so much; she definitely couldn’t bear to truly sever ties with him. She had already thrown her tantrums and gotten into fights. Now that he had stated his position so firmly, she would surely change her mind.
Who knew...
Josephine raised both hands in enthusiastic agreement. "That’s exactly what I want. Officers, please process this quickly!
"These abusers are so arrogant that I have reason to suspect they’ll reoffend. You must deal with them as severely as possible, lest they harm anyone else!"
"Josephine!" Grace hadn’t expected her to completely reject a private settlement. Her face instantly drained of color. "I was only doing this for your own good. I was afraid you’d get hurt out there, which is why I wanted you to return to the Sterling family. Are you really going to misunderstand me like this and insist I get punished?"
Josephine was getting truly impatient. "I’m serious. I couldn’t be more serious. Ms. Hayes, do you not understand human speech? I, Josephine, have already cut ties with you. You signed the breakup letter yourself. We are no longer mother and daughter.
"So stop calling yourself my mother. When you were spreading rumors about me, why didn’t you remember you were my mother then? What kind of mother slanders her daughter by claiming she sleeps around with random men? Do you even deserve that title?"
The investigating officer’s tone turned severe. "Mr. Caleb, Ms. Grace. According to our police investigation and the evidence gathered, we have determined that your actions against Ms. Josephine constitute slander and defamation. According to the law...
"We will now impose the following penalties upon you both..."
After listening to the officer read out the penalty, Caleb looked absolutely devastated. He slumped back into his chair, his face deathly pale. "O-Officer, we just made some false statements. We’ll delete them right away. Why do we have to be detained?"
Once he was detained, it would leave a criminal record. How was he supposed to get a government job in the future? He still wanted to become a national-level researcher!
"If both parties had agreed to a private settlement, you wouldn’t have to be detained," the officer replied.
But these two showed zero awareness of their mistakes. Not only did they refuse to apologize, but they also verbally threatened the victim. If people like them weren’t punished, wouldn’t they just go on to harm others?
"Josephine, the Sterling family raised you, after all!" Grace cried. "You can’t be this heartless! If Caleb gets a criminal record, his entire life will be ruined! Are you sure you want to do this?"
It was truly ridiculous. When they were spreading rumors about her, they hadn’t cared that they might ruin her life. Did they actually expect her to soften her heart and change her mind now?
"Get your facts straight. You were the ones who refused to settle privately. It’s not me forcing this!" Josephine shot Grace a glaring look. "Officer, if they agree to publicly apologize to me online and pay to boost the apology into the trending searches, I can sign the settlement agreement.
"However, I will only forgive Ms. Hayes. Given that Mr. Caleb Sterling continuously slandered me online and shared Mr. Young’s false information,
"it not only severely damaged my reputation but also affected my bodyguard, Mr. Pierce. Therefore, I cannot forgive him."
The officer nodded. "Even with the penalties decided, both of them would still be required to publicly apologize to you. Are you completely sure that an apology is your only condition for forgiving Ms. Hayes?"
"Then have them keep their apology letters pinned online for a month." Grace was the chief culprit behind the baby swap, and she was the person Josephine should hate the most. However, a mere detention was far too light of a punishment. Furthermore, with her shameless personality, if she were actually detained, she would constantly use the debt of raising Josephine as leverage. If that was the case, it was better to use this incident to publicly pay off that debt of upbringing. When it came time for her to strike back against the Sterlings, she wouldn’t have to hold back at all!
"I’ve thought it through," Josephine said. "As long as they agree, I’ll sign it immediately."
Grace was somewhat surprised to hear that Josephine was willing to forgive her. She figured this idiot still cared about their mother-daughter bond. After all, Josephine had depended on her as a mother since she was a little girl. How could she truly bear to see her detained?
Just as she was reveling in her smugness, Caleb slammed the table and angrily snapped, "Why? Why are you willing to forgive Mom but not me? All I did was share someone else’s post! What right do you have to blame this on me?"
"Did you feed all your education to the dogs, Caleb?" Josephine shot him a contemptuous glance. "You actually have the nerve to ask a question like that, and you still expect me to forgive you?
"If you ask me, you deserve to be locked up for a few days to think long and hard about why you couldn’t keep your grubby hands to yourself and had to share a post slandering me!"
It was true. He had known perfectly well that Josephine wasn’t that kind of person. They had only fabricated those statements earlier to scare her. He had never expected her to actually call the police. Later, when news of the police report came out, his mother had clearly said she would delete the posts online. It was Stella White. Her sudden text message was what had made them change their minds.