For a brief moment, Caleb blamed Stella, but he quickly talked himself out of it. It wasn’t Stella’s fault. She meant well; she only did it because she was worried about Josephine! At the end of the day, it was still Josephine’s fault. If she hadn’t insisted on writing that breakup letter and leaving the Sterling family, if she hadn’t refused to come home with their oldest brother and run off to stay with the Sinclair family instead, and if she hadn’t publicized the breakup letter online, then they never would have had to smear her name to force her back.
Besides, even though they had slandered her, it was ultimately for her own good. It was to make her obediently return home and stop throwing tantrums. Therefore, everything was her fault. She was the one who pushed things to this point.
Taking one look at Caleb’s expression, Josephine knew he had "forgiven" Stella and shifted all the blame onto her! What an idiot. Since he thought Stella was so wonderful, he could enjoy spending the next few days in the police station!
Josephine knew that Caleb’s dream was to enter a national-level research laboratory; in her past life, he had been preparing for it non-stop. She fully intended to ruin his chances, permanently disqualifying him from ever securing a government position in this lifetime! Later on, once he finally saw Stella’s true colors and realized that everything happening now was the result of her scheming, would he regret his choices? He had better not regret it. If he didn’t, she might actually have a sliver of respect for him.
Grace Hayes wanted to plead for Caleb, but before she could speak, Josephine shut her down. "You’d better keep your mouth shut, Ms. Hayes. Otherwise, I won’t sign your settlement agreement either, and you can stay locked up right here with your precious son."
Grace swallowed her words. How could she speak up? If she were detained, how would she ever show her face in high society again? Those wealthy socialite ladies already looked down on her; an arrest record would only make them despise her more. No, she absolutely could not be detained.
Josephine couldn’t help but let out a mockingly sharp laugh. What a superficial mother-son bond. She used to think Grace simply didn’t love her, but it turned out that when faced with her own interests, Grace didn’t love anyone at all. She wondered if Grace would make the exact same choice without hesitation when her interests conflicted with Stella’s. Josephine was truly looking forward to that day.
Looking at Josephine’s resolute expression, Caleb couldn’t utter another word. He knew there was no room for negotiation left; Josephine was never going to sign a settlement agreement for him. How could she have become so ruthless in just a few short days? Did she really not want him as her third brother anymore? He had never cared about this sister, so why did his heart ache so much at this moment?
No, he wasn’t aching. He was filled with hatred. He absolutely despised Josephine. Because she ruined his future, he hated her. He wished he could kill her! One day, he would trample her beneath his feet and force her to kneel and apologize for everything she had done today.
But no matter how much he hated her, in front of the police, he had no choice but to obediently take out his phone, post the apology, and sign the penalty notice. Throughout the entire process, the mother and son didn’t dare utter a single complaint.
Seeing them suffocating with frustration yet forced to swallow it down left Josephine feeling thoroughly refreshed. She took out her phone and snapped a photo of them signing the penalty notice, then took a picture of the document itself. As she walked out of the police station, she smiled brightly.
"Goodbye, Ms. Hayes. Goodbye, Mr. I hope you two remember today’s lesson. You must be careful with your words and actions from now on. Don’t provoke the law again, or else you’ll end up back in here sooner or later."
"Josephine, how dare you curse me!" Furious, Caleb lunged at her, only to be grabbed by a police officer and dragged back.
"Do you think your detention time isn’t long enough? Want me to add some more?" the officer escorting him warned, telling him not to act rashly again.
Crazy. Josephine had gone completely crazy. Grace glared at her in sheer fury. She used to be so docile and obedient. Why was she now lashing out like a mad dog, indiscriminately biting her own family?
The "crazy" Josephine happily took out her phone. She uploaded the photos of the penalty notice and the Sterling mother and son signing it to the internet.
The caption read: "After a whole day of chaos, this slander and defamation case finally has a resolution. I am utterly heartbroken and truly did not want to sign the settlement agreement.
"But she was once my mother. In consideration of the years she spent raising me, I forced myself to sign it, treating it as true closure for everything in the past.
"From now on, everyone in the Sterling family is a stranger to me!"
After posting that, she immediately added a follow-up statement under her original post about the breakup letter.
"I didn’t want to say too much, but since things have escalated to this point, I feel the need to clarify the matter of the breakup letter. There are two reasons why I made this heartbreaking decision.
"First, for years, I have been treated like I was invisible in the Sterling family. Everyone in the family physically and verbally abused me, as evidenced by multiple hospital admission records."
Following this sentence, she attached several hospital medical records spanning over a decade. She hadn’t gone to the police with these because the records only documented her physical injuries; there was no concrete proof that the Sterlings had inflicted them. As long as they flatly denied it, it would become an unsolved case. Those events were in the past, and it wasn’t worth wasting her time over them now. Furthermore, simply calling the police to have them arrested would never be enough to atone for the harm the Sterlings had caused her! Even though the records couldn’t serve as definitive legal evidence, they were more than enough to convince the netizens.
She then continued writing her post: "Second, I have worked at The Sterling Group’s laboratory for years without ever being given the opportunity to become a permanent employee. Recently, they even tried to put someone else’s name on a research project I completed independently, which intensified our conflict.
"Life in the Sterling family left me feeling hopeless about my future. Disheartened, I proposed writing the breakup letter. Fortunately, they agreed and signed it.
"Since that is the case, I hope that from today onward, I make a clean break from the Sterling family, and we remain complete strangers."
As soon as the two posts went live, they caused an immediate uproar across the internet. The Sterling family’s reputation crumbled overnight.
"Are all those people who cursed Miss Sterling online feeling the sting of getting slapped in the face now?"
"The official news is out. It looks like it’s true—the Sterling mother and son were really spreading rumors."
"What kind of deep-seated grudge could make them act so viciously toward their own biological daughter?"
"Is there any possibility that Miss Sterling isn’t actually the Sterlings’ biological daughter?"
"There’s another possibility: the Sterling family’s preference for sons over daughters is extreme. A family like that belongs in a museum for ancient relics."
"What, does the Sterling family have a literal throne to inherit? Why else would they look down on their daughter so much?"
"They already have three sons! Why would they abuse their daughter? Are they sick in the head?"
"I think so. Not just sick, but seriously deranged. The whole Sterling family has gone mad."
"Asking timidly here... what does that Miss White have to do with all this? Why did she jump out to ’vouch’ for Miss Sterling? Is she Miss Sterling’s friend?"
"The commenter above is thinking too much. She wasn’t vouching for Miss Sterling at all. It was a classic move from The Saint; she was practically begging for Miss Sterling to be harassed by all those men."
"I heard the Sterling brothers are all pursuing Miss White. Is that true?"
"Who knows? But anyone surnamed White who closely associates with the Sterlings can’t be a good person either."
Impacted by the scandal, the followers Stella had gained earlier dropped to zero in just a single day, with countless people cursing her online. After scheming against Josephine for years, Stella had suffered a backlash for the very first time.
And all of this was merely an appetizer Josephine had prepared for her.