"It’s settled." Liam Sterling looked relieved at the thought of it. "Stella gave me the proposal. I heard she spent months in the lab to figure out the solution.
"Look, Stella is the only one who truly cares about the Sterling Family. Whether it’s Dad’s research or my company, she puts her heart into everything. She’s countless times better than Josephine Sterling.
"If you ask me, Josephine cutting ties with the Sterling Family is a good thing. Hasn’t she always been targeting Stella, fighting and snatching things from her? Without her, Stella will only be happier."
Grace Hayes sighed. "That’s true.
"But when I think about how I raised that little ingrate for over twenty years, and in the end, she left nothing for the Sterling Family and even dragged our name through the mud, I just feel so much hatred."
"We definitely can’t let her off the hook so easily." Howard Sterling gritted his teeth. "Since we have a way to control the Sinclair Family, let’s make our move immediately. I’m going to make Josephine Sterling willingly come back and slave away for the lab.
"Your brother isn’t around lately, and the lab is short-staffed. Stella said she’s been helping out at your lab these past two days. Now that things are handled, have her come back quickly."
Howard didn’t stay long. Ever since Josephine left the lab, his workload had suddenly piled up, and he couldn’t afford to waste a single day.
Only after he left did Grace dare to let out a soft hiss of pain, grabbing a mirror to check the wound on her face. Blood had soaked half of her face, which Liam finally seemed to notice.
"Why are you bleeding so much? Hurry up and get that treated," he said. "There’s a lot going on at home right now, so don’t provoke Dad again. I’ll have Stella come spend more time with you later."
At the mention of Stella White, Grace finally felt a trace of comfort. Even though that ingrate Josephine could never be tamed, fortunately, she still had her daughter, Stella. Once her son acquired The Sinclair Group and Stella helped them take over The White Group, the Sterling Family would become the number one family in Aethelgard. When that time came, she would formally and grandly acknowledge Stella as her own, letting the world know that she was the true daughter of the Sterling Family.
She had initially wanted to leave Josephine a way out. But now, since she was so unappreciative, there was no need to spare her life anymore. A flash of hatred crossed Grace’s eyes as she cursed Josephine and the Whites thoroughly in her heart.
Meanwhile, the unappreciative Josephine Sterling had already arrived at the location Ethan Sinclair had mentioned.
It was a highly elegant teahouse—the kind where people actually drank tea.
Luke Coleman thought Ethan must be out of his mind. He had suddenly announced that he would introduce him to a genius, insisting that Luke come up with some questions to ask in person, even if he didn’t have any. It seemed like this meeting wasn’t really an introduction, but rather an excuse to use Luke as a front. Just who was this person that could make the lofty President Sinclair go through so much trouble? Yes, trouble. In all the years Luke had known Ethan, he had never seen him act so awkwardly.
However, once he saw the person who arrived, his thoughts completely changed.
"It’s you! Josephine Sterling, the grand prize winner of the Norcaster Cup Campus Environmental Material Innovation Competition!"
It was this face; he definitely wasn’t mistaken. After the competition ended back then, he hadn’t been able to find her anywhere. He never expected that they would meet again like this after so many years.
Luke looked at her with pure excitement. He thought, "This is a deeply hidden mastermind in scientific research. No wonder the lofty President Sinclair went through so much trouble." He had to admit, President Sinclair had great taste!
Josephine had no idea what was going through Luke’s mind and found his reaction rather strange. "That was a very niche competition. I didn’t expect anyone to still remember it."
Back then, Mr. Sterling, Brian Sterling, had gotten into trouble outside and needed money. Since he didn’t dare tell the family, Josephine participated in the competition purely for the prize money to help him cover his debts. As soon as the competition ended and she received the money, she had hurriedly returned to Aethelgard. She had never expected anyone to remember her from that event.
She extended her hand toward Luke with a polite smile. "Hello, I’m Josephine Sterling."
"Hello, hello! I’m Luke Coleman." Luke quickly reached out and shook her hand. "I’m the director of the R&D department at The Sinclair Group. I wonder if Miss Sterling has any intention of joining our department?"
Josephine froze for a moment and turned to look at Ethan Sinclair. What did this mean? Had President Sinclair not told his people about their collaboration?
Seeing her look at Ethan, Luke assumed she was worried Ethan wouldn’t agree, so he immediately added, "I don’t need President Sinclair’s approval to hire people. As long as you nod, I can arrange whatever position you want in the R&D department!"
Ethan had always thought his friend was quite smart, but today, he realized Luke was an absolute idiot. "If she wants to be the director, are you going to arrange that too?"
"So that was your plan all along?" Luke turned to look at Ethan, his face full of pleasant surprise.
He was basically being stripped of his title; shouldn’t he have flown into a rage out of humiliation?
"That’s absolutely fantastic! That way, I can be Miss Sterling’s assistant. After this material hits the market, we can immediately start researching the next round of new materials!"
Ethan couldn’t bear to look at him. An absolute idiot—there was no doubt about it!
He remembered Luke as someone who was always proud and arrogant, never submitting to anyone. Why was he acting like such a sycophant toward Josephine? Besides that small competition he just mentioned, what else had Josephine done? It seemed the rumors were truly unreliable. Josephine wasn’t the useless heiress the social circle made her out to be. What other secrets was this girl hiding? Ethan suddenly found himself immensely curious.
Josephine couldn’t hold back a laugh. "My apologies, President Sinclair is probably just joking with you.
"I’m not exactly an expert in the research and development of building materials. I’m afraid I’m not qualified for the position of R&D director at The Sinclair Group, much less dare to have Director Coleman work as my assistant.
"To be honest, the research results I provided to The Sinclair Group were stumbled upon by pure chance. If there are any issues, I’m afraid I’ll still have to rely on Mr. Coleman to investigate and handle them further."
Since she had already secured the patent, what problems could there possibly be? Luke knew full well that Josephine was simply being modest. It was such a pity that he couldn’t pull such a humble and capable young woman into his own team.
Luke was just about to try and persuade her again when Ethan discreetly kicked him.
"Didn’t you say you had questions to ask Miss Sterling? Why aren’t you asking?"
Where was he supposed to get questions from? He had obviously been forced by this bastard...
Oh, wait. If the person he was meeting was Josephine, he actually did have questions.
Watching Luke pull out a notebook, looking entirely eager to learn and prepared for a long discussion, Ethan frowned in deep regret.
If he had known that Luke and Josephine knew each other, and that Luke would act like such a lapdog, he never would have used him as an excuse. He and Josephine were business partners. Why couldn’t they meet privately? Right, they could. Next time, he would just ask her out directly. Why bother finding excuses?!
Expressing a little care for a business partner was perfectly reasonable. There was nothing shady about it. Josephine had just fallen out with the Sterling Family. No matter how much she tried to act like she didn’t care, she was probably still feeling down. Why did a clueless idiot like Luke have to ask so many questions?
"Don’t you have a meeting in a bit?" Ethan spoke up to remind him.
Luke wondered how he could have a meeting without knowing about it. He turned around, just about to refute the claim, only to meet President Sinclair’s icy, freezing gaze.
In a flash of realization, it hit him—was this bastard annoyed that he was talking too much? But wasn’t Ethan the one who told him to find questions to ask Josephine? Wait a minute. Had he just discovered something? Could it be that this bastard Ethan had designs on Josephine?
No wonder the guy had suddenly been willing to let him out of the lab to introduce him to Josephine. Sure enough, he was just an excuse after all.
But Luke didn’t want to be an excuse. He genuinely had questions to ask Josephine.
A new question had just formed in his mind, but before he had the chance to ask it, a woman suddenly came charging toward them...