Stella caught up with Caleb. "Caleb, let me go. I happen to need to see Liam about something."
Thinking of Liam’s tyrannical temper, Stella knew Josephine would at least be flayed alive this time, if not completely destroyed. The very thought brought her a surge of wicked satisfaction.
"She brought this on herself," Stella thought. "Who told her to leave The Sterling Family Research Lab? She refused to record the experimental data for me and nearly made Howard disappointed in me. If I don’t teach her a lesson she’ll never forget, making her terrified to ever leave the Sterling family again and forcing her to obediently slave away in the lab, then I, Stella, am not the true eldest daughter of the Sterling family!"
Stella cheerfully made her way to Liam’s office.
"Liam, I missed you so much! How could you be gone for so long?" The moment she walked through the door, Stella threw herself into his arms.
Lately, Liam had been mentally and physically exhausted by issues with his engineering materials. His return to Aethelgard this time was solely to find a solution. He had been so swamped that he hadn’t even had the time to go back to the Sterling family home, let alone seek out Stella. He never expected her to come looking for him on her own. Embraced by the soft, delicate young woman, his long-tormented heart finally found a trace of comfort.
"If you miss me, you should come see me more often. I have a lot going on at work, and I lose track of time when I’m busy. Once things settle down, I promise to spend some proper quality time with you," he said gently, putting an arm around Stella and leading her to the sofa to sit down.
"I want to come see you every day, but I’m busy with my research and don’t have much free time." Stella let out a troubled sigh. "Especially recently, since Josephine left the lab. All the experimental work has fallen on my shoulders, so I have even less time to spare."
"You mean Josephine?" Liam hadn’t contacted Josephine in a long time and was entirely unaware of her current situation. "Why would she suddenly leave the lab out of nowhere?"
"Honestly, it’s all my fault." With red, teary eyes, Stella gave Liam a heavily embellished version of the events. "I never expected her to be so heartless this time as to formally cut ties with our teacher. I heard she even signed the breakup letter. She probably has no intention of coming back!"
Furious, Liam grabbed a nearby cup and smashed it against the floor. CRASH! "That little wretch! She’s really grown some wings, hasn’t she? To actually go as far as severing family ties—just wait until I teach her a lesson."
The frustration and repression he had built up over the past few days finally found an outlet. He felt a burning urge to track Josephine down and vent his anger on her. But even this level of fury wasn’t enough for Stella. She didn’t just want him to be angry; she needed him to see her worth, creating a stark contrast with Josephine’s supposed incompetence. Only then would they suspect nothing when she eventually stole all of Josephine’s research achievements.
Stella reached out and grabbed Liam’s arm. "Liam, I came here to help you solve your recent engineering material problems, not to tattle on Josephine.
"If you go looking for her like this, she’s going to accuse me of driving a wedge between you two again."
Hearing her words, Liam’s heart melted completely. Stella was an engineering student, after all, with a solid grasp of physics, bioscience, and materials science. She might actually be able to solve his company’s crisis. His gaze toward her grew increasingly affectionate.
He thought, "Look at her. This is exactly how a sister should behave. Unlike Josephine, who only knows how to vie for attention all day long without ever considering my needs. What a repulsive girl."
"Who says you’re tattling? If something this major happened at home and you didn’t tell me, then I’d truly be upset with you," Liam said, taking her hand with a look of hopeful anticipation. "Did you just say you could solve the company’s material issues?"
"Of course! Look, I even brought the research and development data with me." Stella handed him a thick stack of documents. "When I saw the news online a couple of months ago, I was so worried about you. I specifically went into the market to find the relevant materials for research. Hard work pays off, and I finally figured it out.
"If you trust me, you should arrange for a trial production run as soon as possible!"
In this era of paperless offices, it never even crossed Liam’s mind to question why the research data was printed out instead of sent to him as an electronic file. Stella was an outstanding researcher; she naturally had her reasons for doing things this way.
"Trust you? Naturally, I trust you. I’ll have someone arrange the production. But for now, we need to deal with Josephine first."
Stella had done him such a massive favor; how could he allow Josephine to bully her? The Sterling Family Research Lab had far too much work for Stella to handle alone, and she shouldn’t be exhausted by it. Josephine belonged there, toiling away as a workhorse to repay Stella for her kindness to the Sterling family.
Yet, even if there was a debt of gratitude, it was clearly Liam who owed Stella. Why should Josephine be the one forced to act as her workhorse? Liam didn’t consider the logic of this for a single second; he simply felt that it was Josephine’s rightful duty.
"I can’t make decisions for Josephine, but I really hope she’ll come back to the Sterling family. She’s the eldest daughter here, but out in the world, who knows what hardships she might suffer?
"I’m just so worried about her. It would be wonderful if you could bring her back.
"But you have to promise me you won’t yell at her. Speak to her nicely and try to persuade her gently, okay? Otherwise, I won’t go with you to find her."
He thought, "Look how kind-hearted Stella is. Even now, she’s still looking out for Josephine."
Josephine truly didn’t realize how good she had it. Instead of comfortably being the eldest daughter of the Sterling family, she insisted on going out and suffering. He was definitely going to teach her a proper lesson this time.
Liam summoned his assistant to look into Josephine’s whereabouts. Shortly after, the assistant returned with the investigation results.
"Assistant Lowell, did you make a mistake? My sister is completely penniless; how could she possibly afford to live in such a nice villa?" Upon seeing the address, a surge of hatred flared in Stella’s heart.
"Josephine is supposed to be sleeping on the streets! How can she be living in a luxury villa?" she thought furiously.
"There’s no mistake. Miss Sterling is indeed living there," Assistant Lowell replied, pointing to another woman in the photographs. "They moved in three days ago, accompanied by the young lady of the Sinclair family."
"It’s Clara. Josephine has always been close to her, but she knows perfectly well that you and Sinclair are sworn enemies, yet she still..." Stella trailed off, sadly grasping Liam’s hand. "I’m sorry, Liam. Please don’t blame her. She must have had no other choice but to seek Clara’s help. She was just desperate."
"If she was desperate, why didn’t she know to come back to the Sterling family?" Liam seethed. More than anything in the world, he hated the Sinclair family.
That bastard Ethan Sinclair had been aggressively bidding against him, capitalizing on his material issues. If those issues weren’t resolved soon, Ethan would end up trampling all over him. He wanted nothing more than to fight the Sinclair family to the bitter end, yet his own sister was actually living with one of them!
He was practically dying of sheer anger.
"Let’s go. We’re going to find her." Liam’s face was terrifyingly dark, his disgust for Josephine reaching its absolute peak in that instant.
She had explicitly promised him that she would stop associating with Clara, yet how long had it been? Was a friend really more important than her own eldest brother? What a complete idiot!
Watching Liam consumed by rage, Stella was overjoyed. She knew Josephine was in for a world of trouble—a colossal disaster.
With Liam’s temper, even Clara would likely get caught in the crossfire. There was even a chance she might take a beating. When that happened, the Sinclair family would surely forbid the two from ever associating again. This time, she was going to entirely obliterate Josephine’s only escape route.
"Going against me is simply a death wish for Josephine!" she thought triumphantly.