Chapter 253: Thank You for Taking the Trouble to Discipline My Daughter

Pauline Shaw looked up, her eyes red and swollen. The high fever had left her face ghastly pale and utterly drained.

Even her voice was raspy and harsh. "Of course it’s true. Would I lie about this?"

A vein pulsed on Caleb Lowell’s forehead, his expression frigid. "He’s gone too far! What does Jasper Sterling think he’s doing? Does he think he’s some kind of gangster?"

Pauline Shaw was his cousin, after all. He couldn’t just let this slide.

"Even if Pauline did something wrong, it doesn’t give him the right to do this. We can’t just let this go. I’m going to make Jasper Sterling answer for this right now."

As he spoke, he pulled out his phone, ready to call Jasper Sterling.

"I’ll do it," Yara Yates said.

Pauline Shaw looked at Yara Yates’s thin face, and tears immediately welled up and streamed down her cheeks.

"Mom!" she cried, hugging Yara Yates affectionately. "I shouldn’t have ignored you. I was being stubborn and reckless. You’re the only ones in this world who truly have my best interests at heart."

The pressure from Mr. Shaw recently had forced the mother and daughter into a natural alliance, making their relationship closer than it had ever been.

Pauline Shaw had grown close and clingy to Yara Yates, who had been tutoring her, helping her understand the company’s convoluted operations and documents.

Without her, Pauline Shaw might not have had the courage to carry on alone.

Yara Yates patted her back soothingly. "Alright, no more crying. Let go now, I need to make a call."

Pauline Shaw sat obediently on the hospital bed, waiting for Yara Yates to make the call and give them a piece of her mind on her behalf.

After a moment’s thought, Yara Yates called Jane Lancaster directly.

—

"Jay, this is Auntie. I want to ask you, what exactly happened last night? How did Pauline end up thrown in a pool? In this freezing weather, tortured for over an hour?"

Yara Yates cut straight to the chase the moment the call connected.

Jane Lancaster was silent for a moment. "Auntie, it was my idea."

Yara Yates had the phone on speaker, so everyone heard it loud and clear.

Pauline Shaw sneered. "I knew it! You were the one pulling the strings!"

She’d known Jasper Sterling had no reason to do something like this. A grown man like him had no reason to go after a woman like her.

Only Jane Lancaster couldn’t stand her enough to stoop to such petty, behind-the-scenes tricks.

Yara Yates glanced up at Pauline Shaw before continuing, "Then why did you do it? Do you have any explanation?"

Jane Lancaster simply replied, "I’m sorry, Auntie Yates. I have nothing to explain."

Beside her, Beverly Lynch pressed her ear close to the phone, pacing anxiously. She wished she could teleport through the line and defend Jane Lancaster herself.

Jasper Sterling walked over, took the phone from Jane Lancaster, and put it on speaker. "Auntie Yates, this is..."

At that exact moment, Yara Yates’s voice came through clearly.

"In that case, Auntie must thank you. Thank you for going to the trouble of teaching my daughter a lesson for me."

Beverly Lynch froze. ’Is she angry? Is that why she’s being sarcastic?’ she thought.

At first, Pauline Shaw also thought that was what her mother meant—that she was about to erupt and tear into Jane Lancaster.

But what Yara Yates said next stunned everyone.

"I don’t know the details of what happened," Yara Yates began with a sigh, "but I’m sure Pauline must have done something terrible to make President Sterling feel he had to step in and teach her a lesson, right? For him to get that angry, it must have been serious. So, can I ask you, are you alright? Your voice sounds a little... off."

Luna Morgan, who had been waiting for Yara Yates to demand an explanation, stared wide-eyed. ’What is this twist?’

’Isn’t she going to defend her own daughter? Why?’

Even Caleb Lowell looked utterly shocked, unable to understand why Yara Yates was defending Jane Lancaster.

Pauline Shaw snapped out of it. "Mom!"

Yara Yates: "You be quiet!"

She waited for Jane Lancaster’s answer.

"I’m fine, Auntie." Jane Lancaster’s voice was a little raspy, but it was nothing compared to Pauline Shaw’s grating post-fever squawk. She was surprised by Yara Yates’s sharp perception.

Her throat was sore, of course, because of that spiked drink. She hadn’t slept well all night and felt a bit run down.

"That’s good to hear. I’ll come by to apologize in person another day." After a pause, Yara Yates added, "President Sterling, thank you for stepping in."

She knew, of course, that it wasn’t Jasper Sterling’s idea. He would only be this furious if Jane Lancaster had been harmed.

"You’re welcome." Jasper Sterling was surprised by Ms. Yates’s shrewdness and perception; she had grasped the heart of the matter so quickly.

Pauline Shaw was about to lose her mind. "Mom! I’m your own daughter! You believe her over me?"

’What kind of mother grovels before others when her own daughter is the one who’s been wronged?’

Yara Yates hung up and turned to look at Pauline Shaw.

"It seems last night’s cold-water bath wasn’t enough to clear your head," Yara Yates said, her expression icy. "Do you think that just because she was kind enough to keep quiet, you could twist the truth? Fine. If you feel you’ve done nothing wrong, we’ll call the police. You can bear the consequences yourself."

Pauline Shaw froze. Under Yara Yates’s piercing gaze, she actually felt a twinge of guilt.

Utterly disappointed, Yara Yates turned and left.

"But I’m your daughter!" Pauline Shaw yelled. "You’ve been sick all this time, and Jane Lancaster hasn’t even bothered to visit you once!"

Yara Yates stopped in her tracks. "She didn’t visit, but she gave me a lot of useful information that helped me protect a great deal of my assets. If she hadn’t, the Shaw Family and the Shaw Group would have been cleaned out by your father long ago. Do you think you’d have had a chance to become CEO?"

Pauline Shaw was dumbfounded. ’When did this happen? How did I not know?’

Yara Yates continued, "However, you have no right to inherit the assets she helped me protect. I’ve already drawn up a will. When I die, everything will be donated to the state. As for the Shaw Group... your name is Shaw, so you can have it. You and your father can fight over it in court for all I care. I’m washing my hands of it."

She had joined the Shaw Group in the beginning to prop up the company for her incompetent husband.

After she and her husband grew estranged, she fought tooth and nail for her daughter’s inheritance, running herself into the ground in the process.

She finally understood. Why keep torturing herself? She had a good eye for investments and had amassed a considerable fortune over the years—more than enough to live comfortably.

All she had to do was not be foolish enough to pour her personal fortune into covering the Shaw Group’s losses for Pauline Shaw.

Watching Yara Yates walk away without a backward glance, Pauline Shaw finally panicked. She struggled to get out of bed to chase after her.

"Mom!"

She tripped and fell to the floor with a THUD, the pain bringing fresh tears to her eyes.

"Mom!!!"

But Yara Yates never looked back.

—

Jane Lancaster was also surprised by Yara Yates’s decisiveness.

System: [When did you send the information?]

Jane Lancaster snapped back to reality. "Helping her doesn’t affect the subplot, right? The Shaw Group is supposed to be on the verge of bankruptcy because of Mr. Shaw, isn’t it? And Pauline Shaw is supposed to become a destitute heiress. That’s the original subplot."

The only difference was that Yara Yates hadn’t suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and fallen into a coma as the original plot dictated.

System: [...]

It was speechless.

After finishing what was either a very late breakfast or a very early lunch, Jane Lancaster began to walk around slowly, stretching her stiff muscles.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the sky was dim, looking as if the weather was about to turn. The wind rustled the leaves, making them whisper.

Jasper Sterling knocked and entered. "Jay, Julian Lancaster is here to take you home."

He paused, then added, "Your father, Timothy Lancaster, is back from abroad."