Chapter 347 - 345: Money Emboldens a Coward

Inside the private room, a lavish spread of food and wine was already prepared. Cecilia Sterling sat at the table, looking up toward the door.

Outside, Victor Fulton, still confused about the situation, hesitated to enter. Kai Sherman, standing behind him, grew impatient and gave him a shove. Caught off guard, Victor stumbled headfirst into the room, nearly falling over.

He hastily regained his balance and instinctively looked up, scanning his surroundings. Then, he froze in place, stunned.

The private room was spacious and bright, with a modern Chinese interior design that looked exceptionally classy. The large, round table in the center was laden with an array of tempting dishes.

A beautiful young woman was seated directly across from him, her eyes smiling as she watched him.

Victor’s head was already full of questions, and now he was even more bewildered. He glanced around uneasily, then looked at Kai Sherman, who was standing closest to him, right behind him. He whispered, "Y-Young man, you must have the wrong person, right?"

Kai Sherman said nothing, simply walking over to stand with Duane behind Cecilia Sterling.

Only then did Cecilia speak, her voice soft. "We don’t have the wrong person, Second Uncle."

Victor was startled, his eyes widening in shock.

’Second Uncle?’

"You..." He looked at Cecilia Sterling more closely now, belatedly seeming to recognize traces of his younger brother and Jasmine Sterling in her features. He took two stunned steps forward and said in a daze, "You’re Cecilia?"

Cecilia remained perfectly still in her seat, showing none of the deference a junior should have for an elder. She simply smiled and nodded. "Second Uncle. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Please, have a seat."

Although she was smiling, her tone was distant. The way she said "Second Uncle" sounded more like a name than a respectful title for an elder.

Victor, still shaken, came back to his senses. He glanced at the two young men in black standing behind Cecilia, then slowly shuffled to the chair closest to the door, pulled it out, and sat down.

He forced the corners of his mouth into what he hoped was an amiable smile, but it was just plain ugly.

"Cecilia, look... if you wanted to meet your uncle, you... you didn’t have to do it like this, did you?" He chuckled awkwardly. "Right?"

This was a far cry from the forceful, elder-like attitude he had shown with Ethan Sterling.

Faced with Cecilia’s powerful presence and the oppressive atmosphere of the room, Victor felt nothing but apprehension, unease, and even a little fear.

Cecilia didn’t respond to his question, paying no mind to what he’d said. She just looked at him and continued in her own vein, "Second Uncle, I’m twenty-one years old, and this is the first time we’ve ever met."

"I’ve met First Uncle a few times. You two don’t look alike at all."

Victor’s gaze darted around evasively. "Yes, we don’t really look alike," he mumbled. "Your great-aunt and your first uncle are the ones who look similar."

"Oh, so I have a great-aunt I’ve never met, too..."

"Cecilia, I just came to see Ethan. I didn’t mean anything else by it," Victor said in a low voice.

Cecilia nodded. "Didn’t you see him yesterday? When are you planning on leaving, Second Uncle?"

"Leave... there’s no rush to leave. This is my first time in Lorcain. I was thinking of looking around a bit."

Victor’s mind was racing. He was saying whatever came to mind, just trying to placate Cecilia.

But how could Cecilia not see through his petty schemes?

"You want to look around?" Cecilia’s smile widened. She made a hospitable offer, "Well, as it happens, these two friends of mine are Lorcain locals. How about I have them show you around, Uncle? Otherwise, you’re in an unfamiliar place, running around like a headless chicken. You might get lost, and the next thing you know, you’ve wandered all the way to the gates of No. 2 Middle School again."

Victor: "..."

He wasn’t an idiot. How could he not detect the sarcasm dripping from her words?

Cecilia picked up her chopsticks and began to eat, leisurely watching Victor, who sat hunched in his chair. Compared to his older brother, Connor Fulton, he seemed more like a petty commoner, instantly losing all his bluster when faced with someone more powerful than himself.

’With this little courage, he actually dared to come to Lorcain looking for Ethan?’

’Money really does make a coward bold!’

Seeing Victor fall silent, Cecilia couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words on him. She got straight to the point. "Ethan is in the last semester of his senior year of high school. The very reason I went to the trouble of transferring him to Lorcain at such a critical time was to escape the harassment from you Fultons."

"I never expected you to be so persistent that you’d actually come all the way to Lorcain and find Ethan’s school."

At this, Cecilia stopped eating and looked up at Victor. "I’m extremely curious. With this demolition, how much extra money does the Fulton family get for adding one more person—Ethan? Enough to make you so relentless that you’d completely disregard a major life event like his upcoming college entrance exams?"

Hearing this, Victor looked up, a hint of astonishment in his eyes. It seemed he never expected Cecilia to know about the Fulton family’s demolition compensation.

Then he remembered his older brother telling him that Yvonne Sterling knew about it. If that was the case, it wasn’t surprising that Cecilia knew too.

It was as if the last fig leaf had been ripped away. The secret the Fulton family had refused to speak of was no longer a secret, and Victor’s heart actually relaxed a bit.

"It’s not clear exactly how much more we’d get per person, but it’s definitely not a small amount," Victor said, looking at Cecilia and speaking with painstaking earnestness. "Cecilia, as long as Ethan moves his household registration back, it’s basically free money. If you’re willing, you could move yours back too! It’s money for the taking, why wouldn’t you want it?"

"In that case, can Ethan and I have our full shares?" Cecilia asked, still smiling. "If you can give us everything, I’ll have Lily move her registration back too. Like you said, Uncle, it’s free money. Why pass it up?"

Victor hesitated instinctively at Cecilia’s words. Then, he gave a dry laugh and feigned agreement. "Of course we can give it all to you. This was always for your benefit, after all. You’re all children of the Fulton family!"

But then Cecilia’s smile vanished, replaced by an undisguised, cold sneer. "I feel embarrassed for you just hearing you say that, Uncle. Are you thinking that the most urgent thing is to get the registrations moved back, that getting the money is the key, and that how it’s divided later is something you all get to decide?"

Victor’s face flushed red, and he hurriedly tried to defend himself. "Of course not! How could you think of your uncle that way...?"

"Then how should I think of you?" Cecilia’s expression grew even colder as she stared at him, her questions sharp and aggressive. "If the Fulton family was really as magnanimous and kind-hearted as you claim, Uncle, then why hide it in the first place?"

"At the end of the day, isn’t it just because Ethan is naive and inexperienced, making him easy for you to manipulate? And that once my mom or I found out, your little scheme would fall to pieces!"

Victor: "..."

Cecilia’s aura was too overpowering; he couldn’t withstand it.

He had long heard from his older brother that Cecilia was strong-willed and assertive. Now, meeting her for the first time so suddenly, he realized his brother hadn’t been exaggerating at all.