Chapter 408 - 404: Your Jeb Is Not a Bad Person

Watched by a crowd of onlookers, the police car slowly pulled away until it disappeared from sight. Only then did the gawkers gradually disperse.

"Zelda."

Cecilia Sterling walked up to Zelda Warner and spoke her name. Her eyes fell to Zelda’s gently swelling abdomen, a pang of heartache flashing in their depths.

Zelda Warner appeared soft and delicate, but she was incredibly strong to the core. Despite personally witnessing her husband being taken away by the police, she didn’t cry or make a scene. Her eyes, as she watched him go, held only a deep reluctance to part and a lingering affection.

She looked at Cecilia Sterling and Mr. Young, managing a bitter smile. "You’re here."

The rain was still falling, so Zelda Warner invited the two of them into the villa.

This was Cecilia Sterling’s first time in her brother’s home. The decor clearly reflected Zelda Warner’s taste; the warm, soft color palette and furnishings closely matched her own gentle disposition.

"Mrs. Lynn, please take Alex back to his room," Zelda Warner said to the nanny. The seven-year-old boy was old enough to understand things, and he was still sobbing, obviously aware of what had just transpired.

Once they were seated, she first turned to Mr. Young to express her gratitude. "Mr. Young, thank you for coming today."

When someone falls on such hard times, facing a disaster of this magnitude, many people would keep their distance. The fact that Mr. Young came today was a testament to the deep, frenemy-like bond he and Wesley Yates had forged over the years.

"There’s no need for that. Jeb and I go back many years. I know exactly what kind of man he is," Mr. Young said, though his expression couldn’t help but turn grim. "This must be so hard on you, and with a baby on the way... You have to take care of yourself."

Zelda Warner nodded lightly, a trace of exhaustion showing on her face. She then turned to Cecilia Sterling. "Cecilia, your brother asked me to give you a message."

Upon hearing this, Cecilia Sterling quickly asked, "What did he say?"

"He said..." Zelda Warner paused for a moment before continuing. "He said he’s sorry for what happened with you and your boyfriend."

That one sentence was all it took for Cecilia Sterling’s eyes to turn red.

Fighting back tears, she shook her head. "He didn’t... he didn’t."

On that phone call in the car the other day, she had come clean to her brother. Since things had reached this point and Saul Thorne already knew of her relationship with her brother, she had decided she should tell her brother about her and Saul Thorne, too.

Including the fact that they had broken up.

"You don’t have to worry too much," Zelda said. "Jeb started tying up loose ends as soon as he sensed which way the wind was blowing. He’s not involved in any murders, but the police obviously don’t believe him. They’ve been trying to dig up evidence that could pin him down for good, but you can’t find what isn’t there."

"The sentencing shouldn’t be too severe later on. But Jeb said he’s certainly done a lot over the years—as Mr. Young is well aware—so it’s impossible to have erased every single trace."

Mr. Young nodded in understanding.

"So Jeb said he’ll accept his sentence, whether it’s three to five years, or even eight or ten."

Cecilia Sterling knew very little about the details of the whole affair, mainly because her brother refused to tell her.

Now that her brother had been taken away, she could finally learn some details from her sister-in-law. Hearing that he wasn’t implicated in any murders, Cecilia Sterling breathed a small sigh of relief.

"Zelda, what are you planning to do now?" Cecilia asked.

Zelda Warner’s gaze swept across the villa’s spacious living room, and she sighed, full of reluctance. "This is the home your brother and I made together. We can probably keep it, but I don’t want to live here for the time being. There are reminders of him everywhere, and I just... I can’t..."

"We have a few other properties Downtown. I’ll move to one of them."

Hearing this, Cecilia Sterling immediately blurted out, "Zelda, I have an empty unit, it’s also in Hearthstone Villas. Why don’t you move there? It’ll be convenient for me to look after you. With you being pregnant, I’d be too worried otherwise."

Cecilia Sterling was being completely sincere. She had promised her brother she would take care of his wife and children, and she always kept her promises.

When she had first looked at the Hearthstone Villas development, she had bought two units at once. One of them had never been occupied and was still sitting empty.

Mr. Young chimed in, "As a man, I can’t exactly take charge of looking after you and the children. Cecilia is right. Jeb entrusted you to her, so don’t give her cause to worry."

Zelda Warner looked at Cecilia Sterling and, sensing her sincerity, nodded gratefully. "Okay. I’ll do as you say."

Cecilia Sterling smiled, relieved.

"Mr. Young, there’s something I need to ask you as well."

"Just say the word. I’ll definitely help."

"Alex needs to transfer schools. The parents of his classmates all know about me and his father. After this, I’m afraid rumors at school might start to hurt him."

"Alright, no problem. Leave the school transfer to me."

They chatted for a while longer, only getting up to leave when they could see that Zelda Warner was growing tired.

Stepping out of the villa, they found the rain had stopped and the sky had cleared. Mr. Young looked up. The dark clouds were retreating as sunlight spilled through the layers of gray. It should have been a hopeful sight—the sun breaking through the clouds—but at this moment, it carried an indescribable gloom.

He suddenly sighed. "Your brother Jeb... he’s not a bad person."

Cecilia Sterling glanced sideways at Mr. Young.

As they walked, Mr. Young began to reminisce. "I met him a long, long time ago. Back then, he was just a foot soldier working for someone else, in charge of a debt collection crew."

"In all the years I’ve known him, he never went out of his way to hurt innocent people. The ones he did go after... they weren’t people you’d feel sorry for."

"Besides, his guys, including Duane and Kai Sherman whom you’ve met... if they hadn’t run into Jeb, who knows if they’d even still be alive today."

As he spoke, he pointed to his own left eye. "Jeb lost his eye back in the day, protecting one of his men. That’s why everyone who follows him is so fiercely loyal."

Mr. Young said it casually, without going into any detail.

Cecilia Sterling didn’t mind. She didn’t press him for details; she wasn’t curious about her brother’s past.

In the next moment, Mr. Young’s tone shifted abruptly. He smiled and beckoned Cecilia toward the car. "Come on, Cecilia. Let me take you to see the construction site."

The "construction site" in question was the stalled building project that Cecilia Sterling and Mr. Young’s corporation had jointly taken over.

Several months had passed, and the construction crew had already moved in.

Cecilia Sterling donned a hard hat and followed Mr. Young inside. He immediately began explaining, "This project has been stalled for years. Before we can start our own work, we have to do a quality inspection on the existing structure. If we find any areas where they cut corners on materials or labor, we’ll have to tear them down and do it over."

"And what if none of it is up to code? Tear the whole thing down and start from scratch?" Cecilia asked.

Mr. Young smiled and nodded. "Of course. Since we took this on, we have to see it through responsibly. Besides, didn’t you reserve a hundred units for yourself? For your sake alone, we have to make this project absolutely perfect."

Cecilia Sterling glanced around. The weeds that had once overgrown the stalled project, both inside and out, had long since been cleared away. The complex was quite large, and being a stalled project, it was a hot potato that only someone with Mr. Young’s guts would dare to take on. And it was largely thanks to Cecilia Sterling being willing to "play" along with him.

But only Cecilia Sterling knew that this property, just like the industrial park, was located in the Sunstone District. Once the development permits were issued, the value of the entire complex would skyrocket.