Chapter 79: The Neglected Son

The moment Julian Vance was mentioned, Eleanor’s face turned extremely ugly and contorted with disgust.

"Julian Vance was just desperately cramming at the last minute!" Eleanor scoffed with pure contempt. "He has always ranked at the absolute bottom of the class. He only picked up his books for a single week—how could he possibly turn things around?!"

Giving birth to Julian was the single biggest black mark on her entire life. Fortunately, she had raised Leo instead. She was only able to enjoy such a comfortable, respectable life because she had her obedient, well-behaved Leo by her side.

"Luckily, we officially broke off all relations with Julian Vance," Eleanor added spitefully. "Otherwise, if President Sterling ever found out that our family produced such a good-for-nothing, pathetic loser, her impression of us would definitely be greatly ruined!"

Leo Vance quietly observed the dark expressions on Eleanor and Arthur Vance’s faces without making a single sound. It was crystal clear that both of them thoroughly loathed Julian Vance.

Heh...

Leo Vance let out a cold, secret laugh in his heart. In the future, every single asset belonging to the Vance family would be his. However, he still needed to win over that stubborn old man, his grandfather. Most of the company’s controlling shares were still held by his grandfather.

Once his and Ethan Mercer’s Forty-million-doller investment succeeded, that old man wouldn’t have a single word left to say!

Sitting off to the side, Siana Vance pursed her lips in silence.

She had been swamped with corporate emergency meetings over the past few days, sleeping barely three or four hours a night, leaving her with zero energy to ponder anything else. She only had a brief moment of rest starting today.

Hearing them bring up Julian Vance, she couldn’t help but recall the day Julian had come to sever his ties with the family, specifically mentioning that he had only been given fifty yuan a month for pocket money.

Siana Vance couldn’t sit still any longer. She abruptly stood up from the sofa.

"Siana, where are you going?" Eleanor asked in confusion, looking up.

"It’s nothing... I just want to go upstairs for a bit," Siana Vance said quietly.

Eleanor assumed Siana was simply heading back to her room to rest after her long work shifts, so she nodded affectionately. "Go ahead, rest well."

Siana Vance walked up the grand staircase.

She wanted to go see Julian’s room.

However, her steps paused on the landing, her brows furrowing deeply. She suddenly realized... she didn’t even know where Julian’s bedroom was located inside this massive mansion.

She used to visit Leo’s luxurious suite every few days to check on him, but she had never set foot inside Julian’s room even once.

Siana Vance finally realized just how terribly she had neglected her biological brother in the past.

"Young Miss," the elderly head housekeeper, Aunt Sophia, asked in surprise as she passed by, "what are you doing over in this side?"

"Where is Julian’s room?" Siana Vance asked, her lips trembling slightly.

Aunt Sophia looked thoroughly startled, as if she found it completely unbelievable that Siana Vance was actually asking for Julian Vance’s room.

Coming back to her senses, Aunt Sophia said respectfully, "Miss, please follow me."

She led Siana past the main luxurious suites, navigating toward a cramped, dark hallway at the furthest corner of the second floor.

"Miss, this is the room where the young master has been staying," Aunt Sophy said, stopping in front of a narrow wooden door.

Siana Vance was taken aback, staring at the location. "Isn’t this... the service storage room?"

Aunt Sophia nodded heavily, her eyes filled with quiet sadness. "That’s right, Miss. The young master has always lived inside this storage room."

Siana Vance’s eyes widened in sheer shock. There were dozens of fully furnished, empty guest suites in this mansion—why on earth had Julian been living in a tiny storage room?!

As if she could read the shock and disbelief on Siana Vance’s face, Aunt Sophia explained in a low, raspy voice, "Miss... when the young master was first brought back to the family, his clothes were very worn out and dirty. Madam said she was afraid he would bring dirt into the main living quarters, so she ordered him to stay in the storage room."

Siana Vance pursed her lips tightly, her chest tightening as she asked, "Why wasn’t Julian’s room moved to a proper bedroom afterwards?"

Aunt Sophy replied, "I brought it up to the Master and Madam several times over the months, but they completely ignored me every single time."

After saying that, Aunt Sophia hesitated for a brief moment, looking at Siana Vance with cautious sadness.

"Even you, Young Miss..." Aunt Sophia murmured quietly, "you overlooked it back then too."

Siana Vance’s heart dropped. She suddenly remembered that Aunt Sophia had indeed mentioned Julian’s living conditions to her once years ago. But at the time, she was so consumed with her corporate workload that she was completely dizzy and stressed. She had coldly told Aunt Sophia not to bother her with anything concerning Julian...

Siana Vance reached out a trembling hand and pushed open the narrow door.

She slowly stepped inside the cramped space.

Looking at the dreary, pathetic layout around the room, her eyes involuntarily flushed bright red with stinging tears.

This room was extremely tiny to begin with, and it was still cluttered with old household storage boxes.

Inside stood a narrow single bed barely 1.2 meters wide.

Beside it was a cheap, flimsy fabric wardrobe.

There was also a tiny, rickety wooden desk—the exact same tiny desk Julian had brought with him from his middle school days.

Julian Vance—the true biological eldest son of the wealthy, prestigious Vance family—had been living in a place far worse than the quarters provided for their domestic servants!

"Young Miss, you probably don’t even know," Aunt Sophia said, her eyes brimming with moist tears, "the eldest young master really suffered an unimaginable amount of grievances in this house. Haven’t you ever noticed that the eldest young master was never allowed to eat at the same dining table with the rest of the family?"

Siana Vance stood completely frozen in place, her breath catching in her throat.

She had never once paid attention to that fact in the past.

"The young master usually just picked up the leftover cold food after everyone else had finished eating," Aunt Sophia said, her voice heavy with sorrow. "Occasionally, when there were no leftovers at all, he would eat some dry bread and drink tap water just to make do for a meal."

These past few days, Arthur Vance and Eleanor had been frequently stomping around the villa, screaming and cursing at the top of their lungs, calling Julian Vance an ungrateful, heartless wolf for having the nerve to sever ties with them.

In truth, Aunt Sophia was actually immensely relieved that Julian had been ruthless enough to walk away from the Vance family.

The biological eldest son had never enjoyed a single benefit or ounce of warmth in this household anyway. It was good that he was gone. Leaving this place was a true release.

Young Master Vance had lived an extraordinarily humble, pitiful life inside the Vance family mansion. He had finally escaped this cannibalistic family; perhaps he would actually have a much better life in the future.

"Okay... I understand."

"Aunt Sophy, you can go now," Siana Vance said, her voice raspy and shaking.

"Yes, Young Miss," Aunt Sophia bowed quietly and stepped out, closing the narrow door behind her.

After Aunt Sophia left, Siana Vance sat down on Julian’s narrow, hard bed, remaining there for a long time.

She truly had zero idea that Julian had been living in such a miserable, cramped place, or that he had been suffering so much right under their noses inside the Vance family home.

No... That wasn’t entirely true. She could easily have noticed all of these things if she had cared even a little, but she had simply ignored and overlooked Julian at every turn.

She was truly a terrible, failing older sister...

Siana bit her lip tightly, her chest aching with bitter regret.

She pulled out her phone and opened WeChat. Julian’s contact sat quietly near the bottom of her recent messages list.

Looking through their sparse chat history, out of the ten messages Julian had sent her over the past few months, she had replied to two at most. And even then, her responses were merely cold, indifferent "mhm"s—never offering a single extra word.

Later on, Julian had probably noticed her cold detachment and given up entirely. He hadn’t sent her a single message ever since.

And then, as she checked his contact settings, she made a horrifying discovery: she had actually set Julian’s chat profile to "Do Not Disturb"...

Stinging tears welled up in Siana’s eyes, blurring her vision.

"Julian... no wonder you wanted to sever all ties with us," she murmured, her voice cracking with grief. "It is our Vance family that has deeply wronged you... including me. Every single one of us has let you down."

She resolved right then and there that she would definitely make it up to Julian in the future, no matter what it took!