Chapter 296: Someone Must Be Panicking, Right?

However, he didn’t dare to show the slightest delay. He answered the call as quickly as possible, his voice filled with cheer. "President Sterling!"

Jasper Sterling had put the call on speaker. Vincent Holt was stunned. ’It really is his father!’

"Dad, did you hire people to harass Luna?"

Silas Holt’s tone was impatient. "I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t!"

Jasper Sterling said, "President Holt, I suggest you think carefully. If you still can’t seem to remember, perhaps I should help you recall the details?"

Silas Holt’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly changed his tune. "...I remember now. Yes, something like that did happen."

"When, where, and what exactly did you do? Go on," Jasper Sterling said, his tone casual.

How could Silas Holt dare to hide anything? He quickly recounted the whole story. He had sent people to follow and harass Luna Morgan. The thugs reported their "accomplishments" to him daily, so he remembered the specific details, even the name of the shop run by Luna Morgan’s cousin.

"...To avoid being exposed, I told those men to pin it on Jane Lancaster." He had deliberately framed her, partly with the intent of driving a wedge between Caleb Lowell and Jane Lancaster.

Vincent Holt was in disbelief. "Dad, how could you do that?! Luna even healed Grandma’s leg! You’re repaying her kindness with cruelty!"

Silas Holt was deferential toward Jasper Sterling, but he wasn’t nearly as polite with his own son.

He flew into a rage.

"You damn brat! If you hadn’t let that Luna Morgan bewitch you, ruining your grandmother’s birthday banquet for her and making the Holt family lose face, would I have had to do this?"

Silas Holt abruptly hung up.

...

The living room fell silent.

"You see? This was something I could figure out, but President Lowell didn’t even bother to investigate before he condemned Jay," Jasper Sterling said, his tone flat.

Caleb Lowell was completely floored. ’It wasn’t Jane Lancaster? It actually wasn’t Jane Lancaster!’

’Doesn’t that make my self-righteous act of taking in Luna Morgan to atone for Jane Lancaster’s ’sins’ a complete joke?’

As a thought struck him, he shot his head up to look at Luna Morgan, his voice stern. "Why did you run when you saw Jay that day?"

Her panicked and frightened appearance had made him think Jane Lancaster did something to her, which in turn led him to investigate those thugs.

If it weren’t for that security footage, he wouldn’t have been so thoroughly misled!

Luna Morgan felt as if she’d been plunged into an ice cellar. "I don’t know... Those men were saying something about a fiancée... about stealing someone else’s fiancé... I’m sorry, I didn’t think they would lie to me..."

"So, you just believed them?" Julian Lancaster asked coldly. "Are you brainless, or do you just enjoy playing the victim?"

A few days ago, he had spoken with Mama Knight on the phone to learn a few things.

"Did you know that Jay specifically waited for you in her car for a while that night? If you had gone back to find her, she would have found you a place to stay. But you didn’t go back."

Tears streamed down Luna Morgan’s face instantly.

"Miss Lancaster, I’m so sorry," she said, choking on her sobs.

She didn’t know what she had been thinking at the time. It wasn’t that she hadn’t had her doubts, but it seemed more convenient to accept their story, so she convinced herself that Jane Lancaster was behind it.

If Jane Lancaster was the one doing it, then she had to endure it meekly, without any resistance or complaint.

But that kind of suspicion was, in itself, a form of malice.

In a way, she was the one repaying kindness with cruelty.

Jane Lancaster didn’t know what to say. After a moment’s thought, she turned to look at Jasper Sterling. "He went to see Mama Knight?"

’How else would he know these details?’

Jasper Sterling nodded slightly.

Julian Lancaster was a man of deep schemes and wouldn’t trust someone easily, but strangely enough, he had come to trust Mama Knight a great deal.

Later, he inquired with Mama Knight and learned that on the day she left the Lancaster family, she had stubbornly thrown her retirement savings, accumulated over several years, at Julian Lancaster.

That way, it wasn’t the young master firing her, but her firing the young master!

She returned to her village, and being diligent and hardworking, she fixed up her dilapidated old house and settled in. She grew her own vegetables every day. Life was humble, but she was getting by.

Julian Lancaster took a detour during a business trip to visit that place. Seeing Mama Knight toiling in the fields like any other farm woman, he was filled with mixed emotions.

He didn’t greet Mama Knight. Instead, he had someone pass the bank card to her before turning and leaving.

Of course, he understood why his sister wanted Mama Knight to leave—it was to prevent her from getting embroiled in the situation and meeting a bad end.

But Mama Knight had chased after him, breathless. She was worried about her young miss, wondering if she was eating and dressing warmly, if she had been wronged in any way.

...

But now wasn’t the time to talk about that. Jasper Sterling took her hand. "We’ll go visit Mama Knight together in the future."

Jane Lancaster froze for a moment. ’The future?’ She couldn’t be sure she even had a future.

She glanced at the time, then at the butler standing unobtrusively in a corner, a cold glint flashing in her eyes.

Although she didn’t fully approve of what Julian Lancaster and Jasper Sterling were doing, she didn’t plan to stop them either.

’Luna Morgan is being put on trial... someone must be going crazy with worry right about now, huh?’

—

Chloe Dave couldn’t take it anymore. "Why doesn’t Luna trust you? It’s because you’ve been bullying her! Last time we were kidnapped, the kidnappers forced her to call you. And what did you say?"

He glared at Jane Lancaster. "You made her go to Rosewind Estate in a downpour to deliver a cake for you! If that’s not torture, what is?"

Julian Lancaster’s gaze was cold. "That’s because Jay heard that something was wrong. She said that on purpose to lure the kidnappers to her. In fact, those kidnappers fell for it. They ditched the two of you and snuck over to Rosewind Estate that night to kidnap Jay."

Caleb Lowell’s eyes tightened. "Was Jay okay?"

He paused, only then noticing Jane Lancaster’s calm expression. Thinking back carefully, Alvin Lancaster and Adrian Lancaster had both been with Jane Lancaster at the time...

"Jay had already set a trap and successfully captured those kidnappers," Julian Lancaster said, looking at Luna Morgan. "The police should have looked for you afterward. Why did you avoid them?"

Luna Morgan’s gaze trembled. "I-I didn’t know! I thought it was about my parents’ situation, so I kept hiding..."

Her phone had been taken away back then. She never got a new number, and the phone she was using was one of Chloe Dave’s old ones.

She didn’t want to see the police, and Leo Grant didn’t think it was necessary either, so he found a way to brush them off.

"So Jay saved you again," Caleb Lowell said, his face a picture of dejection.

Much later, he had learned from Chloe Dave’s account that Luna Morgan had really been kidnapped. He had been wracked with guilt for hanging up on her call for help and had pitied her for what she’d gone through.

But it turned out Jane Lancaster had taken measures long before, helping her avoid all those risks.

"As for who those people were really after, I’m sure President Lowell has a clear idea by now, don’t you?" Jasper Sterling asked.

Caleb Lowell’s voice was hoarse. "...They were after me."

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have kidnapped Luna Morgan first, only to be lured away by a few words from Jane Lancaster when that didn’t work.

Both girls had been endangered, one after the other, all because of him.

No wonder he thought those men had vanished after getting out of prison. It turned out Jane Lancaster had sent them right back in.

Chloe Dave’s heart sank. This was a far cry from what he had imagined.

’How did Jane Lancaster end up on the moral high ground again?’

"Luna has also done many things for Jane Lancaster in secret... That’s right! You also stole the song Luna composed!"