Chapter 382: Miranda Lancaster’s Last Glass of Almond Drink

Chapter 382: Chapter 382: Miranda Lancaster’s Last Glass of Almond Drink

"Fast, accurate, and ruthless. You directly warned everyone, preventing them from bullying Estelle Lockwood and making those who did pay the price. Not bad, not bad at all. Liam Sloan, you’re amazing!" his celebrity friend said over the phone.

"...Uh, is there a possibility that..." Liam Sloan replied.

"Tell you what, I’m going to spread the word! People used to call you a useless rich kid, but I always knew you weren’t like that. Look, aren’t you quite helpful?" the friend continued.

"Wait!" Liam Sloan shouted.

The next moment, his WeChat started chiming incessantly. BEEP BEEP BEEP.

[Liam, playing the hero saving the damsel in distress, very classy!]

[What the hell, he’s not saving some random damsel, that’s Nathaniel’s wife!]

[Okay, okay, saving his brother’s wife. Impressive, impressive! You were so decisive this time. But that two-faced bitch from the Yeats Family deserved to be punished anyway!]

[I heard you left Claire Yeats speechless at the racecourse? And you immediately ordered Evernight International to cut ties with all her simps. Good job!]

Liam Sloan stared at his screen. "...?"

He screamed internally, "No! I didn’t do it! I didn’t do any of this!"

Having inexplicably stolen Nathaniel Sloan’s credit, Liam Sloan panicked. "Nathaniel, listen to my explanation..."

"Liam Sloan, you’re wrong. I don’t have a sharp tongue at all," Nathaniel Sloan said faintly, giving him a meaningful look.

Liam Sloan immediately shut his mouth.

He wondered, "Do you mean... if you did have a sharp tongue, I’d already be dead?"

The sky gradually darkened.

Estelle Lockwood made another trip to the locker room to change back into her own clothes, but this time, she didn’t see Mrs. Yeats.

Returning to the courtyard, the three little ones had run into some children their own age and were having the time of their lives.

Nathaniel Sloan listened to his subordinate on the phone, then gave a hum of acknowledgment. Hanging up, he asked Estelle Lockwood, "What do you plan to do about the Yeats Family? Do you want these shares?"

Resting her chin on her hand, Estelle Lockwood replied, "I’m waiting for Mrs. Yeats."

"I’m afraid Mrs. Yeats won’t come looking for you so soon," Nathaniel Sloan said calmly. "If she is truly being coerced by the Yeats Family and was taken away this afternoon by an assistant suspected of monitoring her, she likely won’t find an opportunity to meet with you in the coming days.

"If everything she said is a lie, then to keep you placated, she might agree to give you the shares. But considering the staggering amount of Yeats Family shares involved, she’ll probably need some time to think it over."

Estelle Lockwood nodded. That made sense.

"However, Old Mr. Yeats will definitely come looking for you within three days at the latest." Nathaniel Sloan didn’t elaborate further. "Just wait patiently."

Not long after, a waiter from the resort delivered their dinner.

The three little ones had already eaten next door and went back out to play wildly with the neighboring kids. So, only Nathaniel Sloan, Estelle Lockwood, and Liam Sloan remained to dine.

Aside from a table full of dishes, there were also a few glasses of something that looked like milk. Liam Sloan asked in confusion, "What’s this?"

"Second Young Mr. Sloan, that is our resort’s sweet almond milk. It has a fresh, sweet taste and cuts through the richness of the food. Please, have a taste," the waiter explained.

"Oh, I don’t drink this," Liam Sloan immediately said with disdain.

Nathaniel Sloan narrowed his eyes slightly. There were very few things he refused to consume, but almond milk was one of them.

The very last thing Miranda Lancaster drank before she passed away was almond milk. Later, when Nathaniel Sloan was locked in the basement by Laura Jennings, she had also used almond milk to humiliate him.

Laura Jennings hated everything about Miranda Lancaster and erased everything Miranda had liked from the house. Almond milk had been Miranda’s favorite beverage.

Liam Sloan had been forbidden from drinking it since childhood, so he had basically never tasted it.

After the waiter left, Liam Sloan couldn’t wait to ask, "Hey, Estelle Lockwood, do you know why we don’t drink almond milk?"

Estelle Lockwood toyed with a glass. "Because it tastes weird?"

Almonds had a distinct flavor that some people simply couldn’t tolerate. However, Nathaniel Sloan was a VIP guest. The boss would definitely want to host him well and should have asked Luke White about his dietary restrictions. Why would they rashly serve almond milk?

"Of course not." Liam Sloan acted all mysterious and lowered his voice. "Because it was Miss Lancaster’s favorite drink, and my mom couldn’t stand the sight of it. All the servants at home who liked drinking almond milk were fired and driven out by her!"

Estelle Lockwood was speechless. For some unknown reason, she found herself blurting out, "So, Nathaniel Sloan was also driven out?"

"..." Liam Sloan clarified, "No! I mean, it’s not allowed in my house. And in the past, my mom... well, she was a bit... uh, psychopathic. She wouldn’t let Nathaniel Sloan drink any water, and when he was dying of thirst, she poured almond milk on the ground."

Estelle Lockwood’s face darkened drastically.

She understood now.

He had been locked in the basement, deprived of food and water. When he was dying of thirst, Laura Jennings had poured almond milk on the floor. And looking at Liam Sloan’s expression, Laura must have said some horrible things at the time too.

Liam Sloan curled his lips. "As for me, ever since I was old enough to understand, my mom would tell me how terrible almond milk was—that it was poisonous and could kill people. I told her it’s a good thing she only said these things at home. Otherwise, if word got out, all those almond milk manufacturers would sue her for defamation."

Estelle Lockwood raised an eyebrow. "Almond milk is poisonous? Why would she think almond milk is poisonous?"

"Ah, I don’t know. How could almond milk be poisonous? Maybe my mom was just jealous of Miss Lancaster?"

Liam Sloan spoke with complete candor. After all, in his eyes, shameless people like his mother were a rare breed.

"After Miss Lancaster passed away, my mom threw away everything that belonged to her. Whatever she loved to eat or drink was no longer allowed in the house. She vowed to erase every trace of Miss Lancaster’s existence. When I was little, she probably said those things just to stop me from getting curious."

Estelle Lockwood found it strange. If Laura Jennings truly didn’t want Liam Sloan to come into contact with almond milk, she could have simply never mentioned it. But by constantly dangling the words ’almond milk’ in front of a young child all day long, wouldn’t that just arouse his curiosity even more?

Liam Sloan curled his lips. "Yeah, I got curious. I kept wondering what this almond milk my mom talked about all day was, and why so many people liked it if it was poisonous. When I was five years old in kindergarten, I saw a classmate drinking almond milk and instantly screamed, ’It’s poisonous!’ And guess what happened?"

Nathaniel Sloan remained silent. His head was starting to ache.

"The kindergarten got so scared that they immediately called the police. The cops came, inspected it, and found absolutely nothing wrong. They lectured me and told me not to cause trouble, then they informed my parents. In the end, it was Nathaniel who had to come and bail me out," Liam Sloan recounted.

"Then Nathaniel also got lectured by the teachers and the police, telling him to keep a closer eye on me—and he was only ten years old at the time! Then we went home, and both of us got a scolding from my mom. Hahaha..."

Towards the end, Liam Sloan couldn’t quite maintain his laughter, but he consoled himself anyway. "Anyway, she was extremely obsessed with almond milk. If she ever caught me drinking it secretly, I’d definitely be waiting for a slap. So as I grew up, I simply lost interest in the stuff."

Estelle Lockwood clicked her tongue and looked at Nathaniel Sloan. "So, the reason you don’t drink it is because of that bottle of almond milk Laura Jennings poured out?"

Nathaniel Sloan’s eyes flickered.

Not quite.

Rather, he believed that the reason Miranda Lancaster had ’passed away’ was precisely because of that glass of almond milk she drank right before her death.

He believed that glass of almond milk had been poisoned.