Chapter 396 - 398: Malicious Intentions

When Claire Sterling left the security room, the chill in her eyes remained. She hurried into a car and rushed from the hospital back to the Lancaster estate.

This was no small matter, and it was far too much for her to handle alone.

She had to get home immediately and tell Theodore Lancaster so they could decide what to do as a couple.

The moment Claire Sterling stepped into the living room, the butler came forward to greet her.

Seeing her solemn expression, the butler didn’t dare say more. He simply informed her respectfully that Theodore Lancaster was in the study attending to business.

Claire Sterling waved him off and headed straight for the study on the second floor.

Hearing the door open, Theodore Lancaster looked up. When he saw his wife, Claire, walk in, he set down the file in his hand.

"You don’t look well. What happened? Is it Adrian? Has his condition worsened?" Theodore Lancaster asked, his voice tight with tension.

Claire Sterling walked to the desk, pulled up a chair, and sat down, taking a deep breath.

"Adrian’s fine. He’s recovering well. It’s something else. Something major."

Theodore Lancaster’s heart leaped into his throat. "What is it?" he asked urgently.

"Someone impersonating a distant cousin of the Lancaster family snuck into the hospital to visit Adrian. She tried to stir up trouble, driving a wedge between him and Wren, and brought up the topic of divorce."

Theodore Lancaster’s anger flared the moment he heard this. His eyes turned cold and sharp, and an intensely oppressive aura emanated from him.

"The Lancaster family has no such relative. For an imposter to appear out of thin air and deliberately approach Adrian... her objective is all too clear."

"Exactly. Adrian’s memory is fragmented, and he’s emotionally vulnerable right now—easily misled. For this woman to deliberately fake an identity to get into his room and twist the past... her intentions are simply vile." The more Claire Sterling spoke, the more furious she became. Her face flushed, and her chest heaved.

"I’ve already instructed the hospital staff and the private nurse to tighten security and forbid this woman from getting anywhere near Adrian’s room."

"But that only treats the symptom, not the root cause. We have to find out her real identity, her background, and who sent her."

"I’ll have someone look into it immediately," Theodore Lancaster said, his tone icy.

He was always swift and decisive. He immediately took out his phone, made a call, and issued his orders.

Listening to her husband’s methodical arrangements, the anger and panic in Claire Sterling’s heart began to subside.

"We have to get to the bottom of this. It hasn’t been easy for Adrian and Wren to get this far. We can’t let some malicious person destroy their marriage."

"Wren has been through so much already. We can’t let her be heartbroken again."

"I understand," Theodore Lancaster said, looking at his wife with a determined gaze.

"I think we should keep this from Wren for now. She’s exhausted enough from taking care of Adrian. We shouldn’t give her more to worry about."

Claire Sterling nodded in firm agreement.

"Darling, you’ve thought of everything. I was thinking the same thing. We have to keep it from her until we know more. The less she has to deal with, the better."

Theodore Lancaster added in a low voice, "And we need to be on high alert with Adrian. From now until he’s discharged from the hospital, no outside visitors."

"Right."

The couple was in complete agreement.

"It doesn’t matter who that woman is or what schemes she’s plotting. If she dares to meddle with the Lancaster family, we will show her no mercy."

...

The Lancaster family obtained the surveillance footage from the hospital’s public areas and captured an image of Claire Bennett in the parking lot.

She walked briskly to an inconspicuous black sedan, opened the driver’s side door, got in, and quickly drove off.

The camera captured her profile and also got a clear shot of the license plate number.

The investigators immediately noted the plate number and ran a check on it.

The results were deeply disappointing.

The license plate was a fake. There was no vehicle registration information associated with it.

...

Suppressing their frustration, they started tracking the vehicle’s route.

After leaving the hospital parking lot, the black sedan traveled along the main road for a stretch before suddenly turning into a remote, old alley.

The alley was old and in disrepair, lined with low residential buildings. There were no security cameras.

Once the black sedan drove deep into the alley, it was out of range of all cameras. It vanished completely, never reappearing on any other surveillance feed.

"Mr. Lancaster, she used a fake license plate and expertly avoided all the security cameras. Her counter-surveillance skills are strong. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment act, it was premeditated."

Listening to their subordinate’s report and looking at the surveillance screenshot on the computer screen, both Theodore Lancaster and Claire Sterling wore grave expressions.

"I didn’t expect this imposter to be so resourceful. She won’t be easy to deal with," Claire Sterling said through gritted teeth, a chill creeping into her heart.

With a cold expression, Theodore Lancaster ordered, "Print out the screenshot from the footage. Investigate her identity discreetly. Don’t tip her off."

"Yes, sir." The subordinate acknowledged the order.

Theodore Lancaster hung up the phone, his expression frosty.

"Another one with strong counter-surveillance skills."

Claire Sterling exchanged a look with her husband as a terrible thought suddenly occurred to her.

"Darling, do you think this woman could be connected to the car accident and the online smear campaign?"

Theodore Lancaster’s brow furrowed, his eyes darkening. "You suspect it, too?"

"I do."

Theodore Lancaster looked away, his gaze fixed on the surveillance screenshot on the screen.

"We’ve been investigating that car accident for so long and still haven’t found any useful leads. Whoever was behind it has extremely strong counter-surveillance skills."

Claire Sterling’s heart sank. "And we couldn’t trace the source of the online smear campaign, either. The perpetrator is too cunning, too professional."

"Exactly," Theodore Lancaster exhaled, his mood heavy.

"And right at this moment, a fake relative appears, deliberately gets close to Adrian, and maliciously stirs up trouble. Add to that her faking a license plate, evading surveillance, and acting with such precision... she clearly has counter-surveillance training."

He paused, suppressing the anger rising in his heart.

"It’s just that we have no proof. For now, we can’t directly connect her to the car accident and the smear campaign. It’s all just speculation."

"But we have to be wary of her. Her appearance is too much of a coincidence, and her methods are too sophisticated. It’s hard not to see a connection between all these events."

As Claire Sterling listened, a chill ran down her spine, and she couldn’t help but shiver.

She knew it, too. All of their suspicions were just speculation, with no evidence to back them up.

But with all these little clues piling up, she couldn’t help but fear the worst.

"What if—and I’m just saying, what if—this woman is connected to all of it? What if her goal is to tear the Lancaster family apart and destroy Adrian and Wren’s marriage?"

"Who on earth is she? To be so vicious!"

As Claire Sterling finished speaking, the atmosphere in the study grew even more heavy and oppressive.

The heavy wooden door shut out all sound from the outside world, leaving only the couple’s heavy breathing. The air was thick with a palpable sense of crisis.

The two of them fell silent.

After a moment, Claire Sterling lifted her gaze to the surveillance screenshot on the computer screen.

Her heart jolted. That inexplicable sense of familiarity returned.

At the hospital by the elevators today, her first thought had been that the woman’s back looked like Maya Marshall’s.

Now, looking closely at the picture, the resemblance was even stronger.

Theodore Lancaster noticed the strange expression on his wife’s face and quickly asked, "Did you notice something?"

"I... I think the person in the security footage..." Claire Sterling’s voice trembled slightly. "Her build and her back... they look so much like... like Maya Marshall."

Hearing this, Theodore Lancaster’s pupils contracted sharply. He immediately leaned in closer to the computer screen, his gaze locked on the figure’s back.

"Now that you mention it, there is a resemblance."

Claire Sterling’s mind was a tangled mess. The more she thought about it, the more her head ached.

"But Maya Marshall had that accident... she had a leg amputated. How could she possibly walk and drive like the person in the footage?"

Theodore Lancaster stood up, his expression becoming inscrutable, his eyes dark and bottomless.

"A real leg can be replaced with a prosthetic. With the Marshall Family’s wealth, they could certainly afford one."

The words struck Claire Sterling like a bolt from the blue, leaving her stunned but also jolting her to her senses.

’That’s right.’ She had almost forgotten that prosthetics existed.

"We’ve long suspected the Marshall Family was behind this, but after all this time investigating, we have no concrete evidence. There’s nothing we can do to them."

"And a similar-looking back is even less of a piece of evidence."

Listening to her husband, Claire Sterling closed her eyes, her heart filled with a terrible, creeping fear.

’If the Marshall Family and Maya Marshall are really behind all of this, then they’re utterly devoid of conscience, cruel and heartless beasts!’

She had been good to Maya Marshall, and had given the Marshall Family plenty of benefits over the years. For them to turn around and harm the Lancaster family, to harm her son... it was unthinkable.