Nathaniel Sloan’s narrow eyes narrowed slightly at her words, but he said nothing more. "Let’s eat."

Estelle Lockwood nodded and looked at Liam Sloan. "Let’s go, time to eat."

Liam couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen.

After they sat down, the table fell silent. Liam breathed a sigh of relief, only for a piece of meat to suddenly appear in his bowl.

Estelle Lockwood had used the serving chopsticks to give him some food.

Liam looked up and met his brother’s gaze, sucking in a sharp breath. "...?"

’Whoa, sister-in-law, what are you doing?!’

Liam, caving, said quickly, "Haha, no need! You don’t have to worry about me." 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Nathaniel Sloan’s gaze darkened, but his expression remained unchanged.

After the meal, Liam made an excuse and beat a hasty retreat. Only then did Nathaniel slowly ask, "Was Miss Lockwood trying to be charitable just now?"

"Not at all. Just showing a little concern," Estelle said nonchalantly. "I’m merely following Mr. Sloan’s excellent example."

Nathaniel’s thin lips curled slightly. "And how is that?"

"Has Mr. Sloan forgotten already?" Estelle asked in mock surprise. "Look, after you and I got married, you were so concerned about whether my sister was eating well, constantly checking in on her for fear she might go hungry. So, by that logic, it’s only right and proper for me to show some concern for your brother."

Estelle put on an exaggerated air. "Isn’t this exactly what I learned from Mr. Sloan? I’m simply spreading his kindness far and wide. Is there a problem with that?"

Nathaniel Sloan was leaning against the wall, shadows flickering across one side of his face.

After a long moment, he chuckled softly. "No problem at all."

Estelle scoffed and was about to head upstairs when she heard Nathaniel speak again. "How did the divorce case consultation with Liam go?"

Estelle raised an eyebrow at his words, her tone meaningful. "If Mr. Sloan is so concerned, why don’t you ask him yourself?"

Nathaniel watched her back, silent for two seconds before calling Liam.

Liam had just gotten into his car. When he saw his brother’s name on the screen, he almost dropped his phone. "H-Hello?"

Nathaniel said leisurely, "A few days ago, I asked if you wanted to take on that big case in Sorhaven. Have you thought about it?"

"The one in Sorhaven?" Liam frowned, fully aware of his own limitations. "Forget it. It’s too much trouble."

"You’re more than capable." Nathaniel wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t think Liam could handle it; he wouldn’t joke about Sorhaven. "With this case, you’ll enhance your resume. You won’t have to only handle divorce cases anymore."

Liam was the picture of apathy, sounding like a total slacker. "But it’s so much work. I just want to handle divorce cases. My greatest goal in life is to help people in need fight off scumbags!"

Nathaniel paused at that but said no more.

"Then call me if you need something."

Liam agreed readily.

After he hung up, the driver asked him, "Sir, Mr. Sloan wanted to arrange a case for you. Why did you refuse?"

Liam waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, I’m not skilled enough. No point trying to get a piece of that pie."

The driver was puzzled. ’In truth, this Young Mr. Sloan of the Sloan family was exceptional in both ability and talent. Yet, he refused to take a single step forward, even rejecting the resources the Sloan family offered him. He was... he was just like Nathaniel Sloan.’

’To think that both sons of the Sloan family couldn’t care less about its vast fortune...’

...

Noelle Lockwood had caused quite a scene at the hospital. Although Rose Lowell had threatened everyone involved into silence, preventing them from speaking out.

The news still got out.

Anything concerning a big star like her was always a hot topic. The internet was buzzing, with countless posts, Weibo threads, and videos analyzing the incident.

In the middle of the night, an analysis post from a forum went viral on Weibo.

[Is Noelle Lockwood’s career imploding?]

[Just look at how many scandals she’s had in the past few days. A few days ago, her manager committed arson at the fabric market. Does anyone really believe she had nothing to do with it?]

[She threw her manager under the bus to take the fall, and just a few days later, this whole thing about her stealing someone else’s son comes out. Young Mr. Sloan clearly isn’t her son, yet she and her team have been pushing the narrative day and night that she gave birth to an heir for a wealthy family. She snatched resources whenever she wanted, all because she was the ’future Mrs. Sloan’ and supposedly deserved it.]

[And now it’s been exposed that the son isn’t hers, he belongs to Nathaniel Sloan’s wife. She’s been constantly scheming to secure her position, piggybacking off the Sloan family’s fame to build her own persona. So when is she going to quit the entertainment industry?]

This post quickly went viral, with many people feeling it made a lot of sense.

When Estelle Lockwood saw it, she felt something was off.

Although the post’s analysis was sound, it felt strangely deliberate... as if it were intentionally exposing all of Noelle Lockwood’s misdeeds.

And sure enough, her feeling was right.

Beneath the post, after a few insults from regular users, an ’insider’ started dropping bombshells.

An ’insider’ claiming to be from elite social circles posted:

[You’ve all got Noelle Lockwood wrong. She’s taking care of Christian Sloan because Nathaniel Sloan’s wife died a long time ago. At the end of the day, Mr. Sloan is a widower. She admires him, so how can you call her the mistress?]

The original poster excitedly retorted: [How is she not? If she wasn’t scheming to climb the ladder, why would she publicly claim to be Young Mr. Sloan’s mother? Can’t you see the boy doesn’t want her?]

The ’insider’ replied: [It’s more complicated than that. Noelle Lockwood is just doing what’s best for Young Mr. Sloan. It’s also what the Lockwood Family wants. In this world, there’s probably no one who could treat the young master better than Noelle, because Noelle Lockwood is his maternal aunt!]

The original poster: [What do you mean?]

The ’insider’ continued: [Let me put it this way for everyone. Many of Noelle Lockwood’s fans should know that she had an older sister. Because this sister grew up lost and separated from the family, she had a very bad personality. The Lockwood Family felt indebted to her, so they let her have her way with everything, and Noelle Lockwood suffered a lot because of it.]

[The one who married Mr. Sloan back then was this older sister. Christian Sloan is the son this sister left behind. But she died. As for how... everyone’s heard about the fire in the maternity ward at a certain hospital in Crestfall five years ago, right?]

Thanks to the Lockwood Family deliberately fanning the flames, the story of that fire five years ago had become known throughout the country. Only five years had passed, so plenty of people still remembered it.

’Insider’: [I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but you all should remember now. That fire was started by someone who committed arson-suicide. Two newborn babies were found at the scene. And the woman who set the fire and killed herself was Noelle Lockwood’s older sister, Estelle Lockwood!]

[And Christian Sloan was nearly thrown into the fire to burn to death by his own mother. It was Noelle Lockwood who rushed in to save the child, leaving her with a crippling fear of fire as a result.]

[So now you know why both the Lockwood and Sloan families want Noelle Lockwood to take care of the young master, don’t you?]

The original poster immediately came back to apologize: [I’m so sorry, I had no idea.]

Reading this, Estelle Lockwood narrowed her eyes. ’No wonder the original poster’s words seemed so strange.’ It was all just a carefully staged performance.