Chapter 211: Do You Want to Kill Me?

Jane Lancaster frowned, saying nothing.

She glanced out the window. The air was growing cooler; autumn was setting in.

Jean Hughes shot her a smile. Ignoring Secretary Dawson’s gasp, he answered the call and put it on speaker.

"Hello, Julian. Here’s the thing. I’d like to have Jane come and take care of me for a while, so we can get to know each other better..."

"Jay doesn’t know how to take care of anyone. What if she messes it up?"

Jean Hughes sounded a bit sheepish. "She won’t have to do anything. I just want her by my side."

A moment later, Julian Lancaster’s emotionless voice came through. "In that case, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble Young Master Hughes to be patient with her."

Jane Lancaster let out a small laugh. ’Not surprising in the slightest.’

Jean Hughes continued, "Oh, by the way, Jane is right here with me. You two should talk."

Without giving her a choice, he shoved the phone against Jane Lancaster’s ear.

Jane Lancaster said nothing.

But she knew Julian knew she was there. They remained silent, their breathing mingling over the line.

A strange smile played on Jean Hughes’s lips, but his voice was full of apprehension, like a flustered boy experiencing his first crush. "Jane seems unhappy. Do you think she doesn’t like me? Is this marriage arrangement forcing her hand too much?"

Julian Lancaster sounded surprised. "Why would you say that? She told me she has a very favorable impression of you, Young Master Hughes, and that she’s willing to give things a try."

Jane Lancaster closed her eyes, sighing inwardly.

’So stupid. To fall for it so easily.’

Jean Hughes’s voice, full of surprised delight, sounded by her ear. "Really? Julian, thank you! Oh, and I’ve already had the partnership agreement drafted. Can we sign tomorrow?"

Julian: "No problem."

Jean Hughes said a few more words, then hung up, a smile on his face as he looked at Jane Lancaster.

His eyes were telling her in no uncertain terms: *You’ve been abandoned. Your family doesn’t want you. No one is coming to save you.*

It took a moment for Secretary Dawson to process what had happened, and he could barely suppress a laugh.

The laugh, however, tugged at the cut on his lip, and he winced in pain.

He quickly pressed a hand to his mouth, his voice full of schadenfreude. "Seems the eldest son of the Lancaster family—and by extension, the entire family—is quite keen on this marriage."

So keen, in fact, that he would lie without batting an eye, even knowing his sister was against it.

To be blunt, how was that any different from stabbing his own sister?

People used to say the Lancaster’s eldest son doted on his sister like crazy, but that was clearly not the case.

He was just like all the others, casually using her marriage as a bargaining chip.

Jean Hughes sighed. Seeing Jane so silent, he felt a pang of heartache.

"Being backstabbed by the family you trust most must feel terrible, right? Don’t worry. From now on, *we* will be a family. I will love you forever."

Jane Lancaster suddenly laughed out loud. "I told you, you’re pathetic. Is your so-called love about breaking me down, making sure I’m abandoned by everyone with nowhere to go? No wonder you’re just a side character."

In the novel, after Caleb Lowell had broken off their engagement, she had turned around and seduced Jean Hughes, hoping to use him to spite Caleb Lowell.

She was only using Jean Hughes, but he was fixated on the "gentle little sister" from his childhood and had even helped her frame Luna Morgan.

Later, when he discovered she wasn’t truly docile, he turned on her, threatening to leave her with nothing so she would have no choice but to cling to him.

In the end, heartbroken, he returned to Solara.

At the time, all the readers had felt sorry for Jean Hughes’s character, thinking how pitiful he was to be deceived by such a wicked woman.

Jane Lancaster wanted to retort, ’That’s it?’

"Your so-called love is just a way to satisfy your own perverted desire for control," Jane Lancaster said. "And for the record, people like you and I will never be in the same category."

"Wantonly hurting others, torturing and killing small animals, using psychological manipulation and hypnosis to control people, trampling on the lives of others—"

Finally, her expression hardened, her voice ringing with conviction.

"A deranged monster like you belongs in a prison cell!"

Jean Hughes suddenly realized something. He whipped his head around to look at the bouquet of roses she had been fiddling with ever since she entered the room.

With a BANG, he smashed the vase. Sure enough, he found a miniature pinhole camera inside.

Jean Hughes stomped on it. CRUNCH. It shattered.

Secretary Dawson asked menacingly, "Well now, you were secretly recording!"

They were restricting Jane Lancaster’s freedom. If this were investigated, they would already be breaking the law.

Jean Hughes’s gaze turned sinister. "You weren’t recording. You’re livestreaming, aren’t you?"

"Of course. You two made quite a scene, and I was so scared all by myself. I had to ask the good people of the internet to witness this with me." Jane Lancaster looked the picture of innocence as she toyed with a lock of her long, curly hair.

Her hair wasn’t naturally this long. It was a great tip from Willow Summers—hair extensions.

She had hidden the pinhole camera behind her ear, and it had been surprisingly easy to get away with it.

’Then again, Secretary Dawson probably never imagined his own young master would be stupid enough to basically incriminate himself.’

Jean Hughes composed himself. "It’s useless even if you livestream it. Your social media account doesn’t have many followers."

Without a following, nothing you say matters. Even if people did notice, they wouldn’t take it seriously.

A small smile played on Jane Lancaster’s lips. "I don’t have a following, but you do. The ’Young Master owner of Reggie’ has tens of millions of fans. I just had to announce I was revealing the young master’s real face, and everyone came running."

’If it had been Willow Summers, she would have never been so careless. After all, she’d asked me for advice on social media management before. She really knows her stuff.’

Jean Hughes’s expression changed, and he snatched up his phone to look.

Jane Lancaster had paid for trending status and hired posters. Spurred on by these accounts, fans flocked to the livestream to see the young master’s real face.

When they saw Jean Hughes’s appearance, they were stunned by his handsome features. The young master was gorgeous!

The news spread like wildfire, and soon, even more people rushed in to drool over the young master’s looks.

But as they watched, they realized something was off. Was this... a forced-love plot?

But forced love could be exciting! The tag #YoungMasterOverbearingCEOForcedLove shot to the top of the trending list.

Then, other tags started trending: #InfluencerDogReggieIsAFake, #LivestreamTurnsIntoATrueCrimeEpisode, and #YoungMasterAdmitsToInstigatingMurder.

The fact that Reggie was a fake had actually been questioned by some fans from the start. They had truly loved the dog, and they could spot the subtle differences.

But their doubts hadn’t made any waves, and those fans could only suppress their suspicions.

Now, seeing that the real Reggie might already be dead, everyone was stunned. Soon, people started digging for more clues.

The trending list was about to crash from the traffic. The buzz was immense.

Jean Hughes’s face was a mask of fury. Even if he wanted to get the topics taken down, it was already too late.

"You want to send me to prison? You’re heartless." He picked up the knife from under his pillow, his eyes eerily calm yet utterly insane. "Are you that desperate to provoke me into hurting you?"

’No wonder she didn’t fight back. No wonder she was so cooperative.’

’This is just who she is. If anyone dares to cross her, she’s the type to drag them down to hell with her. Why would she ever compromise so easily?’

Jane Lancaster wasn’t surprised he’d figured it out. ’This lunatic.’

"Are you going to kill me? Today might be your last chance."

Before she came, she had suspected that Jean Hughes might have taken a life before, but she couldn’t guarantee that her plan would go so smoothly.

Neither Alvin Lancaster’s attempted murder years ago nor the torture and killing of small animals was enough to put him in prison.

So then, would adding herself to the tally be enough?