Chapter 271: You Can Completely Take Back the Sterling Family

Brandon Jacobs sighed softly, gently taking Mabel Grant’s hand. “Mabel, it’s my fault. If I hadn’t been so weak back then, you and Leah wouldn’t have had to go through all this.”

“Have I ever blamed you? But, Brandon, have you thought about using this opportunity to return to the Sterling family? Since Morgan Sterling… since he isn’t a Sterling, you could take back the Sterling family completely.” Mabel Grant furrowed her brow, squeezing Brandon Jacobs’s hand as she asked.

Brandon Jacobs looked into her eyes and frowned slightly. ‘Return to the Sterling family?’ he thought. Ever since he was a child, he had been called the Second Young Master of the Sterling Family, but he was always branded as an illegitimate son. That identity had brought him no benefits, only endless assassination attempts.

Over the years, although it was said that Brandon Jacobs had married into the Grant family, he had also built his own company from scratch. After many years of operation, it was doing quite well. His own abilities were quite good; it was just that he had been constantly suppressed back when he was with the Sterling family.

His voice was somewhat indifferent. “Forget it, Mabel. The Sterling family means nothing to me.”

Mabel Grant nodded, a glint of coldness flashing in her eyes. “In that case, let’s make the Sterling family disappear for good this time. As for Morgan Sterling, ha… he brought all this on himself. He’s not being wronged.”

“Mm.”

After agreeing, Brandon Jacobs sighed inwardly. He never would have imagined that things would come to this—that Morgan Sterling wasn’t Thomas Sterling’s son, that he wasn’t even a member of the Sterling family at all.

‘No wonder.’ When he had returned to Riverfall before, he always felt that Morgan didn’t resemble Thomas Sterling or Jacqueline Vaughn. Even with Leah Sinclair and Madeline Sterling, who were cousins, both of their noses were inherited from Thomas Sterling and Tobias Sterling, so there was a slight resemblance.

But Morgan had no such resemblance. It was just that no one ever thought to question it, since it’s quite common for biological children not to look like their parents.

Mabel Grant and Brandon Jacobs had only discovered this matter in the last few days. It all started on the day Morgan Sterling was injured. He had lost so much blood that the hospital urgently used up its entire stock of type B blood. This wouldn’t have been a big deal, but when Brandon happened to glimpse Morgan’s emergency medical records, he snatched them in astonishment and read them over and over.

After reading them, his face darkened, and he asked Mabel about the reliability of the information. Seeing his expression, Mabel, though confused, confirmed that the information was unlikely to be wrong.

Brandon Jacobs told Mabel that everyone in the Sterling family had type A blood. Jacqueline Vaughn also had type A blood. So how could their son possibly have type B blood?

After hearing this, Mabel Grant immediately had someone secretly re-verify the information and also reinvestigate the blood types of Jacqueline Vaughn and Madeline Sterling.

Madeline’s was easy to check. She used to be a celebrity, so her blood type was public information—it was indeed type A. Jacqueline’s was also confirmed to be type A after they pulled some strings. Still in shock, the couple began to investigate the events surrounding Morgan Sterling’s birth all those years ago.

It turned out that back then, although Jacqueline Vaughn was pregnant, there was a time late in her term when she and a drunk Thomas Sterling got into an argument. In a fit of drunken rage, Thomas pushed her. Jacqueline fell and was rushed to the hospital, where she went into premature labor, but the baby was stillborn.

Thomas Sterling was too drunk that day to go to the hospital. Members of the Vaughn family went instead. Upon hearing the news, Jacqueline’s mother made a swift decision and bought a baby boy that very day. She only told Jacqueline, and the people sent to carry out these tasks all later died in one “accident” or another.

The secret was kept well until Thomas Sterling fell ill. His first thought was to find a match from Morgan Sterling and Madeline Sterling. It was only then that Morgan learned the truth.

In his shock, he chose to conceal it, just as Jacqueline Vaughn had. He simply told Thomas that he was not a suitable match. Thomas Sterling went to his grave never knowing that this son was, in fact, not his own.

On November 17th, with only ten days left until their engagement, Leah Sinclair’s ceremony dress arrived. Asher Keating was in a quarterly meeting, so Sheila Hughes accompanied Leah to the fitting.

When Leah came out wearing the dress, Sheila was stunned for a full minute. Seeing her friend’s expression, Leah couldn’t help but laugh. “What’s with that face?”

“So beautiful! Holy crap, Leah, you are absolutely gorgeous! If the engagement dress is this stunning, I can’t even imagine what you’ll look like in a wedding gown!”

Sheila jumped up in delight, circling Leah to get a better look. It was a deep V-neck, ocean-blue mermaid gown. The diamonds on the skirt glittered like stars scattered across the Milky Way. The cinched waist perfectly showcased Leah’s figure. She looked like a mermaid who had emerged from a sea of stars.

The staff at the bridal shop were also amazed at how the dress looked on her. Sheila was taking a flurry of photos with her phone, but before she could send them to Asher, Leah stopped her. “I want him to see it in person! It’s a surprise, get it?”

“Fine, fine, fine. I’ll let you keep your surprise for him.”

Sheila agreed repeatedly and put down her phone. The waist of the dress still needed some alterations, so after a discussion, they scheduled the next fitting.

On a highway near the Norport Detention Center, a prison transport vehicle and a police car were driving slowly. Morgan Sterling sat inside with his eyes closed, resting.

The inside of the vehicle was quiet. From the moment he was captured until now, whenever he faced law enforcement, he had barely spoken a word. He neither admitted to nor denied any of the accusations from the police or the prosecutor’s office.

The Sterling Group’s legal team had gone back and forth with the police countless times. Combined with the Sterling Group’s significant past contributions to Riverfall’s economy, his lawyers had managed to have him held in custody pending trial.

However, it was useless. Whether it was the Grant Group, Peyton Group, or the Keating, this time they were determined to make sure Morgan Sterling never got out. It was just that the legal process wasn’t that fast.

“Hey, what’s going on up ahead? Was there a car accident?”

As the person in the front passenger seat softly asked this question, Morgan Sterling’s eyelids twitched slightly. It was so fast that no one noticed the movement.

The vehicle slowly came to a stop. One officer got out to check the situation. The officers guarding Morgan Sterling vigilantly scanned their surroundings, on guard for any unexpected incidents.

“BOOM!”

The sudden loud noise startled everyone present. The police reacted quickly, but it was clear the other party had made extensive preparations. The sounds of explosions, gunfire, and agonized screams erupted all at once. As thick smoke began to fill the air, Morgan Sterling opened his eyes, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

「Keating Group, 68th Floor Conference Room.」

Asher Keating listened to his employee’s report, somewhat absentmindedly. He felt a strange sense of unease. He didn’t have a habit of looking at his phone during meetings.

But for some reason, for the past half hour, he had been fighting an irresistible urge to check his phone.