Chapter 142: Noelle Lockwood, You Are Not Christian’s Biological Mother

Chapter 142: Chapter 142: Noelle Lockwood, You Are Not Christian’s Biological Mother

"Wait, what?"

Dr. Walsh’s passionate speech instantly caught in his throat. Unable to swallow or spit it out, his entire face turned bright red.

The few righteous patients’ family members who were indignant a moment ago also froze, looking at each other in dismay.

What did Mr. Sloan mean? He was already married seven years ago? Then... then what was Noelle Lockwood?

Estelle Lockwood subconsciously turned around, the surprise in her eyes no less than anyone else’s.

Nathaniel Sloan actually announced in public that he was married?! She had thought that this time, just like many times before, Nathaniel would worry about Noelle’s health and protect her reputation, choosing to remain silent and letting Estelle bear the infamy once again.

But now, he had publicly announced his marriage!

A wave of sourness washed over Estelle’s heart. It couldn’t be called joy; she couldn’t even distinguish her emotions at this moment. If only these words had come a little earlier...

Noelle could hardly maintain her smile. Rose Lowell looked panicked, raising her voice to cover up her guilty conscience.

"Nathaniel, what nonsense are you spouting! Even if you don’t like Noelle, you can’t act like this! Noelle has been by your side for so many years. Even if you don’t appreciate her contributions, you should at least acknowledge her hard work! And you... you actually used marriage as an excuse. What does that make our Noelle!"

Rose desperately tried to stop Nathaniel, but he remained utterly unmoving.

Rose wanted to use past affection to smooth things over again?

"It seems Ms. Lowell’s memory isn’t very good. You’ve actually forgotten the fact that you were present on the day I got married," Nathaniel said unhurriedly. "I still have the wedding video. Has Ms. Lowell recalled it yet?"

Rose’s expression drastically changed. The wedding video?! At that wedding, she had attended as Estelle’s mother! If it was released, wouldn’t that be pushing Noelle into a fire pit!

Rose instantly lost her previous aggressiveness, awkwardly forcing a fawning smile. "N-No need for that, Nathaniel. It’s been so long..."

Nathaniel ignored Rose’s expression, which was twisted into something hideous because of her forced smile. "Since both of you know I’m married, who gave you the confidence to think I would abandon my own wife to play the role of an ’engaged couple’ with Noelle Lockwood?"

The entire room fell silent. Mr. Sloan was viciously slapping Noelle and Rose in the face!

Just now, Rose had claimed that Yara Lockwood was a shameless mistress for intervening. But Nathaniel was married. Wasn’t the one who constantly marketed herself as the fiancée of a married man the real mistress?

Who was nobler than whom!

"I’m sorry, Nathaniel, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way." Noelle’s eyes brimmed with tears. "I didn’t want to steal my sister’s place. I had no delusions of marrying you. It’s just... just that Christian is growing up, and I wanted to give him a complete family..."

She hinted, "After all, I am Christian’s mother. Whenever he was bullied in the past, how could I bear it..."

Rose reacted quickly. "Yes, yes! Noelle didn’t do it on purpose! How could you scold Noelle for intervening in someone else’s marriage? She did it all for the child!"

The crowd suddenly fell silent. That was true. No matter what, there was a child between them. Perhaps Noelle had truly made a mistake for the sake of the child?

Noelle lowered her eyes. She wasn’t worried that Nathaniel would deny her claims at all. After all, the fire incident had just passed, and she had released a lot of information. Now, many people online knew about Estelle’s suicide five years ago, which had implicated the entire hospital.

If it were made public now that Christian was Estelle’s son, Christian Sloan would also suffer verbal abuse, and Nathaniel absolutely couldn’t bear that!

Nathaniel’s eyes were icy. He couldn’t help but think of his conversation with Christian.

Christian had said that although he was only five, he wasn’t ignorant. He knew good from evil and right from wrong. Christian was close to Estelle and played so well with Zachery and Mia. Nathaniel had no doubt that Christian had known the truth long ago.

The reason he had hidden the truth and claimed Noelle was Christian’s mother—aside from Laura Jennings taking matters into her own hands and intervening—was indeed out of a desire to protect Christian. But now, his son stood firmly by his biological mother’s side. Christian chose to protect Estelle.

So what did Nathaniel have left to hesitate about? Some things should be made clear once and for all.

"For the child?" At this moment, Estelle suddenly spoke up. She sat to the side, resting her chin on one hand, looking amused. "I didn’t expect Miss Lockwood to love children so much."

Noelle bit her lip, her eyes filled with tears. "Yara, you have children yourself. You know that us mothers always hope our children can grow up healthy and happy."

Estelle’s smile deepened. How touching. Unfortunately, she just loved making things difficult for others.

Sitting in her chair with her legs crossed, Estelle unhurriedly took out her phone and waved it. "Is that so? Then Miss Lockwood, I suggest you call the police. Someone impersonated you to answer a call."

Noelle didn’t react for a moment. What did she mean—

The next second, an audio recording abruptly started playing!

"Noelle, where is Nathaniel? Put him on the phone. Christian is waiting for him!"

"Yara, Nathaniel is taking care of me. You want to interrupt my alone time with Nathaniel? How cheap can you be? Even if it’s a matter of life or death for Christian, it can wait on the side."

"Children can always be born again, but the one he loves the most is only me. Do you think Nathaniel will soften his heart just because Christian is sick?"

"Yara, what do you and Christian Sloan even count as in Nathaniel’s heart? He wouldn’t even bat an eye if you both died. I am the most important one!"

Then, the child’s rapid, ragged breathing could be heard on the phone.

Noelle mocked, "Quite a convincing act," and hung up.

The air was so quiet it seemed to have frozen. Estelle put her phone away and flashed an unhurried smile. "Since Miss Lockwood said you care about Christian the most, the person who answered the phone definitely couldn’t be you, right? Do you want me to call the police for you?"

Noelle’s face turned drastically pale, her lips whitening, and cold sweat rolled down her forehead! Seeing her like this, how could anyone not understand?

"Is this what Noelle Lockwood is really like behind closed doors? She doesn’t care whether her son lives or dies at all, yet she actually tried to use him to tie down Mr. Sloan!"

"Is Young Mr. Sloan really her biological son?"

"How could there be such a malicious mother! Her child was sick and she didn’t care at all, even saying it didn’t matter if he died?"

"No wonder Mr. Sloan looks down on her! It’s so tragic that the young master is stuck with a mother like this..."

Nathaniel’s eyes were completely frosted over. Estelle had called him?! And this call—the very first call made after Christian fell ill—had been answered by Noelle, who then deleted the call log!

"No, Nathaniel, it’s not like that. Listen to me..."

Noelle realized she was in deep trouble. She never expected Yara to record the phone call! What should she do now? Right, right, she just had to deny it to the death. She’d say... she’d say it was Yara’s deliberate setup. She hadn’t thought that much at the time. She didn’t know Christian was actually sick!

"Nathaniel, I’m Christian’s mother! How could my heart not ache for him? I just misunderstood. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have said those things..."

Rose also stammered, "Nathaniel, you’ve seen with your own eyes how good Noelle has been to Christian all these years. Actually... actually, our Noelle loves Christian very much. What biological mother doesn’t love her own son? This... this is all because Yara is driving a wedge between you..."

"Enough!"

For the first time, Nathaniel had the urge to make Noelle disappear forever. Losing his patience, he coldly cut them off. Ice burst from his eyes as he enunciated every word, "Noelle Lockwood, you know very well whether Christian is your son or not!

"Or, let me rephrase—

"Noelle Lockwood, you are not Christian’s biological mother at all!"