Chapter 218: Nathaniel Sloan, Do You Know My Grandpa?

Chapter 218: Chapter 218: Nathaniel Sloan, Do You Know My Grandpa?

Nathaniel Sloan finally looked over. "Mhm, is everything arranged?"

Ian Perry replied, "Yes, sir. Once the funds arrive in our account, we will announce the news to the public. By the way, Ms. Laura Jennings wanted to see you just now."

Nathaniel curled his lips into a faint, meaningful smile. "We’ll see each other eventually."

Once the Sloan family secured the land and were drowning in their own euphoria, a piece of news would drop—an absolute bolt from the blue. Then, he would let the Sloans know that the ’Mr. Lynch’ who hosted this auction was none other than himself.

He wondered what kind of expressions those hypocrites would wear.

Beside him, Estelle Lockwood blinked. "What news?"

Nathaniel’s smile deepened. Ian, knowing that this lady could not be offended, spoke with equal respect. "Something is buried beneath that plot of land."

Estelle raised an eyebrow. "Buried? Like a graveyard?"

Crestfall had developed rapidly. A few decades ago, the area of the Keldon Business District was still a wasteland known as the ’boneyard’. In ancient times, it had been a mass grave, but hundreds of years had passed since then. Nobody would care about that now, right?

Ian shook his head. "There’s a cluster of ancient ruins beneath it."

Estelle thought she had misheard, but then it hit her. In ancient times, Crestfall had served as the imperial capital of a small kingdom, so...

Oh. If that was the case, the land definitely couldn’t be developed. Not only that, but it would have to be protected as a cultural heritage site. Since this land was acquired through an auction, even if there was compensation, it certainly wouldn’t be nineteen billion. Instead, they would be compensated based on the auction’s starting price.

Estelle pondered for a moment. What was the starting price of this plot of land again? Three billion?

Nathaniel said with mock regret, "I originally planned to set the starting price at one billion, but I was afraid it would be too low and raise suspicions."

Estelle was speechless.

Only a few people knew this news, so the Lancaster family and the Sloan family were still celebrating wildly. Who knew what everyone else was actually thinking, but they wouldn’t dare disrespect the Lancaster Group and the Sloan Group. Words of flattery flowed endlessly.

"Chairman Sloan, he truly is your son. To act with such boldness right out of the gate—his future is limitless!"

"Indeed. He is, after all, the son I value the most. At first, some people were worried that Theodore wouldn’t be able to match up to Nathaniel, but look at him now. Ah..."

Ethan Sloan couldn’t stop grinning. The entire Sloan family was immersed in a joyous atmosphere.

The more Liam Sloan looked, the angrier he got. He was absolutely fuming. This was especially true since Laura Jennings kept praising Theodore Lancaster. Her expression of immense pride deeply puzzled Liam.

He suspected that Nathaniel had been set up! His mother was actually Theodore’s biological mother, and Nathaniel was the legitimate son who had been swapped at birth! Nathaniel was probably Miranda Lancaster’s son. After replacing the true heir with a fake, they still had the audacity to point fingers at the real one!

Damn it! The more Liam thought about it, the more furious he became. Didn’t this count as some sort of elaborate con?

Laura currently couldn’t care less about what Liam thought. She couldn’t wait to announce Theodore’s identity to the whole world and show off his excellence, so she hurriedly suggested, "Ethan, now that Theodore is back, it’s time to let him take over the company’s affairs. I think the timing is perfect. In a few days, let’s go to the Sloan Group and publicly announce his identity."

Laura’s eyes darted around as a scheme formed in her mind. "Right, remember to invite Nathaniel to attend too!"

A short while later, Nathaniel received Laura’s message. Well, that was perfect. He would just announce the news at the Sloan Group’s shareholders’ meeting.

Estelle suddenly thought of a question and was incredibly curious. "Nathaniel, do you know my grandpa?"

Nathaniel understood that the grandpa she was referring to was Grandpa Lockwood, the man who had adopted her. "We don’t know each other."

They didn’t know each other?

Estelle raised an eyebrow. But Uncle Kendrick had said that her grandpa and Mr. Lynch were friends, and that her grandpa’s membership had been an exception granted by Mr. Lynch himself. The charity foundation was founded by Mr. Lynch, so he naturally had the authority to grant memberships, but back then...

Wait, when did her grandpa actually receive his charity foundation membership? Old Mr. Lockwood had given this spot to Noelle Lockwood ten years ago. Ten years ago, her grandpa was already ill; how could he have had the energy to save anyone?

So, it must have been even earlier. But how old was Nathaniel back then? At that age, he founded the charity foundation and expanded it to such a massive scale? No matter how she looked at it, it didn’t add up...

Just then, Nathaniel spoke up. "I am Mr. Lynch, but I’m not the only Mr. Lynch."

Estelle paused, immediately realizing the truth. "It’s an alias."

Nathaniel nodded. "I inherited the title from a predecessor. She chose the surname Lynch. She was a woman, and her actual surname wasn’t Lynch either, but she always presented herself to the public as Mr. Lynch. That’s why outsiders never knew whether she was a man or a woman.

"She passed away twenty years ago. Since then, dedicated representatives managed the charity foundation in her stead. Ten years ago, I inherited this alias.

"The charity foundation was founded by her thirty years ago, but the title of Mr. Lynch has never changed. Therefore, many people in the outside world assume that the current Mr. Lynch is a man in his fifties or sixties.

"So the Mr. Lynch your grandpa mentioned must have been that late female founder."

So that was it...

Estelle felt it was a bit of a pity. She had thought she would get to meet a friend her grandpa had known during his lifetime. However, ten years ago, Nathaniel was exactly eighteen. He had just come of age when the charity foundation sought him out.

How strange. Did this Ms. Lynch specifically designate Nathaniel to be the next ’Mr. Lynch’?

"Still, the fact that your grandpa’s membership, along with those tokens, ended up in Old Mr. Lockwood’s hands is indeed worth pondering." Nathaniel suddenly smiled cryptically. "Estelle, perhaps you do have ties to the Lockwood family, but it might not be with Old Mr. Lockwood’s branch."

Although the Lockwood family wasn’t a prominent clan in the past, they did have some wealth. Old Mr. Lockwood belonged to a branch family, but later, for some unknown reason, he inherited the entire Lockwood family.

Estelle was abandoned the moment she was born. Although it was Rose Lowell’s doing, the stated reason was a fortune teller’s reading. But if it hadn’t been for the secret encouragement of Old Mr. Lockwood and Austin Lockwood, how would Rose have ever dared to do such a thing?

And then, as luck would have it, Estelle was adopted, and the person who took her in was also surnamed Lockwood. How could there be such a coincidence?

Estelle toyed with the token her grandpa had left behind. Besides the wooden plaque, there was also a silver bangle.

One look at the silver bangle and it was obvious it belonged to a girl. Moreover, it was likely part of a pair. Her grandpa kept one here, so the female founder probably had the other.

A young woman single-handedly founding a charity organization while hiding her gender from the public... Estelle truly wished she could have met such a legendary figure.

Unfortunately, she had already passed away.

KNOCK KNOCK.

Suddenly, Ian knocked and entered again. His footsteps were hasty and erratic, as if he had discovered something monumentally important.

"Sir, I just went to organize Ms. Lynch’s belongings and found that the electronic lockbox she left behind can be opened! The timer on the lockbox was set for exactly twenty years. Once the twenty years were up, it unlocked automatically!"

Before her death, the female founder had left behind a lockbox, saying it was to be handed over to the future ’Mr. Lynch.’ However, since Nathaniel didn’t know the password, it had remained unopened.

And now, the lockbox was open?