Chapter 240: Surveillance, Indefensible

Chapter 240: Chapter 240: Surveillance, Indefensible

Noelle’s expression froze slightly.

Rose stood with her hands on her hips. "What do you mean, ’saw my daughter’s true colors’? Your son kidnapped my grandson and refuses to admit it even if it kills him. What does that have to do with my daughter!"

Noelle immediately reacted. Biting her lower lip, she put on the appearance of a fragile, innocent flower. "Mrs. Winslow, I... I don’t understand what you’re talking about."

Seeing Noelle act like this filled Mrs. Winslow with absolute rage.

She had warned Kian before that Noelle was no good. As the fake heiress, she had somehow managed to lead her entire family into ostracizing the true heiress. How could she possibly be a decent person? But Kian had been completely blind. Every time Noelle acted wronged, he would lose his head and rush forward to comfort her, totally unaware that her pitiful act was put on specifically for his benefit. She had just been waiting for the idiot to take the bait!

Mrs. Winslow scoffed, firing on all cylinders. "Rose, are you pretending to care about your grandchildren now? Tsk, tsk. I thought you didn’t even consider Estelle to be your daughter. Your grandson gets kidnapped, and you come here to blame Estelle. Even now that you’re here, I haven’t seen you try to comfort your grandson once.

"And you, Noelle. Stop playing innocent in front of me. Whether Kian kidnapped them, and why those three children appeared at the Winslows’ home—you know exactly what happened."

Noelle’s eyes darted away as she bit her lower lip in grievance.

In the live stream, many fans exploded with anger:

[Who is this bitch!]

[She must be another tramp Estelle found to bully our Noelle! Noelle is so pitiful. Can Estelle just go die?!]

[...Are her fans mentally ill?]

[Do you people have no heart, insulting Noelle like this? Can’t you see she’s being bullied! Even though our Noelle grew up in the Lockwood family, she hasn’t been happy. She suffers inner torment every day. If it weren’t for Estelle, she would definitely be happy. Don’t you think Estelle is the one who wronged her!]

"Still won’t admit it, huh?" Mrs. Winslow sneered. "Then don’t blame me for not leaving you any dignity. Kian, where is the recording?"

Noelle panicked, wondering what recording she meant. She was suddenly struck with terror.

Mrs. Winslow chuckled softly. "When Miss Lockwood was pouring out her grievances to Kian, she probably didn’t realize that the Winslows’ home has twenty-four-hour audio and video surveillance, did she?"

Noelle’s expression instantly stiffened.

Mrs. Winslow said coolly, "Miss Lockwood came to my house and instigated my son to target Young Mr. Sloan... Did Miss Lockwood really think our family wouldn’t keep evidence? Kian, pull up the surveillance footage."

Noelle’s mind exploded in terror. She hadn’t expected this at all!

[What does that mean? There’s surveillance? It can prove Noelle instigated the kidnapping?]

[Judging from Mrs. Winslow’s tone, there has to be surveillance. Otherwise, how could she be so confident?]

[Then what is Noelle pretending for? She’s acting so manipulative.]

Noelle’s voice trembled. "Kian..."

"Mrs. Winslow, do you think whoever is louder is in the right?!" Rose stepped forward with her hands on her hips, looking every bit the shrew. "You think just because this is the Winslows’ home, you can spin whatever story you want? When the kidnapping went south, you pushed the blame onto our Noelle. My poor Noelle has been forced to take the fall for so many things!"

Noelle bit her lip helplessly, silently confirming Rose’s words.

She reasoned that if the Winslow family actually had surveillance footage, they would have brought it out the moment the situation blew up. Why would they hide it until now? Therefore, the most likely possibility was that Mrs. Winslow didn’t have any so-called surveillance at all. She was just saying this to bluff her! She would absolutely not fall for it.

Noelle shook her head in resignation. "Mrs. Winslow, I shouldn’t have come... I should have just admitted to all the charges from the very beginning. After all, I’m just a fake heiress. My life is worthless... I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry..."

As she spoke, tears rolled down Noelle’s cheeks.

Seeing Noelle acting as if she had suffered a massive injustice, the fans in the live stream became even more furious. The barrage of comments shifted from attacking Estelle to hurling relentless insults at Mrs. Winslow and Kian.

"Kian, have you given up on her yet?" Mrs. Winslow asked again.

The shock in Kian’s expression had faded, replaced by complete numbness. He calmly watched Noelle’s "performance," suddenly feeling a bit dazed.

He wondered who the perfect Noelle in his memories actually was. Was it really this Noelle standing in front of him? Or... had he simply been too stupid? Noelle had been deceiving him for over a decade, and he had foolishly let himself be played for nearly twenty years.

Noelle still wore that resigned, helpless look—completely hypocritical. She knew the Winslow family couldn’t produce any evidence. Since the culprit behind the "kidnapping" was Kian, she, the "slandered" victim, now stood firmly on the moral high ground.

She shook her head gently. "Kian, I don’t know why you’re treating me like this, but no matter what, you’re still like a younger brother to me. I’ll always forgive you..."

Suddenly, a woman’s voice reached everyone’s ears.

*"Kian... you must know about what happened between me, the Lockwood family, and Estelle..."*

Everyone instinctively looked at Kian.

His expression was numb, his eyes devoid of light. Gripping a remote control in his hand, he pressed a button, and a surveillance monitor nearby brought up a video recording. The person speaking in the footage was none other than Noelle!

When Noelle finally realized what it was, her face drained of color. With a twisted expression, she lunged forward. "Kian—!!"

But she was too late.

*"Noelle, did Estelle bully you? Let me help you get revenge on her."*

*"Kian, actually, the main reason Estelle and I have a bad relationship is because of those three children... Maybe the kids have a misunderstanding about me. They’ve never been willing to let me get close."*

*"Kian, can you think of a way to bring the children over to your place to play? That way, I can get close to them. Would that be alright?"*

*"Noelle, why do you want to get close to those three children?"*

In the video, Noelle gave a hypocritical smile. *"To apologize, of course..."*

Kian pondered for a moment. *"Alright, then I’ll help you."*

The video abruptly cut off. Noelle’s face was ashen, as if she had seen a ghost. Rose stared with wide eyes, stunned for three whole seconds before she suddenly shrieked, "AH!! This is fake! It’s forged!"

But the netizens in the live stream weren’t fools. Aside from Noelle’s fans, who were still screaming themselves hoarse trying to defend her, the other viewers were utterly shocked.

[It really was Noelle who instigated the kidnapping!]

[So what was Noelle pretending for this whole time? She probably arranged for those police cars herself, too! Playing the innocent, pitiful victim on Weibo who knew nothing, when in reality, she orchestrated the entire thing!]

[Conspiracy theory time: What if Noelle originally planned to kidnap the three children, pretend she was framed, and then ’find’ the kids at the Winslows’ house? That would make her the perfect victim and garner so much public sympathy!]

[Plus, I heard the Lockwood Group isn’t doing well right now. If this plan succeeded, wouldn’t Mr. Sloan step in to help and compensate the Lockwood Group because Noelle suffered a grievance?]

[Tsk, tsk. This is the entire Lockwood family helping the fake heiress scheme against their own biological daughter!]

THUD. Noelle collapsed onto the floor.