Chapter 259: How to Repay This ’Favor’?

Chapter 259: Chapter 259: How to Repay This ’Favor’?

The bullet comments in the livestream fell silent for a moment.

[Good question. This Mr. Reno knows perfectly well that Estelle Lockwood is married, yet he’s still eagerly throwing himself at her. Why? Is he trying to be a male mistress?]

[So, Mr. Reno, the eldest son of Prince Avery, are you offering to be the side piece?]

[Can you wake up early to serve the legal husband?]

[The legal husband, Nathaniel Sloan, has stated he’s not interested.]

Back at the villa, Austin Lockwood finally grasped Estelle’s meaning. He nearly choked on his own breath.

"Estelle, watch your words!"

But Princess Avery had already let out a cold sneer. "You are the first person to insult my son like this. You won’t marry him? Fine. If you don’t marry him, I’ll make the Lockwood family go down with you!"

Rose Lowell immediately dropped to the floor, wailing and pounding the ground.

The Lockwood family relatives also chimed in with accusations.

"Estelle, you are too selfish!"

"Exactly! We are all family. Are you really going to watch us die?"

"We can’t be blamed for this. It’s your own fault for not acting like a proper wife. You’re already married, yet you still parade yourself around in public! That’s why Mr. Reno took a fancy to you in the first place!"

Rose stiffened her neck and yelled, "I don’t care! We’ve already accepted the betrothal gifts. You have to marry him! Do you want the Lockwood family to die? Do you have any conscience at all? I am your mother, and you must obey my orders!"

Estelle’s eyes turned icy. "So Ms. Lowell still knows she’s my mother? Then has Ms. Lowell heard about Mr. Reno’s evil deeds?"

Princess Avery stood to the side, looking completely unbothered. Hearing this, she scoffed, as if mocking Estelle’s futile resistance.

She thought, "Go ahead and say it. What difference will it make? Is the Lockwood family really going to give up on this marriage?"

Rose’s eyes darted around, clearly guilty. "I... I don’t know..."

"It doesn’t matter. I can tell you."

In reality, Estelle was saying this for the livestream audience.

"Mr. Reno started playing with women when he was fifteen. Over the years, he has forced women into bed a total of seven hundred and sixty-two times. Among them, seven young women were driven to their deaths by Mr. Reno. Did Ms. Lowell know about this?"

Princess Avery furrowed her brow slightly. "Wait, how did Estelle investigate this so thoroughly?" she thought.

Rose’s face turned pale. "No..."

"It’s fine if you didn’t know before, but now Ms. Lowell knows."

Having said that, Estelle looked at Rose impassively.

Rose avoided her gaze, secretly feeling that Estelle was being far too dramatic.

"Estelle, how can you think that way? It’s an honor for those women to be fancied by Mr. Reno! Even if they died... it just means they didn’t have the destiny to enjoy such a blessing. How can you blame Mr. Reno for that?

"I am your mother. Would I ever try to harm you?"

[Has she gone mad???]

[She knows perfectly well that Reno has killed so many people, that he’s a disgusting, repulsive, horndog murderer! Yet Rose Lowell keeps calling herself a biological mother while trying to sell her daughter!]

[Isn’t her biological father, Austin Lockwood, her biological grandparents, Old Mr. Lockwood and Old Mrs. Lockwood, along with all those Lockwood family relatives thinking the exact same thing?]

[The Lockwood family is so disgusting. I’m boycotting them from now on!]

Meanwhile, Noelle Lockwood’s fans fiercely defended her:

[It’s Estelle who went too far!]

[Exactly! Our Noelle would never be like this. What right do you have to boycott the Lockwood family? There are good people in the Lockwood family too!]

But the very next moment, Noelle, completely unaware that the livestream was on, shattered everyone’s rose-tinted glasses.

Teary-eyed, she said, "Estelle, I don’t understand. What more could you be dissatisfied with? Mr. Reno is handsome, talented, and poised. You can’t find a better man in the world, can you? You turn your nose up at such a good man. Estelle... what am I supposed to say to you?"

Estelle raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think so, Noelle?"

There was no way Noelle actually approved of a scumbag like Reno, but to disgust Estelle in this moment, she deliberately let her tears fall.

"Estelle, you can’t judge a man’s worth just by his appearance! Everything you mentioned, Mr. Reno will change in the future. He is genuinely good to you. Can’t you see past the surface to the beauty of his soul?"

Estelle got it all on record, and immediately retorted, "If Reno is so wonderful, why don’t you marry him?"

Noelle’s face turned deathly pale.

Rose instantly shrieked, "How dare you?! How dare you tell Noelle to marry him?! My Noelle is destined for a blessed life! How could she be sent to die—"

Everyone looked over. Meeting Estelle’s half-smiling eyes, Rose’s screeching abruptly ceased.

Austin sighed and stepped forward to make the final decision.

"Estelle, Mom and Dad know we’ve wronged you in this matter, but ultimately, it’s for your own good.

"Besides, we gave you life. The Lockwood family fed you and housed you, so we haven’t treated you unfairly. A person should know how to repay gratitude, shouldn’t they?"

"Repay gratitude..." Estelle nodded. "Then let me settle the accounts with the Lockwood family and see just what it is I need to ’repay gratitude’ for."

***

The internet had completely blown up.

[Noelle is the most disgusting one!!]

[Listen to what she just said! I can’t believe she could even praise him. To force the true heiress into an arranged marriage, she’s utterly shameless!]

[Estelle is going to settle the score... I heard a long time ago that the Lockwood family constantly mistreated her, the true heiress, all for the sake of the fake heiress. And they have the nerve to say Estelle doesn’t know how to repay gratitude?]

The Lockwood Group’s shareholders were frantically driving toward the villa while simultaneously contacting their subordinates stationed outside the estate, ordering them to rush in and stop the livestream.

Unexpectedly, the villa’s entrance had long been surrounded and completely barricaded by Nathaniel Sloan’s bodyguards.

***

Austin couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. "Estelle, we are all family—"

"Fine! You want to settle accounts? Go ahead! Let me tell you, I am your mother, and nothing in this world is greater than the grace of giving you life! If you dare to settle accounts with me, I will kill you, you little brat!"

Rose’s blood was boiling. "Besides, you’re the one who was always scheming against my Noelle—"

"Seven years ago, on my first day back at the Lockwood family, Noelle pushed me into a pond. I developed a high fever that night, yet Ms. Lowell was busy comforting the completely unharmed Noelle. She even accused me of ’disrespecting Noelle’ and told me to reflect on my behavior.

"Afterward, I had a high fever for three days and three nights, but Ms. Lowell stubbornly refused to send me to the hospital. When I woke up, Ms. Lowell said that since I wasn’t dead, Noelle didn’t need to apologize to me, lest she catch my sickness."

Estelle asked with a bright smile, "Ms. Lowell, tell me, how should I ’repay this gratitude’?"

The Lockwood relatives looked at Rose with evident disgust, while Noelle clenched her fists, feeling as if there were thorns on her back.

Rose’s pupils wavered. "Th-these are all..."

"To preserve Noelle’s reputation, Ms. Lowell told outsiders that I was merely Noelle’s maid. At one banquet, Noelle ordered me to peel a crab for her. I accidentally cut my hand, and Noelle slapped me across the face twice.

"Afterward, Ms. Lowell interrogated me at the top of her lungs, demanding to know why I hadn’t taken good care of her precious daughter."

Estelle asked again, "Pray tell, how should I repay this ’gratitude’?"