Chapter 266: The Past! Stripping Away Austin Lockwood’s Hypocritical Facade

Chapter 266: Chapter 266: The Past! Stripping Away Austin Lockwood’s Hypocritical Facade

Nathaniel Sloan asked slowly, "Has Chairman Lockwood remembered?"

Realizing how dreadful his expression had become, Austin Lockwood gritted his teeth. "No, no! I haven’t! I don’t know this woman!"

Nathaniel feigned helplessness. "It seems Chairman Lockwood’s memory is indeed quite poor. How about I jog it for you? Twenty-seven years ago, after marrying Rose Lowell, you took a trip to Stratusburg. There, you met a local girl who made a living weaving bamboo."

"Shut up!" Austin glared, his eyes bulging with rage. "Nathaniel Sloan, shut your mouth!"

Nathaniel clamped down on Austin’s hand, instantly immobilizing him. Yet, Nathaniel looked as though he hadn’t exerted an ounce of effort, remaining as calm and breezy as ever.

"You hid the fact that you were married from the girl. Pretending to be single, you romanced her and faked a marriage registration with her.

"However, that so-called marriage certificate was a forgery you had a friend make. When the girl got pregnant, she thought you would be her lifelong sanctuary. But unfortunately, Chairman Lockwood, you are a monster in human skin. You quickly grew tired of her.

"But she was pregnant. What were you to do? The doctor said she had a unique constitution—if she had an abortion, it would likely cost both her and the baby’s lives. Not wanting to blow the situation out of proportion, you simply walked away.

"The girl only had her grandfather; they relied entirely on each other. When he found out what happened, he naturally wanted to seek justice for her. And so, this elderly village man who had never even been to the city borrowed money from his neighbors. He took a train, traveling for a grueling week, all the way to Crestfall, until he finally found you—who was already the chairman of the Lockwood Group by then."

With every word Nathaniel spoke, Austin’s face grew another shade paler.

"Na—Nathaniel, you’re speaking nonsense... You’re spouting lies!"

"If I am speaking nonsense, what is Chairman Lockwood panicking for? Why not just treat it as if I’m telling a story?"

Nathaniel continued unhurriedly, "In Stratusburg, you put on an act. The girl’s grandfather thought you were a good man. But in Crestfall, you wore a face of arrogance and disgust, telling your subordinates, ’I don’t know where this old scammer came from, but tell him to get lost.’

"The girl’s grandfather stood outside the Lockwood Group, saying you married his granddaughter and demanding you take responsibility. What did you and Rose Lowell do?"

Being called out by name, Rose’s face instantly drained of color.

Online, people began to recall this incident, and some even dug up old newspaper clippings from that year.

[I remember this. About twenty-six years ago... there really was an old man making a scene at the Lockwood Group’s entrance, saying Austin Lockwood had abandoned his granddaughter. Rose Lowell was furious at the time. She cursed the granddaughter out, calling her the mistress, screaming that the mistress deserved to be struck by lightning and telling both the grandfather and granddaughter to drop dead.]

[A lot of people even thought Rose did the right thing... My mom witnessed the whole thing with her own eyes. She said that looking at the old man, she didn’t believe his granddaughter could be the mistress.]

[But listening to Mr. Sloan now... when that girl was with Austin Lockwood, she had no idea he was married. Austin lied to her! She was clearly betrayed and deceived. How could Austin do something like that?!]

[So what happened to the old man after that?]

Rose trembled all over. "You... you..."

Nathaniel said slowly, "In the end, that girl never got to see her grandfather one last time, because he died right here in Crestfall."

A collective chill ran down the spines of everyone watching.

The disfigured woman’s eyes were icy. Looking like an avenger who had just crawled back from hell, she fixed a death glare on Rose.

Rose let out a piercing shriek. "AHHHHH!"

Austin, however, managed to remain slightly more composed. "I don’t know! We don’t know anything about this!"

Nathaniel scoffed lightly. "The old man died of a ’sudden heart attack’ in Crestfall. But the girl said her grandfather was in great health and had no history of heart disease, so how did he have a ’sudden heart attack’? The old man’s body was never even found, so why was it concluded to be a ’sudden heart attack’?

"I am very curious. Chairman Lockwood, tell me."

Austin stumbled back half a step. "Shut up, shut up! Where are the bodyguards?! Nathaniel Sloan, for the sake of you and Noelle being childhood friends for so many years, I—"

However, not a single bodyguard appeared. Austin’s voice abruptly caught in his throat as an ominous premonition washed over him.

Nathaniel ignored him entirely. "After the old man passed away, you happened to learn that the girl, grief-stricken, prematurely gave birth to a daughter. Around that same time, Rose Lowell delivered a stillborn child. You—"

Sporting a cryptic smile, Nathaniel continued, "Under Old Mr. Lockwood’s arrangements, you brought the girl’s daughter back. After all, to you and Old Mr. Lockwood, the lives of the girl and her grandfather didn’t matter. But this daughter, being of the Lockwood Family bloodline, had to be brought back and raised.

"However, if you claimed her as your own, you and Rose wouldn’t be able to explain it away if the truth ever came to light, and you’d be branded with a reputation for cheating. So, you brought this girl home under the guise of an adopted daughter."

Nathaniel whirled around. "Am I right, Noelle Lockwood?"

Noelle stiffened from head to toe!

She squeezed out a strained smile. "Nathaniel... I don’t understand what you’re saying..."

"You don’t understand?" Nathaniel slowly raised an eyebrow before turning to the disfigured woman. "Ms. Hale, you tell her."

The woman gave a slight bow to Nathaniel, then turned her gaze to Noelle. Seeing that hideous face, ravaged by fire, Noelle could no longer hold back her screams.

The woman simply stared at Noelle with a placid expression.

Her name was Phoebe Hale, a truly ordinary and unremarkable name. In the patriarchal region where she was born, she had been discarded by her biological parents, only to be taken in by an old man. She had a grandfather who cherished and protected her, allowing her to grow up safe and happy until she reached the age of twenty.

At twenty, she met Austin Lockwood. This man was full of lies, yet she failed to see through him. She "married" him, became pregnant, and right as she was about to go into labor, she found out the truth—

Austin was not some down-on-his-luck youth, but rather the chairman of the Lockwood Group, a man who already had a wife. His entire existence was a lie, and all his sweet words were nothing but deceit. Phoebe wanted to just pack up and leave, but the doctor informed her that due to her weak and unique constitution, she was entirely unfit for childbirth.

The baby was already fully formed. If she were to induce a late-term abortion, it would be a guaranteed death sentence for her. If she gave birth, she might at least have a glimmer of survival.

But the medical expenses were astronomical. Her health continued to decline, and she grew weaker by the day. Wanting to seek justice for her, her grandfather went to Crestfall—and never returned.

She barely survived childbirth, escaping death by the skin of her teeth. Then Austin showed up, snatched the baby away, and told Phoebe to keep her mouth shut.

Twenty years later, Phoebe finally discovered that her child was Noelle Lockwood.

She still harbored the hatred of her grandfather’s unjust death. Investigating and making inquiries all by herself, she finally managed to gather evidence. But right at that moment, Noelle appeared.

Pretending to have just learned the truth, Noelle showered her with affection and concern. She called her "Mom," successfully earning her trust.

And then, Noelle set a fire to burn all the evidence to ashes. Trying to save the proof, Phoebe charged into the flames, but the inferno was too fierce. She failed to salvage anything.

When she tried to escape the burning room, she found that the door had been locked by Noelle.

Noelle’s mocking, icy voice had echoed from outside the door.

"Any piece of trash thinks they can be my mother? You want revenge? It’s not my first time setting a fire anyway, so you can just burn to death in there! This is what you get for being so blind as to disturb my life!"