Chapter 345: Two Tickets? None for Nathaniel Sloan?

Chapter 345: Chapter 345: Two Tickets? None for Nathaniel Sloan?

Claire Yeats felt a huge weight lift from her shoulders. "Teacher!" she said excitedly.

The robotic female voice on the other end of the line remained unchanged, prompting Claire to answer quickly. "I’ve met Mrs. Kendrick. There’s nothing special about her."

The person on the line fell silent for a couple of seconds before replying in that same robotic tone, "Keep a low profile for a while. I’ll arrange the rest."

CLICK. The call ended.

Claire felt a bit dissatisfied. She had wanted to say more, but since the line was already dead, she could only drop the matter.

At the Yeats’ home, Quentin Yeats pulled up the security footage. Watching it, Evan Yeats couldn’t help but speak up in Claire’s defense. "Claire didn’t really say anything. Vincent Ford misunderstood her on his own. Is Claire supposed to take the blame for that? Punishing her just because of this is completely unfair!"

Quentin shot him a cold glare. "It seems you have absolutely nothing to say about the fact that Estelle was almost hurt."

Evan choked on his words. "I..."

Tears welling in her eyes, Claire hurriedly shook her head. "Evan, I’m fine. Quentin is right. No matter what, Estelle suffered because of me. Whether Vincent misunderstood or not, the blame should still fall on me. I have no objections to what Quentin said."

A few days of being grounded, a docked allowance, and being told to reflect on her actions—to Claire, such a minor punishment was perfectly acceptable as long as it cleared her of suspicion.

Evan wanted to continue pleading for her, but Mrs. Yeats let out a cold laugh. "Are you really my son, or is your head just there to add to your height? Do you want to listen to the conversation between Claire and Vincent one more time? The implication was blatantly obvious. Just because you have no brain doesn’t mean your mother is brainless too."

Mrs. Yeats issued a direct order. "Punish her according to family law. That’s final."

As Mrs. Yeats turned to leave, Evan froze, his face filled with disbelief. "Mom!"

He wondered how his mother could be so cruel to Claire. Hadn’t she cared deeply for her in the past? He had even seen his mother calling Claire recently!

Quentin looked at Evan calmly. "If you still want to hold your art exhibition smoothly, stop causing Mom and Dad grief."

Claire was intensely unwilling to accept this, while Evan felt all the strength drain from his body.

He reminded himself of the art exhibition. Right, there was still the exhibition. If the Yeats family refused to help Claire, he could do it himself. Once he became famous and the mysterious figure saw his exhibition, they would surely collaborate with him. When that time came, he could recommend Claire to that mysterious person.

Evan swallowed hard and retreated to his studio alone. Surprisingly, this studio was different from most. It contained only a pretentious artist putting on an act and a few unopened tubes of paint. The rest of the room consisted of finished paintings stored away in an incredibly expensive safe.

If any industry insider were to see this, they would immediately come to a single conclusion: Evan was no artist at all. He merely took other people’s paintings, claimed them as his own, and published them to become a renowned genius painter.

This practice was common among elite circles. Almost every prominent family produced a few "genius designers," "genius painters," or "genius composers," but how many of them actually had real talent? Therefore, Evan didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt about what he was doing.

With this exhibition, he intended to shoot to fame and achieve the absolute best. Moreover, that mysterious person had shown particular favor toward a specific art style of his, so Evan selected the paintings that the mysterious figure liked the most. He would use these for his upcoming exhibition.

He had bought them from a woman—over two hundred pieces in total, which was enough to sustain him for half a lifetime. He was absolutely certain that with these paintings, he could forge himself into a bona fide genius painter.

Feeling much better after thinking this through, Evan contacted his assistant. "I need peace and quiet to paint for the next few days. Help me prepare for the exhibition next week. I’ll hand the paintings over to you before the event."

With his orders given, everyone assumed that the great painter, Evan Yeats, was turning a deaf ear to the outside world as he fully immersed himself in his art. In reality, he was simply hiding in his studio, counting down the time.

At the Yeats Group headquarters.

After finishing with his family matters, Quentin had intended to deal with the Ford family, but to his surprise, Nathaniel Sloan had already made his move. This saved him from having to worry about any lingering issues.

Because the Yeats Group was expanding into Crestfall, they had brought over several veteran shareholders from Capital City. Seeing Quentin at the company, the shareholders couldn’t help but praise him. "Young Master, you are so adept at handling these matters now. It looks like us old fogeys will have to step down in a few years."

Quentin chuckled warmly. "Gentlemen, you flatter me. There’s still a bit of uncertainty regarding this project here; shall we discuss it further?"

The shareholders smiled. "Alright, alright. Quentin, you have a great talent for business, and Evan is a renowned painter both domestically and internationally. Your whole family is just so exceptional."

"Indeed. Back in the day, the Family Head and Mrs. Yeats were a perfect match of talent and beauty. Who would have thought their two sons would surpass them?"

Quentin nodded in acknowledgment. In the past, he too had wondered why Evan chose to become a painter. At first, he thought Evan was just playing around, but surprisingly, Evan had held numerous exhibitions of all sizes over the years, showcasing diverse art styles and building a solid reputation.

Later, he heard from their mother that their father had also been passionate about painting in his youth. However, after inheriting the Yeats family, he had been forced to set that hobby aside. Perhaps that artistic gene had simply been passed down to Evan.

Although... Quentin didn’t recall ever seeing his father paint. Instead, he only remembered seeing a few carefully curated bamboo flutes in his father’s study.

At Imperial Crest.

Liam Sloan clicked his tongue in amazement as he unboxed the gifts. "The Yeats family is incredibly generous. Truly fitting of an old, established wealthy family from Capital City. They’re loaded!"

Estelle Lockwood raised an eyebrow. "I didn’t expect Mrs. Yeats to send over so many things, either."

Liam curled his lips. "It’s an apology gift. Makes sense. But is she apologizing on behalf of Claire?"

"Not quite," Estelle pondered for a moment. "It should be an apology on behalf of Evan. I heard that Quentin wanted to punish Claire according to family law, but Evan stubbornly opposed it, which ended up angering Mrs. Yeats."

Liam couldn’t help but think of a saying: every family has its own share of troubles. Mrs. Yeats was really worrying herself sick over this son of hers.

Speaking of which, Liam pulled out two tickets. "That Evan is apparently a major painter, famous for his versatile art styles. Come on, do you want to go take a look?"

Estelle took them. "Two tickets? Is there none for Nathaniel?"

Liam didn’t think anything was wrong with that at all. "Yeah, just us."

Estelle was about to nod when she suddenly noticed something off about the two tickets. She hesitated for a moment. "...Are you sure?"

"What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the tickets?"

Outside the room, Luke White spotted a figure approaching from a distance. He gave a slight nod, walked over to take the suit jacket draped over Nathaniel Sloan’s arm, and said, "Mr. Liam and Mrs. Sloan are in the drawing room. Mr. Liam mentioned he has been practicing a new piece of music."

Although Liam was a lawyer, he had a deep love for music since childhood and had displayed astonishing talent. However, Laura Jennings had wanted to raise Liam to be a good-for-nothing. Any shining trait that could earn him points was strictly forbidden, so it was impossible for Liam to have the opportunity to learn musical instruments when he was young. After growing up, however, he had done quite a bit of self-study on the subject.

Just as Nathaniel was about to enter the room, he heard Liam ask, "What’s the matter? It’s perfectly fine for just the two of us to go see the art exhibition. Are you sure Nathaniel would even understand art?"

Nathaniel stood there in utter silence.