Chapter 384: So... the Poisoner Is...

Chapter 384: Chapter 384: So... the Poisoner Is...

Indeed, did this have anything to do with Mrs. Yeats?

Just then, Liam Sloan’s phone rang.

He glanced at the screen. To his surprise, it was Ethan Sloan.

Liam looked at Nathaniel Sloan. Only after the latter gave a slight nod did he answer the call. "Hello, Dad?"

"Mhm," Ethan replied, his voice stern. The moment he spoke, the image of an authoritative patriarch leaped to the fore. "Is Nathaniel with you?"

"Huh? Ah?" Liam stammered incoherently for a moment before seeing Nathaniel nod slightly again. "Ah, yes."

"Give him the phone."

"...Wait, Dad." Liam was thoroughly confused. "Why didn’t you just call my brother directly?"

Ethan immediately gnashed his teeth. "Just give it to him!"

Estelle Lockwood sneaked a quiet glance at Nathaniel. The man nodded nonchalantly. "Yes, because I blocked him."

Liam was speechless.

His hand paused mid-air as he passed the phone. He stared at his brother, dumbfounded, his expression conveying an obvious message: "You can block him? You can just say that out loud? Aren’t you afraid of pissing the old man off to death?"

Sure enough, Ethan was on the verge of dying from sheer anger. "Nathaniel Sloan!"

"What can I do for you, Chairman Sloan?"

Ethan’s face twisted with rage. "I am your father!"

"Did you make this call just to inform me of your identity?" Nathaniel nodded faintly. "There’s no need for that. My memory isn’t that poor."

Ethan fell silent. He thought, "I meant, as a son, do you even know what it means to respect your father?!"

"Nathaniel, the Sloan Group’s annual gala is coming up in a few days. As a son of the Sloan Family, you must make a trip back."

Nathaniel let out a soft scoff, the emotion in his eyes deeply concealed. "Of course."

"Right, about your female companion..." Ethan hinted vaguely. "You can choose Thea, or any other well-behaved woman. The family won’t be fussy about it."

Estelle narrowed her eyes.

Nathaniel seemed to have caught on as well. His voice instantly turned freezing cold.

"Chairman Sloan, I have my own wife. If I don’t invite Mrs. Sloan to be my companion at a Sloan Group banquet, do you expect me to attend with another woman?"

"I was just thinking that it might be inconvenient for Estelle..."

He abruptly cut himself off, as if suddenly remembering something. "Where is Estelle?"

The entire room fell dead silent.

Even the most slow-witted Liam finally realized what was going on. His eyes widened in disbelief, yet the truth was laid bare right in front of him. He soundlessly mouthed the word: "Poison?"

Why did Ethan automatically assume that Estelle couldn’t attend the gala?

Why did he think there was something wrong with her health?

If the Sloan Family was behind the poisoning, then everything made sense!

Liam’s scalp went numb. "Dad..."

"Chairman Sloan, were you looking for me?"

A cheerful female voice drifted into the receiver. Ethan’s expression stiffened, his throat suddenly tight as if something was lodged in it. "Estelle?!" he exclaimed in absolute shock.

"Yes, it’s me."

Estelle spoke in a leisurely drawl. "Why do you sound so surprised, Chairman Sloan? Do you feel that I shouldn’t be here?"

Ethan’s complexion was indeed rather unsightly. He wondered, "Didn’t they say... it was guaranteed to succeed?"

How was Estelle...!

"It seems you are indeed very surprised. Chairman Sloan, are you surprised that I drank the almond milk and am still alive, or are you surprised... that I can still speak?"

Ethan immediately retorted sharply, "Of course I’m not surprised that you’re still alive—"

He never wanted Estelle dead in the first place!

"Oh, so you’re surprised that I can still speak. It looks like Chairman Sloan is in the know."

Estelle continued unhurriedly, "Although I couldn’t dig up anything, your phone call has certainly cleared up my doubts... Many thanks, Chairman Sloan."

She then looked at Nathaniel. "Hang up."

"Alright," Nathaniel replied.

The call disconnected.

At the Sloan Family’s villa.

Ethan was speechless.

His face twisted. In a moment of panic, he had actually let Estelle lead him by the nose!

He... he had merely panicked when he suddenly heard the words "almond milk," causing old memories to flood his mind.

He thought, "No, no need to worry. That’s all in the distant past. How could Nathaniel possibly know? If Nathaniel doesn’t know, Estelle would be even more clueless.

"It must be an accident... Nathaniel and the others don’t drink almond milk, so Estelle didn’t drink it either. Yes, that must be it."

Meanwhile, upon learning that Estelle could still attend the Sloan Group’s gala, Thea York secretly ground her teeth in fury.

She wondered why it had failed when everything had been perfectly arranged. When that person contacted her, didn’t they say that the equestrian club staff had been bribed and guaranteed that Estelle would be poisoned?

At the wellness resort.

Liam stared blankly. "Did my dad poison her?"

Before Nathaniel could speak, Estelle shook her head. "Not necessarily."

It was indeed not a certainty. If the poisoner simply didn’t want her to attend the banquet, then the culprit could be Ethan, Laura Jennings, or Thea York.

And judging by Ethan’s reaction... Estelle didn’t think the real poisoner would be so... stupid.

Perhaps "stupid" wasn’t the right word, but Estelle truly felt that the moment Ethan encountered the words "almond milk," his IQ plummeted by ten levels. He had acted recklessly and impulsively, exposing himself after just a few casual probes.

Estelle didn’t believe he was the one who poisoned her.

However, he definitely had some deep-seated history with almond milk.

As for why he was so terrified of it, and why it was such a taboo for anyone to mention almond milk in front of him...

Could it be that the glass of almond milk Miranda Lancaster drank before she passed away was actually spiked? And did it have something to do with Nathaniel?

After they returned to Crestfall, news of the Sloan Group’s annual gala began to spread.

Rumor had it that during this gala, the Sloan Family was going to arrange an engagement for one of their young masters.

The moment this news broke, it caused an uproar across the entire city.

The young masters of the Sloan Family were Nathaniel, Liam, and Theodore Lancaster.

Nathaniel was already married. Liam was still young, and it was public knowledge that he had no inheritance rights, so there was no need to make such a big fuss over his marriage.

That left only Theodore.

According to the narratives pushed by both the Sloan and Lancaster families, Theodore was Chairman Sloan’s legitimate son born in wedlock, making his succession to the Sloan Group perfectly justified.

Furthermore, word leaked from the Lancaster Family that they would also grant Theodore a portion of their inheritance rights.

It was safe to say that Theodore was poised to be the future head of both the Sloan Group and the Lancaster Group.

With the Sloan Group announcing his impending engagement, countless prominent families were scrambling, desperate to secure the marriage alliance.

Estelle, however, raised an eyebrow. Was it really Theodore?

Setting the matter aside for now, Estelle grabbed her bag and headed downstairs in a great mood.

"Madam, where are you going? Do you need me to drive you?" the butler asked.

Estelle clicked her tongue. "I’m going to collect a debt. For fear of hurting innocent bystanders, I’ll drive myself."

The butler was bewildered. He wondered, "What debt is Madam going to collect? Why would it hurt innocent bystanders? What on earth is she planning to do?!"

Half an hour later, Estelle’s car pulled up outside a branch of the Yeats Group.

Several days had passed, and Evan Yeats had been playing dead. He wasn’t answering calls or showing his face, acting as if those 7% shares had been completely forgotten.

Liam had even quipped, "Estelle, look on the bright side. Maybe it’s not that Evan is ignoring you, but that he’s actually dead!"