Chapter 487: Pretending to Be Weak?

Chapter 487: Chapter 487: Pretending to Be Weak?

Zion immediately ignored the surrounding gazes and asked with concern, "Claire, what’s wrong?"

Claire’s face was pale. She clutched her stomach, a cold sweat breaking out as she shook her head. "Uncle Yeats, I... I’m fine... My stomach is just a little upset..."

"Is your stomach acting up again?" Zion immediately furrowed his brows. "All the dishes have been served. You should eat first."

"No..." Claire shook her head weakly. "We invited Estelle. If we start eating without waiting for her to arrive, she might think we don’t respect her. She’ll get angry. I can’t let my little illness make Estelle unhappy."

Her words were dripping with a feigned innocence, yet Evan felt genuinely heartbroken for her.

"Claire, why are you doing this to yourself?" he asked. Then, he whipped his head around and urged Zane Grant, "Tell Estelle Lockwood to hurry up!"

"Evan, I’m really fine. Please don’t give Mr. Grant a hard time," Claire said, gently biting her lip. "No matter what, Estelle is a true member of the Yeats family, and I’m... Evan, Grandpa said before that you should look out for her more. I’m honestly fine."

Evan and Zion both looked guilty.

Claire had also grown up pampered by the Yeats. Why should she have to go hungry? Now, just to wait for Estelle, she had forced herself to endure until her stomach condition flared up. Normally at this time, she should have been eating something light and easy to digest, then resting, rather than starving. But because Estelle hadn’t arrived, Claire refused to eat. Ultimately, it was because Estelle had gone too far on a daily basis. She must have threatened Claire constantly for the girl to be so terrified. Zion furrowed his brows deeply, all of his favorable impressions of Estelle completely gone.

After another ten minutes, Claire’s face grew paler, and Evan grew increasingly impatient.

His heart ached for her. "Claire, just eat a little bit. If Estelle blames you for this, my father and I definitely won’t just stand by and watch!"

Claire remained as weak as ever, looking as though the whole world owed her something. Her eyes grew moist as she began to play the victim.

"Evan, I really can’t. Uncle Yeats is Estelle’s biological uncle. Today is their first time meeting, and she is the guest. If she finds out that we didn’t wait for her because of me, how... COUGH COUGH COUGH... how could I possibly justify that?"

Evan was practically furious. He sprang up from his seat, ready to storm out regardless of the consequences.

"What on earth is Estelle doing?! How long has it been already? Does she have any concept of time? I bet she just doesn’t want to make things easy for Claire. She knows Claire has a stomach condition, yet she’s intentionally delaying. Fine! If she won’t come, I’ll go find her. I want to see what she’s trying to—"

"Estelle, be careful," a clear, gentle voice rang out from outside the door.

Then came Liam Sloan’s exaggerated exclamation, "Walk slower, walk slower! Don’t move your hand! Ah, I told you not to come over here just yet..."

Inside the restaurant, Evan practically exploded.

"Don’t come over here just yet? And they claim it wasn’t intentional? This was completely on purpose!" he thought furiously.

Right at that moment, Claire let out a sharp HISS, as if she had reached the limit of her pain.

Zion was filled with guilt.

"I’m sorry, Claire. I didn’t know Estelle could be so willful as to intentionally delay our time. Forget about today. Just eat your meal, and I’ll tell her to go back."

With that, Zion was about to stand up, but Claire weakly grabbed his sleeve and said mournfully, "Uncle Yeats, please don’t do this. If you drive Estelle away because of me, others will think I can’t tolerate her. At the end of the day, I’m just someone with no blood relation to the Yeats family who happens to share the Yeats surname... It’s only natural for Estelle to look down on me. I’m not worthy. I know that..."

Zion felt even more guilty.

He wondered how Estelle could have turned out this way when Eleanor had never been a bad person. It wasn’t as if the Yeats family couldn’t afford to raise Claire. Claire was only temporarily staying with them—could Estelle really not even tolerate that?

Zion took a deep breath, walked out the door, and said coldly in a lecturing tone, "Estelle, I know you have a lot of misunderstandings about Claire and feel that the Yeats family dotes on her more than you. But you shouldn’t act like this. You know very well that Claire is in poor health and must eat her meals on time, yet you intentionally delayed—"

His words caught in his throat.

The waiters, the guests, Liam... everyone turned their heads in unison to look at Zion, as if they were observing a newly discovered species.

Estelle’s hand was wrapped in gauze, and Nathaniel Sloan was supporting her as they walked over carefully. Anyone could see that she was injured.

"Keep going, Old Mr. Yeats. Estelle intentionally delayed Claire’s time, and then what?" Liam asked mockingly.

Zion’s throat seized up. He opened his mouth but couldn’t squeeze out a single word for a long time.

"Miss Lockwood, it’s best if you avoid the draft right now. Please go inside," a waiter said.

Nathaniel nodded in thanks, then supported Estelle. "Come, be careful."

Estelle spotted Claire’s feigned frailty at a glance. On their way here, Liam had already analyzed the cause and effect of the situation. Why had Claire gotten her fans to smash Estelle’s car and intentionally hurt her? It was to delay her time and deliberately make Zion despise her.

Liam had told her that Claire would definitely play the frail victim at a time like this, and that Estelle needed to act even more fragile than her. Sure enough, he was right.

Liam immediately raised an eyebrow, wearing an expression that practically screamed, "Aren’t I amazing? Didn’t I guess right?"

Nathaniel helped Estelle to the dining table and found a chair for her to sit in. Since it wasn’t a fully enclosed private dining room, the surrounding guests could see everything as well.

Zion’s face flushed with embarrassment, feeling like everyone was watching him make a fool of himself. "Estelle... what took you so long to get here?"

Liam clicked his tongue. "Listen to that. The focus is still on why she’s late," he thought mockingly.

So, he didn’t hold back, saying sharply, "What a question, Old Mr. Yeats. If it weren’t for an accident, Estelle wouldn’t have wanted to take this long to arrive either. Oh, right, Estelle. Old Mr. Yeats is your uncle, isn’t he? Why is it that your uncle’s first question wasn’t about how you got hurt, but rather why you took so long to get here?"

Zion immediately choked on his words. He had wanted to express his concern for Estelle, but seeing Claire’s weak expression, he had still wanted to get to the bottom of the delay first. However, since things had escalated to this point, if he didn’t show concern for Estelle’s injuries, others would probably think the Yeats family was just keeping up appearances.

"Estelle, your injury... Did someone bully you?"

Liam sighed dramatically. "They sure did. Oh, right, didn’t you ask why Estelle arrived so late, Old Mr. Yeats? Well, it couldn’t be helped. As soon as she got downstairs, she found out her car had been smashed. How could she possibly be quick?"

Instantly, the scene fell silent. The surrounding guests who were eavesdropping on the gossip exchanged glances.

Her car was smashed? In modern society, there were security cameras everywhere. Smashing a car was something that could easily be traced. Who had the guts to target Estelle Lockwood like that?

"Did you call the police?" Zion asked.

"Of course..."

Before Liam could finish his sentence, Evan let out a passive-aggressive laugh. "Your car got smashed? Oh my, Estelle, could it be that you’ve done so many shameful things that someone is intentionally getting revenge on you?"