CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 27: DISDAIN YOUR POVERTY, FEAR YOUR WEALTH

Stella Grant’s words were like a bolt from the blue.

The three elders present were all greatly shocked.

Especially Mrs. Shepherd, who was just brimming with anger but now only had disbelief left as she grabbed Flynn Shepherd’s arm to question, "Is what she said true or false?"

Flynn Shepherd’s face turned scarlet, and he tightened his grip on Stella Grant’s hand.

Stella looked at him calmly and said in a flat voice, "Flynn, you’re hurting me."

Flynn took a deep breath and suddenly let go, sneering, "Stella, you say I was unfaithful, then do you dare to tell Auntie who you were with on the night of the seventeenth this month?"

Stella had already prepared to break things off with Flynn on the way here.

She had long anticipated that Flynn would use this matter to turn things around.

So she was prepared.

Stella moved her wrist that had been squeezed painfully and said with a calm expression, "Flynn, do you hear yourself? We broke up last month. Who I was with on the night of the seventeenth has nothing to do with you."

Flynn was at a loss for words, "..."

Stella said, "Since you want to know so badly, I’ll tell you, I’ve got a new boyfriend, and I was with him that night."

Flynn glared at Stella, gritting his teeth, "I don’t believe it."

Stella curled her lips in a mocking smile, "Does it matter whether you believe it or not?"

The atmosphere by now was extremely tense, almost at a breaking point.

Mrs. Shepherd looked at the two and raised her hand to hit Flynn.

Mrs. Grant, seeing this, worried that Mrs. Shepherd would hurt Stella, went forward to grasp her wrist, protecting Stella behind her.

Stella frowned, "Mom."

Mrs. Grant shielded Stella, saying softly, "As long as I’m here, no one will bully you."

Stella pursed her lips, an indescribable bitterness in her heart.

Ever since the incident with the Grant Family, she and her mother had been living in constant fear, afraid that any wrong step would lead to trouble.

Yet, even with such caution, the troubles never seemed to lessen.

Mrs. Shepherd’s act of hitting Flynn was all for show.

Though it looked intense, after all was said and done, Flynn didn’t have a single mark on him.

Mrs. Shepherd was putting on a show because she knew Mrs. Grant and Stella were always reasonable, thinking they’d definitely come to mediate.

But after hitting him for a while with no reaction from Mrs. Grant or Stella, Mrs. Shepherd pulled back, her face falling, as she adjusted her expression and said, "In matters of infidelity, it’s not just one person’s fault."

Mrs. Grant laughed in anger at her words, "Are you saying Flynn’s infidelity is somehow Stella’s fault too?"

Mrs. Shepherd, twisting the truth, "Of course."

After speaking, Mrs. Shepherd rolled her eyes at Mrs. Grant and Stella, "I’m just saying, your girl Stella is too headstrong for a girl, always running to construction sites all day, not a trace of femininity. Although Flynn was wrong in what he did, but..."

Before Mrs. Shepherd could finish the ’but’, Mrs. Grant turned and splashed tea from the table onto her face.

Immediately following, not giving Mrs. Shepherd time to react, she stepped into the kitchen and came out with a rolling pin to hit her.

In a moment, the scene in the living room was complete chaos.

Minutes later, the Shepherd family of three was driven out by Mrs. Grant.

Mrs. Grant slammed the door shut with a bang, her back against it, trembling with anger as she held the rolling pin.

Stella, "Mom."

Mrs. Grant had never lost her composure like this in front of Stella, looked up at her with embarrassment, smoothed her cheek with her free hand, and said, "For lunch, we’ll have dumplings."

With that, Mrs. Grant turned and walked back to the kitchen.

Stella watched her mother’s retreating figure, her eyes suddenly watering.

Mrs. Grant took a few steps, seemed to feel something, stopped, turned back, took a deep breath, and said, "I care about dignity, but I can’t push you into the fire pit for the sake of dignity."

Stella said nothing, tears streaming down her face.

Mother and daughter looked at each other, Mrs. Grant not going forward to comfort her, clenched the rolling pin in her hand, and turned back into the kitchen.

After a while, Stella walked into the kitchen, hugged her mother’s waist from behind, and choked, "Mom."

Mrs. Grant also cried, "This family has been a burden on you."

Stella, "No, it hasn’t."

Mrs. Grant, "If it weren’t for this family, with your nature, you wouldn’t have stayed silent after something like this happened, I know, you feared I’d feel hurt, feared I couldn’t hold my head up in front of relatives."

Life in this world is really quite challenging.

When you’re young, you think it’s outsiders who’ll look down on you when you don’t succeed, but by a certain age, you’ll realize it’s relatives and friends who are the real ’demon mirrors’.

Despising you for being poor, fearing you for being rich, hating you for having, laughing at you for lacking.

Meanwhile, at the Sutton Group’s CEO’s office.

Silas Sutton stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, smoking, his expression unclear.

Ben Lawson sat on the sofa not far behind him, his hands naturally spread, watching Silas’s back, tapping the sofa armrest with his slender fingers, and said, "Mr. Sutton, I’m quite curious, logically speaking, Stella isn’t your type, how did you fall for her?"