Chapter 100: Aren’t You Afraid I’m Phishing?
Zach Miller instantly understood just how important the video in his possession was.
The video on his phone was completely deleted, but the cloud backup wasn’t. He immediately went online and re-downloaded it.
Then he took the video to find Julian Lancaster.
Of course, since Julian Lancaster was abroad, he couldn’t find him in person. The only thing he managed to find by asking around was Julian’s email address.
Anyone at The Lancaster Group knew the email. It was a special presidential hotline that the junior President Lancaster had set up for employees, specifically for collecting complaints and suggestions.
Zach Miller used a friend’s account to send the video to Julian Lancaster, demanding a job at The Lancaster Group.
He didn’t actually want to expose the video. After all, Jane Lancaster was the goddess he had admired for many years.
After watching the video, Julian Lancaster had someone contact him immediately, offering to buy it outright for 3 million.
Zach Miller couldn’t resist the temptation. He figured that if they were willing to offer 3 million, The Lancaster Family could certainly afford more. He opened his mouth and demanded 5 million.
Julian Lancaster paid up without hesitation. After the money was transferred, he even expressed his "admiration" for Zach Miller, thoughtfully assigning him an assistant and sending him on an overseas tour.
Zach Miller got a taste of the rich life and, believing Julian Lancaster admired him so much, thought his own future was boundless.
He began spending money extravagantly, getting lost in a life of hedonistic excess. The 5 million was gone in a flash.
When Zach Miller tried to find Julian Lancaster again, he discovered that the assistant Julian had assigned to "take care" of him had vanished.
He looked for his friend who worked at The Lancaster Group, only to find that his friend had been fired for making a mistake at work and was now struggling to find a new job.
He considered kicking up a fuss, but his friend, who knew more about the law, persuaded him to drop it.
Julian Lancaster could easily sue him for blackmail and extortion over the 5 million, landing him in jail.
Only then did Zach Miller realize he had fallen into a capitalist’s trap. He once had a promising future, but it was all destroyed, his will corrupted prematurely by wealth.
He was furious, cursing his unfair fate, but the fear that Julian Lancaster would actually send him to prison forced him to swallow his indignation.
After reading the whole story, Jane Lancaster didn’t know what to say.
Julian Lancaster’s methods were cold-blooded, but Zach Miller was a real piece of work himself.
The moment he demanded 5 million, he was already driven by greed, walking step by step into Julian Lancaster’s trap.
[Who are you, and why are you telling me this?] Jane Lancaster texted back.
A reply came back quickly: [You actually replied to a text from a stranger? Aren’t you afraid I’m phishing you?]
Jane Lancaster sighed. ’What a stupid question,’ she thought. ’I’d be more worried if you *weren’t* trying to phish me.’
Julian had done all this behind her back. She could have feigned ignorance, ignored the message, or asked if it was sent to the wrong number.
Asking "Who are you?" directly was a clear admission that she knew everything, and was maybe even involved.
’I just handed you major leverage against me, and all you can ask is if I’m not scared of being phished?’
This person probably wasn’t a real threat, then. Jane Lancaster immediately lost interest, deleted the message, and blocked the number.
—
Gordon Dawson picked up his phone, ready to tease her a couple more times.
He couldn’t help but laugh when he saw he’d been blocked.
’Did she only realize she’d exposed herself after I pointed it out?’
The thought of her flustered and scared made him laugh again. He found her brand of wickedness strangely cute.
He never would have imagined that The Lancaster Family’s poised, perfect, and proud heiress was actually like this.
Beneath that perfect facade was a petty, arrogant, and domineering girl—a spoiled brat, coddled by her father and brothers.
’Since she knows about Zach Miller’s current situation, Julian probably didn’t hide the setup from her.’
’Julian might have just wanted to pay Zach Miller off, but it was probably the young miss who couldn’t swallow her pride, leading to the whole "killing him with kindness" routine.’
He looked down on an idiot like Zach Miller. The man had a golden opportunity but was too shortsighted to seize it, content to dream of striking it rich with 5 million. He had no idea that 5 million was practically pocket change to the truly wealthy.
He deserved to have his weakness so thoroughly exploited.
Julian’s move was truly a victory without bloodshed. He’d effortlessly eliminated a huge potential threat and even gotten revenge for his sister.
If it had been Pauline Shaw, she would have likely not only refused to support her brother but also gotten into a huge fight with him over it.
After all, Pauline Shaw acted like a self-appointed moral crusader, her sense of justice always overflowing. She couldn’t stand this, had to right the wrongs of that.
When Yara Yates asked for her old car back, saying she was getting a new one, Pauline could have been more clever. She could have just lied and told Yara the car was broken or sold.
But no, she insisted that since Yara Yates had bought the car, she had too much pride for it and promptly returned it.
Another time, his company was bidding on a project, and one of his guys was in charge of it.
The guy joked that the boss of the target company was a friend of Yara Yates. If Pauline Shaw just said the word, winning the bid would be a piece of cake.
Pauline Shaw refused, saying she’d sworn never to use Yara Yates’s connections.
She even said she firmly believed their company was good enough, and that truly capable people didn’t need to pull strings.
The guy was livid. When he got back to the company and told everyone what happened, it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
’So what if we’re not the best? So what if our skills are average and we weren’t born with silver spoons? You don’t have to help us, Pauline Shaw, but did you really need to insult us like that?’
In the end, their company lost that bid.
And from that day on, the guys all had a lot of gripes about Pauline Shaw.
—
When Jane Lancaster came downstairs, she heard that Alvin Lancaster was going to the hospital for a follow-up appointment.
His foot had been recovering well, and if the X-rays looked good, he could finally get his cast off.
The weather was getting hotter, and even though his cast was made of a new 3D-printed material, Alvin Lancaster couldn’t stand it anymore. The cast had to come off!
Alvin Lancaster looked at his sister eagerly. He’d been cooped up at home for so long with no one to talk to, and whenever he saw her, he suddenly had a million things he wanted to say.
"Hey, Jay, are you free today?"
"Nope."
Alvin Lancaster let out an "oh," the light in his eyes instantly dimming.
Jane Lancaster glanced at him, a little disappointed.
’Has it been that long already? His foot is healed?’ she thought. ’Shouldn’t he have been running off to see Luna Morgan every day, causing the bone to set wrong?’
’He hasn’t seemed to go out much lately. He actually managed to completely miss Luna Morgan getting hassled by The Holt Family.’
Alvin Lancaster froze. ’Wait, Luna has been getting hassled by The Holt Family recently?’
’How could he not know about something so important?!’
Alvin Lancaster felt a pang of unease and forgot all about Jane.
He grabbed his crutches and started heading for the door, desperate to find Luna Morgan and make sure she was okay.
Once in the car, Alvin Lancaster called Luna Morgan to ask how she’d been.
"I’ve been doing fine," Luna Morgan said softly. "Sorry, I’m at work right now. I’ll call you later."
"Okay, call me when you’re done." After hanging up, Alvin Lancaster watched the scenery rush by, then thought for a moment and gave the driver a new address.
He was still worried and wanted to go check on the situation himself.
Coincidentally, Luna Morgan had once posted on social media about a loyalty program at her cousin’s restaurant. He decided to head to the restaurant first and see what was going on.