Chapter 305: Not Backing Down This Time
After his assistant spoke, Sean Sterling suddenly remembered.
’That’s right. I almost forgot my phone is set to auto-record calls.’
’With the recording, the truth would finally come out.’
Both excited and nervous, Sean Sterling immediately opened the cloud backup on his phone and entered the top-level access password.
He searched by date, time, and call duration, and successfully found the target recording.
This file was the key to the truth.
The call log had been wiped clean, but the recording remained, perfectly intact.
With a sense of trepidation, Sean Sterling pressed play, holding his breath, his heart pounding in his chest.
He was both eager and afraid to hear the contents of the call.
"My son has already chosen his marriage partner. The wedding is set for next month."
"You weren’t satisfied with the amount I offered last time, so I’ll double it. Take the money and leave quietly. I won’t make things difficult for you."
"If you insist on being with him, you’ll make him the laughingstock of all of Aston."
"You’re simply not from the same world."
...
After five long minutes, the call recording finally ended. The office fell into a deathly silence, the very air seeming to freeze.
Sean Sterling stood frozen in place, his fingertips ice-cold. It felt as if the blood in his veins had turned to ice in one instant, only to come to a roaring boil the next.
He couldn’t believe his mother, Yvonne Donovan, had lied and deceived Isla Griffith just to drive her away, saying so many humiliating things. It was more than he could bear.
Just two days ago, trying to ease the tension between them, Sean Sterling had humbled himself and apologized. He thought if he just softened his stance and took a step back, his mother would show some mercy.
But reality had slapped him hard across the face, crushing all his naive hopes into dust.
His concession had only earned Isla Griffith more intense cruelty and humiliation from his mother.
His restraint had become his mother’s justification for hurting Isla Griffith without a shred of remorse.
Every single word from his mother was condescending, caustic, and cruel, shredding Isla Griffith’s dignity to pieces.
She had insulted her with money, suppressed her with family status, mocked her about her child, and even fabricated the lie that he had already chosen a marriage partner and was about to get married.
She had deleted the call log, trying to hide the truth from everyone. She deceived both of them, treating him like a fool and Isla Griffith like prey. She treated their relationship and their child like garbage to be trampled on and bought off with money.
BANG! Sean Sterling slammed his fist on the desk. The heavy, solid wood surface let out a dull thud, and the documents on it were sent scattering to the floor.
Rage surged wildly in his chest, and an icy hatred surfaced in his eyes.
Sean Sterling clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking. Veins bulged on his temples, his eyes were bloodshot, and he gritted his teeth as his chest heaved violently.
The hostile aura radiating from him was so intense it felt like it could tear the entire office apart.
More than the fury, what truly broke Sean Sterling’s heart was his disappointment—his disappointment in his mother, Yvonne Donovan.
And beyond that, there was hatred.
He hated her for her selfishness and indifference, for her cruelty and heartlessness, and for personally shattering the last shred of hope he had for their mother-son relationship.
Most of all, he hated her for using the filthiest methods to hurt the woman he loved and their child.
’No wonder Isla Griffith wanted to break up with me.’
"Isla, I promised you I would make this right. This time, I won’t back down."
With a cold expression, Sean Sterling grabbed his car keys and turned to leave.
He was going to the hospital to expose his mother’s lies to her face.
...
It was the day Yvonne Donovan was being discharged from the hospital. She had deliberately chosen an elegant, expensive-looking outfit and put on light makeup to conceal the pallor of her illness.
Downstairs, the driver waited patiently.
In the hospital room, a maid was packing while Simon Sterling and Claire Sterling sat by Yvonne Donovan’s side, making small talk.
"Your brother just had to tell you I was being discharged today, making you come all this way again. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t," Yvonne said.
Claire Sterling smiled and handed her an unwrapped piece of chocolate.
"Of course I had to come for your discharge. By the way, did you tell Sean?"
Yvonne Donovan nodded. "I did. He should be here soon."
"That’s good. As long as the two of you are getting along better, I can rest easy."
The moment Claire Sterling finished speaking, the door to the room was shoved open from the outside with considerable, almost violent, force.
Sean Sterling strode in, his face grim and cold. The atmosphere around him was terrifyingly oppressive, making him seem like a completely different person from when he had last visited to bring chicken soup.
Simon Sterling frowned, his tone laced with clear displeasure. "Sean Sterling, what is this attitude? Your mother is being discharged today, and you walk in with a long face? Who are you trying to impress? If you didn’t want to come, you didn’t have to. No one begged you."
Claire Sterling also felt Sean Sterling’s attitude was poor. She paused what she was doing and looked at her nephew, puzzled.
’What’s wrong with him today? He looks like he could eat someone alive.’
When Yvonne Donovan saw Sean Sterling’s expression, her heart clenched. A pang of guilt hit her, but she forced herself to remain calm and shot him a nonchalant glance.
"What’s all this? Who’s upset you now?"
Sean Sterling’s icy gaze was fixed on Yvonne Donovan, the suppressed rage in his chest about to explode.
"Why did you touch my phone without my permission? Why did you deceive and insult Isla Griffith?"
He didn’t call her "Mom." With no preamble, he went straight to the accusation.
Yvonne Donovan’s expression changed drastically, and her heart sank. She immediately retorted sharply.
"Who said I touched your phone? Sean Sterling, I am your mother! Watch your tone. Are you trying to make me faint from anger again? You’re doing this on purpose so I can’t leave the hospital today!"
Sean Sterling was utterly disappointed in his mother. His heart grew completely cold.
’Even now, she was still lying, trying to fool everyone.’
He said no more. He simply pulled up the recording and pressed play.
Yvonne Donovan’s condescending, caustic voice instantly echoed clearly throughout the hospital room, every single word played back without omission.
The lie about the marriage alliance, the humiliation with money, the belittling of her family background, the mockery of the child...
All of her vile words were laid bare for everyone present to hear.
The moment the recording finished, the room became terrifyingly quiet. The air felt as if it had frozen into sharp icicles, making it hard to breathe.
The chocolate in Claire Sterling’s hand fell to the floor with a clatter, the gentle smile on her face completely frozen.
She slowly rose to her feet and looked at Yvonne Donovan, her eyes filled with incredulous disappointment.
"When did the Sterling family choose a marriage partner? How come I never heard about this?"
"Yvonne, why would you lie like that?"
"Using something like that to provoke Isla Griffith... weren’t you afraid she would..."
She didn’t dare say the word "miscarry."
Beside them, Simon Sterling’s expression was just as grim. His face was cold and taut, his brows knitted together.
He wasn’t angry about what Yvonne Donovan had said, but about the fact that the maid was also present.
"If you dare leak a single word of what you heard, you’ll lose your head."
The maid was scared out of her wits. "Sir, I didn’t hear anything."
"Get out."
The maid put down what she was holding and scurried away, not daring to even breathe.
Sean Sterling sneered. "Dad, so you also think those words are too disgraceful to be heard, that they damage the Sterling family’s reputation and can’t be allowed to spread, is that it?"
Simon Sterling was silent for a few seconds. A complex emotion flashed in his eyes, but in the end, he still stepped in front of Yvonne Donovan to defend her.
"Your mother did nothing wrong. You are the heir to the Sterling family. Your marriage was never going to be something you could decide on a whim. You were going to have an arranged marriage sooner or later, so what difference does a day make?"
"This is what’s called ’removing the firewood from under the cauldron.’ It ensures Isla Griffith gives up completely."
Shielded behind her husband, Yvonne Donovan’s panicked heart instantly calmed.
She lifted her head, her earlier guilt and pallor swept away. In their place was her usual domineering arrogance, now tinged with the brazen defiance of someone with nothing to lose.
She looked directly at Sean Sterling, not with a shred of guilt, but with fury.
"I am your mother! Everything I do is for you, for the reputation of the Sterling family. So what if I touched your phone? Everything you have, I gave you. What is there that I can’t touch!"
The more Yvonne Donovan spoke, the more righteous she sounded, as if the one in the wrong wasn’t her, but Sean Sterling for exposing her in front of everyone.