The Heiress They Lost Came Back Overpowered

Looking at the caller ID on her screen, Yvonne Lowell let out a silent sigh and answered the call.

Before she even put the phone to her ear, she heard Kai Preston’s deafening, faux-sobbing "words of concern."

"You little brat, how did you go and get yourself hurt?! Are you trying to worry this old bag of bones to death? If that kid Finn hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have even known. Were you planning on hiding this from me?!"

Hearing the roar coming through the phone, Leo Grant, who was sitting nearby, couldn’t help but shudder. Seeing Warren Lynch arrive, he simply stood up and took the breakfast from him.

It wasn’t that he was scared, it was just... so sudden. He’d been startled purely by reflex.

The last time he’d heard a voice with that much power behind it was... well, the last time.

Yvonne Lowell glanced at him from the corner of her eye, then casually leaned back on the sofa.

"Tsk. Stop freaking out, old geezer."

"Hey! You disrespectful little brat! You have no respect for your elders! Is it wrong for me to care about you now?!" Kai Preston’s exasperated roar came from the other end of the line.

Yvonne Lowell forced a smile. "Heh, well, thank you so much. Thank you for your concern."

Kai Preston was speechless. ’You don’t have to thank me if you don’t mean it. No need to be so phony about it.’

"Just focus on getting better! You never give me a moment’s peace! Do you think it’s easy for me to train a successor?! Huh?!"

"I practically raised you by hand! Do you have any idea how hard that was?! You ungrateful little brat!"

Yvonne Lowell’s heart warmed. ’The old geezer really has been good to me. He’s taught me so much.’

’Except for the fact that he loves to snatch my food, heh.’

"Tch, I’m not really seeing how hard you’ve had it," Yvonne Lowell retorted, refusing to back down.

"And let me give you a heads-up: you’d better hope Auntie Dahlia doesn’t hear you say that. After all, it’d be pretty embarrassing to get a beating at your age."

At her words, Kai Preston instinctively glanced behind him. He only relaxed completely when he remembered that the tigress and her husband were away on business.

"You little brat, you’re mocking me now?! In any case, you just take good care of that precious life of yours. Come back and take over the family business so I can finally retire!"

Yvonne Lowell crossed one leg over the other, her tone turning mischievous. "The retirement age at F·D is sixty-five. You’ve still got another seventeen or eighteen years to go. Tell you what, I’ll do my best to let you retire on the very last day of your sixty-fourth year."

"Get outta here! Don’t you use those regulations on me, it’s infuriating! By that time, I won’t have the energy for it. Instead of managing this and that, I’d rather be babysitting you kids’ children!"

Yvonne Lowell swallowed the shrimp dumpling that Leo Grant had just fed her before speaking.

"You need to think long-term. If you don’t retire now, maybe you can work and babysit our kids at the same time. Just think of it as training the next successor ahead of schedule."

The hand Leo Grant was using to feed her froze, and his eyes instantly lit up. ’"Our"? Kids? Whose kids with whom?’

At the same time, a metaphorical lightbulb lit up over Kai Preston’s head, all the way in Apeiron.

"I think that’s a great idea! You’re not getting any younger, it’s about time you started dating! Hurry up and find someone, and give me a little grandkid to dote on!"

Yvonne Lowell sneered. "You’re no spring chicken yourself, so why don’t you go find someone? Hurry up and give us a little brother or sister. You want to be a grandpa when you haven’t even managed to become a dad?"

"Don’t turn this back on me! I’m talking about you!" Kai Preston’s defenses were instantly shattered; he was practically hopping mad on the other end.

Yvonne Lowell couldn’t stop her lips from twitching. "It’s still more than a decade away. What the hell’s the rush?!"

"But I want to retire early..." Kai Preston mumbled weakly.

"Alright, alright. The more capable you are, the more work you have to do. We can talk about this later."

"But I..."

Kai Preston tried to say more, but Yvonne Lowell cut him off. "It’s the middle of the night. Go to sleep. At your age, you shouldn’t be pulling all-nighters like a youngster; you’ll go bald."

"Then you have to..."

"I know, I know. I’ll recover properly, I’ll protect my precious life, and I’ll try to get you into retirement as soon as possible."

Yvonne Lowell rattled off the words and hung up before he could react.

The thought of Kai Preston on the other end, his expression likely shifting from stunned silence to confusion, and finally to impotent rage, made Yvonne Lowell’s lips curl into a pleased smile.

Leo Grant saw her smug little expression and chuckled soundlessly.

He picked up a piece of walnut pastry, held it to her lips, and asked tentatively, "Who was that? Teasing a child again?"

"I was not. Just some boring old geezer," Yvonne Lowell said, taking a bite from the piece he held. She frowned slightly. "Did this place change chefs?"

"No. The private kitchen we usually order from is closed for a few days, so Silas Lynch switched to another place with a similarly good reputation. Why? Is it not good?"

"The rest is fine, but this pastry is pretty bad." Yvonne Lowell took a sip of milk to wash the strange taste out of her mouth.

Leo Grant took a bite from the same pastry she’d just had, his expression turning a little strange. "You’re right, it’s not very good. We won’t order this again."

Yvonne Lowell glanced at him but said nothing, simply picking up a pair of chopsticks to eat something else.

’It wasn’t the first time, anyway. She was used to it.’

’He wouldn’t let her kiss him, but the rascal certainly didn’t mind eating after her.’

Only after Yvonne Lowell had finished breakfast did Leo Grant prepare to leave for his company.

"I might be a bit busy today, so I won’t be able to come back and have lunch with you. Tell me what you feel like eating, and I’ll have someone bring it over later."

’Why did that sound so much like a husband giving his wife worried instructions before leaving for work?’

Yvonne Lowell shook her head, trying to banish the "old married couple" feeling.

"Don’t worry about it. I’ll just have Prosperity Pavilion deliver something. Just remember to eat when you’re done with your work."

Leo Grant patted her head. "Alright, that works too. I’m off, then. I’ve left Warren Lynch across the hall for you. If you need anything, just boss him around."

"I know, I know. Get going, you nag."

Yvonne Lowell swatted his hand away and gave him a gentle nudge with her foot to send him off.

With a good-natured sigh, Leo Grant squeezed the foot resting on his suit pants before turning to leave.

......

After Leo Grant left, the vast villa instantly fell silent.

Leo Grant: What’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I’m noisy?

’Nina Jennings must have run off with Silas Lynch for all she knew; she still hadn’t seen a sign of her.’

With nothing else to do, Yvonne Lowell lay on the sofa, bored, and scrolled through her phone.

’After scrolling until there was nothing left to see, she suddenly remembered—wasn’t Harrison Lowell livestreaming right now?’

’I wonder if Mom and Dad have been on camera, and if they’re doing any better.’

So, she opened a video app, searched for "Happy Family," and clicked on Harrison Lowell’s solo livestream channel.

The instant she entered the stream, her phone screen was filled with a close-up of a face caked in mud, startling her so badly that she threw the phone.

’Damn it, what was that filthy thing?!’