Chapter 156 Forming Ties Through Marriage
Chapter 156 Forming Ties Through Marriage
On the other end of the phone, Melissa had clearly seen the news too. Her voice dripped with greed and scheming. "Claire, I might as well tell you the truth now. Isabelle isn't your dad's biological daughter at all. She was switched at birth at the hospital. Later we found out her real parents are big shots. Now she's made it big and kicked us to the curb. Dream on!"
Learning that Isabelle shared no blood relation with her, the sense of loss Claire had been holding back completely exploded.
She'd always thought that by stealing the identity of River City's Morgan family heiress, she could keep Isabelle under her heel forever.
But now she realized Isabelle's true background was something she could never reach in several lifetimes.
"Mom, come to Washington." Claire gritted her teeth, madness filling her eyes. "We raised her for eighteen years. Now she's worth billions. She owes us an explanation for this!"
Two days later, Melissa flew to Washington overnight.
The mother and daughter tracked down Isabelle's whereabouts and blocked her right outside the Capital University lab building.
Isabelle walked out the main entrance in a black windbreaker, one hand in her pocket. Melissa rushed forward, her face plastered with a fake motherly smile.
"Isabelle, I finally found you." Melissa blocked the steps, speaking shamelessly. "Now that you're running the North American Morgan family, even your scraps would last us a lifetime. You can't forget how River City's Morgan family raised you. Claire's having a hard time at Capital University. Just give us tens of millions of dollars, or some Morgan family shares. Consider it repayment for raising you."
Claire stood beside her, burning with jealousy but staring hard at Isabelle, waiting for her to pay up and make this go away.
Isabelle stopped.
Her cold gaze swept over this greedy mother-daughter pair, like she was watching two clowns.
"Raising me?" Isabelle's voice was flat, absolutely ruthless. "You think you deserve to say that?"
She didn't even bother with more words. She simply walked around them and left with long strides.
Isabelle never left loose ends. Since this mother and daughter insisted on walking into the line of fire, she didn't mind helping them along.
That same afternoon, both Capital University's campus forum and North American academic networks exploded.
Isabelle posted a complete evidence chain under her real name.
The documents included transfer records of Melissa bribing River City High School administrators, surveillance footage, and the complete process of forcibly crediting Claire with Isabelle's perfect math competition paper and research achievements.
Not only that, Isabelle hacked directly into Capital University's admissions system and publicly exposed all the evidence of Claire's fake credentials and academic fraud in her application.
The academic world has zero tolerance for fraud, especially at an Ivy League school.
Within two hours, Capital University issued a statement, revoking Claire's enrollment and ordering her immediate expulsion.
Claire became a complete laughingstock.
Walking around campus, she was surrounded by contemptuous looks and undisguised mockery.
Her roommates threw her belongings out of the dorm. The socialite followers who once circled around her now avoided her like the plague.
The academic star and socialite image she'd worked so hard to build was crushed to dust by Isabelle effortlessly.
On the streets of Washington, the night wind was biting.
Claire and Melissa dragged their suitcases like homeless dogs. They had no one to turn to in Washington, barely any money left in their accounts, completely out of options.
A black armored SUV silently stopped in front of them. The doors opened, and two burly foreign men forcibly dragged them into the car.
In the back seat, a screen lit up. There was no image, only a cold male voice processed through a voice changer.
"Want revenge?" Syndicate boss Beria's voice carried precise manipulation, hitting the darkest corner of human hearts. "Bring Isabelle to the designated location. I'll give you a hundred million dollars, plus new identities, so you can live like royalty for the rest of your lives."
The huge temptation and extreme jealousy instantly devoured their reason.
"Deal. We'll do it." Claire stared at the screen and agreed without hesitation.
As long as Isabelle died, she'd do anything.
Over the next few days, Claire and Melissa frantically tried to contact Isabelle.
They took turns sending Isabelle messages and calling her.
"Isabelle, I know I was wrong. Meet me one last time, I'll return your belongings from River City."
"Isabelle, come meet us once. We'll take the money and leave, never bother you again."
Isabelle sat on the villa sofa, watching the messages constantly popping up on her phone, her expression ice cold.
She pressed the block button, completely blacklisting them both.
When something seems odd, there must be a catch.
This mother-daughter pair had just been cornered, and now they were suddenly being nice—someone must be pulling the strings.
Isabelle was extremely vigilant. She knew Syndicate's methods too well to easily put herself at risk.
Seeing Isabelle had no weak spots, Claire and Melissa immediately changed targets. They set their sights on Eric.
After Isabelle brought Eric to Washington, he'd been living in an apartment in the city center.
Sean had arranged for Shadow Guards to secretly protect him, but Eric himself didn't know and still lived like an ordinary international student.
On a weekend evening, Eric had just walked out of his apartment building, planning to buy some things at the supermarket.
Claire and Melissa suddenly rushed out from around the corner, blocking him in a secluded alley.
"Get lost." Eric's face was cold. He had no good feelings for this mother-daughter pair and turned to leave.
Seeing this, Melissa dropped to her knees with a thud, clutching Eric's leg tightly, crying hysterically.
"Eric, please help me! Claire's being driven to death, we're really out of options. We just want to apologize to Isabelle, beg her to let us live..." Melissa was a mess of tears and snot, hair disheveled, utterly humble.
Claire stood beside her wiping tears too, putting on a pitiful appearance.
Eric was inexperienced and naturally righteous.
Seeing an elder kneeling and crying like this, he hesitated for half a second, lowering his head to try to help Melissa up.
The instant he let his guard down, Claire's expression turned vicious. She pulled out a strong sedative-soaked towel Syndicate had provided, lunged forward, and pressed it firmly over Eric's nose and mouth.
Eric's eyes went wide. He tried to break free, but the drug was extremely potent. After struggling a few times, his vision went black and he collapsed completely.
The Shadow Guards hidden nearby sensed something wrong and were about to reveal themselves.
Several Syndicate mercenaries suddenly emerged from the other end of the alley.
Dense suppressed gunfire rang out, instantly pinning the Shadow Guards behind cover.
"Move fast!" a mercenary barked.
Claire and Melissa clumsily dragged the unconscious Eric into a black van already parked on the roadside.
The door slammed shut. The tires screeched against the asphalt as the van sped off, handing him over completely to Syndicate.
West suburb villa, basement.
Isabelle had just finished a data tracking session when her pure black encrypted phone suddenly vibrated.
The screen lit up with an anonymous message from an unknown location.