Chapter 161: Extortion

Claire was in her office when her phone suddenly rang.

Seeing an unfamiliar number, she hung up immediately.

A moment later, the caller tried again.

Claire frowned, her suspicion growing. She pressed accept and started recording the call.

"Claire, it's Dad."

Just as she'd guessed—it was Henry.

"Don't insult the word 'Dad,'" Claire said coldly. "What do you want?"

Henry cut straight to the chase. "Claire, I raised you for over ten years. Even if I didn't do everything right, I put in the work. Now, because of you, I'm about to lose everything. You can't just stand by and watch me go under, can you?"

Claire wasn't buying it. "That's your own doing. I didn't steal your money."

Henry let out a laugh that sounded unhinged. "I knew it—you're heartless. Fine, you don't care if we live or die. But what about Nathaniel? You care about him, don't you?"

Claire's eyes narrowed sharply. A sickening feeling twisted in her gut.

She fought to keep the tremor out of her voice. "What are you trying to do?"

"Nothing much. I just asked him to sell some shares to bail me out. He refused. Then he had an episode and now he's lying in some family clinic. Who knows how much longer he'll last?" Henry's tone was pure sleaze.

"You bastard." Claire couldn't hold back the curse.

Henry was actually trying to harm his own son.

Nathaniel had been improving, but he still couldn't handle stress.

The Blackwell family must have pushed him until he collapsed. His condition was complicated—a family clinic didn't have the resources to handle it properly.

Worse, as Nathaniel's legal guardian, Henry had the authority to block any hospital transfer.

Claire's heart clenched.

Henry didn't care. "Go ahead, curse me out. Compared to losing everything, a few insults are nothing. He claims his health will improve, but he can't even handle a little stress—what kind of recovery is that? It's delusional. He's going to die anyway, and the Blackwell family can't afford the medical bills anymore."

Damn it!

Claire's fists clenched tight. If Henry were standing in front of her right now, she'd punch him in the face without hesitation.

"What do you want?" Claire forced herself to stay calm.

"Didn't your parents originally offer ten billion dollars as thanks for raising you? Give me that ten billion, and I'll hand Nathaniel over to you."

Henry had become a complete scumbag.

"Fine. I agree." Claire agreed immediately, then added a warning. "But if anything happens to Nathaniel, you won't get a dime."

Henry sounded excited. "You better hurry. I can't guarantee how long he'll last."

The moment she hung up, Claire called Randal to confirm.

"Ms. Montague, Mr. Blackwell did go home today. I drove him myself, but when we reached the Blackwell Mansion, he told me to leave. Has something happened?"

Claire quickly explained the situation and ended the call.

Then she dialed Vincent, her hands shaking as she pressed the buttons.

The second he picked up, before he could say a word, Claire blurted out, "Nathaniel's had an episode. I don't know which hospital he's at. You need to find him right now."

Hearing the urgency in Claire's voice, Vincent kept his tone soothing. "Baby, don't panic. Leave it to me."

"Check hospitals around Shadowvale too."

"Got it. Don't worry, I'll have people on it immediately. I'm coming to get you."

"Okay."

Vincent rushed to Orsina Bags & Shoes and picked up Claire, speeding toward Shadowvale.

They'd barely left when Vincent's phone rang.

After hanging up, he let out a breath. "Baby, they found Nathaniel."

The moment he'd gotten Claire's call, he'd contacted the mayors of Shadowvale and the neighboring city, ordering inquiries at every hospital.

Claire's instincts had been right. Henry had dumped Nathaniel at a small clinic in the neighboring city, where the doctors were completely out of their depth with his condition.

Claire's voice trembled. "How is he?"

Vincent hesitated before answering. "Unconscious. His condition isn't good. I've already arranged for Shadowvale's best cardiac specialist to escort him to Crystalbrook. We'll meet them at Starlight Hospital."

Two hours later, Nathaniel's emergency treatment was complete.

The doctor emerged from the operating room. "Good thing you got him here when you did. Another half hour and it would've been too late."

The tension Claire had been holding snapped. Her legs gave out and she nearly collapsed, but Vincent caught her and pulled her into his arms.

Once Nathaniel was settled in his hospital room, Claire sent Vincent the recording of her conversation with Henry.

"This should be enough to prove extortion and attempted harm."

Vincent's expression turned icy. "Perfect. I've got some evidence too—Henry's new energy project involved fraudulent approvals and inflated procurement prices for tax evasion."

The next morning, Nathaniel slowly regained consciousness.

At the same time, Henry was formally arrested.

His new energy project was shut down due to the approval violations.

Several investors and the companies Rowan owed breach-of-contract penalties to sent people to the house daily, demanding payment.

The investors had contracts—the Blackwells couldn't dodge them.

The penalty fees were also contractual—they had no choice but to pay.

Henry had already sunk all their money into the project. The family only had a few million dollars left in savings—nowhere near enough.

Left with no option, Brooke put the house on the market through a realtor.

She dismissed all the household staff, and mother and daughter moved into a small apartment they'd purchased earlier.

"Rowan, our family is really finished." Brooke stared into space, sighing heavily.

Rowan was still in shock, unable to process how everything had fallen apart so suddenly.

Brooke slumped on the sofa, complaining nonstop. "Who was the bastard who started that online hate campaign against Claire? If it wasn't for them, how would our family have ended up like this?"

At those words, Rowan's body went rigid.

She felt a rush of relief that she'd never told Brooke she was the one who'd exposed Claire online.

Otherwise, she'd be getting an earful right now.

Brooke kept grumbling. "And that Daphne—claims to be your friend, but never told you Claire was the Montague family's daughter. She's not a good person either."

At the mention of Daphne, something clicked in Rowan's mind.

The only reason she'd smeared Claire online was because of those photos and videos Daphne had given her.

Now that she thought about it, without those materials, things never would've spiraled this far out of control.

And Daphne had known Claire's true identity all along. Not only had she kept quiet, she'd deliberately lied and said Claire was some servant's daughter.

No way. She wasn't going down alone.

After thinking it over, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts. After hesitating several times, she made the call.

"Who is this?"

"Mrs. Montague, hello. This is Rowan. Please don't hang up—I have something important to tell you." Rowan knew Sarah didn't like her, so she got straight to the point.

As for how she had Sarah's number—she'd secretly copied it from Daphne's phone.

"What do you want?" Sarah's tone turned even colder when she realized who was calling.

"I admit it—I was the one who leaked those stories online. But do you know where I got those photos and videos?"

"Two unknown numbers sent them to me. I'll forward the numbers to you right now. If you investigate them, you'll find out everything."