Chapter 233

Chapter 233

Eleanor had dropped her good-girl act completely, showing the same ugly side as Victoria.

She said shamelessly, "The court seizure is their business! What does that have to do with me! This house is our house!"

"We don't care whose house this is — we want our wages. Where's our money?"

"Exactly! Three months of unpaid wages! You kept bragging about buying a twenty-billion-dollar building, and it turns out you're just a bunch of idiots!"

"The Cavendish family is hundreds of billions in debt now. Just pay us what you owe us so we can get out of here!"

Eleanor clearly couldn't handle these middle-aged women on her own, and with no one to back her up, she could only say, "Give me three days. I'll pay you in three days, I promise."

"Save it. You people are always full of empty promises. We really miss Ms. Clair — she was the only decent person in the Cavendish family. She treated us well and never looked down on us. But you lot? You act like you're God's gift to the world, walking around like you own the place. If jobs weren't so hard to find right now, we would've quit ages ago!"

"Exactly. I've been sick of you all for a long time. Working in this house has been absolute hell!"

"Just pay us and stop wasting our time!"

"Why don't we just take some valuables from the house?"

"Yeah, good idea."

With that, they got to work. Eleanor's face went pale with horror. She screamed, trying to stop them, "Don't you dare touch anything in my house!"

But nobody listened. All they cared about was getting back what was owed to them. Why would anyone care about her?

When they ignored her, Eleanor grabbed whatever was nearby and started throwing things at them, screaming, "Stop it, you idiots! This is my house! Get the hell out, all of you!"

"If you want money, go find my parents! Why are you coming to me? I'm not the one who paid your wages!"

I watched Eleanor's shamelessness in silence. She'd been playing the good girl ever since she came back to the Cavendish family. Must have been exhausting to keep up that act.

I walked over and said flatly, "Eleanor."

The moment she heard my voice and turned to meet my eyes, she nearly stumbled and fell.

Then her expression turned vicious. "Charlotte! You have some nerve showing up here! You destroyed our family! You ruined my entire life! I finally made it back to my birth parents, barely got to enjoy any of it, and now you've taken everything away!"

I crossed my arms and said with a cold smile, "Your family did this to yourselves. And so did you, with your whole innocent little girl routine."

That hit a nerve. Eleanor looked embarrassed, but she still argued back, "That was all in the past! What does it have to do with you? What gives you the right to bring it up now?"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"You—" I cut her off coldly. "You what? You're waiting to be called in by the police any day now. Even if you avoid jail time, you'll have a criminal record. What do you think you'll be able to do with your life after that? Manual labor, that's about it."

Eleanor's face filled with fear. I knew that just thinking about it terrified her.

But she brought this on herself. She had no one else to blame.

"I... I didn't do anything wrong. It was my parents. It has nothing to do with me!"

"That's a shame. Victoria and Aiden would be heartbroken to hear you say that."

Eleanor's expression shifted, but she still said, "I'm just telling the truth. Besides, I've always been good to them. They'll understand."

"Whether they understand is their business. But you and I still have unfinished business."

I pulled out the court documents and Chase's will and held them up in front of her.

"I know you probably can't make sense of these, so I'll break them down for you. This one is the enforcement filing. This one is Chase's will. And this one is the document proving you owe me money."

Eleanor's face went dead white in an instant. Her pupils shrank. She froze like she'd been turned to ice.

"What... what are these?"

"Let me explain."

"The first one — you owe me money, and the court is seizing your only property to cover part of it. The second one is Chase's will, in which he left all of the Cavendish family's assets to me. You three sold off all your shares for cash — and as it happens, I was the buyer. So I'm now the largest shareholder in the Cavendish family. Combined with Chase's will, everything belonging to the Cavendish family is now mine. The third one is a loan agreement. Here's the thing — when you borrowed that twenty billion, you went to several lending companies. Fifteen billion of that came from companies under my name."

Eleanor's face went ashen. She forgot to breathe. Her whole face was frozen in shock and terror.

"That's... that's impossible. How could you own lending companies..."

"I own a lot of companies. You're not in any position to demand a full list. It's all there in black and white. If you think any of it is forged, feel free to bring in an expert to verify it," I said coldly.

Eleanor's lips had gone completely white. She couldn't make a sound. Her eyes were wide with pure, boundless terror.

"No... this can't be real. I'm Chase's own granddaughter. How could he possibly leave everything to you!" She practically screamed the last part.

I gave a slight smile. "When you say 'own granddaughter,' you mean biologically. But what about in every other way?"

Eleanor's face twisted with rage, just like Victoria's. She screamed, "I don't care! You have no blood connection to the Cavendish family! Even if it doesn't go to me, it shouldn't go to you! I'm calling the police! I'm going to sue you!"

Like mother, like daughter.

"Go ahead. But I'll give you a friendly warning — I don't think you'll find a single lawyer willing to take your case." I smiled, and it wasn't a kind smile.

Eleanor's lips trembled. She wanted to scream, but only small, broken sounds came out.

Edward had stayed by my side the whole time without saying a word. He knew I could handle this on my own.

Now, with nowhere else to turn, Eleanor looked at Edward like he was her last lifeline. She threw herself at his feet and grabbed his pant leg, begging desperately, "Mr. Fairfax, please help me. Please don't let this happen to me. I'll do anything you want. I'll serve you for the rest of my life, whatever you need. Please, just let me go. I'm innocent, I really am."