Chapter 244: Slander

Chapter 244: Slander



She made all this up on the spot, but Noah's eyes dimmed a bit.

At first, he did have such thoughts, but later he understood that Larry would never dote on him the way he doted on Neil.

Larry didn't say anything. After a long while, he turned around, his back to Phoebe, and said, "I asked you if the pregnancy is real. Why are you bringing up all this irrelevant stuff?"

"It's real. I'll never dare to lie to you again," Phoebe said. "If you don't believe me, you can have someone buy pregnancy tests and have Patricia watch me take them."

Patricia had been by Larry's side for decades. Even if he didn't trust his own children, he would never distrust Patricia.

Hearing this, Patricia said, "I don't think Phoebe is lying. Larry, the test won't take much time. Why not do it, so you won't regret it later?"

"Regret? How could I possibly regret it?" Despite saying this, Larry still agreed.

Patricia took the opportunity to suggest bandaging Phoebe's wound, and Larry agreed to that, too.

Before the servants could act, Noah quickly went back to his room, brought out a medical kit, and skillfully bandaged Phoebe's wounds.

When the alcohol touched her wound, the muscles in Phoebe's arm twitched slightly.

"Does it hurt?" Noah looked up and asked.

Phoebe shook her head. "I'm fine."

"Keeping a medical kit and being so skilled at bandaging—did you want to be a doctor before?" Larry said mockingly.

Noah didn't even glance at him. "Getting beaten up every few days with no one to treat my wounds, I had to learn on my own."

His voice was calm, as if he were talking about something ordinary, but those listening couldn't help feeling moved.

Phoebe opened her mouth but said nothing.

Larry was slightly stunned, his expression complex. He snorted heavily, "Blame your own grandmother for that!"

The White family servants were efficient. Before long, pregnancy tests from several brands were brought back.

Patricia took Phoebe to the bathroom. After several tests, they confirmed Phoebe was pregnant.

Before Larry could get angry, Phoebe knelt on the ground, crying fearfully, "Last time I only lied to you to save my life. This time I absolutely didn't lie to you. Please forgive me. I'll take good care of this baby."

Larry sat on the sofa, his expression uncertain. He neither said he forgave her nor told her to get up.

"The floor is cold. Get up," Noah reached out to pull her up.

Phoebe shook her head and pulled away from his hand. "Mr. White hasn't forgiven me. I don't dare get up."

The blood on her face had been cleaned when Noah treated her wounds, but now she was crying with tears and snot running down her face, looking rather miserable.

"Larry, please let her get up. She's pregnant. Kneeling like this isn't good for the baby," Patricia urged from the side.

Larry didn't respond. The deep wrinkles on his face were full of anger and doubt. He looked at Phoebe and said, "With your brain, you probably couldn't come up with a way to trick me, let alone do it so thoroughly."

He glanced at Noah and emphasized, "Did Noah teach you this?"

Someone like Phoebe, even after three years in prison, wouldn't suddenly change her nature.

Last time she lied to him, her logic was tight, making it sound so real—someone must have coached her!

"No!" Phoebe quickly shook her head. "If I lied to you and you found out, I might lose my life. Noah wouldn't risk doing that!"

Larry snorted without responding, but his expression showed he partly accepted this.

He knew very well that Noah never did anything he wasn't sure about. Like him, Noah preferred to plan everything in advance.

"It was Vivian who told me!" Phoebe wiped her tears, her fear turning to anger. "When you said you were going to send me away, she somehow found out."

"She found me alone and said that based on her understanding of you, you wouldn't easily let me leave, but would send me to a terrible place."

Larry frowned and asked in a deep voice, "And you believed her?"

"If I'd believed her, I wouldn't have left with Reid and the others later!" Phoebe's face was full of anger. "I said I didn't believe it and was going to leave."

"But Vivian stopped me and said it didn't matter if I didn't believe her. If you really sent me to a bad place, I could lie about being pregnant, and then I'd be fine."

"Thinking about it now, she had bad intentions all along! When she said that, it wasn't for my sake at all. She just wanted me to lie to you, make you angry, and then use you to break up Noah and me!"

As she spoke, she secretly observed Larry's expression, every nerve in her body tense.

Larry gripped his cane tightly, saying nothing, just staring at her intently.

Although the weather had turned cool, sweat kept pouring from Phoebe's body.

"Get up first." This time, Noah didn't give her a chance to refuse. He pulled her up directly and pressed her onto the sofa.

Phoebe looked at Larry uneasily.

"If I tell you to sit, then sit. Stop staring at me like that!" Larry raised his head, his gaze shooting at Phoebe like an arrow.

Phoebe was like an insect caught in a bright light, instantly freezing up.

"Vivian taught you all this? So when you used Jackson to lie, and when you stabbed Reid's temple with your earring, she taught you that, too?" When he got to the last sentence, Larry suddenly raised his voice.

Phoebe's heart jumped to her throat, beating violently as if it would burst from her chest.

She knew that pinning everything on Vivian would make Larry suspicious, but she was willing to take that risk!

"Phoebe spent three years in prison being bullied. What's so strange about her thinking of using an earring to stab Reid?" Before Phoebe could speak, Noah said calmly.

Patricia also chimed in, "Larry, you might be overthinking this. To put it bluntly, Phoebe has loved to fight since she was little. When pushed to the edge, doing this makes sense."

"That's right," Phoebe said, somewhat flustered. "And when I was little, every time I got in trouble, I was afraid my parents would scold me, so I..."

She looked a bit embarrassed. "I got in the habit of lying. At the time, Mr. Pierce was afraid that mentioning the kidnapping would make you angry, so he said he took me for a pregnancy checkup. I just went along with what he said."

"Jackson kidnapped you? So that time you escaped, Jackson did that too?"

Being schemed against by the junior Vivian, and then deceived by the combined efforts of Phoebe, Noah, and Jackson—these youngsters—Larry was furious.

Hearing this, Phoebe quickly shook her head, incoherently defending Jackson, "No, Mr. Pierce did kidnap me at first, but when he heard I was pregnant, he let me go. That doesn't really count as kidnapping. Don't blame him, he..."

"Shut up! Don't say anymore!" Larry suddenly struck his cane on the ground.

The cane collided with the floor with a loud bang. Phoebe's heart trembled along with it. Her face went pale, and she didn't dare speak again.

"The first three months of pregnancy are very prone to miscarriage, Larry. Don't scare Phoebe into having problems." Seeing Phoebe's poor mental state, Patricia sighed and said.

Larry was burning with anger, but ultimately didn't lose his temper with her again. "Go back and take care of the baby. If anything happens to the child, you won't live either! Get out!"

"Okay," Phoebe responded in panic, pulling on Noah's sleeve to leave.

Noah put his arm around her waist, stopping her, and looked at Larry. "Grandpa, Vivian first had Phoebe lie to you about being pregnant, then told you about Phoebe's fake pregnancy. She clearly wanted to use you to kill her."

Larry already believed seventy to eighty percent of what Phoebe said, but hearing Noah say this, he still questioned, "She's just a young girl. Could she really scheme this much?"