Chapter 2253
Chapter 2253 Lost Something
Linda belittled the future that Clayton had thoughtfully planned for Michael as if it was worthless.
However, Clayton could not even defend himself.
It seemed as if all the sewage in the world was poured on Clayton.
This made Nicole feel uncomfortable.
Nicole raised her eyes slowly. Her gaze was stern and cold.
“Linda, you haven’t raised Michael for a day, so you have no right to comment on how Clayton raised him. You know very well what kind of people are around you. If Michael is under your care, do you think he’ll come out clean in the future?”
Linda was slightly startled by Nicole’s attitude because she did not expect this seemingly weak woman to have such a tough side.
She did not mind Nicole’s evaluation of her and was even proud of it.
“Since you know my network, you should know that Michael can get things that others can’t even dream of if he comes with me. I have inexhaustible money and power, so much so that it’ll even exceed your imagination.
Compared to you all working hard in business, my life is considered perfect. If it wasn’t for that conservative Clayton who insisted on raising Michael, Michael would’ve been a little prince that everyone envies now!”
Linda stretched out her hand and made a gesture. Her eyes were curved upward into a beautiful arc.
Nicole chuckled lightly.
‘That’s what you think. If Michael followed your path, he would be ridiculed and looked down upon his whole life.”
Nicole leaned back on the sofa and folded her arms nonchalantly as she looked at Linda contemptuously.
She ignored Linda’s angry face and continued in a gentle voice, “Of course, it’s your ability that you have your current achievements. For a woman, it is indeed enviable. But it’s not for Michael. He has to be independent, and what we can do for him is to give him a plan and purpose. Whether he can achieve it depends on his own efforts. Wealth and power do not conflict with the path he’s taking now, and he’ll get both eventually. I know that you’re concerned for Michael because you’re his aunt, but if you’re going to interfere with Clayton’s plan for Michael, I’ll have no choice but to bring him back to Mediania.”
Linda’s face changed slightly.
“You…”
Seeing Nicole’s calm smile, Linda gritted her teeth.
“I didn’t expect Clayton to have a wife that’s just as difficult to deal with. I thought all stepmothers don’t want their stepchildren to do well?”
Nicole hooked her lips and smiled slightly.
“So, you know that what you’re doing isn’t good for Michael?”
Linda was speechless.
Nicole smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter if I’m his stepmother. Michael and I are a family. We trust and rely on each other. I can tolerate you visiting him because you’re his aunt, but don’t even think about scheming against him. You need to know that Michael still listens to me.”
Linda’s face froze. She stood up angrily and was about to leave.
However, she stopped halfway and turned to look at Nicole.
“Although I’m pissed, I won’t argue with you since you’ve taken care of him. If you ever need my help over here, you can come to me Of course, Linda was hinting that there would be a price to pay.Nicole paused and turned her head away. “Butler, please send her off.”
“Yes, Miss.”
Linda gave Nicole a meaningful look before she turned around and left.
Nicole sat there and looked out the window.
It was already afternoon, but the sky was still bright.
There had been a thin layer of clouds since this morning.
Not long after, Logan came back.
He looked worn out like he had left the house early in the morning.
“Ms. Stanton, I’ve talked to Michael’s bodyguard and nanny. They said that Michael’s aunt tried to approach him many times, but he avoided her.
There were also a few times when she planned to take him away forcefully, but the bodyguard got rid of them. Should we send more bodyguards to him?”
Nicole paused and frowned slightly. “I thought she wanted to do something when she came here today, but what happened was a bit unexpected. She didn’t seem too determined to take Michael away, nor was she too persistent.”
Logan was stunned for a few seconds and suddenly thought of something.
“Oh, by the way, I heard that she’s pregnant, but it’s only been two months. Since she has her own child, she won’t force Michael anymore.”
Nicole nodded knowingly.
If this was the reason, then it would make sense.
Nicole was relieved.
“We should still get more bodyguards for Michael. I don’t know if she’ll take the opportunity to do something when we leave, soit’s better to be prepared.”
Logan nodded.
The next second, he suddenly thought of something.
“Ms. Stanton, I met someone outside just now and found out where Roland went earty in the morning of the day before yesterday.”
Nicole was stunned. Logan quickly said, “He went to the hotel suite that Mr. Sloan booked out all-year- round to look for something, but that thing is gone…”
Before Nicole could react, Roland showed up at the door.
“Logan, I didn’t lose that thing. Don’t talk nonsense.”
Logan was caught talking about Roland behind his back, but he was not embarrassed. He just smiled and stood behind Nicole.
Nicole rolled her eyes speechlessly.
Logan’s action implied that Nicole had asked him to inquire about Roland.
How brainless!
Luckily, Roland was not offended. He sighed and explained, “Ms. Stanton, there’s a hard drive that contained some of Mr. Sloan’s important secrets which we may need for the transfer procedures. But that day, someone from the hotel called me all of a sudden, saying that Mr. Sloan’s safe had been tampered with. I was startled and ran over to check it out, but the hard drive inside was gone.”
The hard drive inside was missing.
Nicole frowned. “Did you find anything unusual in the surveillance footage?”
Roland touched his head and was a little confused.
“No. There’s no trace of theft either. There are still a lot of jewelry and gold bars in the safe that no one has touched. Now I wonder if the hard drive was in the safe. Could it be that I was mistaken?”
If there was nothing unusual, then Roland could only blame himself for remembering wrongly.
Roland looked hesitant. “Or perhaps Mr. Sloan put the hard drive in other places that I wasn’t aware of. After all, if this was theft, why would they leave the gold bars and jewelry and take a heavily encrypted hard drive?”
Logan also nodded in deep thought.
“Maybe you remembered it wrong. Will that hard drive expose anything?”
Roland pursed his lips. “Even if it’s missing, the other party won’t be able to break through the firewall. It doesn’t matter even if they got lucky and decrypted it. There’s no important secret in the hard drive, but more of Mr. Sloan’s investment domain and his network from back then. It won’t create a scandal.”
