Holly Sinclair remarked coolly.
"What did you say?!" Stella Grayson's expression changed drastically.
It was as if she'd been viciously slapped, and fury instantly shot to her head.
Tristan Sterling's father, Zachary Sterling, had another family on the side.
For Stella Grayson, this was not just painful; it was a humiliation.
"Does it truly not bother you that your own husband has another woman in his heart?"
Her words were, without a doubt, rubbing salt in Stella Grayson's wound.
SLAP!
"Insolence!!"
Furious, Stella Grayson slammed her hand on the table and shot to her feet.
"You may be able to tolerate it, but I can't," Holly Sinclair said.
Her calm demeanor was a stark contrast to Stella Grayson's fuming rage.
"Holly Sinclair, you are too insolent! How dare you speak to me like that!"
Stella Grayson's face was ashen, her voice screeching to a high pitch. "You have no respect for your elders! Go to the ancestral hall and kneel!"
'If I don't teach her a lesson, she'll never learn her place.'
'Daring to talk back to me and dig up my painful past—it's utterly outrageous.'
Holly Sinclair didn't move an inch.
"Tristan Sterling and I are getting a divorce soon."
The subtext was clear: 'I'm no longer subject to the Sterling family's rules and authority.'
"Getting a divorce 'soon' isn't the same as already being divorced. As long as you're a member of the Sterling family, you will obey the Sterling family's rules. Holly Sinclair, if you don't go to the ancestral hall and kneel obediently for five hours, you can forget about this month's allowance!!" Stella Grayson seethed, furious.
Holly Sinclair secretly clenched her fists.
If it weren't for the allowance, she wouldn't have come back at all.
That allowance was life-or-death money for her brother.
She had no choice.
...
An hour later, Tristan Sterling returned to the family residence.
"What are you doing back at this hour?" Stella Grayson asked, surprised to see her son home during work hours.
"Where's Holly Sinclair?" Tristan Sterling asked.
Stella Grayson was displeased that her son's first words were about Holly Sinclair.
"Kneeling in the ancestral hall," she huffed, taking a sip of her tea.
"What did she do?"
"She openly defied an elder. She has no manners whatsoever!" Stella Grayson was still fuming.
Tristan Sterling turned to leave.
"Stop!"
Stella Grayson frowned. "Where do you think you're going?"
"That's enough," Tristan Sterling said coolly.
His words only made Stella Grayson angrier. "Enough of what? It's just a few hours of kneeling. What's the big deal? Which daughter-in-law of the Sterling family hasn't knelt before? Back in the day, your own grandmother made me—"
"Just because you suffered, does that mean she has to suffer too?" Tristan Sterling cut in sharply.
"..."
Stella Grayson was speechless.
Her expression shifted several times. Watching her son's retreating back, she ultimately swallowed the two words she wanted to say: "Don't go."
...
The Sterling Family Ancestral Hall
Holly Sinclair knelt before the ancestral tablets of the Sterling family, swaying on the verge of collapse.
She still hadn't fully recovered from a severe cold, so being forced to kneel for five hours while already weak was only making matters worse.
After just one hour, she could barely hold on.
Suddenly, the sound of familiar footsteps approached her.
"Let's go."
Tristan Sterling's words were brief.
Holly Sinclair slowly lifted her gaze, looking listlessly at the tall, imposing man before her.
She understood what he meant, but she wasn't grateful.
"I... I'm not leaving..." Her voice was faint and weak.
"What?"
The man frowned, wondering if he'd heard her correctly.
Holly Sinclair struggled to move her numb knees. "Your mother said... if I d-don't kneel for the full five... five hours, she'll cut off my allowance..."
"Then let her," he blurted out.
Holly Sinclair pressed her lips together tightly.
A sharp pain stabbed at her heart.
'Let her?'
'He said it so casually.'
Until she could find a job, that monthly allowance of 100,000 yuan was the only thing keeping her brother alive.
That's right.
The esteemed Young Madam of the Sterling family only received a 100,000-yuan monthly allowance.
For an ordinary person, 100,000 was a lot, but for her, it wasn't nearly enough to cover her daily expenses.
It wasn't that she was a spendthrift who didn't know how to save.
As the Young Madam of the Sterling family, she couldn't appear too shabby. She couldn't bring shame to the family name.
So how could a meager 100,000 possibly be enough?
"No," she said, refusing to get up.
"Is the money more important than your life?" he seethed.
She lowered her gaze and said nothing.
An inexplicable anger flared up inside Tristan Sterling.
'How have I never noticed how stubborn she is?'
'She'd rather kneel to death over such a small amount of money than just give in to me?'
'If she just tried to make me happy, it's not like I wouldn't pay for her brother's medical bills…'
'But she just refuses to ask me!'
'So her acting all high and mighty can only mean one thing: she's already set on divorcing me.'
Tristan Sterling's face was dark. "Holly Sinclair, don't push your luck."
"You needn't trouble yourself with whether I live or die, Mr. Sterling," she said with great difficulty, dripping with cold sweat.
Seeing how stubborn she was, the man finally snapped.
"If you love kneeling so much, then by all means, keep kneeling!"
With that cold remark, he turned and stormed away.
But just as his foot crossed the threshold of the ancestral hall, a dull THUD sounded from behind him.
Holly Sinclair had collapsed.
...
Outside the main gate of the Sterling estate, a silver-gray car was parked across the street.
All its windows were rolled up.
Vivian Linton sat in the driver's seat, her eyes fixed on the scene unfolding not far away.
Inside the gate, Tristan Sterling was carrying the unconscious Holly Sinclair, striding quickly toward the garage.
He placed Holly into the car with a surprising gentleness.
Greg started the car, and the black Bentley slowly pulled away.
As the two cars passed each other, Vivian Linton saw clearly that Tristan Sterling had let the unconscious Holly lean against him, nestled in his arms.
And the way he looked at Holly was no longer filled with the disgust and cold indifference of before. It had become…
Complex and unreadable.
Vivian Linton's hands suddenly clenched into fists.
Her nails dug deep into her palms.
...
「A few days later.」
The Hospital.
Holly Sinclair went to see her brother.
"Holly."
Just as she reached the entrance to the inpatient ward, a familiar voice called out from behind her.
She felt sick and didn't want to respond.
But the person behind her had no intention of letting her go.
With the sound of rolling wheels, Vivian Linton appeared before Holly Sinclair, a gentle, friendly smile on her face.
"Holly—"
"Don't call me so intimately. We're not close."
Vivian Linton started to speak again, only to be cut off coldly by Holly Sinclair.
She didn't give her an ounce of respect.
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Vivian Linton's face.
The atmosphere grew tense.
Holly Sinclair had no desire to waste her breath and turned to leave.
Vivian Linton's eyes reddened. Her wheelchair rolled forward, blocking Holly's path. "Holly, I know we can't be friends anymore because of Tristan, but in my heart, you'll always be my best friend."
"Could you please stop making me sick?"
Looking at Vivian Linton's "heartfelt" performance, Holly Sinclair wanted to throw up.
'Best friend?'
Heh!
She, too, had once believed they were the best of friends.
Years ago in school, when Holly was inexplicably targeted by malicious rumors and bullied, Vivian Linton was the only one who stood by her, the only one who believed in her.
But in the end, she discovered that the true culprit, the one who had spread the rumors and instigated the other students to bully her, was none other than Vivian Linton herself!
All because she also liked Tristan Sterling.
Looking at Vivian Linton's hypocritical face and remembering those days when she was an outcast, Holly Sinclair felt utterly sick to her stomach.
"Vivian Linton, you'd better stay away from me. Otherwise, don't blame me for what happens next."
Holly Sinclair said coldly.
With that, she turned to leave.
Vivian Linton glanced at something behind Holly Sinclair out of the corner of her eye.
She suddenly reached out to grab Holly. "Holly, listen to my explanation! The rumors back then, it wasn't me—"
"Don't touch me!"
Disgusted by Vivian Linton's touch, Holly Sinclair reflexively flung her arm out.
"Ah!"
With a scream, Vivian Linton tumbled down the stairs, wheelchair and all.
And at that very moment, standing just a few meters away, Tristan Sterling witnessed the entire thing.