My Fiancé's Scandals Never End, So I Married His Uncle Instead

Chapter 170: Substituting a Plum for a Peach

They hadn’t been in contact, but that didn’t mean they were unaware of each other’s basic situations. Kian Sterling had forced that man abroad years ago, but he had left behind a number of connections in the country. Over the years, he’d caused Kian no small amount of trouble. Just after returning from Silverwood this time, Kian had rooted out three moles who had been secretly passing core data from the Sterling Group to him.

Likewise, the siblings had a rough idea of his circumstances. He was a cold-hearted lecher who’d gone through countless lovers. He had more illegitimate children than you could count on two hands and lived an absurdly hedonistic life abroad.

Ordinarily, their mutual disgust meant they should never want to contact each other again.

"This can’t be anything good," Kian Sterling said, taking Celia Sterling’s phone. He was about to block the number that had just called when a text message popped up.

[Heard my precious daughter is about to celebrate her wedding to Silas Norwood of the Norwood Group. I wonder if Daddy would be welcome to come back and have a drink at my Cece’s celebration?]

"He wants to come back for the wedding?" Celia Sterling’s expression soured. "He just wants to come back and cause trouble for you, doesn’t he, Kade! I heard his horde of mistresses and illegitimate children are a real handful. Have they bled him dry, so now he’s got his sights set on us?"

"The Sterling Group isn’t the same company it was when he was in charge." Kian Sterling casually sent a message to Evan Rhodes, telling him to personally go to the cybersecurity department and have that man’s entire region blacklisted from Celia Sterling’s phone. "Cece, you don’t have to be afraid of anything. Your brother’s here."

"I heard the former Chairman Sterling is active in the Norland region?" Silas Norwood said as he slowly refilled Celia’s soup bowl. "I have some connections over there. Do you need me to put a travel restriction on him?"

"It’s better to channel than to block," Kian Sterling said. Since he had managed to keep the man confined to the Norland region for so many years, he naturally had his own power base there. "When I need you, I won’t hesitate to ask."

"We’re family now. There’s no need for such formalities," Silas Norwood replied, saying no more.

That night, Silas Norwood held Celia Sterling in his arms as they watched the moon outdoors.

"When I was younger, I was training under my father. I had a few dealings with Franklin Sterling. Anyone who could control the Sterling Group for that many years is not to be underestimated," Silas Norwood said, slowly running his fingers through Celia’s hair.

Celia Sterling felt a little embarrassed. "Tonight... you must think I’m a joke, Silas."

"What’s there to joke about? Every big family has its dirty laundry. Back in the day, I had my own long-running feuds with my older brothers, a few uncles, and my cousins."

Silas Norwood sighed softly, ’but he was curious about something else: His wife was a substitute, a plum swapped for a peach. Did Franklin Sterling know?’

Curious, he decided to test the waters. "Cece, were you close with him when you were little?"

Celia Sterling shook her head, looking lost. "I’ve forgotten almost everything before I was four or five. If I try to think hard about it, I can’t remember any time I spent with my father. I heard he doted on me and my brother a little when I was very young, but he soon got a mistress, and his heart wasn’t at home anymore."

She racked her brain to remember. "My earliest memory of my father is of my mother holding me. He came in with a share transfer agreement, and my mother had me press my thumbprint on it. She told me, ’That’s Daddy.’"

That time was so long ago, so distant that Celia Sterling wasn’t even sure if it was a real memory or something she had imagined.

Her little mind was muddled. For a period of time, June Coleman would whisper in her ear all day long:

"Cece, remember, if anyone asks your name, you say you’re Celia Sterling..."

"Cece, I’m Mommy. Come on, say ’Mommy.’"

"Cece, this is your older brother, Kade. Quick, call him ’Brother.’"

Then she would show her a photograph. "Do you remember? This is Daddy. Call him ’Daddy.’"

Back then, she was clearly living in a huge villa, but aside from June Coleman and Kian Sterling, the only other person she saw was an old servant who had been with June Coleman for years. She saw no one else.

After living like that for what seemed like over half a year, she finally met Franklin Sterling.

He was a complete stranger to her. The man ignored an attentive June Coleman, crouching down in front of her, looking slightly surprised.

"It’s been a while. Cece’s put on some weight. She looks a little different than before."

"A while? You haven’t seen your daughter in three years," June Coleman said in a gentle voice. "She’s filled out, so of course her face looks very different from when she was skinny."

Franklin Sterling didn’t think much of it. "True. The last time I saw her, she was just over two. Children change so dramatically. I remember when Kian was this age, he looked different every day. In the blink of an eye, he went from a mischievous kid to a handsome young man adored by half the girls in Metropia."

He studied her carefully again. "Hmm, her eyes and brows still have a trace of how she looked three years ago. The mole between her eyebrows and the birthmark on her neck are still there. It’s our Cece, all right."

He reached out to hold her.

But she was pulled into another’s arms.

Kian Sterling held her and said coolly to Franklin Sterling, "Cece only lets me hold her."

June Coleman sighed beside them. "It’s true. This child, Cece... she doesn’t want anyone else. She clings to Kian all day. She won’t even let me hold her."

...

The memory fragmented there. A child’s memories are blurry and distorted. In Celia Sterling’s mind, she had only ever met Franklin Sterling that one time. Later on, news spread that he was keeping a mistress and had an illegitimate son. That was followed by utter chaos in the Sterling Family: Kian Sterling was stripped of his position as heir, June Coleman and Franklin Sterling had an amicable divorce, and then the illegitimate son was brought into the family...

"I remember Ms. Coleman’s divorce," Celia Sterling said, tilting her head as she thought about it in Silas Norwood’s arms. "She was incredibly calm, as if she’d been expecting it all along. And she and the... ahem, the head of the Shepherd Family... they moved in together very quickly. It’s hard to say if they’d already been seeing each other in private long before that."

Silas Norwood was starting to understand. Franklin Sterling had never considered the possibility that his daughter had been replaced. He glanced at Celia Sterling’s smooth face and delicate neck. "I don’t see the mole and birthmark Cece mentioned..."

"I’m not sure either, but I remember the old housekeeper at the villa painting the birthmark on me with some kind of dye. But Ms. Coleman said I remembered it wrong." Celia Sterling didn’t seem too bothered. "I looked it up online later, and it said that many birthmarks can fade or even disappear. It’s normal."

Silas Norwood hummed softly in acknowledgment.

The timeline became crystal clear in his mind. He, too, had seen the illegitimate son who was brought into the family during the Sterling Family’s internal turmoil; the eldest was only a year younger than Kian Sterling. It was obvious Franklin Sterling had started his second family long ago, neglecting his wife and rarely coming home. He had seen Celia when she was just over two, and the next time was more than three years later. He had probably forgotten what his own daughter looked like entirely. Besides, young children look more or less the same. With some deliberately faked distinguishing marks, the ’plum-for-a-peach’ switch was entirely plausible.

On top of that, Franklin Sterling’s mind was entirely focused on his mistress. He had plenty of children already and couldn’t be bothered to scrutinize whether a child he hadn’t seen in years had gotten chubbier or changed in appearance...

"Cece, all these years..." Thinking of how Celia Sterling had lived in such an ambiguous state for so long, Silas Norwood felt a pang in his heart. "It must have been hard for you."

"I have my brother, so I’m already so happy!" Celia Sterling said softly. "When my parents divorced, my mother insisted on taking me with her. My father didn’t care, but my brother refused. He gave her the silent treatment for days and even threatened to disown her as his mother just to keep me by his side. After that, he raised me with the utmost care, turning me into the Eldest Miss Sterling that everyone in Metropia envies today."