Chapter 306: Chapter 306: The Truth of the Past
She said, "Honestly, how could someone as stupid as you manage to have a child as exceptional as me?"
The Sterling family froze, stunned by Stella Sterling’s words.
Wanda Larkin fell silent, muttering under her breath, "The last paternity test was a lie. Why won’t you just believe it?"
She spoke softly. She had taken her son’s earlier words to heart and didn’t want him to die here.
Even as she spoke, she couldn’t resist studying Stella Sterling closely.
Believing Stella wasn’t her real daughter and having ulterior motives from the start, Wanda Larkin had never paid her any real mind.
She had never even given Stella Sterling a proper look.
She only knew the girl resembled the Sterlings, but since she was supposedly Magnus Sterling’s daughter, a family resemblance was perfectly normal.
She had never taken a close look at the girl’s features.
Now, hearing Stella’s words, she couldn’t help but scrutinize her, even though she didn’t want to believe it.
The more she looked, the more startled she became. She realized the girl’s eyes, eyebrows, and mouth were all so similar to her own.
Upon closer inspection, she discovered that Stella Sterling actually bore some resemblance to her own long-dead father.
’If she’s Magnus Sterling’s daughter, then none of this should be possible.’
’Then what in the world is going on?’
’Besides, we did a real paternity test with Stella Sterling. It said she wasn’t our daughter.’
"To be honest," Stella said, "given how you all treated me, I had my own doubts about whether you were really my parents. After all, what kind of biological parents would treat their daughter that way?"
"So, I secretly got a paternity test done myself. And unfortunately for me, it turns out I really am your child."
Stella Sterling’s words struck the Sterlings like a bolt of lightning.
Mr. Quinn and Mrs. Sterling’s faces went white. Evan Sterling, however, was ecstatic. ’A twist of fate! What an incredible twist!’
He had all but given up hope of getting out of here alive.
He never imagined things could take such a turn.
"What’s going on? What in the world is going on?"
Wanda Larkin grew agitated. ’If she’s our daughter... then what about Yara? She looks so much like the Sterlings. If she wasn’t our daughter after all, then who was she?’
"This is all my fault."
At this moment, Magnus Sterling, who had been silent on the side, finally spoke up.
The moment he spoke, all eyes in the Sterling family turned to him.
Stella Sterling looked over at him, but her gaze was calm, as if she had long expected this.
’If I’m not Magnus Sterling’s daughter, but Wanda Larkin and the others believed I was, then something must have happened in between.’
’And one thing was clear: Magnus Sterling once had a daughter of his own.’
’So who could his daughter be?’
She connected the dots, recalling his expression when he heard that Yara Sterling was dead.
She was almost certain of it. Barring any other surprises, Yara Sterling had to be Magnus Sterling’s real daughter.
But as for what had happened to make Wanda Larkin and her family believe the lie, only Magnus Sterling himself likely knew the answer.
With everyone’s eyes on him, Magnus Sterling ignored the other members of the Sterling family.
Instead, he kept looking at Stella Sterling, his eyes filled with a complex mix of guilt, remorse, and a hint of hatred.
After a long while, he slowly began to speak.
It turned out that years ago, the brothers Marcus and Magnus Sterling had become bitter enemies while fighting over the family fortune.
But in the end, it was Magnus Sterling who failed. He later started his own business from scratch, but he still held a grudge against his older brother.
Similarly, Marcus Sterling held no affection for his younger brother.
Later, the two brothers’ wives became pregnant at the same time.
After she was born, he learned that his daughter actually had a congenital heart defect, while Marcus Sterling’s daughter was perfectly healthy.
Already filled with resentment, this new unfairness was more than he could bear.
So he came up with a plan, switched the two families’ children, and made his older brother’s family think Yara Sterling was their child.
Then he sent Stella Sterling away, ensuring Marcus Sterling’s real daughter would suffer in the outside world.
But his older brother’s family never knew this and always thought he was the one who had lost his daughter. For all those years, they gloated over his misfortune, taunting and mocking him.
But he endured it all, never breathing a word of the truth to the Sterling family.
Later, he deliberately leaked information about Stella Sterling’s whereabouts, making sure they found out her organs were a match for Yara’s.
That was when his older brother, Marcus Sterling, and his family, desperate to save Yara, concocted the "real and fake heiress" drama to lure Stella Sterling back.
Believing Stella wasn’t their daughter, they always treated her horribly.
He had no further contact with his brother’s family, but he watched everything that happened from the shadows, knowing it was all part of his grand design.
He relished the thought of his brother’s family raising his daughter as their own all these years, while their true biological daughter suffered in the outside world.
They were even willing to harm their own flesh and blood to save his daughter.
The mere thought of it brought him a deep, satisfying pleasure.
Not only would he save his own biological daughter, but once everything was over, he would tell his older brother’s family the truth, which would surely make them weep endlessly.
His plan had always gone smoothly.
The only thing that didn’t go smoothly was that his wife also had a heart condition. After learning their daughter was missing, before he even had a chance to tell her the truth, his wife died of a heart attack.
Later, he never expected things to get to this point. The apocalypse arrived, and his original plan was cut short.
In the end, he even ended up working under Stella Sterling.
When he learned of Stella Sterling’s identity, he had mixed feelings.
He was full of respect and admiration for "Sterling," his leader. But for Stella Sterling of the Sterling family...
After saying all this, he collapsed limply to the ground.
He knew with chilling certainty that by revealing all this, it was over for him. The Sterlings would never let him go.
Even if his older brother’s family was willing to spare him, Sterling would not.
After all, during his time at the base, he had come to understand just how ruthless this younger woman’s methods could be.
But... but learning that his daughter had died anyway after all those years of scheming... coupled with the way Sterling had looked at him earlier... he knew she must have already guessed something. He couldn’t hide it any longer.
So he just blurted it all out.
Stella Sterling listened to it all calmly.
She didn’t feel any great emotion, only the quiet satisfaction of finally having an answer to a question that had puzzled her for years.
