Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Miss Sterling, Welcome Home
"Perfect!" Mrs. Lane sneered. "I want to see her made a fool of."
She then looked at her son and asked curiously, "But what do you mean by that? What kind of fool has she made of herself?"
Shawn Lane’s handsome face was tight with anger. He certainly wasn’t going to tell his mother that Cecilia Sterling had boasted about donating an astronomical telescope to the school.
But he was a man, and he had to help Cecilia sort this out. Over a thousand dollars... there was no way Cecilia could afford that!
’If I can solve this problem for her, Cecilia will definitely be grateful,’ he thought. ’Then I’ll have a chance to make things right with her.’
"If you won’t listen to me, I’ll go talk to Dad!"
Mrs. Lane snorted dismissively. "It’s no use talking to him. This was his idea."
"You ended up in a urology clinic because of what she did. Did you really think your father wouldn’t be angry?"
Hearing this, Shawn Lane grew frantic. When the hard approach failed, he tried a softer one. "Mom, I’m begging you, please don’t make things difficult for me!"
"How am I making things difficult for you?" Mrs. Lane’s face went cold. "Our family’s donations to your school were always for your benefit. But did the school stand up for you? They won’t even expel a girl like that, yet they still expect donations from the Lane Group? Dream on!"
"They can’t bear to expel her, right? Then let that Cecilia Sterling become a pariah at school! In any case, our family will never donate another thing to your school again!"
Seeing that his mother would yield to neither threats nor pleas, Shawn Lane was overcome with a profound sense of helplessness, as if he were screaming into the void.
He paced back and forth in the living room, dejected, before suddenly jerking his head up.
’No, I have to go back to school. I can’t let Cecilia face this alone.’
Ten minutes later, as Mrs. Lane was admiring her freshly completed flower arrangement with a satisfied expression, she saw her son, fully dressed, come running down the stairs.
Her face fell. "Where are you going?"
"Back to school." Shawn Lane quickly changed his shoes and looked up at his mother. "Don’t you want to see a laughingstock? Then I’ll become one right alongside her for you to see."
Although she didn’t know what her son planned to do at school, it didn’t sound like anything good. "You are not allowed to go! Get back here!" she snapped.
But Shawn Lane was already gone, running off without a backward glance.
Seeing this, Mrs. Lane stomped her foot in fury. With an angry swipe of her hand, she knocked the flower basket off the table and onto the floor.
After fuming for a long while, she finally took out her phone and quickly sent a few messages to Beatrice Lynn, telling her to keep an eye on Shawn Lane.
Meanwhile, Cecilia Sterling was not at school.
「Hearthstone Villas」
Cecilia was returning home for the first time as the owner and, as expected, was stopped at the security booth at the entrance.
"Which residence are you visiting?"
The guard on duty was a tall, handsome young man. His attitude was polite and professional as he mistook the unfamiliar Cecilia for a visitor.
Cecilia calmly took the property deed from her bag and explained, "I’m the new owner here. This is my first time."
The guard was visibly stunned for a moment. He quickly took the deed from Cecilia and glanced at it, confirming that she was indeed an owner in Hearthstone Villas.
He bowed deeply and, as he returned the deed with both hands, said, "Miss Sterling, welcome home!"
Cecilia smiled and nodded. "Thank you. Could I trouble you to show me the way?"
"Of course, no problem."
Lily Sterling, walking beside her, whispered excitedly, "Sis, this looks like a villa community."
She could already glimpse the clusters of villas nestled among the lush greenery.
’A villa in Downtown Lorcain... how much must this place have cost?’
"It is a villa, and it’s huge." Cecilia took her sister’s hand and said with a smile, "Try to remember the way yourself. You can’t trouble the guard every time."
Lily Sterling nodded eagerly, her eyes darting around curiously the entire way.
The roads were wide, and the distance between each villa was considerable, ensuring a high degree of privacy.
The environment was impeccable; even the streetlights lining the road looked priceless.
Cecilia could hardly contain her own anticipation. It was her first time living in a villa, too—and one she had bought with her own money.
"Miss Sterling, this is your home. Welcome to Hearthstone Villas."
"Thank you. I might have some personal belongings delivered this evening. Please let them in when they arrive," Cecilia instructed.
The guard nodded. "Yes, of course."
After the guard left, Cecilia stood outside the main gate and looked in. The first thing she saw was a huge garden, and the uniquely designed house looked beautiful even from a distance.
Lily Sterling was already bursting with impatience. "Sis, let’s go in!"
Cecilia stepped forward and entered the passcode. The villa’s large, teal-colored gates slowly slid open. As the two sisters stepped into the courtyard hand in hand, the moment felt surreal.
The villa came fully furnished. James Lockwood had never lived in it, so all the furniture was still covered with dust cloths.
Lily Sterling paid no mind to anything else, immediately running off to excitedly explore every room as soon as they were inside. Cecilia simply followed behind with a gentle smile.
She had remembered correctly. There were eight bedrooms in total, each with its own en-suite bathroom and a balcony.
"Sis, I love this one!"
It was a large, south-facing bedroom at the far end of the third floor, nearly sixty square meters in size. Beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows was a large, open-air balcony that offered a spectacular view of the backyard pool and the bustling high-rises in the distance.
"Then this one’s yours. Aren’t you scared to sleep in such a big room all by yourself?" Cecilia asked with a laugh.
Lily Sterling shook her head repeatedly. "Not at all! Sis, this one room is almost bigger than our whole old house!"
Their house back home was old, small, and run-down—less than eighty square meters in total—so they had grown up in very cramped quarters.
’Now that we have a big house, I just hope my brother does well on his college entrance exams and can come to Lorcain, too. Then we can bring Mom here as well. I’ll only feel at ease when all my family is with me.’
The new house needed a deep cleaning. Even with the furniture covered, dust was everywhere. But Hearthstone Villas’ property management had a professional cleaning team, which Cecilia arranged with a single phone call.
After touring the entire villa, Lily Sterling curled up on the living room sofa and started shopping online. The ten dollars her sister had transferred to her earlier came in handy. Now that she had her own new room, she wanted to decorate it properly.
As she was choosing a four-piece bedding set, a notification from her bank suddenly popped up on her phone.
A deposit of 288 dollars had been made to her account.
She froze for a second, then suddenly let out an uncontrollable shriek. "AHHH—"
"What is it, Lily?" Cecilia heard her and quickly poked her head in from the balcony.
Lily ran to her sister’s side, phone in hand, and showed her the message. "Sis, I got paid for the show! My 60% advance is 288 dollars!"
As a newcomer playing the fourth female lead, Lily Sterling’s pay was 8 dollars per episode. For 60 episodes, that came to a total of 480 dollars.
After signing the contract, she received a 60% advance, with the remaining 40% to be paid after filming was complete.
And since Lily was an independent actress without an agency, she would have to file and pay her own taxes later.
"That’s great, Lily! You’ve earned your first real paycheck!" Cecilia said with a smile, genuinely happy for her sister.
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