Chapter 180 Just Begging Will Suffice
Adeline's grip on her phone faltered for a moment.
After a pause, she laughed in disbelief. "Ms. Collins, am I hearing you right? Your people kidnapped my son and daughter. They're here applying medicine to their injuries! And now you want to talk about a deal? I don't think there's anything to discuss between us."
Monica, leaning against the hospital bed, closed her eyes. "What if it's about my divorce from Jasper?"
Adeline furrowed her brows. "What do you mean?"
Monica took another deep breath, wanting to be clear. "The person who had Bennett and Lauren taken wasn't me. You should know I'm not that foolish. If I wanted to hurt Lauren and Bennett, there are many other ways I could do it, without resorting to something this stupid."
Adeline's grip tightened on her phone. "What are you getting at?"
"You've probably heard that Jasper wants to divorce me."
Monica smiled sadly; her voice laced with sorrow. "I'm willing to not fight for custody during the divorce, in exchange for you convincing Jasper to let Mandy go free."
Adeline laughed again. "Monica, have you lost your mind or have I? To use custody as leverage to make me beg Jasper to spare the person who hurt my children? Do you think Jasper doesn't know about your connection to Mandy? Do you really think you can secure custody of the kids in a divorce from Jasper without my help?"
At the other end of the line, Quinn Starling's face turned pale.
She knew too well that Adeline's words held weight.
However, she couldn't let Jasper see through her plans, no matter the cost.
With that thought, she bit her lip hard. "Since that condition is a no-go, what's your offer? If you can get Jasper to back off from Maya Munroe, I'll agree to...anything."
Adeline let out a laugh, "Can you drop the charade and go back to being yourself, then?"
"Impossible!" Adeline's words were cut off sharply by Quinn. "Anything but that, I'll agree to."
"Then, there's nothing to discuss." With those cold words, Adeline looked down and moved to hang up.
"Wait!" Suddenly, Quinn sounded like she had an epiphany. "I can get you in touch with the Gu family, and with Helen!"
Adeline paused slightly.
Seeing that Adeline hadn't hung up, Quinn felt a glimmer of hope.
"Adeline, you don't want your parents to favor Molly over you forever, do you? Look, even though the Gus and Helen are taking my side now. This is all your doing. They've been vigorously defending me, or rather you, at the press conferences. I can help you take care of them and change their perception of you..."
Adeline's grip on her phone tightened slowly.
Molly's words over coffee before leaving the country echoed in her ear. "We're only half-sisters by our father. The Gu family swapped your real sister with me. I became the second Miss Gu, while your biological sister was sent to an orphanage."
She closed her eyes, her heart tightening slowly.
She had always suspected that Quinn Starling could be her lost biological sister.
The woman let out a faint sigh.
Helen's attitude had almost made her sever ties with the Gu family so many times.
At the end of the day, Helen was still her birth mother. She had been deceived by Mr. Gu for so many years, raising Molly as her own.
If Quinn really was Helen's second daughter...
Taking a deep breath, Adeline, lips pressed together, said, "I can help you, but on one condition.
"First, you ensure that Maya Munroe will never show up in Denver again. Second, you treat the Gus, especially Helen, as your own parents."
"I promise!" No sooner had Adeline finished speaking than Star Foxx immediately agreed to her terms.
"All Geoffrey and Helen really want is money, isn't it?" she mused.
Both the Mo family and the Fosters had plenty of that to spare.
"Fine." Adeline paused. "But I can only promise to try and convince Jasper to let her go. Whether he agrees or not... That's beyond my control."
"That's all I ask!" Star's voice carried an urgent edge. "It's been ten minutes since Jasper caught up Mona. Hurry, please."
Adeline hummed in acknowledgement.
Before hanging up, she threw one last question Star's way. "Did you grow up in an orphanage?"
Star faltered on the other end of the line. "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Nothing. Never mind."
Ending the call, the woman took a deep breath and turned around.
On the couch, two kids with their big eyes wide open were staring intently at her.
The three pairs of eyes met.
Finally, Bennett curled his lip and crossed his arms defiantly. "Didn't we agree that helping Granny out with Molly's situation would be the last time?"
"Yes,"
Lauren looked down at her own tiny fingers, her voice tinged with resentment. "Are we really letting that bad guy off just like that? Was Bennett's pain all for nothing?"
Adeline sighed, walked over, and gently tousled the little girl's hair. "We're just agreeing to let her go, not to leave her unscathed. Whether she gets hurt and the extent of her injuries, that's still up in the air. As long as she doesn't die, that counts as letting her go, right?"
Lauren blinked, confused.
"Oh, come on, dummy. It means we give her a beating, make her feel twice the pain we felt, and then send her on her way," Bennett explained, shifting to a more comfortable position on the couch, his eyes distant. "The person who orchestrated our kidnapping wasn't aiming to kill us. They just wanted to vent their anger with a few punches.
"People like that usually get beaten up, arrested by the cops, thrown in jail, or are roughed up for a while before sending them home. In other words, agreeing to Star's request just cuts out the middleman, letting her go straight home."
He then reached out to Adeline for the phone. "Let me talk to him. We wouldn't want him to think you're not protective enough of us."
Adeline handed over the phone with a sigh. "Are you still in pain?"
"I feel much better after applying the medicine."
Taking a deep breath, the little guy grabbed Adeline's phone and retreated into the master bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
Lauren watched Bennett's retreating figure, her cheek resting on one palm as she leaned against the coffee table. "Why is Bennett sneaking off to make calls?"
Adeline chuckled. "He's probably strategizing with your dad on how to deal with that Maya Young. He anticipates a messy scene, doesn't want us to overhear."
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