The Unveiling of Secret Queen

Chapter 276: Chapter 276: Pinecone Group Cooperated with Them for Nathalie Quinlan_1

At this moment, the Quinlan Family was engulfed in desolation and despair.

Ghania Quinlan’s eyes were red from crying as she clutched at her father, Jeff Quinlan’s clothes, pleading desperately, ”Dad, you have to think of something, I can’t lose the nomination to National Artists University.”

Emilia Sullivan was also pale as a sheet, bereft of calm and looking utterly panic-stricken as she echoed Ghania, ”That’s right, Jeff, think of something, Ghania can’t lose her nomination; otherwise, she’ll have to take the college entrance exams...”

Ghania’s grades were not good enough for the college entrance exam to get into National Artists University; that’s why they had tried every means to secure this nomination through connections. If they lost it...

Emilia’s eyelids twitched uncontrollably— their dreams of entering high society and Ghania’s dreams of developing her career at National Artists University would all shatter!

”Jeff...”

But before she could say more, Jeff Quinlan suddenly stood up and let out a roar toward the weeping people, ”You have the nerve to cry here! Was it me who told you to use someone else’s work to win a prize without notifying your family in advance, or was it me who told you to push someone’s child down the stairs and then deny it?”

Ghania was startled and for a moment forgot to cry.

Seeing Ghania’s face turn pale with fright, Emilia felt unbearable heartache and quickly wrapped her in her arms to comfort her in a soft voice, while she looked up irritably, ”What’s the use of yelling at Ghania? She didn’t do it on purpose! With things having turned out this way, she is more upset than anyone else! You are her father; you should think of a solution.”

Jeff Quinlan saw that even now, Emilia was still protecting Ghania, unwilling to utter a harsh word. All that remained in his heart was disappointment as he sank back into his chair, his face ashen as he said, ”You made those harsh statements toward Nathalie; now that she’s not responding to messages, I’m out of options.”

What could he do when the evidence against them was incontrovertible? They now had only two choices.

One was to give up the nomination to National Artists University.

The other was to return a child’s leg.

Which do you choose?

”That ingrate!” Even at this juncture, Emilia still harbored such an attitude. Whenever she brought up Nathalie Quinlan, it was with nothing but resentment and dissatisfaction, without ever reflecting on whether she was at fault. Her sole concern was, ”No matter whether she’s part of the Zachmann Family, our family raised her for eighteen years, and Ghania called her ’sister’ for eighteen years. Now that she’s found her biological parents, she adopts this attitude? She’s not afraid of being the laughingstock if that gets out...”

Jeff Quinlan murmured, wanting to say that it was their own family, not Nathalie, who had become the laughingstock of McKinney, but with a heaviness in his chest, he couldn’t utter a word.

Originally, they had arranged the Birthday Banquet to show off; now, instead of making a spectacle, they had lost face entirely.

What startled him the most wasn’t this, however; it was that the CEO of Pinecone Group had just called him.

Mr. Ingram implied both explicitly and implicitly that Pinecone Group’s willingness to cooperate with them in the past was not because Quinlan Real Estate was so outstanding, but because of the respect they had for Nathalie!

When they started cooperating with Pinecone Group, how old was Nathalie?

Was she even 14 years old?

It seems she was only in the ninth grade at that time.

So, how did she come to know Silvania Ingram at the age of 14 or 15, and how was Ingram so considerate to collaborate with Quinlan based on Nathalie’s influence?

It also seemed like from those years, the company’s business became increasingly smooth, and many projects that normally wouldn’t have come their way fell into their laps, ultimately leading to a successful public offering.

The more Jeff Quinlan thought about it, the more despondent he felt. It seemed that the company started facing difficulties around the time when it appeared Ghania’s illness had stabilized and they felt Nathalie was of no use anymore, not wanting another freeloader in the house. They had driven her away then...