CHAPTER 259

Madeline stared at Sam in surprise. "Sam, you've apologized to me before."

Not just one time, but many times.

She did not know why Sam came over all of a sudden to apologize yet again.

"No…" Sam shook his head, but he found it hard to verbalize his innermost thoughts.

He did apologize to Madeline in the past, but he never felt as remorseful toward her as he did now.

Sam had no idea what had gotten into him either…

He just felt… broken and defeated.

All along, he wanted to be a principled and righteous person, but in reality, his actions made him complicit in someone else's suffering.

"Sam, what's wrong? You don't look too good. Did something happen?" Madeline asked in concern.

Sam shook his head, but he could not find the words to say.

"Sam, let's go in and talk." Madeline led Sam into the living room and personally prepared a cup of tea for him.

Sam did not enjoy coffee. He preferred tea, and his favorite was a good cup of green tea.

Madeline had specifically chosen the highest-quality green tea they had on hand and prepared it for him. Soon, the air was scented with the fragrance of green tea.

Sam had mixed feelings when he noticed how she had prepared a pot of green tea without even needing to ask him.

He had showered Isabel with all the care and affection in the world, but Isabel probably did not even know about his likes and dislikes.

Meanwhile, he had given Madeline not even a tenth of the time and attention that he had given Isabel, but Madeline was familiar with his preferences.

He… felt apologetic toward her.

"Sam, what happened?" Madeline asked again as she stared at Sam in concern. "You don't look well."

"Nothing happened." Sam drank a cup of tea before he finally managed to regale the incident with Isabel to her. "I came over to tell you that Isabel will no longer have any relationship with the Taylor family. I've sent someone to get her name legally changed. From tomorrow onward, she'll be Isabel Xavier."

"Oh," Madeline said in acknowledgment without commenting any further.

Her status in the family was a little awkward, so it was not her place to say anything.

Sam gave a bitter chuckle as he stared at her. "Maddie, if she had even half of your kindness and

maturity, she would not have done such deplorable things."

Madeline racked her brains for something she could respond with, but she came up empty.

All she could do was try to console Sam. "It's all in the past now. You shouldn't dwell on it, Sam. You're not in the best of health right now, so you need to avoid stressing yourself in any way. Everything will be fine since it's all sorted out now."

"Yeah. It's all sorted out now." Sam snorted self-deprecatingly. "It's all because of my foolishness. I didn't cut her off when I should've, so I ended up contributing to the trouble she caused. I wasn't as decisive as Dad and Dan were, and I ended up causing Marshall's suffering. If I hadn't given her that much money, he never would've been abused by her."

Madeline nodded and asked, "Is Marshall alright?"

She felt sympathetic toward Marshall.

Some people fell into vices voluntarily, such as Isabel, while others were forced into it, like Marshall.

Many people looked down on escorts or gigolos and treated them with contempt, but Marshall was in a situation where his only younger brother needed a huge sum of money to treat his illness. Money did not grow on trees. He had no other choice but to set his dignity aside to try and earn as much money as he could.

A lot of people would insult Marshall and say that he was shameless, but what other choices did he have?

If he did not earn enough money, he would have to watch as his brother wasted away.

Some might say that there were tons of ways to earn money in this world, so regardless of the situation, Marshall should not have abandoned his dignity and resorted to selling himself. Since he did, it had to mean that he was a shameless person. Otherwise, he would have found some other means of gathering funds.

He must have chosen to be a gigolo because he was unwilling to work hard for his money, but instead wanted a cushy job that did not require much effort.

It was easy for bystanders to make such comments when they did not have to be in Marshall's shoes.

However, Madeline started the Oasis Law Office specifically to help people in need. Therefore, despite her relatively young age, she had seen much of the woes of others and knew that it was not easy to earn money in this day and age.

Even the best of men would have to make tough decisions if they did not have money.

Words like escort or gigolo often led to disdain, but Madeline did not look down on Marshall in any way. She pitied him.

"He's not too good. He was nothing but skin and bones, and he did not look like he was in a good headspace…" Sam commented with great difficulty. "I will send someone to keep an eye on him and compensate him in any way I can."

Madeline nodded. "That's good."

The living room fell silent as neither one of them spoke.

After a while, Sam pointed toward the boxes stacked up in a corner of the living room. "Are you sorting through your belongings?"

"Huh?" Madeline turned to see what he was pointing at. "Oh, that. The Shrivers sent those over as an apology and compensation for what Queenie and her son did."

"...Oh," Sam said.

The bitter feeling in his heart intensified.

If Madeline had not met Sebastian, things would not have turned out like this.

Based on the relationship the Taylors had with the Shrivers, the result would be the opposite. Madeline would have had to apologize to the Shrivers on behalf of her two sons.

His remorse toward Madeline and her two children grew even deeper…

Sam could no longer push aside the bitterness and remorse he felt. He attempted to apologize once more, but his phone started ringing. Belongs to © n0velDrama.Org.

He had to swallow his apology as he brought his phone out.

It was Eugene who was calling. Eugene was his assistant and one of his most trusted subordinates.

He answered the call.

"Sir," Eugene greeted him before getting straight to the point. "We've found out who it was that funded the online smear campaign against Miss Isabel…"

"Don't address her as Miss Isabel anymore," Sam corrected Eugene. "She's no longer a part of the Taylor household. Also, everything that was shared online was nothing but the truth—an ugly truth, but the truth nonetheless, so it doesn't count as a smear campaign."

"...Yes, sir. Understood," Eugene replied.

"Who did it?" Sam asked.

"It's Luke Adams," Eugene said. "Sir, it wasn't hard for me to find out who did it, not because of my skills, but because Luke Adams seems to have no intention of hiding it. He does not seem concerned about the possibility of us finding out that it was him. In fact, it feels like he left clues on purpose to make sure that we traced it back to him."

"Luke Adams…" Sam massaged his temples as he felt a headache coming on. "Yeah, it sounds like something he'd do…"

Once Luke had dealt with his stepmother and became the second young master of the Adams family, the richest family in Billington, he tried to cause trouble for Sam a couple of times.

Sam was not a pushover and Luke had not been able to one-up him, but even so, Sam was not keen to get involved with such a lunatic.

"Anyway, you don't need to look into this any longer. Inform your men and make sure they don't come

into contact with him either," Sam instructed Eugene.

Luke was a certifiable madman.

There was no telling what a madman might do.

Sam was the Taylor family heir and he had the responsibility of maintaining the family's dignity and status in society. He could not risk all that to go up against a lunatic who was a loose cannon.

In any case, while it was despicable of Luke to announce Isabel's deeds to the world, none of it was libel.

Everything said online was true.

The Taylors were the ones in the wrong, so if he did go up against Luke, they would be the ones to suffer a blow.

The best way to deal with it now was to try to buy their way into wiping the gossip off the Internet and ignoring those that could not be silenced with money. All manner of gossip came and went on the Internet anyway. Soon enough, the gossip about Isabel would die down and be replaced by some other new piece of gossip.

Netizens tended to be rather forgetful. They would forget all about Isabel once they had another juicy gossip to latch onto.