4. Good News—The True Heiress Can Speak! Bad News—She Offends Everyone!

The suggestion sent a ripple of shock through the room.

Even guests nearby who had overheard couldn’t help but turn their attention to the commotion.

The Richmond Family’s banquet hall was grand, with towering ceilings and a massive crystal chandelier hanging from above, casting a dazzling light across the entire room.

Socialites adorned in jewels and elegant gowns, as well as gentlemen in ties and designer watches, had been casually chatting with their glasses of wine in hand. But now, curious whispers spread like wildfire as one by one, heads turned toward Sophia’s corner.

These elites, accustomed to being the center of attention, seemed unbothered by the sudden focus, merely covering their mouths in surprise or whispering to friends at their sides.

Sophia could hear their voices, buzzing like a swarm of insects:

“No way… Isabella, you never mentioned your sister was mute!”

“She’s not, is she? I mean, she shouldn’t be… She’s just shy.”

“Shy enough not to have said a single word yet? Has she even greeted Eleanor Richmond or Mrs. Richmond?”

“She hasn’t even called them ‘Mom’? That’s ridiculous. They shouldn’t have bothered bringing her back.”

“Enough, stop it!”

Isabella quickly stepped forward, taking Sophia’s hand and addressing the others with a serious expression. “Sophia is my biological sister, my parents’ own daughter. She holds the same status in the Richmond Family as I do! If you’re mocking her, you’re mocking me, and you’re mocking the Richmond Family!”

Her friends either apologized or shrugged off her rebuke, and only then did Isabella’s tense expression relax. She turned to Sophia with hesitant eyes, finally addressing her as “sister.”

“Can you tell me why you haven’t spoken at all?”

Her tone was cautious, but the look in her eyes was arrogant, almost triumphantly declaring, **“This is my territory. Don’t you see?”

“I don’t mean anything by it,” Isabella continued. “But if you don’t start talking or greeting people, Mom, Grandma, and soon Dad, as well as our brothers and sisters, will all be very worried. If you’re scared, you could practice with us first.”

She pointed to herself with a seemingly innocent smile. “I’m Isabella, your sister. Grandma and Mom like to call me Bella, so you can call me Bella too.”

“Don’t say a word! Absolutely not!”

In her mind, Dean Harris crossed his fingers in front of his lips, his expression as firm as it was fierce.

But out of the corner of her eye, Sophia noticed Sebastian Carrington.

He had just entered from the terrace, and everyone he passed instinctively made way for him, his face once again dark and brooding.

“Are you sure that as long as we fulfill the marriage contract, I’ll be able to stay with the Richmond Family?”

“Of course.”

The conversation from the terrace overrode Dean Harris’s stern warning. Isabella tugged on her sleeve.

“Sister… can’t you really speak?”

Sophia slowly turned her head, meeting her gaze.

Concerned expression, but with eyes filled with malice and smug satisfaction.

Sophia studied her for a moment before gently reaching out to touch her hair, softly saying, “Bella.”

Her voice was so sweet, it could melt hearts—light and clear, it left the onlookers momentarily stunned. Some even glanced around, thinking they might have imagined it.

Isabella was completely frozen, her face blank with shock for two full seconds before she broke into a wide smile. “Sister! You spoke!”

“Have you ever met your real mother?” Sophia asked.

“I have.”

“She came to me, begging on her knees, asking me not to kick you out of the Richmond Family.”

“Do you know why?”

“She has AIDS and needs money for treatment.”

“She’s terrified that if you leave the Richmond Family, she won’t have the money to survive. Bella, have you ever given her any money?”

——The room fell into a deathly silence.

A woman named Emily tilted her head, frowning. “What? What is she talking about? Did I mishear?”

“What are you saying?!”

Sophia’s cousin, who had previously shown little interest in her, suddenly stormed over, yanking Isabella behind him as he glared at Sophia. “Are you out of your mind? Even if you’re jealous, you can’t say that about your own sister! Keep this up, and the Richmond Family won’t acknowledge you anymore!”

“So it’s jealousy? Is she insane?”

“I don’t even understand, is she making this up?”

…

Sophia ignored all the noise, her gaze fixed on Isabella, who remained stiff as a statue. “Bella.”

She whispered the name again. “Bella… such a nice name. Do you know what your real father’s last name is? Would you like me to tell you?”

Isabella finally started to tremble, as if waking from a nightmare. She clutched Connor Fields’s shirt, her entire body shaking as if in shock, her eyes wide with disbelief.

Feeling the tremors behind him, Connor Fields reached the limit of his patience and raised his hand, shouting:

“Enough!”

Smack—

But it wasn’t his hand that landed on Sophia’s face. Instead, Sophia had caught it mid-air.

She looked up, meeting her cousin’s eyes for the first time, and without hesitation, raised her other hand—

Smash!

Porcelain shards flew as the dessert plate she had been holding shattered against the man’s head.

Crimson blood seeped through his hair, and his fierce gaze turned to one of shock and confusion.

Sophia dusted off her hands, stepping forward as she stared him down with her dark eyes. “What do you think you’re doing? You think you can hit me? Who do you think you are, daring to lay a hand on me? Who are you to say whether the Richmond Family should acknowledge me?”

She glanced at his face, then added, “With a face like that, I’m starting to doubt you’re really one of us. Why don’t you get a DNA test, just like your dear cousin?”

She tilted her head, looking past him at Isabella. “What do you say, Bella?”

Isabella’s head snapped up, her face ghostly pale, eyes wide with horror as she stared at Sophia, as if she wanted to tear her apart.

But in the end, she could only clutch her head and scream.

The commotion finally drew everyone’s attention, and Margaret Richmond and Eleanor Richmond hurried over.

“What’s going on? What is all this fuss about?” Margaret Richmond rushed to support Isabella, but before she could even offer comfort, she caught sight of the blood on Connor Fields’s face and gasped. “Connor, your face!”

“Never mind me! Look after Bella!” Connor Fields wiped at the blood, glaring coldly at Sophia. “Your newly returned third cousin said Bella isn’t a Richmond.”

Margaret Richmond’s pupils contracted, and she reflexively shouted, “She’s talking nonsense—”

Her words were cut off by the cold, dark gaze that Sophia fixed on her.

Sophia stared at Margaret Richmond, the brilliant chandelier light reflecting in her eyes, yet they remained as deep and cold as the frozen sea under the moonlight.

Chilling, distant, with a cruel undertone, as if the frozen waters would break through the ice and consume everything if she said the wrong word.