Claire and I Are Cousins

After saying that, he stood and walked outside. "Stay here and amuse yourself for now. I'll come back in a bit."

In the room, when Sean Shaw saw Julian Sterling, his eyes immediately filled with tears as he stepped forward. "Mr. Sterling! I have something very, very important to tell you. You absolutely have to hear me out!"

Sean Shaw had flown overnight from New York to Chicago just to explain everything clearly.

Otherwise, he was probably done for.

Julian Sterling sat down calmly, his long, powerful legs braced as he spoke one word in a low voice: "Talk."

With a miserable expression, Sean Shaw said, "Actually, Claire and I..."

The moment Sean Shaw began to speak, Julian Sterling's expression darkened heavily. In his mind, he had already imagined many possibilities for what Sean Shaw was about to say.

Either he was going to beg him to let them go and allow them to live happily together, or he was going to abandon Claire Bennett and beg for more resources.

But Julian Sterling had never expected to hear this...

"Claire and I are cousins!"

Even someone as steady as Julian Sterling, who could remain unfazed with Mount Tai pressing down before him, froze when he heard Sean Shaw's words.

His eyes turned sharp in an instant, and he shot Sean Shaw a severe look as he demanded coldly, "What did you say?"

Sean Shaw was frightened by Julian Sterling's overwhelming presence.

He said cautiously, "Did you... did you misunderstand my relationship with Claire before, and that's why you canceled Shaw Group's contract?"

After Claire Bennett told him about that matter, the more he thought about it, the more something felt off, so he guessed that Julian Sterling had probably misunderstood his relationship with Claire Bennett.

Otherwise, why had he been targeting him with that weird passive-aggressive attitude?

Sean Shaw said bitterly, "Mr. Sterling, after this partnership fell through, that old man chewed me out so badly when I got back. If it wasn't because of this, then can you tell me why you suddenly canceled Shaw Group's cooperation agreement?"

Julian Sterling's emotions rose and fell.

It took him quite a while to digest this information before he lifted his deep eyes to look at Sean Shaw and pressed, "How are you and Claire cousins?"

He had already ordered Marcus Reed to investigate Claire Bennett's background.

Aside from what had happened in her childhood, there had been absolutely nothing connecting her to Sean Shaw, which was why hearing this news had shocked him so much.

"I knew it!" Sean Shaw sighed helplessly. In a grave tone, he said, "Claire's mother is my aunt. Back then, she was hit by a car and became vegetative, and then Claire's father shamelessly divorced her unilaterally. After that, the Shaw family and the Bennett family fell out and stopped having any contact."

"Later, Claire Bennett left that cold-blooded, heartless home too, so of course no one knew about our relationship."

Sean Shaw went straight to the key points.

The Bennett family was an old, powerful elite family in New York. Although the Shaw family wasn't on the Bennett family's level, they could still barely be considered a suitable match. Back then, Victor Bennett and Megan Shaw Bennett's marriage had once been regarded as a fine union.

For it to end up like this later on really made one sigh with regret.

Julian Sterling fell silent. Claire Bennett had mentioned this matter to him before. At the time, he had indeed had some guesses, but he had never imagined this connection at all.

"The Shaw family and the Bennett family were once joined by marriage. Claire Bennett is Victor Bennett's daughter?"

"That's right!" Sean Shaw nodded quickly and said, "It's just that what happened back then had a huge impact on Claire, and she gave up her father-daughter relationship with Victor Bennett long ago."

After saying that, he looked at Julian Sterling solemnly and said, "Mr. Sterling, if you really do like Claire, then I hope you won't look down on her. Behind her now, she only has our Shaw family."

"Although I know the Shaw family can't compare with the Sterling family, if we wanted to find Claire a man with a pretty good family background, that wouldn't be difficult either."

What Sean Shaw actually meant was that if Julian Sterling was only fooling around, then there was no need to hurt Claire Bennett. The Shaw family would support her from behind.

Light streamed in through the window outside, and the hard expression Julian Sterling had worn just now slowly softened into a layer of tenderness.

"I will never look down on her."

Before, when he hadn't known Claire Bennett's identity, he had never looked down on her for anything. Now that he knew, he would even less so.

Seeing Julian Sterling's expression ease considerably, Sean Shaw rubbed his hands together and said with a smile, "Mr. Sterling, since the misunderstanding has been cleared up, does that mean our contract can continue after all?"

Julian Sterling gave him a single response: "Go talk to my assistant."

Sean Shaw was so excited he almost laughed out loud; he felt like he was floating.

His trip to Chicago hadn't been for nothing after all!

So Julian Sterling really had been holding up his contract because of this.

Damn, if he'd known sooner, he would have explained things to Julian Sterling earlier, and then he wouldn't have had to suffer for nothing!

From now on, he could cling to this cousin-in-law's massive thigh to his heart's content!

Working up his courage, Sean Shaw stepped forward and patted Julian Sterling on the shoulder. "Cousin-in-law, when you and Claire get married, I'll definitely give you a big wedding gift."

After saying that, Sean Shaw eagerly went off to find Marcus Reed.

Thinking of what Sean Shaw had just called him, the corners of Julian Sterling's lips curved into a faint smile.