"What are you doing! Let me go! I’m Ethan Cross’s fiancée!"

Eva struggled like a madwoman, but the bodyguards remained unmoved.

"Lock her up," Ethan’s voice was devoid of warmth. "She stays there until I find Seraphina."

"Ethan Cross, you can't do this to me! We’re getting married tomorrow!"

Ethan spat out three words with icy finality.

"The wedding is canceled."

Both Eva, who was being hauled away, and Zheng, who was still on the floor, froze in shock. Then, Eva began to scream even more hysterically.

"I won't cancel the wedding! Why should it be canceled! Ethan Cross, you love Seraphina Thorne, don't you! How pathetic—she killed your grandfather, yet you still love a murderer!"

Ethan’s face turned various shades of pale and flushed, but he didn't offer a single word of rebuttal. At the moment he learned Seraphina’s child was gone, his heart seemed to have stopped as well.

Ethan had finally recognized his own heart. Eva was right.

He hated Seraphina Thorne with a passion. But at the same time, he loved her just as desperately.

Chapter 15

Seeing that Ethan didn't deny it, Eva’s face twisted with rage. She abandoned all decorum, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Ethan Cross! If your grandfather knew you loved the woman who killed him, how could he ever rest in peace! How can you face him!"

"Make her shut up."

A bodyguard delivered a swift, heavy blow to the back of Eva’s neck. The woman who had been acting like a demon moments ago instantly went limp and was carried away.

Ethan pursed his lips, his eyes falling on Zheng.

"As for you... go down and apologize to my child."

Zheng trembled violently, and the stench of urine filled the air. As the bodyguards moved to grab him, Zheng shrieked.

"It wasn't Seraphina Thorne who killed your grandfather!"

The air in the room solidified instantly. It became so quiet one could hear a pin drop. Ethan narrowed his eyes, staring at him.

"Speak."

Zheng wiped the snot from his face, regaining a shred of leverage.

"Then Mr. Cross must promise me that he won't kill me."

The corner of Ethan’s mouth twitched. "Fine."

"I hired someone to investigate Eva Vance in private. On the day your grandfather died, she had also been to your house."

The moment Zheng said those words, Ethan understood the implication. But he didn't want to believe it. He didn't dare admit that he had wrongly accused Seraphina.

If the person who killed his grandfather wasn't Seraphina... then what had he been doing for the past year?

Ethan closed his eyes to hide the surging agony within him. "Where is the evidence?" he asked hoarsely.

Zheng gave a sly grin. "I’ll mail the evidence to you once I’m completely safe."

Ethan gave him a look of dark amusement.

"Break his legs."

With a wave of his hand, the bodyguards pinned Zheng down into the wet puddle on the floor.

"Ethan Cross! What are you doing! You promised to spare my life!"

Ethan’s eyes dimmed as he let out a self-deprecating laugh.

"I also promised Seraphina I’d take her home in half a month."

He knelt down and grabbed Zheng by the collar.

"Where is Seraphina Thorne?"

Zheng was frightened out of his wits by the killing intent in Ethan's eyes.

"I don't know... she set fire to my house after hitting me. When I woke up, she was long gone..."

Ethan slammed a fist into Zheng’s face, instantly bruising it.

"You’d better pray I find her soon, or I’ll make you wish you were dead. For now, you can start paying your debt."

He released him and turned to the bodyguards.

"Take him away. Don't let him die."

He then looked up at his terrified secretary at the door.

"Search! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find Seraphina Thorne! Also, track every movement Eva Vance has made. And the surveillance footage from when my grandfather died—re-investigate everything!"

The bodyguards hauled away Zheng and the limp Eva. Ethan was left alone in the morgue. He stumbled toward the hospital bed and pulled back the white sheet.

Looking at the charred, unrecognizable mannequin, he laughed bitterly.

How much must Seraphina hate him? To hate him so much that she would rather fake her own death just to leave his side.

His heart felt as if it were being pierced by thousands of needles. He finally understood that he had hated the wrong person, and he had personally destroyed the girl who once looked at him with nothing but love.

The details he had deliberately ignored began to play before his eyes uncontrollably. The look in Seraphina’s eyes when she asked, "If I said I loved you, would you believe me?" Her feigned stubbornness when he humiliated her. The way she held her abdomen in silent pain.

Each scene flashed by, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

"Seraphina... where are you?"

He whispered to himself, his voice filled with a panic and remorse he had never known before.

Chapter 16

Meanwhile, in a private hospital on the outskirts of the city.

Seraphina lay in a hospital bed, her face as pale as a sheet of paper. Arthur Thorne sat by the bed, looking at his daughter wrapped in bandages, his eyes filled with heartache and guilt.

"Sera, I’m sorry. Your father failed to protect you and the baby."

Seraphina opened her eyes, which were hollow and devoid of light. She shook her head gently.

"It's not your fault, Dad. I was the one who was stupid."

The child was gone, and the love she had clung to throughout her youth was shattered. Her heart felt hollowed out, leaving only numbness.

"The doctor said you’re too weak and need to recover properly." Arthur handed her some warm water. "Once you’re better, we’ll go abroad and never come back."

Seraphina took the glass, her fingertips icy.

"Dad, did Ethan’s grandfather really have nothing to do with you?"

"Nothing at all." Arthur nodded firmly and pulled out a stack of documents.

"This is what I found later. Eva Vance knew about you and Ethan for a long time. She was jealous of you and wanted to marry into the Cross family, so she deliberately disguised herself as you and pushed Old Mr. Cross, and then forged the surveillance footage. Later, fearing the truth would come out, she goaded Ethan into destroying the Thorne family to kill two birds with one stone."

Seraphina looked at the photos of Eva disguised as her. A bitter smile touched her lips. So for all these years, both she and Ethan had been nothing but pawns in Eva Vance’s game.

"I don't want to go abroad," Seraphina said suddenly.

"I’m staying. I want to see Eva Vance get what's coming to her, and I want Ethan Cross to know exactly what he has lost."

Arthur froze for a moment, then sighed.

"Alright, I’ll stay with you. But you must promise me to take care of yourself and never risk your life again."

Seraphina closed her eyes, tears sliding silently down her face. It wasn't that she still loved Ethan; it was that she couldn't let it go. She couldn't accept that her youth had been trampled upon, that her child had died for nothing, and that the villains were still free.

She would make everyone who had hurt her pay. She would get justice for herself and her innocent child.

Ethan mobilized all his connections and resources, frantically searching for Seraphina's whereabouts. But she seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind. As the investigation deepened, the truth about his grandfather's death began to surface.

The bodyguards found the technician who had been in charge of the surveillance system back then. Under Ethan's interrogation, the man finally confessed. Eva Vance had given him a large sum of money to forge the footage, blurring her own face and photoshopping Seraphina's face onto the video.

The technician had hidden the original recording in his hometown, and Ethan had already sent men overnight to retrieve it.

Furthermore, the bodyguards discovered that Eva’s father had been in a business rivalry with Arthur Thorne. Her plot against Seraphina was also a way to help her father suppress the Thorne family.

Every piece of evidence pointed directly at Eva Vance.

Ethan looked at the investigation reports on his desk, feeling the world spin around him. He thought of everything he had done to Seraphina. Forcing her to record those videos, auctioning her off like a commodity, personally handing her over to Zheng...

Every single act was enough to make him regret his existence for the rest of his life.

"Mr. Cross, Eva Vance still refuses to confess," a bodyguard entered the office and reported in a low voice.

"Then beat her," Ethan's voice was bone-chilling. "Beat her until she admits it."

Within two days, the bodyguards brought news of Eva’s confession.