"How long has she been kneeling?"

"Two hours now, and she still refuses to move."

I did not go to the estate.

But Ethan did.

When he arrived, Seraphina was cradling her abdomen, weeping hysterically.

Five months pregnant, kneeling directly on the cold, hard stone pavement.

Witnessing such a scene, it was nearly impossible for any ordinary man not to soften.

Ethan lifted her up from the ground.

That exact night, he came home to our villa.

When he stepped inside, he found me reviewing corporate data in the study.

"Lana."

"Yeah."

"What you did yesterday... it was far too ruthless."

I didn't raise my eyes from the files.

"What exactly are you referring to?"

"Humiliating her mother in front of eight hundred people."

"And when they tried to hijack your executive board in front of eight hundred people, did you consider that ruthless?"

He fell into silence.

"Seraphina went to beg Grandma."

"I know."

"She’s pregnant, Lana. She knelt out there for two whole hours."

"That was her own choice."

"Lana." He walked right up to my desk. "You’ve won. You secured every single thing you set out to claim. I’ve already ordered the legal department to strip Madeline of her shares."

"But Seraphina is innocent in all of this."

I finally raised my head to look at him.

"Innocent?"

"When she called me to demand that I step down from my marriage, was she innocent?"

"When she took the keys you gave her to break into my home, sit in my chair, and command me to accept her, was she innocent?"

"When she stood right in front of my face, stroking her belly to flaunt her pregnancy, was she innocent?"

"Ethan, even now, you are still defending her."

"When exactly are you going to finally wake up?"

He dropped to one knee, forcing his eyes to level with mine as I sat in the chair.

"Lana, I am well aware of how deeply I have wronged you."

"But the child Seraphina is carrying..."

"What about the child?"

"It is still a human life."

"Do you even remember the words you once spoke to me?"

"When you say 'leave her alone' to me now, do you ever stop to think that you once spoke those exact words to protect me?"

"Years ago, when his rivals tried to make a move against me, you said, 'Whoever touches her, I kill them.'"

"And now, you say 'leave her alone' to protect her. Listen to yourself, Ethan—who exactly are you protecting now?"

He stood back up.

He walked over to the window, turning his back to me.

"Lana, just grant her a path to survive."

"The things she did... the vast majority were orchestrated by Madeline. She doesn't possess the intellect to lay out those schemes herself."

"Let’s separate her from Madeline completely. Let her have the child in peace somewhere isolated, and then we will send her away permanently. Can we do that?"

"No."

He turned back around to face me.

"Why?"

"Because the absolute fact that you are still defending her right now proves one thing."

"Your ties to her are no longer built merely on being blackmailed."

"You have actual feelings for her."

He offered no denial.

And that silence cut far deeper than a denial ever could.

"Ethan, you’ve completely forgotten the vows you once made."

"Our marriage only possesses one exit—and that is if one of us dies."

"You refuse to sign the divorce papers."

"Yet you refuse to give her up."

"So what exactly do you expect from me?"

"To carry my identity as Morgan, command my seven corporations, carry all the agonizing debts you owe me, and serenely accept the presence of another woman by your side?"

"I cannot do it."

"And you had better abandon any hope of forcing me to do it."

I snapped my files shut.

"I am granting you one week."

"Within one week, completely eradicate Seraphina from your life."

"Otherwise, I won't just be dismantling your chessboard."

"I will flip the entire table."

Chapter 23

Seraphina did not disappear.

The one-week deadline came and went, but instead of vanishing, she did something completely unexpected.

She posted a long essay on social media.

The title: A Girl’s Truth.

The core of the message was this: having been deprived of paternal love since childhood, she had met a man who was willing to protect her. She knew this man had a family, but she simply couldn’t control her emotions. She wasn't after his money, nor was she after status; it was purely out of love.

The piece was written with profound sentimentality and woven with intimate details.

The scenes of him cooking noodles for her.

The nights he spent staying awake by her side whenever she fell ill.

The expression on his face when he touched her abdomen for the very first time to feel the baby kick.

No names were explicitly mentioned, but anyone who knew the situation understood immediately.

Within two hours of its posting, the essay was shared over ten thousand times.

The comments section was sharply divided into two factions: one blasted her as a mistress who deserved to be exposed, while the other sympathized with her, claiming she was a victim as well.

By nightfall, an even larger wave of information was unleashed.

It wasn't posted by Seraphina herself.

Someone used an anonymous account to drop the bomb.

The content stated: Alaina, the CEO's wife, had twice assaulted the pregnant Seraphina, directly causing her first miscarriage.

It was accompanied by screenshots of Seraphina's actual medical records from that first miscarriage.

With that, public opinion spiraled completely out of control.

Trending tags labeling the CEO's wife as a "vicious original spouse" instantly shot to the top of the hot search lists.

When Mrs. Higgins rushed into my room holding her phone, her face was completely pale.

"Lana, look at this!"

I took the phone from her hands.

I read through it.

And set it down.

"Look into who leaked these materials."

"There's no real need to check; it’s bound to be the people on Seraphina's side."

"I mean find out exactly who orchestrated the execution, which specific account published it, and who wrote the script."

Mrs. Higgins nodded and walked out.

I pulled out my own phone.

I dialed Felix's number.

"You saw it?"

"I saw it."

"Get ready. I am launching a counterattack."

"How do we fight it?"

"She is playing the emotional card, so I am going to play the facts."

"What facts?"

"The complete timeline of Seraphina coming to my house to provoke me. Every single timestamp of her arrivals, the exact words she spoke, and the actions she took. The surveillance footage inside my villa is perfectly intact."

"Furthermore, when she came to my house that very first time, she was the one who actively instigated the provocation. I possess a voice recording of every single word she uttered."

Felix fell dead silent over the line for two seconds.

"Alaina, when exactly did you record that?"

"From the very first moment she called me."

"You... you’ve been making preparations since the absolute beginning?"

"I was beaten by my stepfather for eleven years. The very first lesson I ever learned was to always preserve evidence."

"The second lesson is to never engage in a fight with anyone unless you are fully prepared."

Felix took a sharp breath.

"Understood. I will arrange everything."

Chapter 24

Exactly twenty-four hours after Seraphina’s essay went live, my counterattack was launched.

It wasn't published on public social media platforms.

I selected a far more precise and devastating channel.

The core chat group of the Washington elite socialite circle.

Olivia helped me deploy it.

The payload was quite simple: three audio recordings and two surveillance clips.

The first recording: the full audio of Seraphina’s very first phone call to me.

"Honey, it's time for you to step down."

"You couldn't give him a child in four years of marriage, but it only took me three months."

"If you refuse to go, I'll just move in."

The second recording: Seraphina’s second arrival at my doorstep, accompanied by Madeline.

"Ethan gave me a spare key to this villa. He told me I could come over whenever I pleased."

"About what you did to me last time—I didn’t tell Ethan the truth. So, technically, you owe me a favor now."

The third recording: the final conversation Seraphina had with me over the phone.

"You grew up without a mother, but I've always had one. You were raised in the mud, while I was raised in absolute luxury."

"And now, I've even taken your husband away from you."

"Mom told me that she didn't leave you behind because she couldn't take you with her back then. It was because you looked far too much like your biological father. Looking at your face made her feel utterly nauseous."

The moment the three audio clips finished playing, the elite socialite group completely exploded.

But the two surveillance clips possessed even more lethal lethality.