She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, hadn’t Sergei assured her that the dashcam footage had already been taken care of?
"You’re abandoning ?!"
"Calin Ricci, are you crazy?! Do you want us to get into an accident?!"
Calin’s shrill, drunken voice echoed through the video alongside Allen’s furious scolding.
The two wrestled inside the car, Calin reaching for the steering wheel while Allen struggled to push her away. Distracted, he lost control of the vehicle before it violently collided with a passing car, the dashcam screen cracking upon impact.
For a mont, the entire banquet hall fell silent.
Then a voice scread in despair.
It was Allen’s mother, the sa woman Calin had greeted earlier while shallowly expressing hopes for Allen’s recovery.
Only then did Calin realize that the "accident" she had intentionally caused was now exposed for everyone to see.
"Why? Why did you harm my son?! What did he ever do to you?!" Allen’s mother rushed forward, pointing at Calin with trembling fingers.
If not for her upbringing, she would have already pounced on her.
Calin shook her head vehently. "It wasn’t ! I was drunk! I didn’t know what I was doing... it’s edited!"
Allen’s mother trembled violently.
The mont she heard about her son’s accident, it had felt as though her entire world collapsed, yet the person responsible had been casually celebrating her engagent all this ti.
"You... you..." Allen’s mother sobbed uncontrollably, unable to utter another word as her husband hurried to comfort her.
However, just as the first video ended, another one began to play, and this ti, it was even more jaw-dropping.
At first, the guests couldn’t understand what they were watching. It only showed Calin talking to a random man, but as the conversation continued and the footage jumped to the scene where Calin was caught and forced to kneel while begging for rcy, realization slowly dawned upon everyone.
"Did I understand that correctly... she actually tried to drug Shin Keir?"
Many of the guests were too stunned to even gossip among themselves. They simply stood frozen, their gazes darting between the massive screen and Calin.
Initially, they had thought she was the victim and even pitied her after Bryce’s arrest, but it turned out she had plenty of despicable cris of her own.
Calin instinctively looked toward Shin Keir, wanting to question him. This incident had happened long ago, so why release the footage now?
However, Shin wasn’t even looking at her or the screen. His full attention was on Yeri.
"It’ll be faster if I carry you," Shin said calmly.
Yeri stared at the massive screen, blinking in surprise. "Wait... wasn’t this at that establishnt?"
"You can watch it later. Let’s go to the hospital now," Shin replied, his arm wrapped around her waist as though gently coaxing her away.
Yeri frowned, about to speak, when she suddenly caught Calin staring in their direction.
Gritting her teeth, Calin rushed toward Shin and shouted desperately, "Brother Shin, you have to explain it to everyone! Tell them it’s all a misunderstanding!"
This ti, Shin was prepared. Bodyguards imdiately stepped forward, blocking Calin before she could latch onto him.
"I didn’t do it! I never tried to drug you! It’s all a misunderstanding!" Calin cried hysterically.
"Go on then," Shin said expressionlessly. "Explain yourself."
Calin’s sobbing abruptly stopped.
Even the surrounding guests stared at her with scrutiny and complicated expressions.
However, with how detailed the video was, including every conversation clearly recorded, Calin found the words stuck in her throat as her mind raced frantically.
Suddenly, she looked up and shouted at the top of her lungs, "It was my dad! He forced ! At that ti, the Ricci Company was on the verge of bankruptcy, and he kept forcing to get married. He said it didn’t matter who it was as long as it could save the company, otherwise he’d disown !"
Madam Ricci, who had been pretending to faint monts earlier, abruptly widened her eyes while still slumped dramatically on the ground.
With Master Ricci currently in a coma, it was impossible to verify whether Calin’s words were true or not.
Still, they weren’t entirely far-fetched. Everyone in high society knew that many socialites were often treated as bargaining chips for business alliances.
"Brother Shin, at that ti I was desperate. I’m so sorry..." Calin cried, tears streaming down her face. "When you pulled your investnt from our family, my dad blad , saying I was useless. He said that if I couldn’t find a way to tie you to , he’d marry off to the first person willing to offer a higher price."
Calin poured every ounce of emotion into her performance, filling her voice with heartbreak, despair, and the helplessness of a woman cornered by her circumstances.
Sure enough, many guests began to waver, especially the younger won who could relate to her situation.
From the outside, their lives looked glamorous, wrapped in diamonds and chandeliers, but behind closed doors, many of them existed solely to strengthen family businesses through marriage. So had even been forced to marry n decades older than them, their futures traded like signatures on contracts.
At that mont, Calin didn’t forget to drag Yeri into the fire with her.
"Isn’t it the sa for you, Yeri?" Calin suddenly shouted. "Many people don’t know this, but weren’t you originally betrothed to the late Leo Nafplion? A drug addict, a violent abuser, and a rapist! If Brother Shin had turned a blind eye, would you have silently accepted your fate and gotten engaged to a man like that?!"
Calin’s words weren’t just shocking. They carried implications sharp enough to split the entire banquet hall apart.
How had Yeri, soone from a third-tier elite family, managed to cross paths with a noble like Shin Keir in the first place?
If Calin’s claims were true, then perhaps Yeri had been just as desperate. Perhaps she, too, had exhausted every possible ans to climb into Shin Keir’s bed and escape her fate.
After all, everyone knew what kind of monster Leo Nafplion had been. Compared to marrying a scumbag like him, becoming a nun almost sounded rciful.
Jj’s pupils constricted sharply. "What are you implying? You and my sister were never in the sa situation. Our parents would never force her to be with soone like that. In fact, Dad rejected the proposal long ago and never honored that old agreent. It wasn’t even official, just aningless words exchanged between grandparents."
"Even so, the Nafplions were a second-tier elite family. Was it really that easy to casually reject them?" Calin retorted imdiately before turning toward Yeri. "Would you have just run away? Hidden behind your parents while they faced the Nafplions’ retaliation alone?"
Her voice rose emotionally. "There were only three choices. Accept Leo Nafplion, refuse and let your family suffer endless targeting... or find soone powerful enough that even the Nafplions wouldn’t dare offend."
Jj frowned, surprised at how effortlessly Calin had shifted the entire conversation away from herself.
Another heavy revelation exploded across the banquet hall, dripping with dangerous implications.
No one there was stupid.
If Yeri truly had escaped the engagent through Shin Keir, then what about the sudden downfall of the Nafplion family?
And Leo Nafplion’s death... Could Shin Keir have orchestrated it all?
Even Yeri was montarily stunned. Calin really had pieced everything together. At this point, it almost felt like she had secretly studied Yeri’s autobiography.
The guests who previously knew nothing about this matter were utterly shaken.
So the rumors were true after all? Did Yeri really cause Calin and Shin to break apart?
After all, anyone in Yeri’s position would choose Shin Keir over Leo Nafplion without hesitation, even if it ant stepping over soone else in the process.
In their world, survival often mattered more than morality.
"Just because you were desperate and cornered, does that give you the right to harm others?" Shin finally spoke, his gaze remained cold and unwavering despite Calin’s dramatic performance. "As for why I withdrew my investnt from the Ricci family business, Miss Ricci should know the reason better than anyone."
Calin stiffened instantly, the confidence she had barely regained deflating like a punctured balloon.
"Even if your sche had succeeded, what made you think I would foolishly take responsibility for it?" Shin asked calmly. "And while we’re on the topic, I’m actually curious... was there ever a mont I made you misunderstand that I had feelings for you? So gesture that convinced you I liked you? Sothing I said that gave you hope? Why are you so convinced that I should’ve been engaged to you?"
Calin was taken aback. She genuinely hadn’t expected that question.
But when she thought back carefully, Shin had never once expressed affection toward her. They barely even spoke over the years.
As for gestures? She was practically invisible to him most of the ti.
Then Shin’s gaze swept lazily across the banquet hall as he continued, his words landing like stones dropped into still water.
"There was never any woman linked to over the years because there truly wasn’t anyone. As for Yeri..." His expression softened ever so slightly. "She wasn’t the one who approached . I fell in love with her the mont I saw her and decided to pursue her myself."
Yeri glanced sideways at him. She wasn’t the one who approached him? The absurd thing was he sounded so convincing that even she almost believed him.
"Leo Nafplion or anyone else," Shin added indifferently, "I couldn’t care less who I was competing against. As for why she chose ... is there anyone better than ?"
Yeri: "..."
Everyone: "..."
The terrifying part was that Shin didn’t sound arrogant at all, he sounded factual.
And no matter how irritating it was to admit, everyone present knew he wasn’t wrong.
In their country, who could truly rival Shin Keir in wealth, status, power, and appearance?
Compared to Leo Nafplion, the comparison wasn’t even a competition.
Moreover, as pitiful as Calin’s situation was, why should Shin be responsible for saving her?
There were countless won in high society trapped in the exact sa predicant. Was Shin supposed to take responsibility for all of them too?
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