"What did you just say?" Kang Beichen’s voice dropped low, almost a growl, daring her to repeat it.
"I said I am pregnant." Yue Chen enunciated each word clearly and more firmly this ti. She smoothed a hand over her lower belly, her eyes gleaming with a strange emotion. "I am having your baby... our baby."
Kang Beichen staggered back a step, disbelief clouding his features. "Impossible. That... that can’t be. How... how is it possible?" His voice cracked with confusion and anger.
He shook his head violently. "No. You’re lying. You must be lying."
Yue Chen’s lips curved into a mirthless smile. "I had a feeling you wouldn’t believe ." Her tone dripped with mockery.
"I discovered this long ago, Beichen. I was only waiting for the right mont to tell you—" she circled him slowly, her heels clicking against the marble floor, "—but you forced today. It was ant to be a surprise, but you ruined it."
She stopped just behind him, her voice lowering into a silken threat. "I will never allow you to be absent from our child’s life. It’s ti for you to choose. Will you leave ... and our baby?"
Her words hung in the air, filling the atmosphere with heavy tension.
Kang Beichen froze, his jaw tightening as her ultimatum sank in. For a mont, hesitation flickered in his eyes. Yue Chen saw it and her smile widened, triumphant.
You think you can leave ? Dream on.
Reluctantly, he returned to his chair. Yue Chen followed suit, her expression radiant with satisfaction.
But while she celebrated inwardly, Kang Beichen’s gaze had turned cold, and calculating. His eyes lingered on her belly, and though he said nothing, one thought pulsed in his mind continually.
’If she’s lying, then I’ll make her regret ever trying to chain down.’
While Yue Chen basked in her fleeting victory and Kang Beichen plotted in silence, elsewhere in the city, another storm was brewing.
Inside the Lu family’s ancestral mansion, the atmosphere was thick with cold determination.
Lu Jiang sat at the head of the long mahogany table, his sharp gaze sweeping across his sons. There were several docunts laid out before him, but they weren’t business contracts.
Rather, they were dossiers, photographs, and records detailing the Yue family’s corruption.
"The Yues had the audacity to mistreat my daughter," Lu Jiang began, his voice deep and composed. "For years, they trampled on her, and used her like a pawn. But that ends now."
Lu Quan clenched his fists. "Father, we’ve tolerated them long enough. If it weren’t for them, Sister wouldn’t have suffered so much." His eyes glinted with restrained fury.
Lu Ran leaned forward, his tone colder than usual. "I say we don’t just strip them of their business—we expose them to the authorities. They should rot for what they’ve done."
Lu Ting, seated beside her husband, placed a calming hand on the table. Though her expression was gentle, her words were sharp as blades.
"Destroy their company. Destroy their reputation, and leave them with nothing." Her eyes hardened.
"But don’t let them die easily. I want them to live long enough to watch everything crumble." Clearly, Lu Ting wasn’t aware about the real mastermind behind her daughter’s disappearance.
Lu Jiang nodded slowly. "Agreed. We’ll start by cutting off their financial support. I’ve already ordered an investigation into their partners. Anyone who refuses to sever ties with the Yues will face the Lus’ wrath."
He slid a folder toward Lu Quan. "You’ll handle the dia exposure. You will do it quietly at first. We’ll leak evidence of their embezzlent, their fraud, their tax evasion. Let the wolves in the press circle them before the governnt steps in."
Then his gaze shifted to Lu Ran. "You’ll keep close tabs on Yue Chen. That girl is ambitious and desperate. If she senses their collapse, she’ll lash out in unpredictable ways."
"Consider it done." Lu Ran smirked.
Finally, Lu Jiang leaned back, his eyes narrowing into a deadly calm. "The Yues thought they could steal our child and raise her under their cruelty. They thought wrong. This ti, we strike without rcy."
The room fell silent, only the weight of his words lingering in the air—an unspoken promise of retribution.
____________
"Where have you been, brother?" Huo Fei rose to her feet when she saw her older brother walk into the living room.
Huo Mingjie calmly glanced at his sister as he replied, "I went to visit Mom."
Huo Fei sneered. "That is a lie. I went to visit Mom, but you weren’t there. Mom also said you haven’t visited her ever since she was thrown in jail." She paused, her eyes becoming misty. "Tell brother, where have you been?"
Huo Mingjie coughed slightly, and unbuttoned his coat. "You don’t need to know, dearest Sister. Tell Mom I’m working hard on her release when next you visit her. She should bear with it a little longer."
With these words, Huo Mingjie walked away, ignoring Huo Fei’s incessant cries.
Seeing him walk up the stairs and ignoring her, she fell to her knees, her shoulders trembling as tears fell from her eyes. She would never have expected that her entire family would be ruined in just a few days.
All of a sudden, she heard laughter sounding from the stairs. With red eyes, she slowly raised her head just to see Huo Yan descending down the stairs, excitent radiating on her face.
Huo Fei’s shoulders trembled as tears stread down her face. She felt as if her chest was being ripped apart, and the weight of despair suffocated her.
Her blurred gaze followed Huo Yan’s descending figure. The younger girl’s face glowed with joy, her fingers dancing quickly across her phone screen.
Bright, careless laughter filled the hall.
Huo Fei,’s lips quivered as her hands clenched into fists against the marble floor. Why? Why does she get to smile?
Her brother avoided her, her mother was rotting in prison, their family na was in ruins—and yet Huo Yan still dared to be happy.
No... it was not fair.
Her nails dug into her palms until they almost bled. A dark, poisonous thought whispered in her mind.
"If I’m drowning... you don’t get to float above , Yan," she muttered hoarsely, her voice low and venomous with no one hearing her statent. "If I’ve lost everything, then you’ll lose it too."
The sound of her own words sent a shiver down her spine, but she didn’t care anymore, not when she suffered. The bitterness that had been festering in her heart finally found its crack, and it spilled over like venom.
Huo Fei wiped her tears roughly, her eyes glinting with dangerous resolve. For the first ti, she wasn’t just a pitiful, abandoned sister—she was sothing else.
She was a storm. And Huo Yan would be the first one to feel it.
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