Chapter 6
602words
A stray hair, a hint of perfume—anything could trigger an all-night interrogation.
Finally, after I deleted a female client's number from his phone, costing him a major deal, he snatched his phone back in fury.
"What more do you want, Ashley? You've got everything!"
I stood frozen.
Deep exhaustion filled his eyes.
"When I first enrolled in school, my father's name was on my records."
"You were a charity case sponsored by the Silver Group! You worked in the academic office!"
"Why did you sit next to me that day? Do I have to spell it out?"
"I love you enough to overlook your little schemes. Isn't that enough?!"
I slapped him hard across the face.
Our home became a war zone.
He cheated openly, calling me controlling, saying I deserved to be unloved.
I called him a terrible father, saying he deserved to be abandoned—stabbing his deepest wound.
The deeper the love, the more vicious the hatred.
When I "woke up," my body was drenched in cold sweat, as if reborn.
Lane had been holding my hand, his exhausted eyes snapping open when I stirred.
"You're awake?"
He handed me a document transferring twenty percent of Silver Group's shares to me.
"I'll send Eva abroad. You'll never see her again."
He pressed my hand against his stubbled cheek.
"I'm tired, Ashley."
"Can we stop hurting each other now?"
Of course not.
Besides the shares, I demanded a press conference where he would publicly deny any relationship with Eva.
"I don't want my child pushed to the ground and pissed on by his half-sibling someday."
I told Lane I wanted total victory—I wanted Eva's reputation destroyed beyond repair!
At the press conference, Lane and I sat side by side.
Eva stood off to the side, hands protectively over her belly, sobbing dramatically.
No one expected her to kneel before me in front of everyone.
She wept with seemingly genuine desperation.
"Mrs. Silver, I'm so sorry! It was all my fault!"
"But I never meant to take your place! Please don't send me away!"
"I'll raise the baby myself! I won't tell him who his father is!"
"I just want to love him from afar!"
"Please, Mrs. Silver! Let me go... let my baby live..."
She kowtowed until her forehead bruised against the floor.
Camera flashes exploded around us. Despite the carefully screened media, murmurs began to rise.
"An affair takes two, yet she's only blaming the woman! Shame on her!"
A few bold reporters thrust their microphones forward.
"Mrs. Silver, rumors say you deleted female clients from your husband's phone due to jealousy. Care to comment?"
"Are you using your pregnancy to manipulate Mr. Silver? Have you been psychologically evaluated? Do you feel any guilt watching another pregnant woman beg for mercy?"
Lane slammed the table and jumped to his feet.
"Which outlet are you from? Get out now!"
The reporter smirked.
"Get angry if you want, Mr. Silver, but we're broadcasting live."
The press conference had become a live broadcast, clearly beyond Lane's control. He glared murderously at Eva.
His voice turned glacial.
"From beginning to end, Miss White pursued me relentlessly and deliberately created situations to frame me."
"Miss White and whatever she's carrying have nothing to do with me. My wife is the only woman I've ever loved."
As he finished speaking, the main doors burst open.
"I just had to see Miss White's little performance for myself!"
When Eva saw who had arrived, her face went chalk-white.
