Chapter: Chapter 54: A House Without WarmthThe resignation letter sat on Diana’s desk for three days before she finally signed it.Each time she picked it up, her hand trembled slightly. The Eastwood Medical Research Institute was more than a workplace. It was where she had grown into herself. Where her intelligence had been recognized. Where her name meant something independent of any man.Now she was about to walk away from it.Merlin called her into his office the morning he received the notice. “You’re certain?” he asked quietly, holding the letter between his fingers.Diana nodded.“You worked too hard to build this career,” he said. “Pregnancy doesn’t end ambition.”She swallowed. “It’s not just pregnancy.”He leaned back in his chair, studying her carefully. “It’s him.”She didn’t deny it.“Marriage changes priorities,” she said instead.Merlin’s gaze sharpened. “Only if you allow it to erase you.”That lingered in the air.Diana lowered her eyes briefly. “I need to make this work.”“For him?” he asked.“For my child,”
Last Updated: 2026-02-25
Chapter: Chapter 53: A Name Without LoveThe shift in attitude was no longer subtle.It was open. Deliberate and cruel.Henry’s mother didn't bother pretending anymore.The first time Diana was invited to the Golding estate after news of her pregnancy circulated, she was made to sit alone in a drawing room for nearly an hour before anyone acknowledged her presence. A housemaid finally brought tea without meeting her eyes.When Mrs. Golding eventually entered, she did not offer a greeting.She remained standing.“So,” she said coolly, examining Diana from head to toe as though assessing a flawed purchase, “this is how you intend to secure your future.”Diana rose slowly. “I didn’t come here to secure anything,” she replied softly.Mrs. Golding gave a short, humorless laugh.“Spare me the modest act. Girls like you don’t accidentally end up pregnant with a Golding heir.”The words were sharp.Designed to wound.Diana held her ground.From that moment on, the hostility became public.Extended relatives whispered openly at gathe
Last Updated: 2026-02-25
Chapter: Chapter 52: The Result of that NightFor two weeks, Henry acted like Diana did not exist.If she entered a room during meetings at the institute, he would excuse himself within minutes. If their paths almost crossed in the hallway, he would turn in the opposite direction without hesitation. When donors gathered for briefings and she stood among the research team, his gaze would pass over her as if she were a piece of furniture.Not once did he address her directly.Not once did he acknowledge that night.The silence was deliberate.Calculated.And humiliating.Word spread quietly, as it always did in elite circles. No one confronted Diana openly, but the glances changed. Conversations would lower in volume when she approached. Smiles became thin and polite.The story twisted easily in the absence of truth.Diana kept her head down.She arrived earlier than usual and left later than everyone else. She buried herself in data sheets, research proposals, lab reviews. If she focused hard enough, she wouldn’t hear the whisper
Last Updated: 2026-02-24
Chapter: Chapter 51: "Who Are You?"The lights in the private lounge were dimmer than the ballroom downstairs.Muted gold lamps cast soft shadows against leather couches and polished glass tables. The music from the gala filtered faintly through the walls, distant and almost unreal compared to the heavy silence inside the room.Henry sat on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on his knees, fingers pressed hard against his temples.His breathing was uneven.The haze in his head was beginning to thin, but it hadn’t cleared completely. The world still felt slightly tilted, like something had been violently shifted out of place.Diana stood a few feet away from him.Her dress was no longer as perfect as it had been earlier. Her hair slightly undone. Her lips swollen. Her heart still pounding from what had just happened.She didn’t fully understand how they had ended up in this lounge after the restroom.Everything had moved in fragments.Blurred steps down a corridor.His hand gripping hers.Her trying to steady him.Her
Last Updated: 2026-02-24
Chapter: Chapter 50: IntoxicatedNine years ago, at the Eastwood Medical Research Institute, Diana was not a small figure.She had earned her place there.She moved through the white corridors with confidence, lab coat crisp, tablet tucked against her chest, mind always racing ahead of everyone else in the room. Under Merlin Eastwood’s mentorship, she had grown rapidly. He trusted her analysis, valued her intuition, and often asked for her opinion even when senior researchers were present. For someone her age, that was no small thing.The institute was her world.It was where she felt powerful. Where she felt seen.And yet, there was one person who could undo her composure with a single glance.Henry Golding.He did not work there. He was the heir to the Golding empire, a major financial backer of the institute. Whenever he visited, everything shifted. To Diana, he was a distant sun, too bright to touch, too far to reach.She had been crushing on him quietly for almost a year. But she kept her feelings buried und
Last Updated: 2026-02-24
Chapter: Chapter 49: The Paper He Never ReadDiana froze the moment she saw Henry stepping towards them.He wasn't walking calmly. He was moving with urgency, with anger, with something reckless sitting openly in his eyes that he hadn't bothered to conceal. The kind of look she had learned to read over years of marriage; the one that meant he had already decided something before arriving.Merlin felt her body stiffen beside him and instinctively tightened his arm around her waist. Emma stopped mid-sentence, sensing the sudden shift in the air the way children sometimes do before adults have even processed it."Diana, seriously?" Henry's voice cut through the morning like a blade.Before she could react, he reached forward and fiercely grabbed her wrist. The grip was tight enough to make her flinch, tight enough to leave a mark."You that desperate for the next guy?" he spat, rage dripping from every word.Diana's heart jumped, but her expression hardened instantly. She yanked her hand free from his grasp with force, pulling i
Last Updated: 2026-02-21
Chapter: Chapter 89: The Final ReckoningThe boardroom was silent except for the shuffle of papers and the faint hum of the air conditioning. Ginny sat stiffly, her hands clasped together so tightly that her knuckles turned pale.Every breath she took felt heavy, thick with fear and hope.Annabella sat beside her, calm on the outside, but Ginny could feel the tremor in her cousin’s hand where their fingers brushed.Margaret was across from them, her face sharp with determination, and Joshua, though bruised and pale, sat straight-backed as if refusing to show weakness before Lucy.The doors opened.Lucy walked in like she owned the air they all breathed. Her heels clicked against the polished floor, her dress immaculate, her smile calm, controlled, a queen entering her throne room.She didn’t spare Ginny a glance as she took her seat at the head of the table.The board members murmured faintly, unsure, restless.“Ladies and gentlemen,” Lucy began, her voice dripping with authority. “I called this emergency meeting because the
Last Updated: 2025-10-02
Chapter: Chapter 88: The Trap for Victor KaneThe night city lights spilled into the car windows as Ginny sat beside Annabella, her palms damp against the leather seat. Every bump on the road felt like it echoed in her chest.The investigator drove in silence, his jaw tight, eyes locked on the road as though he too carried a burden heavier than the air around them.“Are we really ready for this?” Ginny whispered, her voice fragile but steady enough for Annabella to hear.Annabella turned her face, her eyes burning with determination. “We don’t have a choice. Lucy has painted you as a thief. If we don’t cut Victor down, the board will never listen to us.”Ginny nodded, though her stomach twisted. She had imagined the face of the man who helped Lucy weave her lies.Now, she was on her way to meet him, to wrestle her fate back from his hands.The car slowed before a dimly lit diner tucked away at the end of an almost deserted street. The signboard flickered, half-broken, as if the place itself was tired of hiding secrets.The invest
Last Updated: 2025-10-02
Chapter: Chapter 87: Lucy’s Last CardThe morning carried no peace. By the time Ginny stepped out of her room, whispers were already spilling through the hallways.Faces turned toward her, some with pity, others with suspicion. She felt the judgment like stones pressing against her chest.At the dining hall, Annabella hurried in, her face pale, clutching a folded newspaper. She dropped it on the table before Ginny. “She’s done it,” she said, her voice shaking. “Lucy has moved first.”Ginny’s eyes fell on the bold headline. Her name screamed across the page—accused of siphoning funds, manipulating accounts, betraying her own family’s trust. A wave of heat rushed through her body.She gripped the edge of the table, her knuckles whitening. “This is false,” she whispered, though the heaviness in her throat made her voice crack.“She’s framing you,” Annabella said firmly. “And she’s doing it publicly.”Margaret entered slowly, her face stern, her hands holding yet another folder. “It’s worse than that. She’s called for an emer
Last Updated: 2025-10-02
Chapter: Chapter 86: Shattered LoyaltiesThe night air felt heavier than before, pressing against Ginny’s chest as she and Annabella stumbled out of the hidden passage with the ledger clutched tightly in Annabella’s trembling hands.Their breathing came in broken gasps, not just from running but from the weight of what they had left behind.Joshua.Ginny’s heart pounded at the thought. She could still hear his voice in her head, telling her to go, telling her to finish the fight, even as he stayed back to face Lucy’s men.The guilt was like fire in her veins. She had promised him she would end it, but the promise did not make the emptiness in her chest any lighter.Annabella slowed, pressing her back to the wall once they reached the east corridor of the mansion.Her face was pale and streaked with sweat, but her grip on the ledger was fierce. “Ginny,” she whispered, almost choking on the words, “we left him… we actually left Joshua down there.”Ginny’s throat tightened. She looked at her cousin, tears glistening in her eyes
Last Updated: 2025-10-02
Chapter: Chapter 85: A Desperate GambleThe room was suffocating, filled with the sharp tang of fear and the heavy sound of panting breaths. Ginny’s heart pounded as Lucy’s men spread out, eyes sharp and muscles tensed.Annabella leaned against the cool stone wall, holding the book of accounts as if it was her ticket to life. Joshua, on the other side, has his jaw clenched, fists too tightly bunched at his sides."You actually thought that you could outsmart me?" Lucy's voice sliced through. There was an undercurrent in her voice: humor laced with rage. She did another step and, by that light, her eyes sparkled menace. "You have underestimated me once too often."Standing her ground and her eyes fixed on Lucy, Ginny said, "We aren't afraid of you anymore, Lucy. The truth's out, and it is only a matter of time before the board sees it.Lucy's lips curled into a smile, but it was anything but friendly. "The boa"rd? Oh, darling, you don't think I'm worried about the board, do you?"She turned to one of her men, nodding sharply
Last Updated: 2024-12-09
Chapter: Chapter 84: The Hidden VaultThe early morning air was sharp and cool as Ginny stood on the balcony of her room, staring out at the sprawling estate below.It was the calm before the storm, that silence that always heralds the expectation of an up-and-coming battle.Two days had gone by since they had met with the investigator, and their plan had begun its motion. Her testimony to the embezzlement of Lucy into papers, with the damning link to Victor Kane, had all been set in place.She had learned to make the most of moments like this; when the quiet seemed to cradle her in its fragile, uncertain peace. She knew it wouldn't last. The board meeting loomed ahead, and with it, Lucy's inevitable counterattack."Morning." Annabella's voice snapped her from her thoughts. She stepped onto the balcony, joining Ginny with a determined expression."Morning," Ginny said, offering her a small smile. "Are you ready?"Annabella glanced over at her, the light in her eyes unwavering. "As I'll ever be. We've come this far, and no
Last Updated: 2024-12-09
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