Chapter 2

After spending half a month in the hospital with Christian watching over me, I was finally discharged.

He wanted to take me back to his villa, but I insisted on returning to Rivera Manor.

It was because I needed to settle things between me and Johan, once and for all.

Furthermore, Christian was currently facing his own crisis. His client had been snatched away by business rivals, and his company was on the verge of bankruptcy. Johan definitely had a hand in causing both incidents.

As I took my place at the dinner table in Rivera Manor, I already had a gut feeling that I was walking into an elaborate trap.

It was a rare sight to see Johan sitting calmly at the table. I could even see a hint of joy in his eyes.

"I came over today to inform you of something, Grandpa," he declared right off the bat. "I'll be getting married to Lucy next month."

In that moment, everyone in the Rivera family glanced at me. I had always been treated like an outsider under this roof, and this moment was no exception.

Scott slammed his hand against the table loudly. "You traitorous brat! I advise you not to even think about following through with that plan! Raelyn is the only woman who'll get to marry into the Rivera family!"

Johan's parents, Edwin Rivera and Alice Sutton, were also sitting at the table. They didn't agree with Scott and instead spoke up against him in succession.

"The engagement was an arrangement decided by the previous generation of Kirchners and Riveras. It no longer holds any weight."

"That's right, and Lucy makes a pretty good partner for Johan, too. The Sherman family is currently a rising star in the business world."

"I think that both our families will stand to gain advantages from an engagement between Johan and Lucy."

Scott left the table angrily, upon which Edwin, Alice, and Johan's gazes landed on me.

They wanted me to express my own opinion on the matter.

Forcing a smile onto my face, I looked at them and said calmly, "It's certainly a good thing to establish ties with the Sherman family through matrimony."

My positive response seemed to reassure them, and even Johan smiled at me for the first time in a while.

However, they had no idea that although Sherman Group seemed to be on the rise, they had in truth already long suffered severe losses.

Their financial situation was so bad that even the entirety of the Rivera family's assets would not be able to cover for the losses.

Johan thought that he shared a mutual love with Lucy. However, she was only working so hard to win his favor because she wished to use the Rivera family's assets to pay back some of Sherman Group's debt.

I didn't linger at the dinner table and instead went up to the study on the second floor.

My real purpose for coming here today was to obtain irrefutable evidence of Rivera Group's crimes.

Scott was clinging so hard to my engagement with Johan out of a sense of guilt.

That was because the huge fire that had broken out in the Kirchner Group building back then had been his handiwork.

The Rivera and Kirchner families already had established business ties. However, back when something went wrong with a joint project, Scott had pushed all the blame onto my grandfather—Gregory Kirchner—and also started that fire.

After all, how could a dead person refute his claims?

My fortunate survival was undoubtedly the biggest remaining threat to him in this world.

The Rivera family had been deeply implicated in the fire that year, and the police were still keeping an eye on them to this day.

Scott didn't dare make any reckless moves, so all he could do was cling to the engagement and thus keep me within his sight.

His so-called adoption of me was nothing more than a means to keep me under surveillance.