Chapter 3

After Dr. Sanders patched me up, I drove home to pack my belongings. This house was the marital home I had bought with my very first bonus.

Back then, my parents had opposed me marrying Vivian. I had a massive falling out with them over it, which led them to freeze all my bank accounts. When I stormed out of the house, I confidently swore to them that Vivian and I would live happily ever after.

I had finally managed to get my family to change their opinion of her, only for her to turn around and do something so utterly repulsive.

Halfway through packing, I heard the front door click open. Emily strutted into the living room, hidden behind oversized sunglasses. The moment she saw me, she shoved a check into my hand.

"Here's 7.5 million dollars," she said haughtily. "I'm holding a press conference this afternoon, and you're going to say that the child is yours. If you cooperate, I'll forgive you for doing Vivian dirty."

I reached out and took the check. Emily scoffed. "This is enough to buy the rest of your life."

The very next second, before the derisive smile could even fade from her lips, I tore the check into shreds. 7.5 million dollars wasn't even enough for my family's housekeeper to buy groceries.

The only reason I had kept them in the dark about my status as a scion to a billionaire family was because I had been angry with my own family.

Emily ripped off her sunglasses, her face filled with disbelief. "Have you lost your marbles? What on earth do you think you're doing?"

I brushed the remnants of the torn check off my palms. "I don't want a single cent. I just want justice."

"Justice? Who do you think you are to go head-to-head with us? Sebastian, just because your last name happens to be Kingsley, you think you can ride the coattails of the Kingsley family of Oakridge? Fine, if you don't want to cooperate, you'll have no one to blame but yourself!"

Watching her back as she stormed out the door, I couldn't help but jeer. Unfortunately for her, I was from the Kingsley family of Oakridge.

…

The Carters' retaliation was swift and brutal. That very evening, I was accused of plagiarizing my research paper, bullying my colleagues, and stealing someone else's lab results.

Reporters besieged my home, trapping me inside. Then came the avalanche of termination letters from corporate partners, demanding hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

When Dr. Sanders called me, he couldn't stop sighing. "I told you the Carters are not to be trifled with, Sebastian. They're attempting to utterly ruin you. How are you ever going to show your face in this field now?"

In a single night, I went from being a genius scientist to a plagiarizing fraud, and the internet was flooded with people cursing me out.

"So he's just a kept man. No wonder Dr. Carter cheated on him!"

"Dr. Carter is a saint for enduring this disgusting man for three whole years!"

"I knew our professor-student age-gap ship was real!"

My personal information was doxxed. The harassment texts and death threats were relentless, my phone buzzing nonstop from dawn until dusk.

Noah and Vivian, on the other hand, were in their element. The couple started livestreaming on the internet, even bringing their previously well-hidden illegitimate son, Nathan Myers, out into the spotlight. They looked like a picture-perfect, happy family of three.

The media ran non-stop loops of Vivian, the aloof professor, making her heartfelt confession. "Noah has given up too much for me. I won't stand by and watch him suffer."

That evening, when Vivian returned home, she even brought Noah and Nathan back. "Go clear your things out of the master bedroom. The three of us are sleeping together tonight," she ordered matter-of-factly without even looking up.