Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Are you going to forgive your husband, my wife?”

The question slipped so smoothly from Darren’s lips, spoken in a voice filled with the remorse and tenderness of a husband afraid of losing his wife.

Huh? Lyonna froze even more. Her mind seemed to stop functioning. She stared at the man before her with wide eyes, trying to find a crack in the falsehood hidden behind those sharp eyes. Darren was smiling—a sweet smile that he had rarely, if ever, shown Lyonna during their two years of marriage. The smile was so captivating that it softened the sharp lines of his jaw, making Lyonna briefly wonder whether this scene was real or merely a terrible hallucination caused by being exhausted from hoping for too long.

Before Lyonna could catch her breath, Darren stepped slightly closer. He lowered his head and planted a warm kiss on Lyonna’s forehead. The touch was so real that Darren’s woody-and-mint perfume filled the woman’s senses. After kissing her forehead, Darren straightened up and smiled sweetly at his wife once again, as though they were newlyweds drunk on love.

Before Lyonna could process her shock, Darren’s warm fingers slipped into hers, gripping her hand tightly and possessively. The man raised their intertwined hands in front of the invited guests, who had been standing frozen as they watched the dramatic scene.

With a calm yet authoritative voice, Darren spoke loudly enough for everyone in the suddenly silent ballroom to hear.

“I know that over the past two years, I have been too busy handling the company’s business expansion, leaving me with little free time to accompany her,” Darren said with such conviction, as though he were the most devoted husband in the world. “But that doesn’t mean I have been neglecting her. You all need to understand that the happiness and harmony of our marriage do not always have to be displayed on social media or flaunted at every opportunity, right?”

The whispers that had filled the room suddenly disappeared. The guests, especially the socialites and business associates who had mocked Lyonna earlier, swallowed hard. They never expected the sole heir of the Graham family, known for being cold and arrogant, to defend his wife in public.

Meanwhile, deep inside, Lyonna was caught in an intense inner battle. Her common sense screamed that all of this was nothing but nonsense—a cheap theatrical performance to save the Graham family’s company reputation and pride from a scandal, and perhaps to boost Graham Group’s stock price. She knew exactly how much Darren hated her.

Yet, on the other hand, Lyonna’s mental defenses simply collapsed. For years, she had lived deprived of affection, ignored by her parents, and trampled on by her own husband. She was desperately thirsty for validation. She was starving for recognition. And tonight, even though she knew all this tenderness was fake, she chose not to care. Who cared whether it was acting or not? What mattered was that, just for tonight, Darren was playing his role perfectly, standing by her side and erasing all the shame she had felt only minutes ago.

The warmth of Darren’s hand made tears of emotion almost spill from the corners of Lyonna’s eyes again, but this time she held them back tightly. She wanted to enjoy this moment, at least for tonight.

Seeing Darren defend her so fiercely, the spoiled, affectionate side that had been buried deep within Lyonna suddenly emerged. She looked up at her husband with tearful eyes, making them appear as sweet as possible, then tightened her grip around Darren’s arm.

“My husband...” Lyonna called out in a deliberately softened voice, sounding incredibly affectionate. She raised her free right hand and pointed toward a group of people—several business associates and socialite wives—who had been standing in the corner of the room earlier, mocking her figure. “You know... they insulted me earlier...”

For a moment, a slight twitch appeared at the corner of Darren’s eye, as though the man was surprised by his wife’s sudden change in attitude and her unexpectedly spoiled behavior, complaining like a little child. However, Darren was a skilled actor who quickly took control of the situation. His gaze immediately followed the direction of Lyonna’s finger, staring sharply at the group of people she had pointed out.

Instantly, the faces of the socialites and businessmen she had pointed at turned deathly pale. Their bodies trembled in fear as they faced the deadly gaze of the future CEO of the city’s largest conglomerate.

Without releasing his intertwined hand with Lyonna’s, Darren raised his left hand and gave a small gesture to his personal assistant, who stood alert near the main entrance.

“Beni!” Darren called in a cold voice that gripped the air.

The neatly dressed man called Beni immediately hurried toward his boss, covered in a cold sweat. “Yes, Young Master?”

Darren glanced at Beni briefly, then looked back toward the group of people who had offended his wife before turning his gaze back to his assistant, his expression absolute and utterly intolerant.

“Effective immediately, terminate all business partnerships, contracts, and logistics supply agreements between our company and their families,” Darren ordered without the slightest hesitation, his voice loud and clear enough for the entire room to hear. “Put their companies on Graham Group’s permanent blacklist. I don’t want to see a single one of their companies survive in this city after they dared to insult my wife.”

Thump.