ログインCHAPTER 140Florida’s POVThree days after the scandal, I was officially losing my mind inside the penthouse.Not dramatically.Not emotionally.Literally.I had spent the last seventy-two hours hiding from social media, avoiding calls from my PR team, and pretending not to notice the fact that half the internet had turned me into a meme.At some point, someone edited dramatic violin music over the video of me falling.It had fifteen million views.Fifteen.Million.Views.So naturally, I decided the only reasonable solution was shopping.“A shopping spree,” I announced while Derrick sat at the dining table going through emails on his tablet.He didn’t even look up.“No.”I blinked.“No?”“No.”I stared at him in disbelief before slowly setting down my coffee cup.“Derrick.”“No.”“You didn’t even let me finish.”“I know exactly where this is going.”His tone remained flat as he continued scrolling through whatever business document had captured his attention.“You’re bored, emotional
CHAPTER 139Florida’s POVBy the time Derrick came home, the penthouse looked completely destroyed.Broken glass covered the marble floors, glittering beneath the expensive lights like shards of ice. One of the dining chairs had been knocked onto its side during my breakdown, the decorative vase I’d thrown earlier was shattered against the wall, and the lamp near the couch flickered weakly after hitting the floor.The television was still running.Still replaying the footage.Still humiliating me.I sat curled into the corner of the couch with ruined makeup and swollen eyes, clutching my phone tightly while panic continued clawing through my chest. Every few seconds another notification lit up my screen.More headlines.More jokes.More people laughing at me.The penthouse no longer felt luxurious. It felt suffocating.Then the front door opened.My stomach dropped instantly.Derrick stepped inside without saying a word, and the entire atmosphere shifted the second he walked into the
CHAPTER 138Florida’s POVThe moment the second video hit the internet, everything collapsed around me.“No… no, no, no—”My hands shook violently as I refreshed the page over and over again, desperately hoping the headlines would somehow change if I looked away long enough. But they only kept getting worse.RAW FOOTAGE EXPOSES STAGED INCIDENT.NEW ANGLE CLEARS CLARA.FLORIDA CAUGHT FAKING ALTERCATION.A sick feeling twisted violently in my stomach.This wasn’t supposed to happen.Everything had been planned perfectly. The cameras were positioned exactly where they needed to be, the angle had worked flawlessly, and for one beautiful moment the entire internet believed Clara had attacked me. They were already turning against her again. The reporters were eating it up. The comments were vicious.It was perfect.So where the hell had the second video come from?I clicked another post, then another, then another, watching the views climb into the millions while the comments flooded in fas
CHAPTER 137Clara’s POVThe television continued playing quietly in the background, reporters still dissecting the footage like vultures picking apart a corpse.One woman was currently explaining body language analysis.Body language analysis.As if she had personally been standing there with us.“As you can see, Clara’s arm appears to move forward moments before Florida falls—”Spencer muted the television again.This time with visible irritation.The room fell silent instantly.I sat frozen at the dining table while my mind tried catching up to everything happening around me. Even with the real footage sitting on Spencer’s phone, my body still hadn’t recovered from the panic attack.My chest hurt.My hands still trembled slightly.Meanwhile Spencer looked terrifyingly calm.The kind of calm that usually meant someone else was about to suffer.Without saying another word, he pulled his phone back out and walked toward the windows.Then he started making calls.Short ones.Efficient o
CHAPTER 136Clara’s POVI couldn’t breathe.The moment the footage appeared on the television, it felt like the walls were closing in around me.My chest tightened painfully as I stared at the screen, watching Florida’s face flash across the news broadcast before the video played again. Then my face appeared.Again.And again.And again.The reporters kept talking, analyzing, speculating, building an entire story around a few seconds of footage.A story that wasn’t true.Yet somehow looked convincing enough to destroy me.My fingers tightened around the edge of the dining table as panic slowly crept up my throat.I knew exactly how this worked.I knew how quickly people chose sides.How strangers suddenly became judges.How lies spread faster than explanations.The last scandal had nearly broken me, and now it felt like someone was dragging me right back into that nightmare.“No…”The word escaped my lips before I even realized I had spoken.My breathing became uneven.The room felt h
CHAPTER 135Clara’s POVBy the time I got home, I still couldn’t make sense of what had happened.The entire encounter with Florida kept replaying in my head, over and over again, refusing to leave me alone no matter how hard I tried to focus on something else.Nothing about it felt normal.Not the way she had approached me.Not the fake smile she wore.Not the strange friendliness.And definitely not the way she had suddenly fallen to the ground.It felt like I was missing something important.Something obvious.Yet no matter how many times I replayed the memory, I couldn’t figure out what it was.I dropped my books onto the dining table before pulling out a chair and sitting down heavily.The house was unusually quiet.Usually, I appreciated the peace.Today, it only made my thoughts louder.With a sigh, I opened one of the law books I’d bought earlier and forced myself to look at the page.Corporate governance.Board authority.Shareholder voting rights.Normally, I would have unde
CHAPTER 75Derrick’s POVI continued work as normal, or at least what passed for normal in my life.Meetings, calls, deals, one after another, all blending into the same exhausting routine. The weight of the family business sat heavily on my shoulders, and my father made sure I felt every ounce of
CHAPTER 70Clara’s POVIt had already been several days since Lin Woo had moved in with me, and I couldn’t deny how comforting it was to have him around. He’d quickly become my center of gravity, the anchor I clung to in the chaos of my life. I still hadn’t told him everything. There were parts of
CHAPTER 69Florida’s POVMy eyes widened the moment Derrick’s hand lifted.For a split second, the world felt like it had stopped moving.My heart slammed painfully against my ribs as instinct took over and my eyes squeezed shut, my body bracing for the impact I was sure was about to come.But the
CHAPTER 67Florida's POVBy the time we left the restaurant, something between us had shifted.It wasn’t obvious. Nothing dramatic had happened, no big conversation or confession. But the air between us felt different, heavier somehow, like the tension from earlier hadn’t disappeared; it had just c







