Chapter 11: Vivian Returns

Thirty minutes later, a detailed file landed in Ethan's hands.

Had Vivian seen it, her jaw would have hit the floor.

It was comprehensive to the point of being unsettling, the kind of report that stopped just short of mapping the exact location of every freckle on her body. Everything about her life was there. Her childhood. Her education. Her years in New York before she left.

Everything, that is, except what came after.

The moment she had stepped onto that plane five years ago, the trail went cold. Whatever had happened abroad and anything connected to a certain small person had been wiped with surgical precision. Not a trace remained.

"Miss Rong's records from her time abroad appear to have been deliberately erased," the butler reported carefully. "Does the young master wish us to dig deeper?"

Information scrubbed that cleanly didn't disappear on its own. Someone had gone to considerable trouble to make sure it stayed gone.

"No."

Ethan closed the file and set it aside.

"This is enough."

Because it told him exactly what he needed to know.

The boyfriend story didn't hold up. There was no boyfriend. There hadn't been one.

"Yes, sir." The butler hesitated, then ventured quietly, "Young master… Miss Rong and Mr. Stonewell do appear to have had a past relationship. Is it possible there are still… unresolved feelings between them?"

Ethan looked at him.

The butler did not finish his sentence.

Ethan stood, straightening to his full height with the unhurried ease of a man who had never once questioned his own position in any room. He cast one last glance at the butler and walked out with the calm, absolute confidence of someone who had already decided how this would end.

"Do you think," he said, without breaking stride, "that any woman I've chosen to pursue would still want Stonewell?"

The butler stood in the empty room and stared at the doorway long after Ethan had gone.

Any woman he pursued.

He blinked.

Was the young master seriously actually planning to pursue Miss Rong?

He pressed a hand to his chest.

He was going to need a moment.

---

Across the city, Rebecca Rong had just wrapped a promotional event.

The smile she'd held for two hours of cameras and fans dissolved the instant she stepped out of the venue's back exit. She handed her bag to her assistant without looking at her and slid into the waiting car, hitting the button to raise the privacy partition before the door had fully closed.

"Back to the apartment," she said. "Not the company."

The driver nodded and pulled into traffic.

Rebecca settled into the leather seat, tilting her head back, her eyes half-closed as she turned something over in her mind. Then she picked up her phone and dialed.

It rang once.

"Mom."

Her entire voice transformed the moment the word left her lips softening, brightening, curling into the warm cadence of a beloved daughter with nothing to hide.

"I was walking past Harrington's today and saw the most beautiful wrap dress in the window. I immediately thought of you, so I bought it. Will you try it on when I get home?"

"Rebecca." The woman on the other end laughed with fond exasperation. "You've bought me more clothes than I have closet space for. Save your money, sweetheart spend it on Daniel instead."

"Mom~" Rebecca's voice took on a playful lilt. "You come first. Daniel can wait his turn."

"You and that sweet mouth of yours." A warm, indulgent sigh. "I worry sometimes that you're too soft for this world, you know that?"

"Nothing bad can happen to me." Rebecca smiled at the window. "I have you and Dad, and I have Daniel. Who could possibly touch me?"

A pause, calculated and perfectly timed.

"Actually… there is something. I wasn't sure whether to bring it up."

"Tell me."

"It's just…" She let the hesitation stretch. "Mom, Vivian came back. Daniel and I ran into her today, and I"

The warmth on the other end of the line evaporated instantly.

"What is she back *for*?" Margaret Rong's voice sharpened like a blade. "Rebecca, did she start something with you? Are you alright?"

Rebecca lowered her lashes, concealing the flicker of satisfaction in her eyes.

"I'm perfectly fine. She wished us well, actually." A soft, pained exhale. "Though I could tell she's still upset. Which is understandable, Daniel knew her first, and I know she feels like I came between them. I just… I couldn't help feeling guilty."

"*Guilty?*" Margaret's tone hardened further. "Rebecca, don't you dare feel guilty. Dating is not marriage. Daniel chose you because he wanted to. That girl has always been impulsive and destructive, and after the way she behaved disappearing, getting herself into trouble, putting this family through embarrassment, she has no right to walk back in here acting like a victim. You owe her absolutely nothing."

"Mom, she's still my sister"

"Enough." Firm. Final. "Your father and I will deal with Vivian. You don't need to worry yourself about her. Focus on yourself."

Rebecca softened her voice obediently. "I just worry about you, Mom. The doctor said you haven't been sleeping well, and I know it's because you take on everyone else's problems. Please don't let her come back and stress you out again."

Margaret's sharp edges smoothed over instantly. "Oh, don't fuss over me. I need to stay healthy, I still have your wedding to see, and grandchildren to spoil eventually."

"Mom." A perfectly pitched note of shy embarrassment.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop." A soft laugh. "Just be careful, sweetheart. Now that she's back, keep your guard up. You're the only heiress to the Rong name that matters, and the last thing you need is for the Stonewell family to start hearing ugly old rumors and drawing the wrong conclusions. Protect your image."

"I will," Rebecca said. "I always listen to you."

She hung up.

And in the quiet of the car, with the city lights sliding past the window, the soft smile on Rebecca Rong's face sharpened into something else entirely.

Vivian wanted to come back.

Fine.

Rebecca would be ready for her.