Chapter 11

"Jealous of Morgan?"

Camelia repeated the words with unmistakable amusement before letting out a dry laugh laced with mockery. She turned gracefully, her icy gaze settling directly on the man standing motionless at the center of the stage. There was no trace of love or possessiveness in her eyes—only pure hostility that left no room for misunderstanding.

Seeing that Camelia remained completely unshaken, Vivian subtly moved her fingers behind her back, signaling her personal assistant, who stood quietly in the corner of the ballroom.

Within seconds, the massive ten-by-five-meter LED screen that had been displaying Morgan and Vivian's romantic pre-wedding photos suddenly flickered.

Bzzzt!

The screen switched to high-resolution CCTV footage recorded under dim lighting.

There, on the unmade bed inside Room 404, the silhouettes of Camelia and Morgan could clearly be seen. Camelia lay asleep beneath Morgan's powerful frame. Although the room was dark, the hidden camera had captured their faces with startling clarity.

A collective gasp swept through the ballroom.

The elegant atmosphere instantly dissolved into deafening whispers. Dozens of reporters rushed forward, furiously pressing their camera shutters as relentless flashes illuminated Camelia's face.

Yet Camelia's reaction stunned everyone.

Instead of panicking, she merely curved her lips into a faint, victorious smile, looking at the footage as though it were nothing more than cheap entertainment.

"So it's true! The rumors weren't rumors after all!" an older woman seated in the VIP section exclaimed, pointing her feather fan toward Camelia. "Camelia really is a shameless woman trying to steal her own stepsister's fiancé!"

Vivian immediately seized the opportunity.

She collapsed beside Bagaskara, covering her face with both hands as she burst into perfectly rehearsed sobs. Raising her tear-filled eyes toward Morgan, she spoke with a trembling voice.

"Morgan... if you truly intend to take responsibility and marry Camelia after what happened between you behind my back, then I'd rather step aside," Vivian cried dramatically, earning sympathetic looks from every corner of the ballroom. "I refuse to stand in the way of your love."

Hearing the absurd performance, Camelia calmly climbed another step until she stood level with the main stage. Folding her arms across her chest, she looked at Vivian and Morgan in turn, her disgust no longer concealed.

"You think I'd marry a bastard like Morgan?" Camelia's voice thundered through the nearby podium microphone, instantly cutting off Vivian's sobbing.

"Listen carefully, everyone! Even if he begged me to marry him for free, I wouldn't. Even if someone offered me ten trillion rupiah, I would never spend the rest of my life with an arrogant man like him!"

"How arrogant of you, Camelia!" Bagaskara roared, stepping forward with a face burning red from humiliation. "You act as if you're the purest and most beautiful woman in the world, when in reality you're nothing more than garbage that has disgraced this family!"

Camelia fixed her sharp gaze on the man who had fathered her.

"Vivian... no matter how filthy people may think I am tonight, at least I've never played dirty behind closed doors the way you have."

Vivian froze, her face instantly turning pale at the pointed remark. She hurriedly grabbed the sleeve of Morgan's suit and hid behind his broad frame as though seeking protection.

"Morgan, look at Camelia!" Vivian cried. "She's not only ruining our engagement party, but she's also insulting me and slandering me in front of all your business associates!"

The anger Morgan had been suppressing finally reached its breaking point.

Camelia's public insults, combined with the countless cameras documenting every second, shattered what little restraint he had left.

He strode forward, raised his right hand high, and swung it toward her face, intending to silence her with a slap.

Snap!

His hand stopped abruptly in midair.

With astonishing speed, Camelia had caught his wrist just centimeters before his palm could touch her cheek.

Her grip was incredibly firm, her fingers pressing against his pulse, creating unmistakable tension between them.

"Mr. Morgan," Camelia whispered, her voice low yet piercing as she stared directly into his blazing eyes.

"For someone intelligent enough to run a multinational corporation, you should be capable of judging this situation logically. That CCTV footage from a private hotel room... was delivered directly by Vivian's personal assistant to the ballroom's screen operator. Tell me—why would her assistant keep that recording unless it was meant to humiliate me here today?"

Morgan froze.

His eyes drifted down to the wrist Camelia was holding before shifting toward Vivian's assistant, who now stood nervously in the corner, desperately signaling the technicians to turn off the screen.

Morgan's sharp mind began connecting the pieces with the information his own assistant had uncovered only hours earlier about the carefully orchestrated abuse Camelia had endured at the hands of the Bagaskara family.

The moment Vivian noticed hesitation flicker across Morgan's face, panic overtook her.

She rushed forward, trying to pry Camelia's hand away from her fiancé's wrist.

"Camelia, enough!" Vivian shrieked, her voice piercing through the ballroom as she desperately tried to drown out the truth her stepsister had just revealed. "Stop insulting me and twisting the facts! Get out of this house—and out of this engagement party—right now!"