All Chapters of The Rich Man's Proxy Marriage: Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

The first sign that Johann Lu had escalated wasn’t the headlines.It was the silence.No urgent calls.No emergency meetings.No frantic messages from the board.Just stillness.The kind of stillness that came before a storm.Holden stood in his private office, staring at the city below. The glass reflected his figure—controlled, immovable, untouchable. At least, that was the image he had spent years crafting.Behind him, the door opened softly.“Elena is here.”Freddy’s voice was cautious, as if he already sensed the fracture in the air.Holden didn’t turn. “Let her in.”She stepped inside quietly.Elena looked calm, but Holden knew better now. He recognized the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers curled slightly at her side—a habit she had when she was bracing for impact.“You wanted to see me?” she asked.He turned.For a split second, relief flashed across his eyes before he buried it.“Yes.”She crossed the room, heels echoing softly. “Johann made another move.”It wasn

The first photograph appeared at 6:17 a.m.Elena saw it not on her phone, but reflected faintly on the glass wall of the Lu estate’s dining room—broadcast silently from a muted television she hadn’t turned on.She stopped walking.The image was grainy, deliberately blurred at the edges, but unmistakable. A woman who looked like her—too much like her—was stepping out of a hotel lobby at night. The dress was short. The lighting was cruel. A man’s silhouette lingered behind her, conveniently cropped to make speculation inevitable.The headline bled red across the screen.LU HOLDEN’S WIFE: A PAST SHE NEVER DISCLOSEDElena’s fingers tightened around the porcelain cup in her hand. She didn’t spill the tea, though the heat burned her skin. Pain grounded her. She welcomed it.She reached for the remote and unmuted the television.“…sources suggest Mrs. Lu’s background is far from the refined image the Lu family presents,” the anchor said smoothly. “Records from overseas, unclear educational t

The press conference room was packed.Too packed.Cameras lined the walls like predators waiting for movement. Microphones crowded the podium, each one bearing a logo that had already decided her guilt.Elena stood behind the curtain, hands clasped loosely in front of her.Her heartbeat was calm.That was the strangest part.She had expected fear. Shame. Anger.Instead, there was only clarity.Across the room, Holden stood with his legal team, tall and composed, his presence alone enough to suppress the noise. The reporters lowered their voices unconsciously when he moved.Power did that.He hadn’t looked at her once.Not since they arrived.The signal light blinked.Three seconds.Two.One.Elena stepped out.The room erupted.“Mrs. Lu, are the photos real?”“Did you have relationships before marriage?”“Is this why the Lu family refused to comment?”“Elena—do you deny the allegations?”Holden lifted his hand.The room fell silent.“I will speak,” he said coldly.Elena turned sharply

The silence between them lasted three days.It was not the kind of silence filled with unresolved anger or sharp words held back. It was worse.It was controlled.Holden continued to act as if nothing had changed.Every morning, the driver arrived on time. Security doubled discreetly. The Lu Corporation’s legal team released statements—polished, cold, precise—declaring the circulating photos to be malicious fabrications. Lawsuits were filed. Warnings were issued.On the surface, Elena was protected.Immaculately.But Holden himself had withdrawn into a careful distance, as if proximity now carried risk.He did not raise his voice.He did not argue.He simply stopped looking at her the way he used to.And Elena noticed everything.The media storm worsened.One outlet replaced another. Anonymous sources multiplied like rot spreading under polished wood.Ambitious woman climbs through marriage.Unknown origins, questionable morals.Did the Lu heir marry a liability?Elena scrolled throu

The headlines changed tone within hours.The East Harbor Review vanished from digital platforms as if it had never existed. Links led to error pages. Social media accounts went dark. Advertisers issued statements of “unforeseen restructuring.”The message was clear.Someone had been erased.Publicly, Holden Lu was praised.A husband who protected his wife. A chairman who tolerated no defamation. A man who acted decisively.Privately, Elena felt colder than she had the day the photos first appeared.She stood in front of the mirror, hands braced on the marble counter, staring at her reflection.Her face looked the same.But something behind her eyes had shifted.Fear had been replaced by calculation.The house felt different now—not hostile, not safe. Controlled.Holden hadn’t spoken to her since the boardroom.No apology.No explanation.No attempt to soften what she had seen.His protection had come with a price she hadn’t agreed to pay.At breakfast, the long dining table felt eve