All Chapters of The Rich Man's Proxy Marriage: Chapter 111 - Chapter 120

The storm did not end with silence.It settled into the walls.Elena felt it the moment she woke— that quiet tension humming beneath the luxury of the Lu residence, like a wire pulled too tight, ready to snap.The scandal was no longer breaking news.It had become history.Which meant something worse had begun.The Lu family still said nothing.No public statements. No private reassurance. No defense of Elena’s dignity beyond Holden’s single, devastating strike.At breakfast, the elders spoke of markets, not morals. Of reputation, not truth. Of damage control, not damage done.Elena sat among them like a guest whose presence had become inconvenient.She realized then: their silence was not neutrality.It was judgment.Holden did not look at her.He sat at the head of the table, composed, distant, immaculate.The man who had crushed a media empire without hesitation now kept his hands folded, his eyes lowered, his voice measured.As if distance itself were armor.“Elena,” one o

The official notice arrived at exactly nine in the morning.Not as a request. Not as a discussion.As a decision.Elena stood in the private elevator of Lu Corporation, the polished metal doors reflecting her face back at her—calm, composed, unreadable. In her hand was the tablet Holden’s assistant had delivered without a word.Board Resolution: Effective ImmediatelyElena Xia appointed as Strategic Advisory Liaison to the Board of DirectorsNo signature from Holden.Only one name appeared repeatedly in the margin notes.Johann Lu.The boardroom was fuller than usual.Not louder—but heavier.Elena felt it the moment she stepped inside. Conversations stopped just a second too late. Eyes followed her movement. Not hostile. Not friendly.Evaluating.Holden was already seated at the head of the table, posture rigid, expression carved from ice. He didn’t look at her when she took her seat two chairs to his right.Johann arrived last.Of course he did.“Apologies,” Johann said easily, slip

The headline appeared before sunrise.“THE WOMAN BEHIND LU CORPORATION’S RECENT POWER SHIFTS.”Who Is Elena Xia—And Why Does Chairman Lu Listen to Her?Elena read it in silence.The article was clever. Not defamatory. Not false.Just enough truth, bent out of shape.It didn’t accuse her of wrongdoing. It suggested influence. It implied manipulation.By the third paragraph, she was no longer a wife.She was a strategist pulling invisible strings.By the fifth, she was a liability.The board reacted exactly as Johann had predicted.No statements. No denials. No protection.Silence.And silence, Elena was learning, was not neutrality.It was permission.Holden read the article once.Then he made three phone calls.The first froze a merger. The second canceled a partnership. The third quietly removed a media executive from their position.By noon, the outlet issued a clarification.By evening, its stock had dropped.No one mentioned Elena’s name again.Not publicly.But inside Lu

The office felt emptier without Elena beside him.Holden stared at the board documents scattered across his desk, but the numbers no longer mattered.They were irrelevant.All he could see was the space Elena had left behind—the quiet, deliberate absence Johann had orchestrated.Elena had not returned to Holden’s side since the elevator encounter. She had purposefully requested time to analyze her own position, a move Johann had predicted she would make.And Holden? He was unprepared.The first pangs of panic bit into his chest—not because of corporate losses, but because she wasn’t there to anchor him.Johann was everywhere, subtly present.At the morning briefing, his words were carefully neutral. Yet each phrase was a scalpel, slicing into Holden’s confidence.“You understand the board is evaluating leadership resilience,” Johann said casually, his gaze flicking toward Elena.Holden clenched his jaw. Resilience. She wasn’t absent because she was fragile. She was testing the wate

The city lights flickered outside Lu Corporation’s towering headquarters, casting long reflections on the polished marble floors. Inside, the executive floor was alive with muted tension—whispers, the quiet shuffle of papers, and the occasional sharp click of a designer heel against the marble.Holden stood near the central conference table, his jaw tight, eyes fixed on the digital display in front of him. Numbers, graphs, and market analyses scrolled across the screen, yet none of it mattered. His mind was consumed by Johann Lu—the subtle, dangerous presence that had infiltrated his life and threatened the delicate balance he had fought to maintain.Elena entered the room with a calm confidence that both reassured and irritated him. She carried herself with precision, tablet in hand, eyes scanning the data with sharp intellect. Holden watched every move, guarded yet captivated, his instincts screaming that Johann was watching too, that the next trap was already set.Johann had a tale