I’m Back, Mr. CEO 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 71 - 챕터 80

“I don’t know yet.” I paced the room, my mind racing. “But I can’t let her keep winning. Every time she appears, she takes something from me. My reputation. My dignity. The respect I’ve spent years building.” “So what? You want to fight back? Make this messier than it already is?” “I want to protect what’s mine.” I stopped, faced him. “Don’t you?” Something flickered in his eyes. Guilt? Doubt? I couldn’t tell anymore. We’d been together for eight years, and lately I felt like I was looking at a stranger. “Serena is not a threat to us,” he said finally. “She’s bitter and lashing out. But she can’t actually do anything. We have Ethan. We have life. We have everything she lost.” “Do we?” I moved closer, searched his face. “Because the way you looked at her at the party, Adrian, it didn’t look like you had everything. It looked like you wanted something you couldn’t have.” His face shuttered. “That’s ridiculous.” “Is it? You could barely take your eyes off her.” “I was shoc

**Clara POV**I’d been watching Serena break for three days.Not obviously. She was too good at hiding it now, too practiced at keeping her armor intact. But I’d known her for over a decade. I could see the cracks.The way her hands shook when she scrolled through her phone. The way she barely touched her food. The way she’d lock herself in her office for hours, refusing to come out until I physically dragged her.Twenty-seven articles in three days. Twenty-seven different publications, all saying the same vicious things.Unfit mother. Abandoned her child. Mentally unstable. Attention seeker.And Serena, strong, brilliant Serena who’d rebuilt herself from nothing, was starting to believe them.“I need to respond,” she’d said this morning, staring at her laptop with hollow eyes. “I need to tell my side.”“No,” I’d said firmly. “That’s what they want. They want you reactive and desperate. We stay quiet and let this blow over.”But it wasn’t blowing over. It was getting worse.Which mean

“Then you know I have every reason to hate him,” I said honestly. “But that doesn’t change the fact that we’re offering you superior service at a better price. Your company’s success doesn’t have to be collateral damage in whatever personal drama people want to see here. This is about business, Mr. Hartley. Your business. And whether you want to keep struggling with Moore Enterprises or move forward with partners who’ll actually deliver.”He was quiet for a long moment. Then he stood, extended his hand.“I’ll have my lawyers review the contract. If everything checks out, we’ll make the switch.”I shook his hand, kept my expression professional even as triumph sang through my veins. “You won’t regret this.”“I better not.” But he was smiling. “Adrian’s going to be furious.”“Yes,” I said. “He is.”-----{ADRIAN’S POV}The call came at four in the afternoon.I was in the middle of reviewing quarterly reports when my assistant knocked on my door, face pale.“Mr. Moore, Richard Hartley is

**Margaret POV**My hands were still shaking when I walked through the front door.I’d kept them steady in the car, maintained my composure in front of the driver, but now, in the privacy of my own home, they trembled like leaves. I set my purse down on the entry table with more force than necessary.The sound of children’s laughter floated from the living room. High-pitched giggles, the thud of small feet on expensive carpet. Usually, the sound soothed me. Today, it grated.“Grandma!”I barely had time to brace myself before Emma came running, her dark curls bouncing, arms stretched wide. She crashed into my legs with the fearless enthusiasm of a twelve-year-old who thought the world was safe and good.“Grandma, you’re home! We’ve been waiting forever.” She looked up at me with Vivian’s eyes, bright and demanding. “Can we have ice cream? Mama said we had to ask you first.”“Later, darling.” I smoothed her hair automatically, the gesture so practiced it required no thought.Ethan appe

Daniel Morins arrived at my office exactly forty-eight hours after I’d hired him, carrying a thick manila folder and an expression I couldn’t read.“You’re not going to like this,” he said, dropping the folder on my desk.I’d been dreading this moment for two days. I barely slept. I barely ate. Just waited for whatever truth was about to explode in my face.“Just tell me,” I said.Daniel sat down, opened the folder, pulled out a photo. Serena, but not the Serena I knew now. This one was thin, gaunt, standing outside a tiny apartment in what looked like Paris. Dark circles under her eyes. Cheap clothes. Hair pulled back in a messy ponytail.“That was taken about months after she left New York,” Daniel said. “She was working three jobs. Waitressing during the day, cleaning offices at night, and doing alterations for a local tailor on weekends. Living in a studio apartment that cost most of her salary. Eating one meal a day. Barely surviving.”I stared at the photo, and couldn't speak.“