He Took My Room For Her, I Left For Revenge

Chapter 4

Every second dragged by as I waited for my paternity test results.

I wound myself tighter than a coiled spring, throwing myself entirely into the Delron project.

My whole team pulled all-nighters right alongside me, their schedules flipped upside down, but not a single person complained.

We were all locked in, biting down and pushing through together.

But I never saw it coming. Disaster struck long before that test report ever landed in my hands.

It was the third morning. I had barely stepped through the company entrance when the heavy, suffocating atmosphere hit me right in the chest.

Leon was waiting by the elevator, his face drained of all color.

The moment he spotted me, he hurried over. "Miss Hayes," he said, "the project Vera was in charge of... it has gone south. She messed up the numbers on the final contract. The other side's legal team stuck hard to the claim that we breached the agreement, and they demanded five million in unilateral damages from us."

My steps froze mid-stride. "What did the legal department say?" I asked.

Leon shook his head, his words half spoken and half held back. "Legal said the signed version did not match the copy we kept on file..." he replied. "And also... Mr. Hayes wanted you to go straight to the top-floor conference room. Right now."

I turned on my heel and headed straight for the elevator that went directly to the top floor.

Inside the conference room, the air was thick with tension.

A handful of directors sat perched at the far end of the long table.

The head of the legal department stood off to the side, his head bowed.

The projector screen glowed behind them, displaying that mistake-ridden contract.

Vera sat in a side chair, sobbing quietly into her hands.

Ethan stood with his back to the door, patting her back slow, soft, one pat after another. His voice was so gentle that I had never heard him sound that way my entire life. "It is okay, do not cry," he murmured. "It is just a little money. Think of it as paying for a lesson."

I kept walking straight ahead. Ethan turned at the sound of my footsteps, and his face hardened into stone the moment his eyes landed on me. "Yara," he snapped. "You are the final lead on this project. A mistake this big on the contract? You have to take full responsibility! That five million in losses? The company will not cover a single cent of it for you!"

My voice stayed steady as I answered. "Before the contract was finalized, I had already lost my viewing access," I said. "Ethan, this is not my fault."

But Ethan's voice snapped sharply higher, loud enough to cut the silence. "She is on your team," he roared. "If you cannot manage her right, it is your fault, end of story. Shirking responsibility when you are the team leader? That is the worst mistake you can make. Starting today, you are suspended. You will not step foot back in this company until you figure out what you did wrong."

Dead silence dropped over the conference room instantly.

One of the directors, who had always been friendly with me, opened his mouth as if to speak, then thought better of it. In the end, he just turned his face away and said nothing.

Right in the middle of that suffocating quiet, my phone buzzed once in my pocket.

The vibration was soft, but it cut through the silence sharply and clearly.

I held my ground under his blazing, furious glare, pulled the phone out, and unlocked the screen.

While the report loaded over those long, dragging seconds, Ethan's voice droned on. "...I have spoiled you rotten all these years. You have gotten so arrogant you think you are untouchable. You really thought this company could not run without you, huh? At least Vera puts in the work, but you..."

The file finished loading.

My eyes snapped straight to the final conclusion at the bottom of the page:

[...Based on the available data and DNA analysis results, Ethan Hayes is confirmed to be Vera Lane's biological father.]

Every sound around me washed out like a retreating tide, all at once.

I tapped open the second one, my own test report.

I barely managed to hold back a cold, bitter snort when I saw what it said.

In that single moment, every harsh, unreasonable rule he had ever forced on me, and every cutting insult that I was never good enough for him... everything finally made sense. It was a perfectly logical, perfectly absurd explanation.

Oh, so I was the fake heiress of this wealthy family all along.

Well, if that was how it was... there was no reason for me to go easy on him anymore.