Chapter 5
785 Words
The next morning, Gabe burst into Clara’s bedroom with a loud c***k, having kicked the door right off its latch.
"Did you do this? Spit it out!" His fingers clamped around her throat, squeezing the air right out of her lungs.
She coughed so hard she could barely catch her breath, yet a strange, sharp smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.
Lying nearby on the side table, the phone screen blazed with the top viral search tags.
"Ninety-nine rounds of IVF, and she did all the work for another woman? The Hart's Eldest Daughter’s Bitter, Bloody Tragedy"
#Shocking:SterlingCEOTakesBlood&Marrow
FromHisOwnChild
#AllForTheOneThatGotAway
The comment section had already blown up completely.
A: [Is Gabe even human? Even a wild beast doesn't kill its own child!]
B: [Rose is such a scheming slut! She killed someone else's baby. She should rot in hell!]
C: [How dark are the rich really? They treat human life like it's dirt!}
Someone even leaked that the Sterling Group's stock was plummeting, and the entire board of directors had banded together to protest, demanding Rose get kicked out of the Sterling family for good.
"Rose is just a woman raising a child alone, and it's already hard enough for her. How do you expect her to show her face in public after this?" Gabe snarled.
Clara lifted her head. Staring at the blazing hatred in his eyes and every cutting word that came out of his mouth, she found the whole situation unbelievably hilarious.
"Gabe. What about me?"
Ever since she was a little girl, she had always been the least favorite daughter of the Hart family.
She got into fights and acted out recklessly, all because people bullied her, and no one ever stood up for her.
She had never known real love her whole life. The only scrap of warmth she ever got was when Gabe saved her from a gang of thugs when they were teenagers.
But now, that same man had turned into her worst nightmare.
Gabe suddenly released his grip. He stared down at Clara as she crumpled to the floor, his voice ice-cold and cutting, "You're going to the press conference today. You'll clear all these reports as lies, and you'll apologize to Rose."
Clara froze.
She slowly pulled herself to her feet by bracing her hand on the nearby side table, and ground the words out between her teeth one by one, "Over my dead body."
Gabe's face darkened instantly. He waved a hand, his bodyguards rushed in, and they grabbed Clara under the arms without a word.
"If you refuse to go today, you'll never get your child's body back. Think carefully about that."
The woman, who had been struggling nonstop, went still. All the fight drained out of her in an instant, and she let the bodyguards haul her away without resisting.
No sooner had they stepped into the press conference hall than she heard whispers snaking through the crowd around her.
"That's Mrs. Sterling? She's nothing compared to Rose. Look how terrible her complexion is. She doesn't even look like a wealthy tycoon's wife at all."
"She probably only has the title, you know? They just dragged her out here to clean up the rich family’s mess, that’s all."
Clean up their mess?
Those three words had no place in Clara’s dictionary, ever.
"Everyone, regarding those rumors spreading online, I have a video right here. Watch it, and you’ll all know what’s true and what’s not!"
As she spoke, Clara held her phone right up to the live-stream camera. Playing across the screen was a crisp, unedited video of Gabe locked in a feverish, tangled kiss with Rose.
Chaos erupted instantly across the press conference room.
Gabe’s eyes sharpened into daggers. He shot out a hand and wrenched the phone right out of her grasp. But it was already too late. The entire, clear, uncut video had already aired live across the entire internet, and the comment section of the stream blew up in seconds.
Gabe ground his molars together, stared deadly at the sneering woman standing before him, and pressed the words out in a low, dangerous snarl. "Fine, Clara. You forced my hand."
Then he smoothed out the creases in his suit sleeve, turned to the cameras, and put on a solemn, apologetic expression.
"I’m very sorry, everyone. My wife has suffered a lot of trauma recently, and she created this AI fake video just to act out. This press conference is over." With that, he waved his hand and roughly dragged a struggling Clara out of the hall.
The second they crossed into the backstage area, Gabe ordered the waiting doctors to haul her straight to the psych ward.
- Writer
