The Nobody Who Ruled Everything

Chapter 5: A Refusal Before the Entire Family

A dry laugh followed. Carlton sipped his wine, his voice soft but every word deliberately loud: “Miss Claire shouldn’t worry. If you agree, I won’t mind that you’ve had a child. The little one can bear the Rothman name. I’ll treat her like my own.”

The room gasped. Several middle-aged women whispered nearby, voices a mix of admiration and scrutiny:

“Young Master Rothman is so generous.”

“Too good for Miss Claire, honestly. Men like that don’t exist anymore.”

“As long as she divorces, everything will be resolved.”

Elena smiled, her face radiating smug satisfaction.

“Hear that, Claire? He’s ready to welcome you. Just divorce him and you’ll be a Morgan again. Grandmother will forgive everything.”

Ryan added, his voice low but every word cutting clear: “If you won’t divorce, then you and your parents will have to leave. Don’t blame us for being cruel.”

Claire shook her head over and over, tears spilling freely, her voice broken: “No… I can’t… Please, don’t force me…”

But her desperate pleas vanished beneath the cold chuckles of those who reveled in crushing someone who once stood above them.

Elena tilted her head, her voice sugary with venom: “Sometimes, to give your child a better future, a mother must make a choice. What can he teach her, besides how to endure shame, Claire?”

Young Master Rothman’s voice followed, mild and smooth: “Think carefully. I’m not pressuring you. But opportunities like this don’t come twice.”

Claire stood pale, breathing unevenly, taking a step back. Her vacant eyes swept across the room like someone cornered at the edge of a cliff. All the familiar faces, relatives, guests, people of her own blood, were now staring back at her, waiting for her to nod and end this performance.

She shook her head, stepped back again, and nearly stumbled, until a firm hand caught her from behind, steadying her trembling body.

Adrian was still standing tall, his hand on her shoulder. His gaze was cold and deep as an abyss.

He spoke, his voice low but resonating clearly through the oppressive air: “I will not divorce her.”

The banquet hall fell silent for several seconds.

He continued, his eyes calm as if stating a simple fact: “Nor will I apologize. If you want us gone, then we’ll leave. That’s all.”

A wave of commotion erupted across the hall.

Ryan slammed his hand down: “What did you just say?!”

Elena sneered, her eyes flashing with hatred: “How dare you!”

Madam Helen leaned on her cane, her voice dropping lower: “You’re sealing your own fate, Adrian Cross.”

The guests whispered furiously, their words sharp as daggers:

“He’s lost his mind.”

“Defying the entire Morgan family?”

“He doesn’t know his place.”

“Let’s see how long he lasts.”

Claire remained frozen, tears streaming. Her small hand gripped his sleeve tightly. She looked up, light from the chandelier gleamed in Adrian’s eyes. They were no longer the eyes of a man who had spent three years enduring, bowing, swallowing every insult. Now, there was something different, deeper, colder, heavier, an intensity so fierce it seemed his very gaze could silence the room.

Claire stared at him, her heart trembling. For the first time in three years, the man before her felt like a stranger. But amidst the chaos of whispers and contemptuous stares, that unfamiliarity gave her a strange sense of calm, as if so long as he stood there, she would not be swept away by the crowd trying to crush her.

Madam Helen tapped her cane against the floor, her voice heavy and cold as iron on stone: “Then I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that. You have three seconds to change your mind.”

Adrian said nothing. He simply stared forward. His silence was so thick it seemed to freeze the very air in the hall.

Madam Helen growled: “A man with nothing dares to challenge this entire family? Absurd.”

Claire’s father, Edric, rushed forward, his face pale with panic.

“Adrian! Are you insane?! Do you even realize what you just said? You want to drag this whole family down with you?!”

Claire’s mother, Lianne, followed, her voice shaking with fear: “Be quiet, Adrian! Stop speaking! If you won’t bow your head, we, your own child, will bear all the consequences!”

Elena let out a laugh, clear, sweet, yet chilling to the bone: “Truly, I’ve never seen anyone destroy themselves this quickly. You’re in the Morgan household, not somewhere you have the right to lift your head.”

Ryan smirked, eyes gleaming with smug delight, his voice slow and deliberate: “Maybe he thinks he’s someone special? Three years of leeching off us, and now he dares to speak against the entire family. What a joke.”

Young Master Rothman raised his wine glass, his tone light but dripping with sarcasm: “What a shame. I had expected a peaceful resolution. Now all that’s left is a new disgrace.”

Madam Helen leaned on her cane, her eyes flashing with disdain deep as a void: “Enough. I have no place for insolence in my house. If you refuse to kneel, then take your wife and child and get out. From this moment on, the name Adrian Cross will never be spoken in the Morgan family again.”

But Adrian still didn’t move. He stood tall, breathing steadily, his gaze sweeping across the mocking faces around him. Not a word, not a reaction, only a silence so unsettling it sent chills through the room.

Claire looked at him, she couldn’t comprehend what was going through this man’s mind. He appeared calm, but in his eyes was something veiled and volatile, like an undercurrent rising beneath the still surface of the sea, unnoticed by those above.

Elena clasped her hands, tilted her head mockingly, and said: “Still silent? Or are you afraid that if you open your mouth, everyone will see you’ve got nothing to say but an apology?”

Ryan shrugged, glancing around before laughing loudly: “He’s shameless, Elena. Men who live off women have no need for dignity.”

A few others laughed in agreement, each chuckle piercing the heavy tension like needles.

Claire’s parents exchanged a glance, despair and fear etched across their faces, before turning to their daughter. Edric whispered, his voice choked with emotion: “Claire, talk to him… beg him, before our whole family is thrown out of this city.”