Chapter 4

The room went quiet all at once.

I steadied myself, then headed to Waverly headquarters.

When I walked into the president's office, one of my people came in with a stack of files to report.

"Mr. Dickerson, I've looked into it. Rowena and Rufus are scheduled for the embryo transfer three days from now."

"They were able to go through with the IVF because Rowena paid to forge a marriage certificate."

I nodded.

"Go on."

He pulled out another file.

"Mr. Dickerson, this is a report on the company funds Rowena has diverted for her own use over the past year and change."

"Most of it went to buying Rufus luxury goods. Nearly fifty million in total."

"Under the contract, she's already in serious breach of the shareholder agreement."

I looked at the strings of numbers on the page, my eyes cold.

Her company's total earnings didn't even reach a hundred million a year.

She'd spent more than half a year's earnings on Rufus.

"Send it to legal. Tell them to have all the evidence organized within three days."

"Yes, sir."

Not long after he left, a message came in from Rowena.

"Lucius, where did you go?!"

"Get back here right now and apologize to Rufus!"

I didn't answer. I set the phone face down on the desk.

The hours that followed.

Every so often, Rowena sent another message.

When she wasn't asking where I was, she was cursing me out.

"Lucius, if you're going to sulk and stay away, then don't come back at all!"

For the next two days, she didn't message me again.

Not until early on the third day, when another message came through.

Her tone had softened a good deal.

"Lucius, Rufus told me not to be angry with you anymore."

"But don't let it happen again. If you ever mouth off to him like that, I'll divorce you."

"I have a business trip today. I might be back the same day, or I might be gone a while."

"Message me when you get back. Don't just go silent like a corpse."

I still didn't answer.

Just then one of my people came in and showed me a stretch of surveillance footage.

On the screen, Rowena and Rufus were walking into a clinic.

Along with their conversation.

"Rowena, today's the embryo transfer. I never thought I'd actually get to be a father."

Rowena's voice went soft.

"Rufus, I told you I'd give you a child, and I meant it."

"But… what if I start showing in a few months? What about Lucius…"

"Don't worry. I'll tell him there's a project overseas that needs following. I'll say I'm away on a year-long trip, we have the baby, then we come back."

Then Rowena walked into the procedure room.

I stood up, cold.

"To the clinic."

On the way, a message from Rufus came out of nowhere.

"You've seen everything I posted by now, haven't you? Didn't expect you to have this much patience."

"You still can't tell she doesn't want you? Why not hurry up and file for divorce yourself?"

"Oh, I get it. You can't bear to give up her money, can you?"

"Don't kid yourself. You won't get a single cent!"

"I'll tell you straight. Rowena is having her embryo transfer right now."

"She won't give you a child, but she's about to be pregnant with mine. You've got a marriage certificate and nothing else. What good is that?"

"In the end, to us, you're nothing but a joke."

I didn't reply.

I closed the phone and reached the clinic.

Just then Rowena was coming out of the embryo transfer room.

When she saw me, she frowned.

"Lucius, what are you doing here?"

I looked at her coldly.

"You did IVF with Rufus, and now you're doing an embryo transfer so you can have his baby."

"You're asking me what I'm doing here?"

Before Rowena could speak, Rufus put on that frail act again and stepped up to plead with me.

"Lucius, don't fight with Rowena. This is all my fault. I'm the one who was diagnosed with low sperm quality, and she couldn't bear to leave me all alone, so she did this."

"If you want to blame someone, blame me."

But then, in a voice only I could hear, he sneered.

"What, here to make a scene again? Loser."

The moment he finished, I slapped him across the face.

"I'll settle my account with you later. For now, get out of the way!"

Rowena flew into a rage.

"Lucius, what do you think you're doing!"

But the next second, another slap landed on her face.

Her eyes went wide, staring at me in disbelief.

"Lucius, you dared to hit me?!"

I looked at her coldly.

"You two, a cheating pair. You both deserve it!"

Then something seemed to click for her, and she gave a cold laugh.

"I know what this is. You're jealous of Rufus, aren't you?!"

"That's right! So what if I did IVF with him? Not only that, I'm going to have his baby too!"

"I just won't give you a child. I'll give Rufus one instead."

"You're jealous, aren't you? Then I'll let you be jealous to your heart's content!"

"Now that you've found out, you'll just have to put up with it from here on, or we divorce."

"Do you dare? Could you bear to?"

I watched her smug, self-satisfied face and let out a faint laugh.

"Good thing you admitted it yourself."

Her brow creased at once.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Ms. Pruitt, this is your walk-away-with-nothing settlement and your removal notice."

Behind me, the lawyer stopped the recording, stepped forward, and held out two documents.

"And a reminder, while we're at it. Mr. Dickerson is the president of the Waverly Group, which makes him the largest shareholder of your company."