Chapter 281: Chapter 281
Chapter 281
Back in Monterey, the front doors of the Castellan estate slammed open as Richard walked into the house unannounced. Heavy leather shoes hit the expensive tiles with a loud, rhythmic thud that echoed straight through the main entrance.
Maria was sitting in the living room, her face already pale and drawn from days of relentless stress, but the second she heard those footsteps, she turned around. When she saw Richard marching into the foyer like he owned the place, her hands instantly clenched into tight fists at her sides.
"What do you want?" Maria asked, standing up so fast her chair scraped hard against the floor. She stared right at him, her eyes completely filled with pure hatred. "Who gave you the right to just walk into my house?"
Richard didn't even slow his pace. He stopped a few feet away, crossing his arms over his chest, a cold and smug look plastered across his face. "I came to deliver the news myself," he said with complete disdain, not showing a single drop of remorse. "I am announcing Ethan dead."
Maria’s eyes widened in sudden horror, her breath hitching straight in her throat. "What?" she gasped out, her voice shaking violently before turning into a furious scream. "Do not dare to announce my son dead! Get out of my house! Don't you dare speak his name!"
Her loud shouting echoed clear out to the driveway, alarming the security guards stationed outside the main entrance. Two guards rushed up the front steps, their hands resting near their holsters as they pushed open the double doors, ready to step in. But Richard didn't even look back at them. He just gave a small, wicked smirk, turned on his heel, and pulled his phone out of his jacket pocket.
"Call the press," Richard ordered into the receiver as he walked past the guards toward his waiting car. "Tell every media house in California to assemble at the Castellan Enterprise building in twenty minutes. I have a major statement to make."
He slid into the back seat of his luxury sedan, slamming the door shut. Within seconds, his entire black convoy pulled out of the private gates, tires kicking up gravel as they sped down the Monterey highway toward the corporate headquarters.
Reporters, news vans, and camera crew vans were already swarming the front steps of Castellan Enterprise when the convoy arrived. Journalists shoved their microphones forward, shouting questions over one another as Richard stepped out into the open, ignoring the barrage of camera flashes going off right in his face.
He walked up to the podium set up on the front steps, raised his hand to quiet the crowd, and adjusted his suit jacket. He didn't hesitate for a single second.
"My son, Ethan Castellan, is dead," Richard announced publicly, his voice cold and flat over the loud speaker systems.
The entire crowd of reporters erupted into chaos. Dozens of hands shot up into the air, journalists shouting over each other, asking where the body was found, how it happened, and what this meant for the company's future stock. But Richard didn't answer a single question. He simply turned around, flanked by his security team, and walked straight back to his waiting vehicle, leaving the media in an absolute frenzy.
Within an hour, every local newspaper, TV channel, and social media platform in California and Monterey carried the exact same breaking headline. Ethan’s face was broadcast on every major news outlet, circulating rapidly across millions of phone screens. The internet exploded with public reactions, and social media comment sections beneath the articles quickly flooded with vicious, hateful messages.
"That's what he gets for making an innocent girl commit suicide," one top comment read on Instagram.
"Karma finally caught up to him. Good riddance," wrote another user.
"He thought his family's money could save him from what he did. Guess he was wrong," another comment said, shared thousands of times across the platform.
Back at the house, Maria stood in front of the wide television screen in her living room, her body trembling uncontrollably as she watched the live broadcast repeat her son's name over and over. She knew in her heart that Ethan wasn't dead. She knew he was still fighting somewhere out there. But seeing his face framed by those terrible words on live national news was too much for her body to take. Her legs completely gave out beneath her, and she collapsed onto the floor, passing out cold on the rug while her terrified housemaids rushed across the room to help her.
Across town in her private apartment, Ariana sat on the edge of her sofa, staring blankly at the breaking news report playing on her laptop. She scrolled through the online articles in absolute shock, her hands frozen on the keyboard. She wanted to believe it was just another malicious rumor, but the confirmation had come straight from the official source—his own father. She stared at Ethan's photo on the screen, her heart pounding against her ribs as she stared at it.