Chapter 256 Chapter 256
They quickly escorted Claire through the glass revolving doors and into StarColi’s monumental lobby, leaving the deafening shouts of the press outside.
Throughout the walk under the flashes, Claire kept her head down, her shoulders hunched, and her face hidden by her hair, playing the role of the helpless victim. She didn’t say a single word and didn’t let the cameras capture her expression.
She hurried under escort to the private executive elevator.
As soon as she passed through the metal elevator doors and the security guards blocked the entrance to the lobby, the charade was over.
As the mirrored elevator doors slowly closed, isolating her from the outside world, Claire finally raised her head.
The frightened little girl had vanished. Her face was contorted into a mask of pure cruelty, and her eyes burned with a hatred so absolute and venomous it could melt steel.
“President Collins, Miss Claire has arrived.”
João Miguel knocked on the heavy double doors of the office and announced in a low voice to the petrified man behind the imposing dark mahogany desk.
As soon as he finished speaking, Claire entered the room. She was wearing an elegant white designer jumpsuit, the perfect color she had chosen that morning to reinforce her untouchable image of purity and innocence.
João Miguel gave a subtle bow, turned, and left quickly, closing the door with a soft click, isolating the two of them within the tense atmosphere.
“Edward…” Claire’s voice came out thin and choked.
On the way from the TV station to the agency, Claire’s calculating mind had worked frantically to devise her defense strategy. She knew, deep down, that Edward still harbored repressed feelings for Caroline. If he believed the evidence presented in court and discovered that she was the villainous mastermind behind the destruction of his ex-fiancée’s reputation, the image he had of her would be shattered.
She had always projected the image of a fragile, understanding, well-behaved, and kind girl. That was the illusion Edward liked. If she took on the role of the jealous and spiteful witch, the charade would crumble.
Therefore, she had decided she’d rather die than admit she was the owner of that IP address.
As she uttered his name in that soft, dependent tone, Claire hoped Edward would rush to embrace her with his usual gentle, protective gaze.
But instead of finding her fiancé’s open arms, Claire’s heart plummeted to the ground. The look that met her sent her into a state of absolute panic.
It was dark. Gloomy. Frighteningly cold.
And it was a kind of cutting coldness, bathed in hatred, that he had never, in their entire history together, directed at her.
He must be acting this way because he’s believing the internet posts, was Claire’s first and only thought. (Little did she know of the abyss that awaited her.)
She hurried to fire off her rehearsed explanation, her eyes filling with tears as she began: “Edward, honey, please listen to me! Everything they’re spreading online and in the tabloids is a lie! I wasn’t the one who posted those horrible things about my sister on the college forum!” Someone hacked into my home router or forged that IP address to destroy me! I know it’s hard for you not to believe that “evidence,” but I was the victim of a cruel setup! I can explain...
As she spoke with a trembling voice, perfect tears began to stream down her porcelain face.
“Edward, I swear by everything that’s sacred, I can explain…” She took a step forward but stopped when she noticed his statue-like stillness. “Why… why are you looking at me so coldly? Don’t tell me… that you’re going to abandon me now too and don’t believe me?”
Whenever Claire played that card—the image of a fragile, vulnerable, and wronged little girl—Edward’s masculine instinct screamed. He used to soften instantly, rushing to comfort her and gently wipe away her tears.
But this time, Edward remained motionless. Rooted to his chair.
He seemed blind and deaf to her tears. His gaze remained as cold and relentless as an executioner’s blade.
As he watched Claire sob, gesticulate, and cry out her innocence in that sweet voice, the only thing running through Edward’s mind was: Just how far does this actress’s psychopathy go? Seeing the choked sobs that once melted his heart now only made him even more furious. Edward’s stomach churned with disgust as he realized that the repulsive woman in front of him thought she could manipulate his emotions once again, as if he were a blind puppet.
He used to think that Claire was a delicate crystal that needed his protection from the cruel world. It was that very illusion that made him want to protect her.
But now, with the hospital doctor’s confession and the hackers’ irrefutable evidence sitting on his desk, all that remained in his heart was overwhelming revulsion and deadly hatred.
As he recalled how he had been deceived, humiliated, and manipulated day after day, and worst of all... as he recalled that he had crushed Caroline’s heart and ended his engagement to the woman of his life to take “responsibility” for this fraud of a woman and her fake baby... Edward’s chest felt as if it were about to explode with rage.
Calculating viper.
He would never be made a fool of again.
Claire clearly saw the absolute coldness and seething hatred etched in Edward’s eyes, and her stomach sank. A primal panic engulfed her, making her heart pound wildly against her ribs.
She sensed that Edward’s silence meant he must have some irrefutable digital evidence in hand to act that way. Denying the IP address wouldn’t work anymore. She needed to change tactics immediately.
“Edward, I confess! The mansion’s IP address is correct,” she whimpered, clutching the edge of the mahogany table. In her desperation to save her own skin, Claire didn’t hesitate for a single second to throw her own mother to the wolves. “But it wasn’t me who sent that post—it was my mother!”