Chapter 293

Chapter 293

The air in the hospital room turned to ice.

Clara held up the pregnancy test report, her fingers trembling slightly, but her eyes were filled with the fervor of a scheme coming to fruition.

Silas didn't take it.

He just sat there by the hospital bed, looking at Clara calmly.

That expression made Serena sense something was off.

Something wasn't right.

Any other man, hearing a woman say she was pregnant with his child, would have some kind of reaction.

Even if it was shock, or anger and doubt, there should be some emotional response.

But Silas had nothing.

There wasn't even a trace of extra expression on his face.

This could only mean one thing—he already knew something.

Clara also sensed something was wrong.

Her smile gradually froze on her face, and her hand clutching the report unconsciously tightened.

"Silas, you... why aren't you saying anything?"

Silas finally moved.

He tilted his head slightly, the corner of his mouth curving into an arc.

That smile sent chills down Clara's spine.

"Are you sure," Silas said word by word, with a hint of cruelty, "that the person who was with you that night was me?"

Clara's pupils contracted. She clenched her teeth tightly and spoke.

"Of course it was you! The Peninsula Hotel, room 1206, that night..."

"That night," Silas interrupted her, his voice even calm, "I was in 1208."

He paused.

"With Serena."

As those words spilled out, the room became so quiet you could hear heartbeats.

Clara's face instantly drained of all color, turning frighteningly pale.

"You're lying!" Her voice rose sharply, shrill and piercing. "You were clearly with me that night! You carried me to bed yourself, you touched me, you..."

"John." Silas didn't look at her, just turned his head and called out.

John had been waiting for this.

He pulled out a tablet from his briefcase, walked up to Clara, and pointed the screen at her.

The moment the screen lit up, Clara's voice caught in her throat.

It was surveillance footage from The Peninsula Hotel hallway.

The timestamp showed 1:17 AM that morning.

Outside room 1206, a man's figure was captured clearly by the camera.

It wasn't Silas.

The person was half a head shorter than Silas. He sneakily pushed open the door and slipped inside.

The footage continued. Just after 5 AM,

the same person came out of the room, looking around furtively like a thief, then ran toward the elevator with his head down.

Tristan.

That person was Tristan.

Clara froze completely, her eyes fixed on the screen, her lips trembling so much she couldn't form a complete word.

"After I left the Peninsula, I had someone restore the hallway surveillance." Silas's tone was flat, flat without a hint of warmth. "Who entered your room that night is crystal clear in the recording."

He paused.

"The child in your belly has nothing to do with me."

Back when he found the surveillance footage, Silas was afraid Clara would break down if she saw it, so he had people keep it from her.

But now, it had become the most powerful evidence.

Clara's legs went weak, her body swayed, and she bumped into the bed rail behind her.

She grabbed the railing to keep from falling, her nails digging into her palms, her whole body shaking.

"No, that's impossible..."

She shook her head desperately, her face full of disbelief.

"The voice I heard that night was yours, Silas. You called my name, you said..."

She couldn't continue.

Because she remembered.

That night the room was pitch black—she never clearly saw the man's face.

She had her eyes closed the whole time. She was the one calling out "Silas," calling out constantly.

And that man, from beginning to end, never said a single word.

Clara's face changed from deathly pale to ashen gray.

Her knees completely gave out, and she slid to the floor.

"Who was that man?" Her voice was shaking, each word squeezed out through clenched teeth. "I clearly, I clearly arranged for..."

Halfway through, she suddenly stopped.

But it was too late.

Silas lowered his eyelids to look at her, his eyes chillingly cold.

"Arranged for what?"

Clara bit her lip hard, not daring to speak again.

Silas didn't press further.

He didn't need to.

He already knew about Serena being drugged that night.

The champagne the server brought up—who arranged it was already obvious.

The room was quiet for several seconds.

Clara lay on the floor, her fingers clawing at the tiles, her nails nearly splitting.

Everything she had carefully planned in her life shattered completely in this moment.

She thought that night was a gift from heaven.

Turns out, it was just a huge joke.

The drug she went to such lengths to obtain ended up in Serena's mouth.

She thought she had slept with Silas, but that person was never Silas at all.

And the woman she hated to the bone was the one who actually spent the entire night entangled with Silas.

Clara's stomach churned, and she curled up on the floor.

Suddenly, she jerked her head up, glaring at Serena with deadly eyes.

"You seduced him!" Clara's voice cracked, bordering on hysterical. "You deliberately went to find him that night, didn't you! You shameless bitch!"

After speaking, Clara staggered to her feet.

She suddenly rushed toward Serena. "You bitch, you did it on purpose, didn't you?"

"You deliberately seduced Silas to your room, didn't you? You bitch, you ruined my plan!"

Clara's eyes were bloodshot, looking like a ghost.

Serena frowned and took two steps back.

Clara had lost all reason now—confronting her directly would only hurt herself.

But the next second, Silas stepped in front of Serena and grabbed Clara's wrist.

Then with a forceful motion, he threw Clara to the ground.

Silas looked down at Clara sprawled on the floor.

"Don't you know what you did yourself?"

Clara opened her mouth but couldn't speak.

She had always thought she still had a way out.

She thought as long as she had a child, Silas could never get away from her.

But now she realized the child in her belly wasn't Silas's.

She had nothing left now.

Clara lay on the cold floor, letting out hoarse sobs.

Not the pitiful crying from before, but true collapse.

Serena stood in the corner, not making a sound.

She watched Clara in that state, not sure what to feel.

The drug that night was arranged by Clara.

So that's how it was.

But Clara probably never dreamed that the trap she carefully laid would backfire on herself.

Clara collapsed on the floor, her eyes filled with a defeated gray.

She had realized it. She had completely lost now, lost fair and square.

She and Silas could never be together.

Silas looked at Serena and said, "Let's go."

Serena nodded and followed Silas out of the hospital room.

The quiet room was suddenly left with only Clara alone.