Chapter 238

Chapter 238
Ethan Zhao had always thought he knew what “rock bottom” meant.

The scandal.

The boardroom humiliation.

Serena’s cold dismissal.

Lila’s lies.

But none of it compared to this.

He sat alone in his car, parked on the edge of the lot, engine off, rain streaking down the windshield like the sky itself pitied him.

Every breath he took tasted like metal and regret.

He had lost everything.

His company.

His name.

His future.

Serena, the one person who once believed in him more than anyone. But the final crack, the one that shattered whatever was left of him, came when the nurse stuttered out the truth, “There was… no pregnancy, Mr. Zhao. None. The tests were falsified.”

That sentence had lodged itself in his skull like a bullet.

He replayed it over and over and over.

No pregnancy.

No baby.

No future.

No truth.

Lila had lied.

From the beginning.

From the moment she crawled into his life.

And he, the proud Zhao heir, had let her.

Now look...

He squeezed the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned bone white.

Everything he had lost…

The humiliation…

The collapse of the Zhao Group…

His father’s disgust…

Serena slipping completely out of reach…

Lucien’s threat ringing in his ear…

All of it suddenly had a single, clear origin.

Lila.

Lila, with her trembling lips and fake tears.

Lila, with her manipulative whispers.

Lila, seducing him into cheating.

Lila, forcing Serena to leave.

Lila, driving the final nail into the Zhao family coffin.

And now?

She had ran to be with another man.

Another Feng.

And the moment that realization fully bloomed, something in Ethan’s mind went dark.

A hollow, cold clarity washed over him, a clarity he had never known before.

“Fine,” he whispered into the silence.

His voice was flat.

Emotionless.

Dead.

“If I’m going down…”

He lifted his eyes to the mirror. He didn’t recognize the man staring back.

“…she’s coming with me.”

His chest burned, not with heartbreak, not with longing, but with a sharp, slicing purpose.

He had been the fool.

He had been the one used, toyed with, humiliated.

Not anymore.

His father’s words echoed: She’s the reason we lost everything. Reign her in. Get her under control. Make her pay.

At first, Ethan had hated those words.

Now?

They made perfect sense.

He started the car. The headlights cut through the rain like twin blades.

“Lila,” he muttered, gripping the wheel with renewed fury, “you wanted a future with the Fengs? Fine. Enjoy it.”

His jaw clenched.

“Because the next time I see you…”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

He didn’t need to.

The rage in his eyes said it all.

Lila had ruined his life.

Now?

He was going to ruin hers.

Piece.

By.

Piece.

Meanwhile, Meilin was under treatment, and for the first time in months, the doctors finally had something resembling hope in their voices.

The latest results showed that her body was responding perfectly to the therapy. The inflammation had reduced, her neural responses were stabilizing, and her speech coherence had improved by nearly forty percent.

The progress was slow, fragile… but real.

Lucien had been the first to receive the call. His shoulders dropped, not with defeat, but with relief so sharp it almost looked painful. For a man who never let emotions crack through his composure, that moment had spoken volumes.

And yet, he still didn’t go to see Meilin.

Not yet.

He said she deserved to wake up fully, lucid, and see him only when he had something meaningful to offer, something more than guilt, regret, and self loathing wrapped in a perfectly tailored suit.

Meilin was responding to it better than any of the specialists had dared predict.

Her vitals had stabilized.

Her neurological responses had sharpened.

Her speech therapy notes all came back with the same cautious but undeniable verdict. She was improving. Not miraculously, but steadily… consistently… perfectly.

For the first time in a long time, the doctors dared to use the word recovery.

But Lucien told no one, especially not Serena.

He had made a vow to himself: Serena had suffered enough because of the rot in his past. She would only learn the truth when Meilin was strong enough to speak, walk, and face her without trembling apologies or half conscious confusion.

So he bore the updates alone.

Every time the doctors sent him progress reports, he read them in the privacy of his office, jaw tense, chest tight. He would read the words positive improvement, excellent response, renewed cognitive clarity, and he would exhale like someone who’d been underwater too long.

But Serena never saw that side of him.

Around her, he was steady, controlled, ruthlessly focused on their war against Ethan and the Zhao empire. Not once did he slip, not once did he mention that the woman whose tragedy had once shattered his life was slowly returning to herself.

Serena sensed something was off, but she assumed it was their ongoing battles, the pressure, the constant maneuvering that kept Lucien on edge.

She didn’t know that sometimes, late at night when she fell asleep against him, he would quietly slip out of bed and stare at the faint glow of his phone, reading Meilin’s treatment updates over and over.

She didn’t know that each improvement from Meilin was a double edged relief slicing through his conscience.

She didn’t know that he was terrified.

Terrified of what Meilin would say when she finally recovered.

Terrified of how Serena would react when she eventually learned the truth.

Terrified that the fragile happiness growing between them could shatter again.

And yet…

He couldn’t bring himself to tell her.

Not yet.

Not while Meilin was still balancing between recovery and relapse.

Not while Serena was fighting too many battles already.

So Serena moved forward in their war, unaware of the quiet miracle happening in a treatment ward two cities away.

Unaware of the girl slowly waking back into a world where everything had changed.

Unaware that soon…

very soon…

A truth Lucien had locked away would come knocking, with consequences neither of them were ready to face.