Betrayed by the Father Reborn in His Rival's Arms novel Chapter 229

Hudson glanced at the notification but ignored it.

He felt completely untouchable.

Madeline had seen the news early that morning, but she remained remarkably calm.

She recognized her slanderer almost instantly.

At first, she assumed it was just a pathetic rumor that would blow over.

But the smear campaign kept growing, spiraling wildly out of control.

It was even starting to negatively impact Photon Tech's stock prices.

She quickly deduced that Hudson wasn't acting alone. Someone wealthy and vindictive had unleashed him to destroy her.

Yet using such a cheap, vulgar method to attack her was honestly laughable.

Running through the list of suspects, she wondered who pulled the strings. Eleanor Prescott? Liliana? Or perhaps Lucius himself?

She had recently humiliated all of them during that explosive hospital confrontation.

It was entirely possible that the old woman wanted revenge, or that the Whitman family was using her to bury their own scandals.

But after scanning the list of Hudson's top donors and spotting an avatar that looked suspiciously like Liliana, the mystery solved itself.

Madeline didn't waste her breath arguing with him online.

She simply shifted her gaze to her high-end monitor. So he thought he could hide behind a screen and destroy her life?

People seemed to forget that her true background was in advanced cybersecurity.

Playing digital warfare with her was a death wish.

They clearly didn't realize that tracking someone across the internet took her less effort than making a cup of coffee.

And dismantling a digital empire was just as easy.

Her fingers flew across the keyboard, typing lines of complex code at lightning speed.

Hudson stared at the rapidly ticking counter in the corner of his screen, his heart pounding erratically in his chest.

Three hundred and seventy thousand. Three hundred and eighty. Three hundred and ninety. His follower count was rocketing at a chaotic, uncontrollable pace while private messages dinged relentlessly.

The notifications fired so quickly that the chimes bled into a single continuous drone.

His breathing hitched, his Adam's apple bobbing sharply as his mouth fell dry from awe.

His palms were slick with sweat, leaving a shiny residue over his cheap plastic mouse.

He hammered the refresh button again. The page lagged for two agonizing seconds before the number violently ticked over—four hundred thousand.

"Four hundred thousand," he murmured, his voice trembling as if a loud noise might shatter the dream.

A surge of volcanic euphoria erupted from the very core of his chest.

He threw himself against the back of his chair, the cheap hinges shrieking under his weight as he rolled backward.

Staring up at his dusty ceiling light, a manic grin stretched from ear to ear as the intoxicating rush of impending wealth drowned his every sense.