He Lost Me to His Best Friend novel Chapter 169

SMACK—

The sharp, explosive sound of the slap instantly plunged the entire private room into a suffocating, dead silence.

Clarissa violently yanked her hand back. Staring at the five bright red finger marks blossoming across Scarlett's cheek, she completely froze, her mouth moving before her brain could catch up.

"I... I hit the wrong person. I was aiming for him."

Talia saw red.

Lunging forward, she shoved Scarlett behind her for protection. Without a second of hesitation, Talia wound up and delivered a brutal, open-handed slap directly across Clarissa's face.

Not backing down an inch, Talia mocked, "Oh, my bad. I hit the wrong person too. I... I was aiming for the air."

The tension in the room snapped into pure, lethal hostility.

As the eldest daughter of the Flynn family and a board member of the Flynn Group, Clarissa had lived a life of untouchable luxury and privilege. Wherever she went, she was worshipped and feared.

This was the first time in her entire life someone had humiliated her by slapping her across the face in public. And Talia had swung hard.

A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of Clarissa's mouth.

Clarissa's eyes turned murderously cold. Enraged beyond reason, she lunged forward, ready to physically destroy Talia.

Yardley instantly grabbed Clarissa's wrist in a vice grip, his eyes wild with fury.

"Clarissa, enough!"

"If you two keep escalating this, how the hell am I supposed to fix it?! Can everyone just stop?! Did you come here just to ruin everything?!"

Watching the situation devolve into an absolute bloodbath, Yardley felt his skull throbbing violently.

He was physically and mentally drained, utterly exhausted by the relentless chaos.

Clarissa glared up at him.

"Just divorce her, Yardley. I'm done trying to save this."

"But let me be perfectly clear on one thing: you can divorce her, but that child carries Flynn blood. Scarlett is absolutely not taking her. That is an order directly from Dad. You figure it out!"

Clarissa was consumed with regret for ever stepping foot in this room.

Scarlett stared straight into his eyes. Hearing those words—words entirely devoid of genuine remorse—felt like a knife twisting in her chest.

So, he—and the entire Flynn family—still genuinely believed that all they had to do was wave a flag, offer a half-hearted apology, and she would obediently run right back into their arms.

They had no idea that while they had finally taken one pathetic step forward, she was already a hundred miles away.

The glacier surrounding her heart remained absolutely impenetrable.

"Just go. We have nothing left to say. The divorce is happening, and my daughter is staying with me. You are never getting her. Everything else, my lawyers will handle."

Scarlett delivered her final ultimatum with terrifying coldness.

Yardley's chest heaved with fury, yet he remained frozen in place. He stared at her, his eyes churning with dark, agonizing reluctance to let her go.

A long, suffocating minute passed before he finally turned to leave.

But he barely made it two steps.

Suddenly, Yardley's body swayed violently, and like a towering mountain collapsing in on itself, he crashed heavily to the floor.