Married to the Billionaire Who Betrayed Me novel Chapter 90

Chapter 90 An Ultimatum Inside My Office

Let us drop the corporate posturing, Harriet commanded. The polite facade vanished. The matriarch of the Johnston empire revealed her teeth. “I control the port authority. I control the zoning commission. I can bleed your company dry a thousand different ways without ever signing a public document. I am not Tristan. I do not suffer from misplaced sentimentality.”

She leaned forward. The air between us turned toxic.

“I built this conglomerate, Harriet stated. “I drafted the family charter. The stipulations are ironcląd. A direct blood heir supersedes all marital alliances. If my grandson fathered a child, that child belongs to the Johnston estate. He represents the future of our voting shares. He represents the legacy.”

“He is a boy,” I said. My hands curled into tight fists beneath the glass desk. “He is not a stock option.”

“To you, he is a boy,” Harriet countered. “To me, he is a variable in a billion-dollar equation.

She looked at my white suit. She looked at the uncompromising layout of my office. She dissected my public image.

“The media paints you as a self-made titan, Harriet mused. Her tone dripped with cold disdain. “Tristan believes you are his great

tragedy. Celeste believes you are a social climber. You wear a dozen different masks to survive in this city. You manipulate the press.

You buy out your enemies. You operate from the shadows, and you leave wreckage behind you.”

Harriet tilted her head. Her eyes narrowed.

“Who exactly is Minerva Hayes?” she asked.

The question hung in the air. It was not a request for my biography. She wanted to know if I was a common grifter playing a long

con for a payout, or a genuine apex predator capable of destroying her family from the inside. She wanted to measure the depth of

the danger I posed.

“I am the woman who owns your supply lines,” I answered. I did not blink. I stared straight into the eyes of the billionaire

matriarch. “I am the woman who broke your grandson.”

“A bold claim, Harriet noted. ‘We will test its durability.”

She opened her handbag. She did not produce a legal document.

She pulled out a thick, heavy envelope made of textured black paper. A silver wax seal secured the flap. The seal bore the Johnston

family crest.

She placed the envelope on my glass desk. She slid it across the smooth surface. It came to rest inches from my hand.

“I require a DNA sample from the child, Harriet declared. The demand was absolute. “We will conduct the test at an independent medical facility of my choosing. If the boy carries Johnston blood, we will initiate the transfer of primary custody. You will receive a permanent financial settlement. You will leave the capital.”

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Chapter 90 An Ultimatum Inside My Office

A panic clawed at my throat. I looked at the black envelope. It looked like a death warrant for my family.

“I will never surrender my son,” I promised. The ice shattered, revealing the burning maternal rage beneath. “I will burn every dollar

1 possess. I will drag your family through a decade of public litigation. I will testify to every lie Tristan told. I will destroy your stock

price.”

“You will try,” Harriet agreed. She stood up. She smoothed the front of her charcoal suit. “But you will fail. Wealth provides

endurance. We possess infinite endurance. You possess a startup.”

She looked down at the black envelope resting on the desk.

“This Friday, the Johnston family hosts a private dinner at the main estate, Harriet instructed. “It is a closed gathering. The board

of directors. The senior family members. Tristan. Celeste. You will attend.”

I stared at her. “You expect me to walk into a room full of my enemies.”

“I expect you to face the reality of your situation,” Harriet corrected. “You will attend the dinner. You will bring the child. We will discuss the terms of his integration into our family. If you refuse the invitation, I will stop disrupting your shipping containers. I

will seize them. I will instruct the regional banks to freeze every account associated with Aegis. I will bankrupt you by Monday.”

She delivered the ultimatum with the casual ease of a woman discussing the weather. She weaponized my ambition against my motherhood. If I refused her summons, she would destroy the fortress I built to protect Elias. If she destroyed Aegis, I lacked the

resources to fight her in court.

She cornered me.

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