Substitute Wife, Genius CEO novel Chapter 458

She cried beautifully, her tears falling without smudging her makeup, looking like a fragile blossom battered by the rain, completely utterly defenseless.

It was a look designed to make any man ache with protective instinct.

"Are you still mad about what I said that day? I was just lashing out in anger. I didn't mean it, I was just so terrified. I was so scared I'd never see you or our sons again. They're still so little."

Mentioning the twins made her cry even harder. Xavier's heart inevitably softened.

He frowned. "Did those old fossils on your board give you a hard time?"

Wiping her eyes, Lilith shook her head. "No."

But her aggrieved, fragile demeanor screamed that she was only pretending to be strong.

She had absolutely been bullied.

Xavier knew exactly how those corporate vultures operated—they worshipped the powerful and trampled the weak without hesitation.

His voice went icy. "Who was it?"

Lilith kept shaking her head. "No one."

Xavier pressed further. "Dexter Whitmore?"

Late that very night, after stumbling out of a private club reeking of alcohol, Dexter was ambushed in the parking lot. A burlap sack was thrown over his head, and he was beaten to a bloody pulp.

By the time they finished, his face was swollen beyond recognition.

**

The next day, Sutton Group.

Bennett rolled his wheelchair into Lilith's office. "Lilith, what did Xavier say? Did he really hand the entire empire over to his brother?"

Lilith knew the true nature of businessmen better than anyone. The world ran on profit and leverage.

Even her own father was no exception.

Bennett didn't save her yesterday because of fatherly love; he did it because she was still tied to Xavier. She knew that perfectly well.

She shook her head. "Of course not. It's just a temporary, tactical retreat to quiet the public. He's working from home right now, and all the key executives are still going to the estate to report to him."

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