The Coldest Man in the Room Melted Only for Me novel Chapter 613

He had been stripped of his CEO title, and she was worried his future was ruined—he had guessed that much. But... "When was I ever in danger?"

"Are you still trying to hide it from me? You were in a car crash downtown. You got rear-ended. I saw it on the local Statenbury news." Riley instinctively tightened her arms around his waist, the lingering fear evident in her eyes. "I was absolutely terrified."

Sebastian's heart sank. It had been a minor fender-bender. He had his people look into it, and when they concluded it was an accident, he hadn't given it a second thought.

But looking at it now, someone had clearly weaponized that minor crash, exaggerating the danger to force Riley into pushing him away for his own safety.

What a venomous psychological trap.

A layer of icy hostility slowly surfaced in Sebastian's dark eyes. "Who told you about this?"

"Pierce." Seeing Sebastian's expression turn instantly frigid, Riley asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

Sebastian's arm around her waist tightened involuntarily. He suddenly remembered that the crash had happened right after his meeting with Pierce.

So that accident wasn't a coincidence at all. It was a trap set by Pierce.

He knew Pierce was still obsessed with Riley, but he never expected him to stoop to such underhanded tactics—orchestrating a mundane rear-end collision, deliberately hyping up the danger, and using Sebastian's safety as leverage to drive a wedge between them.

Preaching fair competition to his face while pulling this kind of sabotage behind his back. He had underestimated Pierce's cunning.

"Sebastian?"

Sebastian snapped back to reality. Seeing the worry in Riley's eyes, he reined in his lethal glare so as not to frighten her, though his tone remained dead serious. "That was just a minor fender-bender. It had nothing to do with the St. John family's internal conflicts."

Riley blinked in surprise. "It wasn't your uncles trying to hurt you?"