The Hidden Empress Stripping Her Secrets After Divorce novel Chapter 75

Evelyn cradled the warm glass, letting the heat seep into her fingertips. She organized her thoughts and began recounting the events in the most even tone possible. "Last night at Lawrence's birthday banquet, Lydia spiked my drink with a potent aphrodisiac off the black market. She set it up with Caleb... you know him, the playboy with the trashy reputation. They wanted to humiliate me and ruin me publicly."

Madeline's eyes instantly turned to ice, her fingers tightening on her knees.

"I realized something was wrong while in the lounge, so I used my pocketknife to cut myself. I used the pain to stay conscious and managed to scare Caleb off temporarily." Evelyn's voice remained flat, as if she were presenting a clinical case study. "Then... Sebastian showed up. He subdued Caleb and brought me here."

"Sebastian Thorne?" Madeline raised an eyebrow, failing to mask her shock. "The head of the Thorne family? Why would he..."

"He said my mother, Vivian, once did a favor for the Thornes," Evelyn explained briefly. She skipped the graphic details of how exactly Sebastian had subdued Caleb and how he had carried her upstairs, cutting straight to the core of the issue. "The drug I was given metabolizes extremely slowly. Standard antidotes wouldn't take effect in time, and getting to a hospital was out of the question. Forcibly suppressing it would have caused irreversible damage to my central nervous system. The only viable and rapid solution... was a physical release."

As a sharp-minded lawyer, Madeline instantly understood what 'physical release' entailed. Her pupils contracted as her gaze landed on Evelyn's unnervingly calm face, then drifted to the inadequately concealed marks on her neck. It all made sense now. No wonder she needed the morning-after pill.

"So... it was Sebastian?" Madeline's voice dropped to a whisper, laced with absolute disbelief. A man of his caliber, actually taking matters into his own hands...

"Yes." Evelyn nodded without flinching. "There were no other options, and time was running out. He... helped me."

"Good." Madeline immediately shifted into professional gear. "We need to secure Caleb's confession and trace the source of the drugs along with the financial transactions. That's the smoking gun to nail Lydia. As for Lyra..." She paused. "The act of handing you a glass of water is hard to prosecute on its own, but it can serve as a massive piece of circumstantial evidence. If we link it to her relationship with Lydia, Lydia's motives, and any post-incident collusion, we can build a solid chain of evidence. How do you want to play this?"

"Two things." Evelyn set the glass down, her eyes razor-sharp. "First, I need you to draft the paperwork and officially sue Lydia and Caleb. Charge them with 'use of illegal narcotics and soliciting an unlawful assault.' Make it as loud and public as possible. Second, I need a deep dive into Lyra and Leo. I want to know who Leo's real father is, and I want every dirty secret from Lyra's past—her dating history, financial records, social ties, any stain you can find."

A spark of realization lit up Madeline's eyes. "A bait-and-switch? Use Lydia's lawsuit as a smokescreen to draw all the crossfire, while you quietly dig up Lyra's roots?"

"Exactly," Evelyn said with finality. "Lydia is just the blade, but Lyra is the one wielding it. I want to snap the blade first, and then make sure the wielder... never has the strength to pick up anything ever again."