The Lies Behind Her Marriage novel Chapter 120

Serena raised her hands, putting distance between them. “You’ll ruin my makeup. Besides, we didn’t come here to exchange pleasantries with you.”

Her cold tone baffled Stefan. “What’s wrong?”

“We came here to strip Stefan of his position at the hospital and his family,” Silas declared, anger laced in his voice.

Only then did Stefan realize Silas looked furious.

Silas Vander was seething.

The veins in his neck protruded, and if looks could kill, Stefan would already be dead.

“Gentlemen, there seems to be a misunderstanding,” Stefan said quickly. “Whatever this is, let’s discuss it privately. We’re in the middle of closing a deal with Stonewatch.”

“Sterling, old friend,” Charles said, standing. “What’s going on? Earlier today, Serena confirmed she was willing to marry Stefan, and now you arrive like this. What happened?”

“What happened,” Sterling said evenly, “is that you and Stella lied to our faces, and your son believed we were too blind to see through him. There will be no engagement between our families!”

“I—I don’t understand,” Stefan stammered. “Uncle Sterling, whatever this is, we can discuss it later. And Serena—”

He turned to her. “Didn’t you agree to be my fiancée earlier today? I gave you that necklace.”

“Fiancée?” Serena scoffed, placing a hand on her hip. “When did I say that? I said I had a surprise for you.”

Silas handed Serena a stack of photos. She threw them into Stefan’s face. “This is my surprise.”

As Stefan picked them up, a chill ran down his spine. They were surveillance photos of him and Melanie entering an apartment building. Some showed them intimately close. Two captured their son, Mathew.

“I have standards,” Serena said coolly. “I don’t enter relationships with men who already have a family they pretend doesn’t exist.”

Stefan panicked. He turned to Melanie, who looked just as stunned. “No—she’s not my lover. She’s just my secretary. I was helping her with her son. It has nothing to do with me!”

“Really?” Serena scoffed. “Then explain this.”

The conference room had a large monitor. Silas walked to it, handing a flash drive to the hotel staff.

Before Stefan could react, a video filled the screen. What played before them was a conversation he had with Melanie at the hospital.

His blood ran cold.

Every instinct screamed at him to disappear.

'Fuck.'

'Fuck!'

'This can’t be happening!'

“And those kids?” he sneered. “You think they’re special? The boy is loud, spoiled, and always clinging to people."

“And Alisa?” He laughed sharply, circling a finger beside his temple. “She’s slow in the head. Everyone can see it.”

Stefan laughed again.

“What the—” Before he could say more, someone grabbed him from behind.

He was flipped to the floor with brutal force.

Nathaniel Thorne stood over him, fists clenched, eyes blazing. His nostrils flared as he said, quietly and lethally, “What did you just say about my kids?”

"What?"

Stefan didn’t understand it at first. The room had gone unnaturally still.

Then he saw it.

In Nathaniel Thorne’s eyes was the cold certainty of a father's anger.

For the first time that night, Stefan felt true fear.