Trick Him Into Divorce, Then Flee With His Unknow Kid novel Chapter 362

Chapter 362: Chapter 362 The Desperate Bargain

Everything had gone far more smoothly than Samantha could have imagined.

Back when she had been at the height of her success, she wouldn’t have dared dream of simply walking through the gates of the Knight family’s old estate to look for Ethan.

Yet today, the security guards were gone, the gates were practically unattended, and she’d walked straight inside.

Perhaps she hadn’t reached the end of her luck yet.

But Samantha knew better than to mistake luck for salvation.

She was trapped.

There was nowhere left for her to turn.

The only person who might still be willing—or perhaps forced—to save her was the father of the child she was carrying.

She couldn’t let herself be arrested.

Not now.

When Samantha reached Ethan’s private courtyard, the nanny had already finished her shift and gone home.

The house was quiet.

Samantha slipped inside without much difficulty.

*****

At that moment, Ethan had just finished a phone call in his bedroom.

His mood was excellent.

The upheaval at Kingswell Group headquarters had thrown the entire leadership team into chaos.

The senior executives had been holding meeting after meeting, trying to figure out how to deal with the leak of the group’s strategic deployment plan.

They needed to salvage what they could.

They also needed to decide what punishment Ryan should receive.

For Ethan, it was the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

Ryan was finally losing the one thing that had protected him for years—his overwhelming influence inside the company.

The new energy-sector strategy had threatened the interests of too many senior shareholders and executives. By pushing forward with it, Ryan had effectively made enemies throughout the group.

Even Chairman Knight, who had once ignored opposition and personally chosen Ryan as his successor, would have trouble shielding him now.

Ryan’s position at headquarters was no longer secure.

And Ethan intended to take full advantage of it.

The original strategy had been an extremely confidential document, known only to Ryan and his closest circle.

Ethan had obtained the information through Samantha.

He’d then modified the plan, refined the weaker sections and prepared his own version.

Once Ryan was pushed aside, Ethan would take his revised proposal straight into headquarters.

If everything went according to plan, he could use the chaos to redistribute power and strengthen his own position.

For the first time in a long while, Ethan felt genuinely optimistic about the future.

He headed downstairs, intending to open a bottle of bourbon and enjoy the moment.

Then he saw Samantha.

His expression changed instantly.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Samantha stopped.

Ethan’s eyes hardened.

"How did you get inside?"

Of all times, she had chosen now to appear.

The last thing he needed was Samantha dragging him back into the mess he’d spent so much effort creating distance from.

She was still beautiful, but the confidence and glamour she once carried were gone.

The past few days had clearly taken their toll.

Her eyes were swollen from crying.

"Ethan..."

She rushed towards him and grabbed his hand.

"Please help me. I don’t have anywhere else to go."

Ethan immediately pulled his hand away.

"Let go."

"Ryan used me," Samantha said desperately. "He turned me into a scapegoat, and now I’m the one paying for everything."

Ethan’s face darkened.

He shook her off completely and hurried downstairs.

Then he closed the door behind him.

If his grandfather discovered that Samantha was still involved with him, the carefully cultivated trust he’d built would be destroyed.

He turned around.

"You came looking for me?"

His voice was cold.

"How dare you?"

Samantha ignored the contempt in his voice.

"Before all of this, we were close."

She stepped toward him.

"I know you’re angry with me, but I can explain."

Before Ethan could react, she threw her arms around him.

"I’ve never forgotten what we had. I can explain everything that happened with Ryan."

Ethan gave a cold laugh.

He didn’t immediately push her away.

"Oh? Explain what?"

His eyes were full of contempt.

"You cheated on me so publicly that the entire city knew about it. Now that Ryan has thrown you aside, you’ve come crawling back to me?"

His mouth twisted.

"Do you really think I’ll pick up whatever’s been discarded?"

Samantha shook her head frantically.

"Nothing happened between Ryan and me."

Ethan froze.

"What?"

"Nothing."

She looked up at him, tears filling her eyes.

"I swear. Other than the ordinary interactions we had at public events, there was never anything intimate between us."

Ethan stared at her.

"You expect me to believe that?"

"You know what Ryan is like."

Samantha’s voice trembled.

"He’s extremely controlled. He calculates everything. He never showed any interest in me, never made a move, never even gave me an opening."

She swallowed.

"And I’m not the kind of woman who would throw herself at a man who clearly doesn’t want her."

That part wasn’t a lie.

Back then, Samantha had been proud.

She’d certainly entertained the idea of getting closer to Ryan.

More than once, she’d dropped subtle hints.

Ryan had simply pretended not to notice.

Or perhaps he had noticed perfectly well and deliberately refused to respond.

At the time, Samantha had convinced herself that he was simply a disciplined man.

A gentleman.

Someone who wouldn’t take advantage of a woman’s feelings.

Now she understood.

Ryan hadn’t been oblivious.

He’d known exactly what she wanted.

He simply hadn’t wanted her.

He had rejected her without ever bothering to give her an excuse she could cling to.

Looking back, that realization hurt more than she wanted to admit.

It made her angry.

Bitter.

Humiliated.

Ryan wasn’t cold because he lacked awareness.

He was cold because he knew exactly what he wanted.

He could read people, anticipate their moves and quietly dismantle them without ever raising his voice.

He didn’t need cruelty on the surface.

"I’ll tell him exactly what you made me do."

She smiled.

"Let’s see whether you still walk away clean."

Ethan wanted to kill her.

The thought flashed through his mind with frightening clarity.

Samantha had lost everything.

Her reputation.

Her security.

Her future.

There was nothing left for her to protect.

That made her dangerous.

"Besides," she added, placing a hand protectively over her stomach, "I’m carrying your child."

Ethan’s expression shifted again.

"Once I have an amniocentesis, the paternity can be confirmed."

Her voice became more confident.

"And when I tell Chairman Knight what you blackmailed me into doing, he won’t have any reason to doubt me."

She tilted her head.

"We’re in this together now."

Samantha smiled.

"How exactly do you think you’re going to get out of it?"

Ethan couldn’t answer.

Because she was right.

Back then, when he’d sent Samantha to obtain the confidential information, he’d already planned for the possibility that she might turn on him.

If she did, he could simply claim that she’d acted independently and framed him in an attempt to protect Ryan.

But things had changed.

Samantha had publicly broken away from Ryan.

She had made it clear that she had nothing to do with him.

And now she was carrying Ethan’s child.

There was no clean explanation.

Samantha knew exactly what Ethan feared.

That was why she’d come here.

She finally had leverage.

If Ethan wanted to secure his position at Kingswell Group, he had no choice but to protect her.

But as she watched him, another thought occurred to her.

Something wasn’t right.

Ethan seemed to know nothing about what had happened to her recently.

He didn’t know she’d been kidnapped.

He didn’t know she’d been taken away.

He didn’t know she’d been released because her pregnancy had delayed her imprisonment.

More importantly...

Did the Knight family really know nothing about what she’d done to Rose and Ariel?

Did they know that her actions had nearly caused Ryan’s death?

Samantha’s thoughts raced.

If Ethan truly knew nothing, then perhaps the Knight family hadn’t received the full story yet.

That could work in her favour.

She was still thinking when a dark shadow suddenly fell over her.

Before she could react, two hands closed tightly around her throat.

Samantha’s eyes widened.

Air vanished from her lungs.

She clawed desperately at the hands around her neck, panic flooding through her entire body.

Her feet stumbled backwards.

Her face turned red as she struggled to breathe.

And for the first time since she’d entered the Knight family’s estate, Samantha realized just how dangerous her gamble had been.