Want My Womb? I'll Make You Childless novel Chapter 72

Chapter 72

When Ethan arrived at Nova AI, he had barely stepped out of the elevator when he heard arguing in the hallway.

Through the glass door, he saw Olivia hiding behind Victor.

Meanwhile, Victor Bennett was glaring at Clara.”Clara, you need evidence to accuse Olivia of something like that. What makes you think she’s trying to seduce Ethan Carter?”

“Do you really think everyone’s as vile and pathologically dishonest as you are?”

From where Ethan was standing, it looked like Victor was practically yelling in Clara’s face.

Ethan’s expression instantly darkened. He hadn’t pried too much into Clara’s family history, only knowing that she’d had an unhappy

childhood, living with relatives, constantly moving, and that she’d broken ties with the Bennett family long ago.

He hadn’t realized Victor was the kind of brother who couldn’t tell right from wrong and only doted on Olivia.

How much of this kind of injustice had she suffered throughout her life?

Ethan didn’t dare to dwell on it, feeling as though an invisible hand was clenching his heart, a suffocating ache that made even breathing feel heavy and cold.

He made his entrance with a deliberately heavy footfall, his voice preceding him.

“Mr. Bennett, I understand you care for Olivia, but Clara is your blood relative, your daughter. Surely you can’t be so biased, so blind to what’s right?”

He strode forward, stepping between Clara and Victor, physically shielding her. His gaze first fell on Clara.

Meeting Ethan’s gaze, Clara raised her eyebrows slightly, then quickly looked away.

She didn’t know why Ethan would show up here, but seeing his protective stance just now, she could guess what he was thinking.

But what was the point of Ethan doing this?

To realize the value of someone only after you’ve lost them? She’d rather not have that kind of belated affection.

Stung by Clara’s averted gaze, Ethan turned to Victor, his tone as cold as ice.”You took the liberty of spreading my private affairs, causing my family member to collapse from anger. I haven’t settled that score with you yet, and now you dare to bully my

woman?”

Victor frowned, momentarily stunned. He hadn’t expected Ethan to still defend Clara after knowing the truth about her miscarriage.

Olivia, standing beside him, turned deathly pale the moment she saw Ethan. Remembering the recording Ethan had made of her, her body trembled uncontrollably, and she instinctively hid behind Victor.

Victor smirked, giving Olivia a reassuring glance, then turned back to Ethan.”Mr. Carter, you’ve misunderstood. I didn’t intentionally interfere in your personal matters.”

“It’s just that Clara has gone too far, repeatedly framing Olivia, so I couldn’t help but come and get things straight with her.”

Ethan raised an eyebrow.”What exactly is she accusing Olivia of?”

“First, she blamed Olivia for her miscarriage, and now she’s accusing her of leaking confidential information.”

“But clearly, she can’t provide any proof.”

Ethan scoffed, ready to pull out the flash drive to prove Clara’s innocence, but someone beat him to it.

“If Mr. Bennett dares to slander Ms. Clara Bennett again, I wouldn’t mind letting him experience the work motto of Nova Al’s legal department.”

“Nova Al’s legal department doesn’t carry dead weight.”

Everyone turned to see Ryan Walker walk in through the door.

He scanned the room with a sharp gaze, and when he saw Clara standing side-by-side with Ethan, he frowned slightly, walked over to Clara, and physically separated her from Ethan.

Clara noticed his actions but didn’t say anything.

Ryan smiled down at her.”I was just helping the National Security Agency collect evidence, so I’m late. Are you alright?”

Clara shook her head.”I can handle it.”

Ryan chuckled and turned to connect to the projector.”Wasn’t Mr. Bennett disbelieving that Ms. Olivia locked Clara in the R&D lab, trying to suffocate her to death?”

“Here’s the surveillance footage of Ms. Bennett deliberately locking Clara in the R&D lab, as well as her conversations with Sophia Davis.” “Mr. Bennett, perhaps you should take a look.”

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“Wait a minute.”

Ethan’s eyes darkened as he watched Ryan go to such lengths to defend Clara. He took out a USB drive and handed it to Clara, “I have evidence

here too.

“Regarding Olivia’s instigation of my son to harm my wife, I heard it directly from “Victor Bennett, would you like to hear the recording from that time?”

my son. She admitted it as well.”

With that, Ethan ignored Olivia, who was already trembling with fear, and looked at Clara, his voice gentle and deep.

“Use my evidence, Clara. I won’t let anyone bully you ever again.”

Ryan continued to plug the USB drive into the computer, saying calmly,

“Mine is already configured to work with the projector. Just plug it in, and it’ll play. It won’t waste any time.”

“Clara, look at my evidence first.”

Their eyes met in the air, and the atmosphere instantly crackled with tension.

Ethan stood tall, one hand in his pocket, his eyes filled with possessiveness.”Clara is my wife. I know her better.”

“But this matter involves Nova AI.”

Ryan Walker shifted slightly, shielding Clara behind him, a hint of barely perceptible defiance in his tone. “What she needs is someone who can solve her problems right now, not a husband who’s late to the party.” Clara watched the two men square off, her fingers twitching slightly.

She could sense the urgency in Ethan’s eyes, and she could also see the protectiveness in Ryan’s. Compared to Ethan, who would abandon her for anything, she trusted Ryan more at this moment.

“No need, we’ll use Ryan’s.”

Ethan’s hand, reaching out to Clara, froze in mid-air, the flash drive in his fingers feeling like it weighed a ton.

He stared at Clara’s profile, at those eyes that once held nothing but dependence on him, now reflecting only Ryan Walker. His heart felt like it had been stabbed with an ice pick, his face instantly turning icy, the pressure around him dropping to deadly levels.

screen lit Ryan took in this scene, a faint smile curving his lips. With a natural motion, he plugged the flash drive into the projector, and the instantly.

up

On the screen, Olivia was seen outside the lab, glancing around to make sure no one was watching. Her fingers flew across the control panel, first pressing the “Lock” button, and then, after hearing the soft click of the door, she flipped the switch for the ventilation system to “Off. Immediately after, the scene switched to inside the lab-Clara was leaning against the wall, initially trying to contact someone outside. But as time wore on, her face grew paler, and her breathing became more rapid. Each gasp was a hoarse, painful sound. Eventually, she slid down the wall to the floor, her fingers clawing at the ground as if in a final struggle.

Victor’s pupils contracted sharply, his eyes glued to the screen. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white, and the veins on the back of his hands stood out.

He turned to Olivia, his voice filled with disbelief and a hint of trembling:”Olivia, you… why would

you do this?”

Faced with Victor’s question, Olivia’s face was ashen. Her body trembled uncontrollably, her teeth biting her lower lip. But she still held her head high and insisted, “It’s a fake!”

“Clara faked it! She’s trying to frame me! She must have created this fake security footage! Dad, don’t believe her, she’s a master at playing the victim!”

A flicker of surprise crossed Victor’s face as he glanced at Clara, about to ask if what Olivia was saying held any truth, when Ryan’s cold laugh cut through the air.

“Faked?”

He pulled a thick file from his briefcase and slammed it onto the table.”This is an official report from the city’s Forensic Science Center. It clearly states that the security footage is authentic, with no signs of editing or manipulation. The video and audio are both original recordings.” “Ms. Bennett, if you doubt the report’s validity, feel free to contact the police station for a re-evaluation. Should I dial the number for you

now?”

Victor snatched the report, his eyes rapidly scanning the findings, finally settling on the bright red seal at the bottom.

The red ink felt like a slap across his face.

His expression shifted from shock to a livid rage, his breathing growing rapid and shallow, his chest heaving.

Remembering the barely concealed disappointment in Clara’s eyes each time he’d accused her, a wave of intense guilt washed over him,

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constricting his chest.

He had always believed that Clara was malicious, jealous of Olivia, and that was why she was constantly targeting her, fabricating lies to frame:

her.

But now, with the evidence laid out before him, the sister he had protected for so many years could actually be so vicious, even to the point of playing with people’s lives.

Although he was prejudiced against Clara because of his mother, and he wasn’t particularly kind to her on a daily basis, he had never thought of taking her life!

He looked up at Olivia, his voice filled with disappointment, even a hint of heartache.

“Olivia, tell me, what is going on here? Why would you do this to Clara?”

Olivia looked at the suspicion and disappointment in Victor’s eyes, and felt even more panicked, but her stubbornness wouldn’t allow her to admit defeat.

“Victor, don’t listen to them! Clara is jealous of me and deliberately set me up!”

“She just doesn’t want me to stay at Nova AI. Now that I’ve gone to Stellar Horizon, she’s afraid Stellar Horizon will steal market share from Nova Al, so she came up with this scheme!”

“Jealous of you?”

Clara scoffed.”What do you have that’s worth being jealous of?”

“In terms of development capabilities, you can’t even get Blade and Skyline to be compatible.”

“In terms of character, all you do is use people. Sophia has already been arrested. Do you think you can get away

“And you think you’re getting away with this?”

Olivia’s voice was shrill.”Are you saying I falsely accused you of causing my miscarriage?”

“It wasn’t a false accusation.”

After all these days, Ethan had finally figured things out.

“If Clara hadn’t miscarried then, she would have after everything you did.”

“Some things, you can’t just weasel out of.”

He pulled out a voice recorder and pressed play.

unscathed?”

It was Olivia’s voice from that day at the hospital-“Lately, you only have eyes for her. You’ve been so cold to me. I just want you to look at me.”

“Eth, I was wrong. Can you forgive me just this once? I promise I’ll never do it again…”

When the recording finished, the entire research team was silent.

Victor staggered, reaching out to steady himself on the edge of the desk.

He looked at Olivia, the trust in his eyes crumbling bit by bit, until only utter disappointment remained.

“Olivia… you actually manipulated a child into hurting his own mother and unborn brother?”

Seeing the disappointment in Victor’s eyes, Olivia’s psychological defenses shattered completely. Her brother was disappointed in her?

Why?

Just because she hurt Clara?

“Is Clara really worth more than all the years of affection we’ve shared?”

Sensing Clara’s gaze on her, Olivia suddenly screamed.

“Yes! I don’t want her to be happy! It’s all her fault for stealing Ethan from me!”

“If it weren’t for her, why would Ethan have grown more and more distant, even forcing me to leave the Carter Group?”

“He even severed ties with the Bennett Group for her sake! How much has our family lost because of her?”

“I want her to taste what it’s like to lose everything! I want her to suffer too!”

Ethan’s expression instantly turned colder as he stared at Olivia, his eyes filled with disgust.

“Olivia, you tried to harm my family’s child. The only reason I haven’t turned you over to the police is out of respect for the Bennett family. How can you not understand that?”

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Ryan glanced at Clara and couldn’t help but smirk when he saw that she didn’t react to Ethan’s words.

But when he thought of what she had been through that night, his tone turned cold.”Speaking of which, when I was reviewing Sophia’s travel history with my contacts at the National Security Agency, we found out that Olivia did indeed have contact with Sophia.”

He pulled up the surveillance footage.”According to the timeline, Sophia sped up her intrusion into the R&D computers after this point.”

“The National Security Agency is downstairs. They’ll be taking you in for questioning shortly.”

Olivia’s face turned as white as a sheet, all color draining away. She stumbled backward, colliding with the desk behind her with a thud, barely managing to stay on her feet.

After a long pause, she lunged forward, clutching desperately at Victor’s jacket, her nails digging into the fabric. Her voice was filled with pleading, on the verge of tears.

“Victor, please help me! I don’t want to go to the National Security Agency! I swear I didn’t leak any secrets. Sophia forced me! She threatened me with things from my past. I had no choice but to help her!”

Victor looked down at her, watching the tears stream down her face. His heart clenched with a pang of sympathy.

After all, she was his sister, whom he had protected for so many years. Even if she had made a mistake, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of

tenderness.

But the image of Clara struggling, gasping for air in the security footage, and the recording of her goading Lucas to hurt Clara, even wanting Clara dead, flooded him with disappointment that instantly overwhelmed any lingering tenderness.

He raised a hand, wanting to pat her shoulder as he always had, but his fingers hovered in the air, unable to make the connection.

Finally, he gently pushed Olivia’s hand away, the movement filled with a distance he’d never shown before, his voice weary and cold.”Olivia, even now, you’re still lying. The evidence is right in front of us. Do you really think anyone will believe you?”

“I’m not lying! Victor, how can you not believe me?”

Olivia was like a cat with its tail stepped on, suddenly becoming hysterical. She pointed at Clara, her voice shrill and piercing.”It’s her! It’s all Clara’s fault! She deliberately set me up, she’s trying to pin everything on me!”

“Victor, you can’t just believe her like that. Have you forgotten how your mother died?”

The mention of their mother caused Victor to stiffen, a flicker of pain flashing in his eyes.

But the pain was quickly replaced by guilt. He turned to look at Clara, his gaze fixed on her back, still straight but radiating exhaustion. His heart felt like it had been slammed with a sledgehammer.

What had he been doing all these years?

He remembered when Clara had first been brought back to the Bennett family, timidly trailing behind him and calling him “Brother.” He remembered the first time Clara had achieved the top score in her grade and excitedly shared it with him.

At the same time, he also remembered the slap he had given her at their mother’s funeral.

“Enough,” Victor said, his voice suddenly hoarse. He looked at Olivia, his eyes devoid of the affection he once held, replaced only with utter disappointment.”Olivia, you don’t need to make excuses anymore.”

“Even if I dote on you, I can’t condone your mistakes, let alone help you cover up your crimes. You have to bear the consequences of your own actions.”

“No! Brother, you can’t abandon me!”

“If y

you

abandon

me,

I’m ruined! I’ll be arrested and go to jail! Brother, I’m begging you, help me one more time, just this once!”