Meanwhile, at the Bradley Group headquarters, Alec stepped back into his office after two back-to-back morning meetings, his shoulders carrying the edge of exhaustion. Claire was already inside, waiting with a practiced smile.
"Sorry. How long have you been waiting on me?" he inquired, easing onto the sofa while his long fingers worked at the knot of his tie.
Claire's eyes shimmered with a mix of restraint and longing as she offered a soft smile. "Not too long."
Seeing him loosen the tie, she inched closer, her hand lifting as if she'd done it a hundred times.
The gesture brushed the line between polite and intimate.
The moment her fingers reached for the silk, Alec instinctively angled his head away. A sudden image of Rylee surfaced—her quiet diligence, the way she handled his tie every morning without complaint, no matter how frigid he had been.
Instead of leaning into Claire's touch, he reached for the coffee on the table.
A faint shadow crossed Claire's gaze, disappointment slipping through before she smoothed it over.
Before the silence grew heavy, Alec queried, "How's the collaboration with Eva coming along?"
Claire's expression brightened instantly, a spark of hope warming her chest. He still cared—at least a little.
"I've been wanting to work with her, but her asking price is steep…" she noted, her brows tightening in a delicate pinch.
"How steep?" Alec pressed, cutting straight to the point.
"One hundred million for the adaptation rights to a whole series," she murmured, clearly wavering.
Alec barely paused before responding, "If you think it's worth the investment, the money won't be an issue."
Relief eased through her shoulders, and she instinctively drifted a little closer to him. "I'm planning to negotiate for exclusive adaptation rights to her next three titles. If that works out, the hundred million will be more than justified. I want to meet her in person to talk it through."
Instead of pushing, he simply eased back and remarked, "Handle it however you see fit."
Claire's eyes gleamed as she let a soft smile curl at the corner of her lips. "Alec, what did I do to deserve you being this kind to me?"
Alec lifted his cup and let the warm bitterness settle on his tongue before answering.
Something long buried tugged at him, and he finally let the words surface. "Claire, back when I was twelve, you pulled me out from under that stallion at the Bradley training grounds. Did that slip your mind?"
Claire froze for a heartbeat, the corners of her mouth tightening; then she eased into a gentle, practiced smile. "How could I forget?"
Alec's usually hard lines relaxed as the memory washed over him.
He could still recall waking on the dirt, dazed, wondering how a delicate girl like her had managed to drag him clear of those pounding hooves.
Mulling it over, Alec set his cup aside and spoke quietly. "If you ever need funds approved, just go straight to finance. And if there's anything else you want handled, you can come to me."
Claire dipped her chin, a faint blush warming her cheeks. "Alright."
After a few more minutes of light conversation, she shifted as if the thought had just occurred to her. "By the way… how's Rylee doing these days? We've known each other since we were kids, and I know she genuinely cares about you."
Alec pressed two fingers to his temple, a weary gesture that came unbidden as an image of Rylee standing her ground against Saul flashed through his mind.
"We don't really understand her," he remarked, his voice low.
A thin thread of tension tightened inside Claire.
Whenever Rylee's name came up, Alec usually shut down—cold, impatient, unwilling to spare a single word.
But today… his tone held something different.
Had something shifted between them? Had something happened that she didn't know about?
She parted her lips to dig a little deeper, but the office door burst open before she could speak.
Jaycob stumbled inside, breathless and visibly rattled. "Mr. Bradley…"
The uncharacteristic tremor made Alec lift a brow, mild curiosity shadowing his otherwise cool expression. "Go on."
Words tangled on Jaycob's tongue as he tried to explain. "News just came in—your wife isn't actually the Evans family's biological daughter! The real one has appeared—and she managed to offend her. She's facing the fallout from them as we speak."
For a heartbeat, Claire's eyes glinted with quiet satisfaction. If Rylee had been a fake all along, her own chances suddenly looked brighter.
Putting on a soft mask of concern, she murmured, "How could Rylee turn out to be an imposter…"
Alec rose abruptly, tension sharpening his movements.
In a quick, decisive grab, Alec snatched up his keys and phone. "I'm heading out."
An inexplicable tightness coiled in his chest the moment he heard Rylee was in danger—an instinctive dread he couldn't shake no matter how hard he tried.
Cold fear rippled through Claire, tightening her breath. Was Alec actually going to intervene for Rylee?
She hurried after him, reaching for his arm. "Alec, wait—let me come with you."
Inside the Evans family's villa, Rylee stood rigid in the living room, the skin on her arms already blistered from the scald.
Karan gripped a whip so tightly her knuckles whitened, her whole frame shaking with fury. "Why would you do something so messed up to Alina?"
Tears clung to Alina's reddened eyes as she let out shaky sobs.
She reached for her mother's sleeve as if pleading. "Mom, don't blame Rylee. I said something I shouldn't have… it wasn't her fault."
Karan's chest rose and fell with wounded outrage. "And you still try to shield her? What possible use is there in keeping someone as worthless as Rylee under this roof? So she schemed her way into marrying Alec—yet she can't win her husband's affection, and after three whole years she still hasn't given the Bradley family a child. Tell me, what good is she to the Evans family? Why the hell did we ever bother raising someone who turned out this useless?"
She jerked free, wild fury flooding her features. "Move aside—I'm going to deal with her myself!"
The servants gripping Rylee recoiled at once, leaving her exposed.
All the guilt Karan carried toward her newly returned daughter twisted into raw, vindictive rage—and every ounce of it crashed down on Rylee.
Karan lifted the whip with a trembling, furious arm.
A man's deep voice sliced into the moment. "Stop!"
