Chapter 10

“My lord, everything’s set.” The butler kept his back bent, voice lowered to almost a whisper. “The editor-in-chief of Capital Watch took the money. He agreed to run it on the front page. Our people snapped the photos from outside the perimeter. They’re blurry, yeah, but clear enough to show Nina had a foreign bodyguard with her.”

Warren curled his lips into a cold, thin smile.

That bitch Nina really thought hiding inside the consular district meant she could sleep easy? Really thought having F Country behind her gave her the right to go head-to-head with him, Warren? Naive. Seriously naive.

In Uppergate, public opinion could hit harder than a bullet sometimes. A girl thrown out with nowhere to go, plus a label like “colluding with foreign forces,” was more than enough to make her unable to take a single step in this city. More than enough, too, to force Ethan to cut ties with her completely just to protect himself.

“Everything cleaned up?” he asked, tone flat.

“Clean as it gets.” The butler smiled in that oily, fawning way. “The money was routed through three shell companies. The photos were sent from an anonymous email account. Nobody can trace it back to us. Even if Ethan wants to dig, all he’ll find is some tiny newspaper that’s practically dead already.”

“Good.” Warren slipped the ring back onto his thumb, his eyes dark and venomous like a snake’s. “Go. I want this news all over Uppergate before sunrise.”

Early the next morning, one explosive headline dropped like a bomb, sending shockwaves through both the elite circles of Uppergate and the streets below.

On the front page of Capital Watch, a massive bold headline screamed across the paper: Former Presidential Secretary Mysteriously Missing, Suspected of Colluding with Foreign Forces to Interfere in Politics.

The article was written to stir people up on purpose. It painted Nina as a bitter ex who had gone off the rails from jealousy. After being “kindly advised to leave” by the President, she supposedly refused to reflect, and instead began secretly associating with “unknown foreign forces,” clearly plotting revenge.

Several blurry photos were printed alongside the piece. One showed Nina in profile as she got into a car outside Fragrance Garden. Another showed her walking shoulder to shoulder with a tall foreign man. The resolution was trash, but it was still enough to tell the man was blond, blue-eyed, broad-built, and definitely not just some average bodyguard.

The article also “casually” let slip that the villa Nina was staying in sat inside the consular district, somewhere ordinary law enforcement had no authority to enter. Line by line, it pushed one message hard: she was under some kind of diplomatic protection, and where that protection came from... well, that was “worth thinking about.”

Online, the speculation and insults exploded completely.

Inside Fragrance Garden, Nina set the newspaper lightly on the coffee table. Her fingertips paused over the headline for a second, then the corner of her mouth lifted in a mocking little curve.

“Tiffany doesn’t have the brains for this. She probably got her dad to do it,” she said calmly. “Clumsy, but effective. He wants to make sure I can’t survive in Uppergate, and while he’s at it, shove Ethan straight onto the grill too.”

Jordan sat nearby, his face so dark it looked ready to crack. “These shameless bastards. Want us to step in and clear this up? Or have the consulate issue a statement?”

“No rush.” Nina raised her teacup and took a small sip. “Someone’s going to be way more anxious than we are.”

The moment she finished speaking, the television suddenly cut to breaking news.

When Roland appeared on screen, it was right in the middle of the routine afternoon press conference.

The reporters had originally been pressing him about next quarter’s fiscal budget, but he seemed to remember something out of nowhere and lightly tapped the microphone.

"Oh, right. Since all our friends from the media are here today, let me just add one more thing while we're at it." He tilted his head slightly, sounding so casual it was almost like small talk.

"Lately, there've been all kinds of rumors going around about some Ms. Harlow. People are saying she's 'colluding with foreign forces,' and they're saying it like they've got receipts. Honestly, even I feel tired for her just listening to it."

The reporters downstairs instantly perked up. In a flash, cameras, microphones, and recorders all swung toward him.

Roland smiled, unhurried, then went on, "As for that foreign gentleman, I've met him once at a business cocktail event. He's a legitimate businessman from F Country. His investment projects in Uppergate cover shipping, tech, and new energy. Every procedure is in order, everything is compliant and legal. And Ms. Harlow, as far as I know, is currently unwell and resting at a relative's home. Twisting a normal interaction between a sick woman and a lawful foreign investor into some so-called collusion? That's not just unethical. It may very well amount to serious defamation."

His voice wasn't loud, but every word landed clean and sharp, carried by the microphone through the entire hall.

"I've already authorized my legal team to pursue responsibility from the media outlets spreading these rumors. I also hope everyone here will respect the facts when reporting, and respect the lawful rights of citizens. After all—" He paused, his gaze sweeping across the room. There was a smile on his face, but no warmth in it at all. "Smearing an innocent woman isn't exactly something to be proud of."

At the same time, inside the study at Platinum Palace, the air felt so heavy it was almost suffocating.

Ethan stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, one hand gripping a newspaper so tightly it had been crushed into a wrinkled mess.

A man whose background he couldn't trace, whose territory he couldn't enter, whose very name he couldn't even confirm.

"Did you find out?" Ethan's voice came out hoarse and rough, like it had been scraped across sandpaper.

The chief of staff stood behind him, cold sweat all over his forehead. "Sir... we used our contacts in the Intelligence Bureau, but... we still couldn't find anything."

"Couldn't find anything?" Ethan spun around so abruptly that the room seemed to tense with him. The look in his eyes made the chief of staff go rigid. "A living, breathing man bought property in Uppergate, travels with bodyguards, and made investments here—and you're telling me you can't find him?"

With one savage kick, Ethan sent the chair beside him crashing over. The expensive redwood piece slammed onto the carpet with a dull, heavy thud.

He stood amid the mess, chest heaving hard.

But what drove him even crazier was this—

Roland had actually spoken up for Nina in public.

That fox never moved without profit on the table. So why was he helping her? What exactly was going on between them?

"Keep digging," Ethan said, each word squeezed out from between clenched teeth. "I don't care what methods you use. I want to know who that man is. And I want to know just how much Nina has been hiding from me."