Part 3The Outcast’s Counterattack

I was exhausted. I pointed a weary finger at the door. "Just go. And don't ever come back."

Reese bit her lip, her expression stubborn. "I'm not leaving. You're sick. I'm staying here to take care of you."

She opened a thermal container and poured out a bowl of chicken soup, carefully blowing on each spoonful to cool it. It was just like the time I was hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer after a brutal negotiation, and she'd cared for me with such tenderness.

Back then, I was certain she loved me.

Now, I couldn't tell where her heart truly lay.

She brought the spoon to my lips, but a notification on her phone made her jump. She shot up from her chair, a flicker of panic in her eyes. Realizing how she must have looked, she offered a clumsy explanation.

"That's… the university. Something came up. You rest, okay? I'll be back as soon as I'm done."

Before I could say a word, she grabbed her purse and hurried out.

The click of the door plunged the room into silence.

She hadn't even noticed. In her haste, she'd knocked over the bowl of steaming soup. It was all over me.

I calmly called a nurse to help with the burns.

Just as I was finishing up a call with my secretary to delegate my work, a message from Caleb popped up on my phone.

[Guess where Reese and I are right now?]

It was followed by a photo of the master bedroom in our old family estate. The room I had spent the last six months personally renovating for our marriage.

[Already tested out your wife for you. Figured I should break in the bed, too.]

In less than a day, he had defiled the sanctuary I had built for us.

That was the last straw. I tore off the hospital gown, changed my clothes, and raced to the estate.

The moment I walked in, I felt the servants' eyes on me, their gazes lingering on my lower body.

"So the young master really is… you know?"

"Good thing Miss Reese found herself a backup plan."

"Can you imagine? A lifetime of that… poor woman."

My eyes swept over each of their whispering faces. I'd deal with them later. After I was done with that treacherous pair.

Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door to our bedroom.

The scene that greeted me was somehow worse than the raw, physical betrayal at the hotel.

Reese was on the phone, her voice laced with a sycophantic tone I had never heard from her. "Professor Miller, I know your program is incredibly competitive, but Caleb is just so talented. Could you please give him a chance? Just an interview, that's all I'm asking…"

The fawning, desperate expression on her face threw me back three years.

Back then, my position in the company was still precarious. I had the skills, but the older board members saw me as too green. A key partner's daughter was applying for grad school, and I asked Reese if she might tutor the girl as a favor.

She had refused me flatly, looking at me with deep disappointment as if I had suggested something sordid. "You're asking me to compromise my principles for business?"

Because of that, I lost a billion-dollar deal. But in a strange way, it made me admire her more. I loved that fierce, unbending integrity.

Now, here she was, throwing those same principles out the window for Caleb.

Caleb saw me standing in the doorway. He wrapped an arm around Reese's waist, a clear gesture of ownership. "Reese, my love, you're pulling strings for me. You think my dear brother is going to get angry again?"

She ended the call and pinched his cheek affectionately. "You're different. For you, I'd do anything."

Only then did she seem to notice me. Her face hardened. "You're supposed to be in the hospital. What are you doing here?"

Caleb pouted. "Maybe he followed you."

Her expression turned icy. "Julian, do you have any idea that stalking is illegal? You're being a real creep. No wonder your own mother didn't want you when she left!"

Her words hit me like a physical blow, a shard of ice driving straight into my heart. She knew. She knew my mother had left because she found out my father was keeping a mistress, one who had a son just three months younger than me. Reese had been the one to comfort me, to swear she would never betray me like that.

And now she was using my deepest wound as a weapon, mocking me for being the boy his mother left behind.

Caleb's face was a mask of twisted delight. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" He nuzzled his face against Reese's neck. "Thank God you finally saw my brother for who he really is, Reese. We're the ones who truly belong together."

Just then, my father's voice echoed from downstairs, clearing his throat loudly. He wanted to see us.

Caleb shot me a look brimming with meaning. "Who ends up in charge around here is still up in the air, you know."

Reese gave me a look of pity. "Julian, things are about to change at Vance Holdings. You need to stop fighting with Caleb."

Caleb just squeezed her waist. "He'll find out soon enough. No need to spoil the surprise."

Listening to them, a cold dread began to creep into my heart.