Chapter 420
Mara was roughly dragged out of the café and tossed into the back of an SUV by Ethan’s security team. The second the doors slammed shut, Ethan-who had always been the warm, indulgent older brother-backhanded her across the face, hard.
“You are a goddamn parasite. You came back to this family just to destroy us,” he snarled.
He had tolerated a lot of her behavior, but selling out the family business and actively sabotaging his empire was an unforgivable line in the sand.
The slap left Mara’s ears ringing and her vision blurring with stars. It felt like her skull had cracked.
But the girl who usually cried on command to get her way didn’t dare make a sound.
Without Mr. and Mrs. Mercer there to shield her, she knew that opening her mouth would just earn her another brutal strike—and she was genuinely terrified he might kill her.
A short while later, Lenny Forbes sent Mira a brief message: “It’s done, boss p>
Mira opened the online forums and scrolled through the absolute bloodbath in the comment sections.
“Oh my god, Roxanne acts like this polished aristocrat, but she is absolute scum p>
“I thought she was just a serial cheater, but she’s a literal corporate thief p>
“Trash attracts trash. Roxanne and Mara are a match made in hell p>
“Honestly, Roxanne is just a highly evolved version of Mara. No, she’s a professional manipulator p>
“Porter Entertainment won the bid, but it’s completely illegitimate p>
“Stealing someone else’s work just proves their company has zero actual talent p>
“If they’re relying on thieves to run their projects, I would never trust a building they construct. The Hudson Metro Hub is going to be a death trap p>
“We need to demand the government reopen the bidding p>
“Boycott Porter real estate! Don’t buy anything they build p>
The photo leak had been a localized strike against Roxanne’s personal reputation.
But this café ambush had escalated the damage, plunging the entirety of Porter Entertainment into a fatal crisis of public trust.
“What’s our next move p>
Lenny asked, ready for his next set of orders.
“Leak the truth about Mara’s involvement in Julian Mercer’s accident. Include the call logs with her handler p>
It was time to pull the net tight.
In her past life, she had been slaughtered right before her exams. In this life, she was going to make sure they didn’t have a single moment of peace.
“Consider it done,” Lenny confirmed.
Back at the Porter estate, Roxanne collapsed into her mother’s arms the second she got through the door.
Abandoning all her carefully constructed poise, she sobbed hysterically.
“Mom, I was set up. It’s my fault, I walked right into it.
“I’m going to drag the whole company down with me p>
“Hush, it’s okay. You’re young, mistakes happen. We learn and adapt. Our family can survive this hit p>
Shane Porter’s son was still a child, and they were grooming Roxanne to inherit the empire.
Earlier that day, Roxanne had been
reviewing contracts when she
received a text from Mara: *I have
massive inter Need to see you in
person immediately p>
As a seasoned executive, Roxanne knew the golden rule of espionage: never meet
a mole face-to-face.
But she went anyway, blinded by the fact that Mara had just flawlessly delivered Ethan’s entire bid. She thought Mara was completely under their control.
If someone else had used Mara’s name to set the meeting, it meant they had completely compromised Mara’s phone.
And if Ethan possessed that kind of cyber capability, his files wouldn’t have been stolen in the first place.
That was why she had gone.
But the terrifying truth was finally dawning on her. The unseen enemy hadn’t just hacked Mara’s phone-they had hacked hers, too.
How else could they have sent a message to Mara using Roxanne’s private number
to coordinate the ambush?
For the first time since returning to
the country, Roxanne felt a
suffocating wave of pure terror Shë was up against a predator she couldn’t even see. fo