I stared at the mouth moving in front of me, unable to believe this was the man I'd loved for years.

I felt nothing but shame for my own blindness.

Fury surged through me. I reached over and took Arnold's hand, lacing my fingers through his.

"You've already cheated and found your true love. Am I not allowed to move on?"

"Or is it that I sold my shares to Arnold instead of handing them over to your mistress for free, and now you're barking about it?"

Elwin, humiliated and enraged, raised his hand to slap me.

I sidestepped.

He stumbled, off-balance, and took Valerie down with him. They hit the floor face-first.

Arnold and I couldn't help it. Our eyes met, and we burst out laughing.

Everyone else wanted to laugh but didn't dare.

They could only point at me and hurl insults.

"Maureen, you shameless little tramp! You've got some nerve! Cross Mr. Gilbert, and you can forget about surviving in Bayview City!"

"Exactly! The Gilbert family could crush you like an ant! You're acting high and mighty now, but you'll be on your knees begging soon enough!"

I shrugged, utterly unconcerned.

"Is that so? I have a feeling the one begging on their knees might be someone else entirely."

Elwin glared at me with fury blazing in his eyes, unable to fathom where my calm confidence came from.

A flicker of unease stirred in his chest—but Valerie's sobbing quickly drowned it out.

"Valerie, are you okay? Where does it hurt?"

Elwin could tolerate his own embarrassing fall.

But watching Valerie go down? That shattered him.

He scooped her up immediately, examining her for injuries with painstaking care. The tenderness in his eyes was unconcealed—the same tenderness I once knew so well.

But now, it no longer belonged to me.

Valerie clutched her scraped arm, crying harder than ever.

"Elwin, how dare she treat us like this?"

"It's bad enough she sold our company secrets, but now she's humiliating me too. If my parents found out..."

A vicious glint flashed through Elwin's eyes.

He turned on me, seething.

"Maureen, I'm giving you two choices. Either hand your shares directly to Valerie and get on your knees to apologize—and I might forgive you for old times' sake, even acknowledge you as my honorary sister."

"Or I call the police and press charges for leaking company secrets. You can rot in prison."

I smiled faintly. "I choose neither."

Elwin froze, clearly not expecting me to be so uncooperative.