Chapter 6 I'll Marry

Sylvia's steps faltered.

"For my own good?" She looked at Laura as if she had just heard the most absurd joke in the world, a wave of nausea rising in her throat. "You think you have the right to say that?"

Her words were barely out when the sharp crack of a slap shattered the air.

Laura clutched her cheek, already flushed and swelling, eyes wide with disbelief. The delicate, gentle mask she wore split open, revealing the first jagged trace of what lay beneath.

The air in the living room seemed to freeze around them.

"You… you dare hit me?" Laura's voice rose into a shrill scream.

Gary's face flushed with rage, his eyes burning red like a lion provoked beyond reason. His hand trembled as he pointed at Sylvia. "You've got no respect at all! Someone bring me the cane! I'll beat this ungrateful girl to death today!"

The "cane" he spoke of was a long-forgotten rattan rod kept in the storage room, once used to punish servants.

Two maids hurried in at the sound, exchanging uneasy glances. Neither dared to fetch it.

Sylvia straightened her spine, her gaze locked coldly on Gary. There was no fear in her eyes—only a silent, lethal kind of mockery.

Go ahead. Kill her. Then no one would ever get their hands on that twenty percent share.

"Gary!" Laura reacted first, rushing forward to wrap her arms around his. Tears streamed down her face in a perfect imitation of grief. "Don't be impulsive! Sylvia's just confused. If you hurt her, how will we explain ourselves to the Smith family? They're still waiting for our answer."

Her tone was soft, but every word was a reminder—Sylvia was still useful.

Sure enough, Gary's movements faltered. Reason seeped back in.

His chest heaved as he glared at Sylvia, teeth gritted. "Fine! I won't hit you. But from this moment until the day you marry into the Smith family, you won't step one foot outside this house. If you try to run, I'll break your legs."

He shoved Laura aside and stormed upstairs, his heavy footsteps echoing until they vanished at the top.

Laura smoothed her hair, her face settling back into that saintly mask. She stepped toward Sylvia, voice soft and coaxing. "Sylvia, why make Gary this angry? He's only thinking of you. Zachary may be older, but he's the head of the Smith family. Marry him, and you'll be the lady of the Smith household. Why fight your sister over a man?"

Fight?

Sylvia almost laughed. Who said she wanted Andrew?

Laura reached out to take her hand. "For a woman, what truly matters is stability. Just say yes, won't you?"

Sylvia recoiled from her touch, the corner of her mouth curling into a razor-edged smile. "Drop the act, Laura. Aren't you tired? You want me to marry so your daughter Rosa can have a clear path to Andrew. I saw through your little game from the very start!"

The smile on Laura's face froze. Her gaze hardened, the warmth draining away.

"So you won't listen to reason." Her voice was stripped of all pretense. "I'll ask you one last time—will you marry, or not?"

"No." Sylvia's answer was sharp, final.

Laura laughed, a low, chilling sound that made Sylvia's skin prickle. She crossed to the sofa, sat down, and lifted a cup of cold tea. She blew across it before speaking, her tone slow and deliberate.

"Do you remember… five years ago, that child who disappeared?"

Sylvia's pupils contracted violently. It felt as if her blood had turned to ice.

Five years ago, on her graduation trip, she had been set up—forced into a night with a stranger.

When she returned home, she discovered she was pregnant.

Just as she was drowning in fear, unsure what to do, Laura had arranged everything. But not long after the baby was born, men from a rival company stormed into the hospital and kidnapped the child. He vanished without a trace.

It was the deepest wound in her heart, the nightmare that haunted her nights.

"You… what did you say?" Sylvia's voice trembled with shock.

Laura studied her pale face, her smile widening. "I said… do you want to see your child again?"

Sylvia staggered back, one hand bracing against the wall to keep herself upright. Her vision swam, darkness closing in. The suspicion she had buried for five years was confirmed in the cruelest way.

There had never been a rival company. The kidnapping had been a betrayal from within.

"It was you…" Her nails bit into her palms as she forced the words out. "You did it?"

"So what if I did?" Laura's mask was gone, replaced by the venom beneath. "It was for your own good. You were unmarried—if word got out that you'd had a child, what would happen to the Brooks family's honor? Your reputation would be ruined. I took the child, told the world he'd been kidnapped, and protected you. Protected us. What's wrong with that?"

She stepped closer, her voice coiling like a snake around Sylvia's throat. "That child is well cared for. If you marry Zachary and settle into the Smith family, I'll arrange for you to meet him."

Her tone sharpened into a threat. "But if you refuse… I promise you'll never see him again."

"You're vile!" Sylvia's eyes burned red, fury and grief twisting inside her until it felt like she would break apart.

The child she had searched for, mourned for, for five long years had been in Laura's grasp all along.

Laura shrugged. "Call me names if you want. If it matters more to you than your son, go ahead."

Sylvia bit down on her lip until she tasted blood.

She stared at Laura's triumphant, twisted face. Against the weight of her child's fate, all her defiance felt useless.

She could ignore the Brooks family. She could ignore Gary. She could even ignore her own reputation.

But she could not ignore her child.

That was the only tether she had left in this world.

Time dragged on until Laura's patience began to fray.

Sylvia finally closed her eyes, slowly, deliberately. When she opened them again, all emotion was gone—only a still, dead calm remained.

Her voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.

"Fine. I'll marry."