Chapter 520 No Harm Done
Marlowe was preoccupied with her thoughts as she emerged from the kitchen, barely noticing the atmosphere in the living room.
Grant, seeing her troubled expression, moved to sit beside her.
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" he asked in a low voice, placing his warm hand on hers.
Marlowe snapped out of her daze and withdrew her hand defensively. "It's nothing."
Grant, unfazed by her rejection, remained comfortably seated next to her.
Just then, Katerina approached Elliot. "Elliot, it's getting late. Why don't you stay the night? It's not safe to drive back at this hour."
Though Elliot hadn't planned to stay, he quickly changed his mind. "Thank you, Mrs. Rivera. I appreciate your hospitality."
Grant's brow furrowed slightly, but he remained silent. Despite his displeasure at Elliot staying, he couldn't object to Katerina's invitation.
"Mr. Scott, shouldn't you be heading home?" Marlowe whispered, clearly trying to get rid of him.
Grant met her gaze with confusion. "If he gets to stay, why shouldn't I? I am your lawful husband, after all." He made no effort to lower his voice, ensuring everyone in the living room heard him.
Marlowe fell silent.
Grant turned to Katerina. "Katerina, would you mind preparing a room for me as well? Thank you."
His request was both assertive and polite, ending with a courteous thank you.
Katerina hesitated momentarily before nodding. "Of course."
Finnegan and Katerina occupied the master bedroom downstairs, with Marlowe in the adjacent guest room. Fortunately, there were several spare rooms upstairs where the two men were accommodated—directly across from each other.
As their doors opened simultaneously, Grant leaned against his doorframe with arms crossed, his eyes cold and distant. Elliot, too, had dropped his usual warm demeanor, his face equally impassive.
"Well, Mr. Sullivan, not playing the kind, elegant gentleman anymore?" Grant smirked. "Who's this cold face for?"
Elliot found the nearly thirty-year-old CEO remarkably childish.
"I'm surprised," Elliot replied coolly. "I never expected the great CEO of the Scott Group to be so petty and immature."
Grant wasn't accustomed to being called childish—though Marlowe had recently said the same.
Unfazed by Grant's increasingly dark expression, Elliot pressed on, "Mr. Scott, you've already wasted five years of her life. Why won't you let her go?"
Grant's lips tightened into a thin line—a clear sign of his anger.
"Clever strategy, Mr. Sullivan. Convince me to step aside so you can take my place."
"Mr. Scott, you have no idea what my intentions are. Marlowe deserves freedom to choose what makes her happy, not to be trapped in your abusive relationship. She's not your property—she's her own person."
Their brief exchange had already ignited tensions when Marlowe appeared with toiletries for both men.
"You two know each other well? What are you discussing in the hallway?" she asked, puzzled to find them at their doorways.
She approached Elliot first. "Elliot, I hope these will do. They're all new."
Elliot accepted them graciously, his handsome face softening. "They're perfect. I'm not that particular."
"Get settled and rest well. Let me know if you need anything else."
"I will."
Grant watched their interaction with contempt.
When Marlowe turned to him, her warmth vanished. She wordlessly tossed the toiletries at him, which he instinctively caught, before walking away without a word.
Her contrasting behavior toward the two men was striking.
Elliot chuckled softly before stepping back and closing his door.
Grant frowned as he watched Marlowe's retreating figure.
Back in her room, Marlowe messaged Victoria and Lila about the situation.
Lila replied: [Marlowe, seeing how persistent Grant is, maybe you should forgive him?]
She quickly added: [Of course, if you don't want to forgive him, that's completely your choice.]
She knew how badly Grant had behaved, but he was still family. He wasn't fundamentally bad, just foolish before. She couldn't always side against him.
Victoria simply responded: [Lila has a point.]
She hesitated to say more, having been the one who revealed Marlowe's whereabouts to Grant.
Marlowe noticed how her once-supportive friends now seemed to lean slightly toward Grant.
Her heart had no clear answers. She couldn't bring herself to love Grant again—that capacity was gone. And continuing as husband and wife, especially using children to bind them together, was something she refused to do.
Setting her phone aside, she lay on the bed, lost in thought.
Meanwhile, at Serenity Grove Manor, Victoria had barely touched her dinner, lacking appetite. After her shower, she felt drowsy and was reclining in the rocking chair by the floor-to-ceiling windows when her phone rang.
"Hello?" Victoria answered.
"Victoria, I've found what you asked me to investigate this afternoon."
Victoria's drowsiness partially subsided. "Go on."
Billy summarized his findings. "The Hawthorne family didn't just have Tessa. They genuinely loved their adopted daughter, and Tessa was healthy before. They didn't willingly return her to her birth parents. But here's the key—they have a son, Yosef Hawthorne, who was in love with Lavinia."
Victoria was puzzled.
"Yosef wants revenge for Lavinia, so he's been looking for ways to target you."
Victoria said, "Get to the point. Where did the industrial toxins in Tessa's system come from?"
"That's what infuriates me. Her birth parents did it. After taking her back, they tried to extort money from the Hawthornes, but the adoption was legal, so they couldn't. When they saw how much the Hawthornes cared for Tessa, they deliberately made her sick to demand money for 'treatment,' which they kept for themselves. When the Hawthornes discovered this, they were furious and took Tessa to the hospital, which is how she ended up on our research list. The Hawthornes commissioned it, but they weren't her legal guardians anymore, making our previous agreement technically non-compliant."
"When Yosef learned about this, he approached Tessa's birth parents, leading to this afternoon's confrontation."
Victoria was stunned. How could parents do such a thing?
"So whether we pay Tessa's father or not, Yosef will use this to create negative publicity for the research center."
Paying would only escalate the situation to something more sinister.
In essence, Tessa's father was merely a catalyst.
Victoria hadn't expected that Lavinia, even while reformed in prison, could still create such problems for her.
She doubted this was solely Yosef's idea.
"Billy, prepare our PR response. I need to think about the most prudent solution."
"Understood."
After hanging up, she contemplated in her rocking chair before finally rising and heading toward the study.
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