“This one’s for Chloe and Jason.”
I opened the report, making sure everyone could see. “You don’t have to take my word for it. Jason may be lying in a nursing home, but Chloe is standing right here. Anyone can request an on-site DNA test from a top-tier agency.”
Chloe’s got the Johnson blood running through her veins, and I’m sure that clears everything up!”
Brianna and her son were completely blindsided. They never saw this coming—Chloe was Jason’s daughter, not Gregory’s.
My mother-in-law stayed calm, but there was a brief glimmer of emotion in her eyes—a sign of the storm brewing inside.
The room was filled with whispers.
“So Chloe really is Jason’s daughter?”
“That means Chloe’s the true heir of the Johnson family!”
“And Gregory… well, he doesn’t stand a chance now.”
They all turned their eyes on Gregory, their disdain thick in the air.
Gregory’s face drained of color, and he crumpled, his knees giving out as he sank to the floor. The fight seemed to leave him all at once. He couldn’t get Chloe to call Brianna “mom,” and now, everything he had—every bit of power—was slipping away from him.
Brianna and George, once full of ambition, now looked like two wilted flowers in the harsh sun, drained and deflated.
Seeing that Gregory was a lost cause, the relatives quickly started backing away. No one wanted to stay in a sinking ship.
Gregory stared at me, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of desperation in his eyes. He stood up, walking toward me like he was swallowing his pride whole.
“Kaia, I know you love me. This whole mess… it’s just about my mistakes, right? I promise I’ll cut things off with Brianna. Can I come back to the Johnson family?”
I stared at him, my expression almost pitying. “Gregory, you’ve got it all wrong. I never loved you.”
His face went white. “What… what did you say?”
His voice shook, and his eyes widened. “Then why… why did you always look at me like that? Why did you insist on marrying me?”
I gave him an icy smile. “I looked at you because you remind me of Jason. Your face gave me a little comfort, a little piece of him.”
“I married you to protect Jason’s legacy. You took his place as the Johnson family heir, and I needed to marry you to secure my position in this family. It was the only way to control Johnson Group and keep other branches from taking it from us.”
I let that sink in before delivering the next blow.
“You’re probably wondering why I was Jason’s ex, why your father let me run Johnson Group instead of you, his own son. Why your mother treated me like her own all these years.”
“You didn’t grow up in the Johnson family, so you wouldn’t know. But while I came from humble beginnings, your father—grateful for my dad saving his life—invited me to stay at the Johnson estate every summer and winter. Jason and I were childhood sweethearts, in love for years. Your mother raised me like a daughter, and your father planned for me to be Jason’s wife. I was educated the same way he was, just as qualified.”
I couldn’t help it; I laughed. It was sharp, biting. “It’s honestly pathetic that you thought I was just some poor country girl climbing her way into the Johnson family through my dad’s favor. And you really believed I was in love with you?”
