Mr. Villain's Lovely Wife (Izzy)

Frederik looked at Gregory. The old man's jaw was locked, yet he said nothing, but the vein on his temple had begun to show.

Maria returned to her seat. She rested her hands on the desk. "So, before you waste the court's time and embarrass yourselves further, I suggest you withdraw your little petition"

David Holt opened his mouth, but Maria cut him off.

"The document is notarized, registered, and filed. Every line is airtight. And if you try to contest it, I will personally make sure every past transaction you've all tried to bury gets pulled into discovery"

Frederik looked at the second file he brought. He didn't touch it.

Meanwhile, Amalia was still staring at the paper in her hands.

Maria's voice remained steady. "You wanted a legal war. I suggest you bring a better army

"Grandfather, this-"

"I was not made aware of that document," Gregory said, just as the car started moving. After seeing that document, they were left with no choice but to leave. Obviously, that woman Amalia still tried to fight it, but Gregory knew it would be useless.

"Then what about what woman?" Frederik asked. His grandfather actually helped Amalia get out of prison.

"Let her be," Gregory said, adjusting the cuff of his sleeve as the car moved through the downtown traffic. "The deal was simple. We get her out. She files for control. In exchange, she gets to crawl out of that cell and play family."

Frederik didn't reply.

Gregory leaned back against the seat. "I underestimated Maria Alcaraz. I thought she was just one of Rossi's many lawyers. Turns out she's more of a wall than a door."

Frederik tapped his fingers on his thigh, processing. "Do you want me to contact her again?"

"No. Not her." Gregory pulled out his phone. "Call Amalia's lawyer. Tell him to advise her. If the court's off the table, maybe she can make it a public matter."

Frederik raised an eyebrow. "Media?"

"She's shallow and dumb enough to know how to turn sympathy into leverage," Gregory said. "She'll do whatever it takes if the headline looks expensive enough."

Frederik gave a short nod. "Alright. I'll take care of it."

The car turned onto the bridge. For a moment, neither of them said anything.

Frederik glanced out the window, then spoke again. “I still haven't found who orchestrated the accident."

Gregory didn't respond at first. His eyes followed the skyline in silence. Then, his jaw clenched. "Keep digging."

Frederik's grip tightened. "It was clean. Too clean. No digital footprint, no traceable tail, and nothing in the logistics report. The driver's records were wiped just two weeks before the crash."

"Then we missed something."

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"I don't like it," Frederik muttered. "It wasn't us. But whoever did it had a reason. And money. It was surgical"

Gregory turned his head slightly, but he didn't speak. His silence was enough.

Frederik leaned back, brows furrowed. He had spent days reviewing every possible connection, every possible motive. Still, nothing led to the truth.

He wanted Izzy's shares. He wanted control. But he hadn't wanted her dead. Whoever moved first had done it perfectly.

And that unsettled him more than he was willing to admit. He didn't even know who the enemy wast

Gregory didn't speak again until they were halfway across the bridge.

"When you don't know who the enemy is," he said finally, "you watch everyone." Frederik nodded slightly, eyes still on the road ahead. "Even our own?" Gregory didn't answer. That, in itself, was the answer.

The car pulled up to the private lot behind the Vasili building. Frederik followed his grandfather inside, both men quiet as they entered through the executive elevator.

Once the doors closed, Frederik checked his watch.

"I have a call with Vasili Energy in twenty minutes. They're asking questions too. They want to know if zy will be removed from the South Asia expansion

committee."

"Tell them she's stable and recovering," Gregory said. "We don't make her irrelevant until we absolutely have to."

"And the shares?"

Gregory turned to him. "You still want them?"

Frederik didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"Then stop hoping for the board to fix it for you. The girl may have disappeared,

but she didn't die. Until there's a body or a death certificate, that name still holds."

Frederik nodded once. "Understood."

The elevator dinged. They stepped out into the quiet, glass-walled top floor of the tower.

Gregory paused by his office door. "We'll let Amalia make noise. She'll go to the media, and drag her niece's name in if she has to. Rossi's name will be pulled through the dirt."

Frederik didn't flinch. "And what if Maria retaliates?"

"She will," Gregory said. "But once the story is public, we're not playing chess anymore. We're playing poker. And all she has is a lawyer's mouth."

Frederik watched as his grandfather entered his office.

Still, his thoughts stayed on the accident. He couldn't let it go. The way the reports had been sanitized. The camera footage just happened to cut out. The driver had cancer and no next of kin. A man who should never have been behind a wheel that day.

It was too perfect.

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03.34 Sal, Ty Apr

Someone planned that hit.noveldrama

And they weren't finished.

Obviously, Frederik didn't like that.

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"So... Frederik actually helped Amalia." Izzy pursed her lips as she leaned back against the bed. "That's unexpected." She actually thought Calen would do it. But Frederik Vasili?

"The Vasili family closely worked with your grandfather in the past," Liam said. "But he isn't the one responsible for the accident," Izzy said.

"No, he isn't."

Izzy nodded. Until now, Liam had yet to find out who tried to kill her; however, he was certain that whoever targeted her would do it again-and this time, he wasn't letting her out of his sight.

"What about the family of that driver?" she asked. She heard that the family of the driver of the truck that hit her car died. The man already had stage 2 cancer and had no insurance. He was forced to work to support himself and his family. "Maria already took care of things," Liam said. "We have been trying to track their finances, but we didn't see any movement in their funds at all."

Again, Izzy nodded. Liam suspected that whoever hired that driver must have given his family a huge amount of money, but they couldn't find any traces of this so-called money.

Liam glanced down at the tablet on the side table. A notification blinked at the corner of the screen. He picked it up, skimmed the message, then turned to her. "Anna's awake," he said. "The doctors confirmed it an hour ago."

Izzy exhaled quietly. "That's good."

She leaned her head back against the pillow, eyes momentarily unfocused. The quiet buzz of machines in the background filled the space between them.

Then she looked at him. "What if we never find out?"

Liam met her gaze. "We will."

"But what if we don't?" she asked again. "What if we never find out who tried to

kill me?" Is she going to hide forever, then?

Liam didn't speak immediately. He set the tablet aside, stood up, and walked to

the window. The trees outside moved gently in the wind, but the compound remained quiet. Controlled.

He turned back to her.

"We'll find them," he said. "And when we do, it ends. I'll make sure of it."

Then a knock interrupted their conversation. Mondo walked in with a grave expression on his face.

"Sir... we have a problem," he said.