Chapter 99: Daphne’s messy life

At Soren’s office...

Soren had no intention of ending the call with Elowen, but the knock at his door forced him to reluctantly say goodbye.

"Come in."

The door opened, and Kael entered.

"Sir, I’ve got everything you need to know about Daphne." He placed a folder on the table. "This woman’s personal life is considerably more colorful than we have expected."

A hint of sarcasm crept into his voice as he opened the folder and laid out several photographs. They showed Daphne with different men, posing intimately in bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

"She frequently visits bars and pubs after work. Judging by these pictures, she has never been particularly serious about relationships. She moves from one man to another without much hesitation. However..."

Kael picked up one photograph and looked at it keenly. "Her relationship with this man seems different from the others."

He pushed the photograph toward Soren.

Curious, Soren picked it up.

Daphne was sitting on a man’s lap, her arms wrapped around his neck. The man looked nearly twice her age. He was overweight, with a greasy smile that made him considerably less appealing than the younger, well-dressed men in the other photographs.

"Who is this guy?"

"Samuel Black," Kael replied. "He is an HR manager at Aurevia. According to my investigation, Daphne has been sleeping with him to secure his favor. She got the chief designer position not because of her qualifications or talent, but by using her relationship with him."

After a moment of pause, he added, "He was also the one who helped her upload those photographs of Madam Elowen and Mr. Knox to the company portal. She couldn’t have accessed the portal and posted them without his assistance."

Something crossed Soren’s eyes as he listened to him. "You uncovered all this in such a short time. How did Theron miss it? Or is he deliberately turning a blind eye?"

The question hung in the air.

Kael’s expression grew thoughtful.

It hadn’t taken him long to discover that Daphne had taken the photographs of Elowen and Theron. The café’s surveillance footage had captured her clearly. There had been nothing particularly difficult about identifying her.

As for Daphne’s relationship with the HR manager, it wasn’t even much of a secret. People at Aurevia had been talking about it discreetly for quite some time.

There was no way Theron could have missed something so obvious unless he had chosen to ignore it.

However, Kael couldn’t understand the motive behind it.

"It’s certainly strange," he admitted. "Finding out the truth wasn’t difficult. Mr. Knox should have taken immediate action against those responsible. Yet Daphne and Samuel are still working there. Neither of them has faced any consequences."

Soren’s chest tightened as anger surged through him. His fingers clenched around the photograph until the paper crumpled beneath his grip.

Unlike Kael, he wasn’t confused. The truth was as clear as daylight.

Theron could have stopped the rumors before they spread. He could have ordered the photographs removed from the company portal the moment they appeared. He could have dealt with Daphne and Samuel immediately.

But he had done none of those things.

Instead, he had allowed people to gossip, question Elowen’s character, and tarnish her reputation. Then he had stepped forward, pretending to protect her from the very humiliation he had allowed to happen.

It was all deliberate.

Theron wanted to create a situation in which Elowen would feel cornered and vulnerable, leaving him free to play the role of her savior. He wanted her gratitude, her trust, and eventually her dependence.

He wasn’t protecting her. He was manipulating her.

"Why would he do that?" Kael asked, still unable to make sense of it. "I can’t think of any reason. Perhaps he genuinely doesn’t know what’s happening."

Soren grew even more solemn. "There is no room for uncertainty," he muttered coldly. "People are responsible for the choices they make. And I’ve made mine. Anyone who dares to target my wife will pay for it."

He tossed the crumpled photograph onto the table. "Circulate these pictures. I want everyone to know exactly what kind of woman Daphne is."

Kael nodded firmly. "Tomorrow morning, her world will be turned upside down. I’ll make sure of that."

He gathered the photographs and slipped them back into the folder before leaving the office.

Once the door closed behind him, Soren leaned back in his chair. His expression twisted with disgust.

"Theron..." he muttered. "You want to be Elowen’s hero? Yet you are allowing other people to hurt her just so you can play that role."

The realization sent another wave of fury through him. His blood pounded in his ears as he recalled Theron’s calculated actions.

"You claim to love her, but that’s not love."

His jaw worked.

"If you truly cared about her, you would never have allowed anyone to tarnish her reputation. You don’t love her. You crave her admiration. You want to satisfy your own ego by playing the hero in her life."

His fingers curled into fists.

"You don’t actually want to protect her. You would let others hurt and humiliate her, only so you could step in at the last moment and pretend to be the one who saves her."

His mouth twisted into a dangerous sneer. "You are sick, Theron. There’s something seriously wrong with you. But I won’t let you manipulate Elowen. And I certainly won’t let you turn her against me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the following morning, Daphne’s affair with Samuel Black had spread across the internet.

The allegations were brutal.

According to the circulating posts, she had been sleeping with Samuel to secure his favor and advance her career. To make matters worse, photographs of her with several other men had also surfaced, exposing her questionable relationships.

Daphne became the target of public humiliation.

People who knew her began sharing the posts, while strangers joined in to condemn her. The comment sections were filled with harsh criticism and insults.

’She is shameless. Sleeping with the HR manager to climb the career ladder while hooking up with different men. What a disgrace.’

’We always suspected something was going on between her and Mr. Black. She was unusually close to him, but whenever someone questioned it, she claimed he was a distant relative.’

’A distant relative? Is that what she calls her sugar daddy?’

’She used her connection with Mr. Black to become chief designer. But when she faced real competition, she couldn’t prove her talent. Instead, she was caught stealing someone else’s work.’

’Exactly. She plagiarized another designer’s blueprint and was removed from the design department. But instead of feeling guilty, she tried to destroy the reputation of someone more talented than her. What a hypocrite.’

Daphne’s hands trembled as she scrolled through the comments. Her face turned red with rage. She felt as though she could smash everything in her apartment.

"Who the hell posted these pictures? Who has the nerve to mess with me?"

She threw her phone onto the sofa, only to snatch it up again when it started ringing.

The caller ID showed Tahlia.