Chapter 293: The Final Nail

The reporters’ eyes widened.

The video was grainy, but the details were clear enough.

It showed a conference room, apparently recorded from a hidden camera. Leaves partially obscured the frame, making it look as though the camera had been concealed inside a hanging flowerpot.

But the people were unmistakable.

Dorian Blackwood stood in the center of the room, a cold smirk on his face.

Mrs. Lowe was in front of him, screaming and accusing him of killing his grandfather. Around them, the board members watched in stunned silence.

Then Dorian said something that made several reporters lean closer to their phones.

He was ordering the security men to remove her. And when they hesitated, he offered them money.

A collective gasp went through the room.

"Is that Blackwood?"

"Where did you get that?"

"Wait—play it again!"

More phones came out.

Another reporter received the video.

Then another.

Within seconds, it was spreading through the room faster than anyone could follow.

Catherine watched the reporters’ faces change one by one, from shock to disbelief, to recognition...

And then outrage.

"It’s clear," one reporter whispered, staring at his phone. "That’s Mr. Blackwood ordering the guards to push a screaming old woman toward the window."

"Who is she?"

"Mrs. Lowe. She was Edward Blackwood’s secretary!"

"Wasn’t she the woman who supposedly jumped after she couldn’t accept her employer’s death?"

"And no one helped her!"

"Get the video onto the newsroom feed!"

"Who leaked this?"

The questions flew across the room, but this time, none of them were directed at Catherine.

They were about Dorian.

Catherine remained perfectly still. She didn’t need to say anything. She didn’t need to point anyone toward the video.

The reporters were doing it themselves.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced down. She had received one message.

LIVE: 2.8 million viewers.

Her lips curved faintly.

Right on time.

Then she checked the stock.

Her smile disappeared. It was falling. Not slowly anymore. It was falling hard.

The Alzheimer’s treatment had just been exposed as deeply flawed, and now a video appeared showing Dorian Blackwood ordering the assault of a woman who had accused him of murder.

The market didn’t care about his speeches anymore.

It cared about risk.

And suddenly, BioQuant was drowning in it.

Catherine stared at the plunging numbers for a moment. Then she let out a slow breath.

They had done it. Not with one blow. Not with some spectacular act of revenge. Piece by piece.

The cure...The research...The lawsuits... The evidence...

And now this.

Dorian’s empire was beginning to crumble beneath him.

She knew it wouldn’t happen in a single day. He would fight. He would lie. He would use every connection he had left.

But that was almost fitting.

She wanted him to watch—to wake every morning and see another piece of the empire he had built slipping through his fingers, no matter how desperately he tried to hold on.

For all the years of pain he had given her in her previous life...

Perhaps this time, fate had decided he would learn what it felt like to watch his entire world turn to dust.

And for the final nail in the coffin...

Catherine reached for the top button of her blouse.

Before she could say anything, Ashley’s voice rang through the room. "It’s you! You altered our data!"

Catherine slowly turned toward the camera. "That’s slander."

Her voice was calm, stern, and utterly composed. "If you have proof, serve me, Miss Renfield. If you don’t, be mindful of your words."

Her eyes hardened.

"Your father won’t be able to help you in this life the way he always did."

Ashley’s face twisted with fury.

Yes. Catherine had caused the error. She had deliberately altered the calculations they were using.

But she knew Ashley.

The moment Ashley had obtained the answer she wanted, she would have destroyed anything that could expose how she got it. She would never have shared the glory with Catherine.

And now that the result had failed, Ashley wanted to share the blame.

Catherine wasn’t going to allow that.

And by dragging her father into it, Catherine had made things even worse for Ashley. People would start asking questions about how she had risen so quickly, who had protected her, and how much of her career had been built on her father’s influence.

Catherine knew exactly what she was doing.

She also knew something Ashley didn’t.

The video of Dorian and Mrs. Lowe had come from Renfield himself. Her father had secretly recorded that meeting with a hidden camera. Bobby had somehow obtained the footage and handed it to her.

Catherine hadn’t asked how. Bobby hadn’t told her. And she didn’t care. There were some things she was better off not knowing.

Ashley continued shouting, but Dorian had already used the commotion as an opportunity to leave.

Catherine watched him disappear. Then she drew a slow breath.

It had been a long day. A brutal one.

She stepped away from the microphone. And unbuttoned her blouse.

The reporters in the front rows immediately noticed.

Bruises... Darkened fingerprints circling her neck. Marks that had been hidden beneath her collar.

The room quieted.

In her previous life, she had been a woman and a queen who possessed less power than Dorian. He had used that imbalance against her, manipulating her, punishing her, hurting her whenever he wanted to remind her who held the power.

This life was different.

People did not simply look away from a man hurting a woman anymore. They demanded answers.

A reporter finally raised his voice.

"Dr. Preston, BioQuant’s CEO has described you as his deceased fiancée. Why did you allow the world to believe you were dead?"

Catherine looked toward the cameras. She gulped and took a deep breath. "Because there were people who believed I would be safer if I stayed dead."

A murmur swept through the room.

Another reporter immediately called out.

"Are you saying Mr. Blackwood was responsible?"

Catherine paused. "I’m saying that when someone has hurt you physically, and you have reason to believe they will hurt you again..."

Her fingers curled slightly at her sides.

"...sometimes disappearing is the only protection you have."

The cameras flashed.

Questions came from every direction.

Catherine didn’t answer them.

She didn’t need to.

The photographs would do the rest.

She knew there were intelligent people in the world. People who could connect the pieces without being told exactly what had happened.

And there were others who simply wanted drama.

She hated that.

She didn’t want to be remembered as Dorian Blackwood’s abused fiancée.

She was a scientist.

She had spent years building her work with her own hands.

She had just dismantled one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the country through research, evidence, contracts, and strategy.

She didn’t want her victory reduced to a story about a woman who had been hurt.

But sometimes... Being understood wasn’t the same as being admired.

And this had to be done.

Dorian had to lose the protection of his reputation.

He could lie about research. He could manipulate investors. He could buy politicians and influencers. But if the world saw him as a man who had physically abused the woman he claimed to love, there were things even his money couldn’t erase.

Catherine slowly buttoned her blouse again.

Her fingers trembled.

She hated that they were trembling. She hated even more that she suddenly wanted one person not to see her like this.

Maximilian.

She didn’t want him to look at her and see a victim. She wanted him to see the woman who had stood on that stage and defeated Dorian.

But her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

The flashes continued.

Questions collided over one another. She tried to breathe.

Then, through the chaos, she saw someone standing at the edge of the room.

Tall.

Still.

Those blue-violet eyes fixed entirely on her.

Maximilian.

Catherine’s breath caught.

She had held herself together through the accusations, the research, the lawyers, the stock collapse, the video, the questions about Dorian.

She had held herself together when she exposed the bruises.

But the moment she saw him...

The tears she had been holding back all day finally broke free.