Chapter 319: The Tide Turns

But Isobel... she was different.

She had already endured enough. She spent years living without knowing who her family was, only to discover the truth and find herself thrown into another storm.

Now, people who had never met her were attacking her simply because it suited their own narrative.

And Charlotte had deliberately made her the target.

Kristoff’s fingers curled against the window frame.

"She should have gone after me, this is I can accept," he said, his voice dangerously quiet. "But she should not have dragged Isobel’s name through the mud."

He turned around, his eyes as cold as ice.

"She chose to burn every bridge between us. I’m simply making sure she understands what that means."

Owen swallowed hard.

He had worked for Kristoff long enough to recognize the warning signs. His boss could be ruthless when business demanded it, but this was different.

Kristoff wasn’t merely displeased.

He was furious.

And when Kristoff Dalton stopped holding back, even the people who thought they knew him best had reason to be afraid.

Owen silently mourned Charlotte’s fate.

Miss Harris, you really should have left Isobel alone.

Because this time, Boss isn’t going to let you walk away unscathed.

Charlotte Harris was about to discover just how costly it was to mistake Kristoff Dalton’s silence for surrender.

...

Charlotte’s hands trembled as she read Kristoff’s messages.

You forced my hand. Now, face the consequences.

The words seemed to burn through the screen.

"No... No, this can’t be happening."

Her phone slipped from her fingers and crashed onto the marble floor. The screen shattered, the cracks spreading like a spiderweb across the glass.

Charlotte stared at it, her face drained of color.

For the first time, she realized the magnitude of her mistake.

I was wrong. I was so wrong.

I shouldn’t have provoked him. I shouldn’t have pushed him this far.

Tears spilled down her cheeks as panic clawed at her chest.

She knew Kristoff Dalton. She knew how ruthless he could be when someone crossed his bottom line. Yet she had foolishly believed that their years together would always give her a special place in his heart.

She had mistaken his tolerance for an unconditional pardon.

Now, she was about to pay for that mistake.

And Kristoff had only just begun.

At eleven o’clock, an hour before noon, the internet was rocked by another bombshell.

This time, the evidence was undeniable.

A video from the nursery where Alexander had nearly died was released to the public. It showed the terrifying moment when a large stuffed toy toppled over the infant’s crib, covering the baby and obstructing his breathing.

The footage captured the Alexander’s frantic movements as he rushed to rescue his son.

Then came the unexpected hero.

A robotic puppy sprang into action, its movements precise and astonishingly swift. It climbed unto Alexander’s chest, assessed the baby’s condition, and began performing emergency resuscitation.

The infant remained frighteningly still.

For several agonizing seconds, the video showed the robotic puppy continuing its efforts until Alexander finally responded.

The footage ended with the Alexander scooping the baby into his arms, and rushing toward the exit.

But that wasn’t the most shocking part.

Attached to the video was the nanny’s recorded confession.

She admitted that Charlotte Harris had instructed her to place the stuffed toy inside the crib.

The internet exploded.

"OH MY GOD! Why would anyone put a stuffed toy that big in a baby’s crib?!"

"Forget the nanny for a second. Who gave her the instruction? Charlotte?!"

"Even a first-time parent knows that loose stuffed toys can suffocate a sleeping infant! What was she thinking?"

"Thinking? She wasn’t thinking about the baby at all!"

"Wait. Are you telling me Alexander almost died because of something Charlotte ordered the nanny to do?"

"That poor child! He was completely innocent!"

As the video spread, people began scrutinizing every second of the footage. They noticed Kristoff’s expression when he entered the nursery and saw the oversized stuffed toy covering his son.

His face had gone deathly pale. His hands trembled as he rushed toward the crib, and the desperation in his eyes was unmistakable.

One netizen posted a screenshot of Kristoff standing beside the crib, his face twisted with terror.

The caption read:

Imagine walking into your child’s nursery and finding him not breathing. Now imagine learning that your fiancée who was supposed to be the mother, was responsible.

The post garnered hundreds of thousands of reactions within minutes.

But the internet had not yet finished uncovering Charlotte’s secrets.

At almost the same time, another document surfaced.

It was Charlotte’s medical certificate.

The photo was captioned. "I lived with guilt for many years, only to discover that it was all built on a lie."

According to the report, her infertility was congenital and had existed long before the car accident.

The words sent another shock wave through the internet.

Charlotte’s carefully cultivated image as a tragic woman betrayed by the man she loved began to crumble.

The same people who had defended her only hours earlier were now questioning everything she had ever said.

"So Charlotte isn’t the innocent victim she made herself out to be?"

"She let everyone believe Kristoff caused her infertility, even though her condition was congenital? That’s cruel!"

"What was her motive? Why would she do something like this to Alexander?"

Someone quickly supplied an answer.

"Isn’t it obvious? She was jealous of Isobel and jealous of Alexander. So, she wanted to hurt the woman and the child!"

"And to think we were blaming Isobel this morning. We owe that woman an apology!"

The comments multiplied by the second.

The internet’s anger had found a new target.

Charlotte Harris.

Amid the furious discussions, another detail caught the attention of tech enthusiasts.

"Wait a minute! Can we talk about that robotic puppy for a second? Did anyone notice how precisely it performed CPR on Alexander?"

"I was wondering about that, too! That’s not an ordinary toy. Its movements were way too sophisticated!"

"Hold on. Doesn’t it look like KitKat?"

The name immediately sparked recognition among people familiar with artificial intelligence and robotics.

KitKat was an AI-powered robotic companion that had attracted attention after Isobel presented the project at a technology conference.

Someone dug up a recording of Isobel’s presentation and posted it alongside the nursery footage.

The similarities were undeniable.

"OH! It’s really KitKat! Isobel’s invention saved her own son!"

"Wait, no. Look closely at the design. The one in the nursery is more advanced."

"I found it! That’s not the original KitKat. It’s Lexan, the upgraded beta version!"

"So you’re telling me Isobel developed an AI-powered robotic companion that can detect an emergency and respond when a baby is in danger?"

"Right! She saved her own son with something she invented. That’s incredible!"

The conversation began shifting away from the scandal and toward Isobel’s invention.

A woman who had been vilified only hours earlier was suddenly being hailed as a brilliant innovator.

And the robotic puppy that had saved Alexander’s life became the unexpected star of the day.

By eleven thirty, the tide had turned completely.

Charlotte Harris was no longer the pitiful woman abandoned by her longtime lover.