He Dumped Me For a Heiress, Unaware I Owned His Whole Legacy Chapter 08

He Dumped Me For a Heiress, Unaware I Owned His Whole Legacy Chapter 08

I hadn’t said a word yet.

My brother let out a scoff laced with disdain.

“Who inherits the Knight Group hinges entirely on my word alone. Ewan, you’re out of the running.”

I stared at Ewan’s aHale face, the triumphant rush I’d imagined never came. All I could feel was sorrow for how foolish I’d once been.

“Ewan, remember when you pushed me to go on a blind date with Silas? Fine. I’ll agree to it.”

Ewan clutched his chest, his fingers curling tight in agony.

“Don’t do this, Elowen. Don’t treat me like this.”

Watching him fall apart at the seams, I still thought it wasn’t nearly enough.

Once, I’d begged him to spare our child, and he’d shown no mercy back then.

“You still haven’t figured it out, have you? The foster brother you loathe and look down on—the illegitimate son you’ve always feared—is one and the same.”

“While you were busy celebrating your partnership signing ceremony with the Hale Group, grinning from ear to ear, he’d already stepped in to take control of the Knight family business in your place.”

Ewan’s eyes blew wide open, utterly stunned, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

“Silas? How could it be him! You’re lying. He’s just the son of a family driver living off our charity—how could he possibly be my father’s illegitimate son?”

The son of a driver.

So in his eyes, that was all I was worthy of being paired with.

Liora’s face drained of all color. She grabbed Ewan’s arm, panic rising in her tone.

“Hurry, Ewan, call your father right now. As long as he refuses to sign anything, no one can strip you of your position!”

Ewan’s shaking fingers dialed Graham Knight—his father’s number.

All he received was a harsh dressing-down, and a formal notice that his status as heir had been revoked.

His phone slipped from his grasp and smashed against the floor with a loud crack.

“It’s over. Everything’s gone.”

I ignored his complete meltdown and pulled out the USB drive from my bag.

“This holds all the experimental data my late grandmother left behind. It’s more than enough proof that you, Liora, stole my research.”

“You can spend the rest of your days explaining yourself in court.”

What had started as a bustling signing ceremony packed with major media outlets had now turned into a public scandal exposing Ewan and Liora’s research plagiarism.

Liora’s legs buckled beneath her, and she crumpled to the ground.

All her earlier arrogance vanished without a trace. She shrieked that I was fabricating lies and lunged for the USB drive.

My brother’s bodyguards stepped in instantly, blocking her off and pinning her where she sat, unable to move an inch.

Ewan dropped to his knees before me, hollow-eyed and numb, rambling incoherent apologies.

“I know I was wrong, Elowen. I truly do. I love you, I’ve always loved you.”

He suddenly seemed to remember something and pulled the wooden bracelet beads out of his pocket.

“Look. I found them again! We can go back to how things used to be, right? Elowen, please don’t leave me.”

When I remained completely unmoved, he raised his hand and struck his own cheek hard, over and over.

“I’m a bastard. You gave me everything, and I treated you this horribly. I never knew any of this. If I’d had the slightest idea, I never would’ve hurt you. I’d give up the heir title in a heartbeat before I’d betray you.”

I stared at the genuine remorse swimming in his eyes and the bracelet clutched in his palm, my mind going fuzzy for a split second.

I couldn’t tell how much of his regret was sincere, and how much was merely an act.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

My voice was cold and flat.

“Everything ended the day you chose to marry Liora.”

“You might not remember, but I found out about her two years ago.
You got drunk that night and mistook me for her.”

“I kept telling myself I was the one staying by your side, that sooner or later I’d melt your cold heart.”

“Do you have any idea how overjoyed I was the day you said you’d marry me? I thought I’d finally broken through to you.”

“But it was all just my one-sided fantasy.”

Ewan’s complexion faded to a sickly gray.

He parted his lips, but no words came out.

I fixed my gaze on his bloodless face and asked him directly.

“Ewan, is it true you got with me in the first place just so you’d have a constant blood donor for Liora?”

Ewan squeezed his eyes shut in agony, hot tears spilling down his cheeks at once.

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“Don’t come looking for me ever again.”

In the days that followed, media outlets ran nonstop stories about our five-year secret relationship.

The comments about Ewan ranged from mocking jabs to scathing ridicule.

Most people labeled him an ungrateful ingrate through and through.

Right now, I was sitting across from Silas for our blind date.

He’d fully taken over the Knight Group and rebranded it under his mother’s surname. He went by Silas Reed now.

“Did you leak all these news stories?”