He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 02

He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 02

Adriel took the document, glanced at it briefly, then let his gaze settle with clear interest on Silas’s face—which was starting to show a flicker of anger. He gave a polite nod.

“Judge Blackwood, thanks for the reminder.” He shook the document in his hand. “But this case is mine now. Hope you’ll still be sitting so comfortably up there next time.”

Silas wasted no time pulling strings.

The next day, the annual industry qualification review I’d planned to submit was suspended indefinitely, citing “involvement in major commercial disputes.”

He thought I was using Adriel to play hardtoget, trying to force him to cave.

Staring at the rejection email, I only felt ridiculous.

I couldn’t blame him for thinking that way.

After all, Leah had told him that the only reason I had gotten close to him in the first place was because I was after his status and connections.

She dragged up the old story of how my mother had been forced out of her marriage with nothing.

Then she embellished it, twisted it, and fed it to him piece by piece—telling him that the women in my family were all born schemers. That they used men first, then turned around and bit the hand that fed them.

Silas never said a word to my face, but every time I brought up work after that, a flicker of suspicion crossed his eyes.

He was questioning my motives for getting close to him. And Leah only needed to stand by and water that seed over and over again until it grew into an unshakable tree.

Yet when he’d proposed, he’d said it himself. “Oaklynn, the only wish in this life is to hold your hand and grow old with you. For all the years to come, I will protect you. I will always protect you.”

I didn’t go to confront him. Instead, I went back to our old house alone to sort through my mother’s things.

The doorbell suddenly rang.

I opened it to see Leah standing there with a bag of fruit, an innocent smile on her face.

“Oaklynn, I came to make peace with you. Silas couldn’t sleep all night over your case. He really had no choice, please don’t blame him.”

She walked in uninvited, glancing around, then her eyes landed on a sandalwood box on the table.

“What’s this? It’s so pretty.”

She reached out to pick it up.

My face tightened, and I stepped forward quickly. “Don’t touch it!”

Inside that box was the only heirloom my mother had left me—an ancient emerald pendant. It wasn’t just a keepsake. It was the very root of our family’s lineage.

My panic seemed to please Leah.

A calculating glint flashed in her eyes, and she moved faster. Before I could stop her, her hand “slipped.”

A sharp crack echoed through the room.

The box hit the floor, and the priceless pendant shattered into pieces right then and there.

“Ah!” Leah let out an exaggerated scream, then stumbled, falling toward the shards.

Almost at the exact same moment, the front door swung open violently.

Silas rushed in, catching Leah just as she was about to fall, pulling her tight against his chest.

His gaze swept across the floor, over the fragments of shattered emerald, and then landed on my face.

For a single moment, I thought I saw something flicker behind his eyes.

He knew that pendant. He recognized it.

In the first year of our marriage, he had once come across me polishing it late at night. He asked me what it was.

I told him it was the only keepsake my mother had left me.

He’d stayed quiet for a long time, then said softly. “Keep it safe.”

But now, his gaze lingered on the shattered emerald for less than a second before it shifted to the thin scratch on Leah’s wrist.

“Oaklynn, have you lost your mind!”

I stared at the woman in his arms, then at my mother’s broken keepsake, shaking with rage, unable to speak.

Leah trembled in his arms, her voice breaking. “Silas, it’s not her fault… I shouldn’t have come here to upset her… she’s just heartbroken…”

That performance, the perfect act of retreating to seem virtuous, was what finally set Silas’s temper ablaze.

He turned to me, his gaze cold as shards of ice, and drove each word into my chest like a dagger.

“It’s just a piece of rock. Is it really worth throwing such a tantrum over? You know very well that Leah has depression. Are you going to be satisfied only when you’ve pushed her into another breakdown?”

He paused, his tone full of disappointment and disgust. “When did you become so vicious?”

My heart felt like it had been crushed in a giant fist. I couldn’t breathe.

I lunged forward, trying to grab my mother’s scattered notes from the mess.

Silas shoved me away. I stumbled back two steps, and he hesitated for a split second.

But only a split second. He turned away, cold, and ordered the bailiffs behind him. “Take these notes. They’ll be compensation for Ms. Willman’s distress.”

I fought like a madwoman. My fingernails dug into my palms until they bled, but I still couldn’t get anywhere near those notes.

Watching his back as he shielded Leah, I tasted blood in my throat.

His voice, icy as a final verdict, rang out above my head, “Oaklynn, you have three days to apologize publicly to Leah in the industry journal. Or face the consequences.”

I looked at the shattered emerald scattered across the floor. I looked at his receding, unyielding back. Slowly, I raised my hand and wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth.

I pulled out my phone and called Adriel.

“Mr. Reynolds, move the plan forward.”