He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 03

He Favored Her So I Took My Patent To His Rival Chapter 03

Three days later, instead of Silas backing down, what awaited me was an even more merciless public humiliation.

Leah took the patent the court had awarded her and won one of the industry’s most prestigious annual awards. She threw a lavish celebration dinner and industry ceremony, inviting the city’s elite and every major media outlet.

Silas, as a top legal authority, sat front and center, endorsing her.

I had no intention of attending that nauseating spectacle. But two bailiffs showed up at my door.

“Ms. Thorne, Judge Blackwood requests your presence at the Crown Hotel for an industry inquiry.”

Their words were polite, but their tone left no room for refusal.

I knew it was Silas’s trap.

I was “escorted” into the dazzling banquet hall. Every pair of eyes in the room turned to me at once—contempt, mockery, gloating.

I stood there like a prisoner being paraded through the streets.

Silas sat high at the head table, watching me coldly across the crowded room.

His assistant walked over and whispered in my ear, “Ms. Thorne, Judge Blackwood asked me to pass along a message. All you have to do today is go up on stage, apologize to Miss Willman in front of everyone, and admit to the plagiarism. Then this whole matter will be settled.”

I scoffed. “And if I don’t?”

The assistant adjusted his glasses, his voice calm but sharp with threat. “Your grandmother is in intensive care at the Grace Hospital. The bills are quite substantial each month. Judge Blackwood holds her in high regard. He wouldn’t want her final years burdened by unpaid medical fees.”

“He says you’re a smart woman. You know how easy it is for him to make life impossible for anyone in this city.”

Grandma was my only weakness.

I clenched my fists and walked through the crowd toward him, eyes glistening, and asked my final question, “Silas, after ten years together, are you really going to destroy me completely?”

He swirled the red wine in his glass.

I saw his fingers tighten for a split second, knuckles white.

But his voice stayed cold and arrogant. “There’s no room for personal history when it comes to the law and industry regulations.”

His lips parted, and the cruel words fell. “You were always a thief.”

One sentence crushed ten years of my devotion to dust. It cut away the last foolish hope in my heart.

I stared at him and suddenly laughed.

How could he be so sure I was guilty?

Because Leah had spent the past year whispering into his ear. Day after day. Telling him that my manuscripts had been stolen from her lab. Telling him she had “witnesses.” Telling him she had been “tolerating” me all along.

She’d built a wall out of ten years of trust. On one side were her lies, on the other, the truth I couldn’t speak.

And Silas, standing on that wall, had chosen her.

The ceremony went on, building to its climax.

The host announced in an impassioned voice that they would now play a VCR showcasing the award winner Leah’s personal achievements and acceptance speech.

All eyes turned to the huge LED display at the center of the stage.

Leah glanced shyly at Silas, her face bright with triumph.

Silas gave her a reassuring look in return. Then his gaze shifted to me—cold, warning. He looked like a man waiting to watch me finally bow my head in shame.

I looked back, my lips moving silently, but I said nothing.

From the front of the hall, the host’s countdown echoed through the room.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One…”