Su Wan watched her. Listened to the honeyed poison drip from those perfect lips.

In the novel, the original Su Wan had believed this act. Had clung to Su Yao like a drowning woman clutching a stone, only to be pulled under faster.

But Su Wan had read every Chapter. She knew that Su Yao had orchestrated the false infidelity rumors. Had tipped off the paparazzi. Had whispered the affair lie into Lu Shaohan’s ear on their wedding night.

She also knew what Su Yao wanted most.

Not Lu Shaohan. Not really.

She wanted the original Su Wan destroyed because the original Su Wan had been the legitimate daughter, and Su Yao had always been the bastard child, hungry, envious, and viciously patient.

"You’re right," Su Wan said quietly.

Su Yao’s eyes lit up. "Then you’ll let me—"

"Let you what?" Su Wan swung her legs over the side of the bed. The movement was slow, deliberate, utterly unbothered. "Let you walk me downstairs like a lamb to slaughter? Let you present my ’confession’ to Lu Shaohan so you can look like the loyal, heartbroken sister?"

She stood.

Su Yao stepped back, just a half step, but Su Wan noticed.

"Jiejie, I don’t know what you’re—"

Su Wan moved.

Her hand shot out, fingers tangling in the back of Su Yao’s sleek ponytail. Su Yao’s mouth opened, to scream, to call for help, to alert everyone in the house that something was wrong.

She never got the chance because she had closed the door and hadn’t expected this move from Su Wan.

The pregnancy report jammed between her teeth before a single sound could escape. Paper crumpled against her tongue. Su Yao’s eyes bulged, shock, fury, disbelief, but her cry died into a muffled, pathetic whimper.

Su Wan twisted the ponytail once very tightly and held her there.

"You were going to scream?" Su Wan whispered. "Call for Lu Shaohan? Tell everyone I attacked you?"

She yanked the ponytail harder.

"Think carefully, meimei. Who do you think they’ll believe? The pregnant woman you’ve been tormenting? Or the sister who just happened to be standing too close when she ’fell’?"

Su Yao thrashed, but Su Wan’s grip was ironclad. The printed pages were already sogging between her lips— unreadable, useless, dissolving.

Then Su Wan kicked her.

Once. Twice. Three times.

Each kick landed square on Su Yao’s backside, shoving her toward the bed. No elegance. No restraint. Just raw, ugly violence that left Su Yao crumpled against the bedpost, spitting out wet shreds of paper, her red dress hiked up, her perfect hair a ruin.

She gasped for air. "You—"

"Quiet." Su Wan’s voice was ice.

Su Yao’s mouth snapped shut.

Su Wan looked down at her. Her pregnant belly was unmistakable now, round and firm beneath her nightgown. She didn’t try to hide it. Didn’t need to. The whole house already knew.

She had wanted the details on that report. The estimated weeks. The dates that didn’t match Lu Shaohan’s business trip. The ammunition to paint Su Wan as an adulteress.

Now that ammunition was soaked in saliva and scattered across the floor.

"Get lost."

Su Wan opened the door.

Then she kicked Su Yao, one final, solid kick to the hip, and sent her tumbling out into the hallway. Su Yao sprawled across the cold marble, gasping, her red dress twisted around her thighs, shreds of paper still clinging to her lips.

"Huufff!"

Su Wan stood in the doorway, chest heaving. Not from exertion but from the exact time she had read that stupid novel.

She looked down at Su Yao, pathetic, trembling, ruined, and let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding.

"I have been wanting to do this," she said, "from the moment I knew you exist."

Her voice dropped even lower.

"Damn you, woman."

Then she stepped over Su Yao’s sprawled legs and walked toward the staircase.

"You—"

Behind her, Su Yao didn’t move. Didn’t speak. Didn’t even breathe.

She just lay there on the cold marble floor, staring at the ceiling, trying to understand what had just happened to the sister she had spent years breaking down.

Su Wan didn’t look back.

Her hand pressed against her stomach.

That’s one.

The stairs waited below.

And so did Lu Shaohan.