Chapter 437
No.1
A sharp knock interrupted them.
Iris bounded to the door—then froze.
Alexander stood there, his gaze glacial.
"You altered the footage?"
Iris stammered, "N-no! When we retrieved it, it was already—"
He ignored her.
His eyes locked onto Evelyn, sharp as blades.
No.2
"What if I did?" She met his stare unflinchingly. "What then?"
He seized her wrist.
Iris choked back a gasp.
"What then?" Fury darkened his voice. "With Grandfather's banquet days away? For your pathetic job, you'd stoop this low?"
She'd threatened him with the banquet that morning.
Now she released a fake video of him and Isabella?
After he'd told Nathan to assure her she needn't worry about work—that any position at Kingsley Group was hers for the asking!
No.3
"Evelyn," each word dripped venom, "how can you be this vile?"
Patriarch Kingsley treated her like family.
How could she sabotage his celebration?
"So," Evelyn's voice was eerily calm, unmoved by his rage, "your demand for evidence was just a joke."
Alexander stiffened.
"In your eyes, I'll always be guilty."
She was forever the villain—Isabella, forever the saint.
No.4
He hadn't even considered who truly benefited. His first instinct was to blame her.
When it came to Isabella, Alexander's famed intellect short-circuited.
—That was love.
Blind, irrational love.
Just like his hatred for her—where her very breath was a crime.
Alexander faltered.
Something in Evelyn's eyes pierced him.
No.5
In the silence, Nathan rushed in.
"Lord Alex, we've traced the footage tampering to—"
The air froze the moment Alexander Kingsley released Evelyn Sinclair.
Nathan Carter stood at the doorway, instantly sensing the tension.
"Lord Alex," he ventured cautiously, "the hotel's surveillance logs have been restored."
Alexander turned, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"Speak."
No.6
Nathan delivered his report swiftly. "After you left last night, only one person accessed the security system."
"Who?"
"A maintenance technician." Nathan hesitated. "He's currently missing. We're tracking—"
Iris Cooper suddenly raised her hand.
"I know where he is." She glanced at Evelyn. "He's in the next room."
The technician was being held next door, trembling when Alexander entered.
"Isabella Winslow's assistant paid me!" he blurted. "She gave me money!"
No.7
Nathan suppressed a sigh.
Clearly, the payoff hadn't been enough.
Alexander sat, fingers tapping the armrest.
"Details."
The technician spilled everything.
Isabella's assistant had ordered him to alter the footage and take a copy.
"Then why hide here?" Nathan pressed.