"Wasn't that a bit too cruel to Celia?"
"Cruel? I don't think so."
Xavier gently pressed her head against his shoulder, his palm softly patting her back, as if he were coaxing a child to sleep.
"Serena, you wouldn't give me a chance before, but now... things are different. From now on, I hope you'll let me protect you. I won't allow anyone to disrespect you-not even a little. No one."
Serena leaned against his shoulder, her chest tightening slightly.
For a moment, she closed her eyes, allowing herself to be the delicate woman who relied completely on him.
But not long after, she forced herself to snap out of it.
She lifted her head, looked at him, and gently urged, "Let it go. Celia did what she did because she liked you too much. She didn't actually do anything to hurt me. Let's just end it here."
His eyes narrowed slightly, a brow lifting. "Serena, when did you become so soft-hearted?"
"I'm just being fair. You overreacted a little this time. It's not like I was really affected."
"When it comes to anything involving you, the word 'overreaction' doesn't apply."
"But if this keeps going, Celia might really be ruined."
"That's the point."
"..."
The more she thought about it, the more Serena felt this had gone too far.
Grabbing his arm, she spoke earnestly, "Seriously, enough. She faked a photo of you two, and now you've faked photos of her with other men to get back at her. Call it even."
"You really want me to let her go?"
"Mhm."
Serena nodded sincerely.
"Well then..."
Before he could finish, Xavier's phone rang again.
They both looked at the screen.
The name 'Christan' flashed with the pulsing notification light.
Xavier smirked slightly. "Looks like whether I let Celia off the hook depends on what big-shot actor has to say."
"Hello?"
He had barely spoken when an angry roar came through the receiver.
"Xavier, you're such a bastard! Those stories about Celia online-did you do that?! She's my little sister-how could you go that far?!"
Xavier held the phone away from his ear, waited until the tirade seemed to die down, then brought it back.
"I warned you. I told you to have your sister apologize to Serena. You all refused to listen."
"Hah!" Christan's voice was furious. "All this for Serena? You'd throw away our brotherhood for a woman?!"
"Watch your tone when you talk about Serena!"
Xavier's eyes sharpened, and his tone became noticeably colder.
"Xavier, are you out of your mind?! She's just a woman! The you I know isn't the kind to get blinded by lust!"
"Then you clearly never knew me."
His voice was casual but firm. "I wasn't interested in women because the only one I loved couldn't be with me. My heart had no room for anyone else."
"But now, she's back by my side. Naturally, I've changed. And for her-I'm willing to do anything."
His words were calm, but the steel beneath them was unmistakable.
Christan, seething, kicked the table leg in front of him.
"Fine! Let's put Serena aside for now. Tell me-how did you get Celia's photo splashed across every major news site?!"
"I pulled some strings to try and get the stories taken down. A few sites, out of respect for the Ryder family, agreed. But weirdly, none of them can access their own back-end systems anymore!"
Xavier chuckled, "Nothing much. Just used a few tricks to hack into the backends of the major news sites. Without my authorization, no one can remove Celia's stories."
"What?!" Christan was stunned. "But the sites all upgraded their security systems in recent years to prevent tampering. They use the most advanced foreign security protocols! No one should be able to hack them!"
"Only amateurs believe those so-called foreign systems are unbreakable. To me, even the most airtight system is trash. If I want in, there's nothing I can't hack."
It sounded arrogant-but with a hacker genius like Falcon behind him, it was the truth.
Just a few sentences had left Christan speechless.
"You... When did you get into cybersecurity?!"
"It's been a while. I just kept it low-key."
Thinking back to all the times he'd been evasive when asked what he was up to, Christan suddenly understood.
If what he said was true-that no one could undo the news without him-then this situation was far worse than he'd thought.
"What do you want? What'll it take for you to stop?"
"Simple. My terms haven't changed. Celia needs to come clean about the faked photo-admit she doctored it, and that there's nothing between us. Then, she must publicly apologize to Serena."
Christan's brow furrowed deeply. He pursed his lips and stayed silent for a long moment before speaking again.
"You're trying to destroy her completely-no way out."
"She should've thought of that before messing with me." His voice was calm, unhurried. "I've stated my terms. Whether you accept them or not is up to you."
"Oh, and by the way, I almost forgot-every two hours, a new piece of dirt on Celia will go live on major news sites."
He glanced at the time. "You've got about an hour and forty minutes left before the next story drops. Think carefully."
"Xavier!"
Christan's furious roar echoed through the speaker as Xavier calmly hung up.
Serena looked at him worriedly. "If you keep this up, Christan might cut ties with you."
"I told you. For you, I'll give up everything. And I mean everything."
***