Free Web NovelChapter 229: Chapter 229 The Scandal
The possibility alone was enough to make Rose restless.
Ariel was still so young. If she found out now that her father had been unfaithful during his marriage, it would deal a devastating blow to her fragile worldview.
Rose didn’t want to shatter Ariel’s innocence.
Diana lowered her voice. “With the media releasing these photos at a time like this, how are we supposed to draw a clear line between you and Ryan? Before, only people within our social circle knew about your marriage. Now everyone knows he’s married.”
Rose ran her fingers through her hair, staring at the article on her phone in frustration.
News involving Ryan always attracted an extraordinary amount of attention.
She scrolled down.
The trending comments quickly caught her eye.
[Mr. Knight is actually married? They’ve been married for years, and they still look so loving in this photo. He looks incredibly gentle.]
[Even their kiss doesn’t look passionate—it looks tender. You can tell he truly cherishes his wife.]
[Too bad we can’t see Mrs. Knight’s face. This photo is wallpaper material.]
[Then who was the woman rumored to be dating CEO Knight before? Did we misunderstand? I thought she kept implying she was the real Mrs. Knight...]
Rose’s eyes lingered on the comments mentioning Samantha.
Samantha had already faced criticism within certain social circles for allegedly being a homewrecker.
Now, with Ryan’s marriage suddenly exposed to the public, the situation had become even more complicated.
Rose couldn’t bring herself to care about what Samantha might face.
She had her own problems to deal with.
At the time, Ryan had essentially misled the media in order to divert attention away from Grayson, thereby protecting the Knight family’s reputation.
Diana continued, “I even checked Samantha’s social media. Her fans are asking whether she’s the woman in the photo and what her relationship with Ryan really is. She’s pretending nothing happened, but I bet she’s panicking.”
Diana found the situation somewhat satisfying.
People who care the most about public opinion are often the ones most affected by it.
One wrong move, and Samantha’s carefully crafted public image could collapse entirely.
Having worked in the entertainment industry, Diana understood these rules better than anyone.
Rose pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll talk to Ryan first.”
She had to convince Ryan to have the story removed.
Glancing at the time, she realized she had barely unpacked any of the belongings she had moved back the previous night.
She immediately stood up, grabbed her car keys, and headed out.
She drove straight to Moonlake Villa.
It was the weekend, and Ryan usually returned home at least once during weekends. It had become his habit.
She decided she would simply wait for him.
When Rose arrived at the gate, she noticed the security guard was absent. She got out of the car and entered the passcode.
Beep.
Incorrect password.
Rose paused before entering it again.
Still incorrect.
Ryan had changed the security code to Moon lake Villa again shortly after she moved out.
If he hadn’t planned it in advance, how could he have remembered such a trivial detail in the middle of his busy schedule?
It was as if he couldn’t wait for her to leave, afraid she might return.
Rose stood silently before the keypad.
She couldn’t summon much emotion.
She had witnessed Ryan’s coldness too many times. This was simply one more example.
It didn’t really matter anymore.
Rose gave up.
She didn’t ask Martha to open the gate.
She simply turned around and returned to her car, no longer willing to remain outside the place she had lived in for seven years—a place that had never truly been her home.
She took out her phone and called Ryan.
The phone rang for a long time.
Rose waited patiently.
Eventually, he answered.
But he said nothing.
The silence was so complete that it almost felt as if the call had never connected.
Rose spoke first. “Let’s talk.”
“Have you seen the news? There are photos of us looking very affectionate. These pictures are inappropriate given our current situation, and I’m sure you understand that. Please arrange to have them taken down. For you, it’s only a matter of saying a single word—”
Before she could finish—
Beep.
The call ended.
He had hung up.
From beginning to end, he hadn’t said a single word.
A heavy weight settled in Rose’s chest.
The helplessness quickly turned into anger—the anger that came from being ignored and disrespected.
When she called back, the line was busy.
For a moment, Rose truly wanted to curse.
She decided to give Dr. Nathan a heads-up first.
Today happened to be one of the days Ariel was allowed to use her phone.
*****
Coffee House.
A waiter came over to serve dessert and accidentally brushed Ryan’s elbow.
His fingertip unintentionally pressed the end-call button.
His expression remained unchanged as he placed his phone on the table.
He showed no intention of calling back.
The waiter quickly apologized.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Knight. It was an accident.”
“It’s fine.”
Ryan picked up his glass and took a small sip.
Beside him, Oliver looked deeply troubled.
He had only recently been released from confinement.
The old man had always been fair in both reward and punishment.
He was ruthless even toward his own grandson.
Oliver had been demoted and effectively exiled to a branch office.
If he wanted to avoid being gradually pushed aside by the other branches of the Brown family, he needed to find a way back.
The situation was giving him a massive headache.
The only person he could turn to for advice was Ryan.
He glanced at Ryan’s phone. “Rose? She wants the story taken down? That’s strange.”
He had been sitting close enough to catch a few keywords.
Logically speaking, Rose should have been pleased by the public confirmation of her marriage.
“Is she worried someone might misunderstand?” Oliver suggested. “Like Mr. Robinson? Considering how much attention this has attracted, he might have heard about it even overseas.”
He didn’t know the full story behind the photos.
Ryan hadn’t explained, and James had said nothing.
But the fact that such photos had surfaced was unbelievable in itself.
As far as Oliver knew, Ryan had never behaved so intimately with Rose before.
They had never looked like a real married couple.
Ryan remained expressionless.
He offered no explanation.
Oliver glanced at Samantha.
“Did Rose arrange this herself? Did she intentionally have those photos taken? Sam must feel pretty uncomfortable seeing them.”
He knew he had recently been punished because of Samantha’s project, but some responsibility did fall on him.
After all, investment always carried risks.
His real mistake had been concealing the situation from his grandfather.
He couldn’t place all the blame on Samantha.
Samantha had already seen the news earlier that morning.
She had disabled comments on all her social media accounts.
The backlash had been severe.
She was furious.
Regarding what happened at the banquet, she had already tried to question James indirectly.
Since James had gone upstairs with Ryan, she hadn’t witnessed what happened herself.
But James had simply said, “Nothing happened. It was all a misunderstanding.”
Her instincts told her he wasn’t being completely honest.
Suppressing her emotions, she looked at Ryan.
“It’s fine. I’m not that petty.”
After a brief pause, she cautiously added, “Perhaps it was just the angle, or maybe it was a misunderstanding. Ryan has never been involved in this kind of gossip before. Could it affect you? Should we have the photos taken down?”
Of course, she was bothered by it.
Even now, she still couldn’t understand why Grayson had completely disappeared from the situation.
Grayson should have been there.
Yet somehow, no one had photographed him.
Not a single picture.
Instead, the cameras had captured Ryan and Rose.
It was absurd.
