CHAPTER 524: A TWISTED NEED FOR CONTROL

Joe nearly collapsed, his eyes rolling as his face flushed red, trembling all over and looking utterly at a loss, as if he were the most innocent one here—he knew nothing at all.

Even Grandma Morris, hardened as she was, realized the gravity of the situation. Her chest tightened, breath catching as she stammered, "Selina! Why didn’t you say so earlier?! If you had told us, we would never have..."

"I didn’t say it?"

Selina’s lips curved in a half-smile as her gaze swept lazily across the faces of the Morris family.

"I did say it. I said my Fortune Jade was real, but you didn’t believe me, Grandma Morris. I said I was the official project lead, that I would never make a joke out of the Fortune Jade, and that mine was absolutely not a fake."

"But did you believe me?"

Her tone slowed, deliberate. "All it took was a so-called ’jewelry student’s’ doubts, and both you, Grandma, and Chairman Morris placed your unconditional trust in Angela. Did I not warn you?"

Joe staggered back, as though struck by a thunderbolt, his body swaying as he nearly collapsed.

Selina went on, unhurried. "Angela produces a Fortune Jade and claims it’s real—you accept it without question. I produce one, and without even examining it, you immediately judge it fake, going so far as to smash it yourself."

"It was Angela who misled you, Chairman Morris. It was the crowd who egged you on. And now—you and Grandma Morris turn around and lay the blame on me?"

The onlookers fell into sudden silence, glancing at each other, their expressions shifting to disdainful as they looked at the Morris family.

They were right: it was clearly the Morrises’ poor judgment at fault. How dare they turn around and accuse Selina?

Kevin suddenly understood, disgust flashing in his eyes. "So it was you—deliberately stirring up trouble, letting the Fortune Jade be destroyed, and then framing Miss Clark for it."

"I heard Angela is the most beloved daughter of Chairman Morris. If her word is his word, then fine—there’s no need for us to continue this partnership. The Turner Group won’t forget this betrayal!"

Joe’s knees buckled.

Grandma Morris’s face twisted between dread and rage, but constrained by Kevin’s status, she didn’t dare scream. Instead, she forced a stiff smile. "Mr. Turner, you must listen, it isn’t like that. Angela was tricked—"

Kevin’s smirk was cutting. "Tricked? Grandma Morris, let me ask you something: isn’t Selina your granddaughter?"

Her voice faltered, stopping dead.

Kevin sneered coldly. "Selina’s words—you dismiss. Even when she proved her Fortune Jade was genuine, you still insisted she was plotting against your family. Angela’s words—you accept without hesitation. And even when it’s clear Angela is the one scheming, dragging your family into ruin, you still insist she was merely ’tricked’."

He leaned in, voice dripping with irony. "Aren’t they supposed to be twin sisters with the same mother and father? Then why such blatant favoritism, Grandma Morris? I truly find it... fascinating."

Joe’s face flushed crimson. "N-no, my mother just thinks Selina is disobedient..."

"Shut up!" Kevin’s bark was sharp, merciless. "Tell me, Grandma Morris—who exactly tricked Angela? A grown woman still getting ’tricked’? Maybe she should have her brain examined! Frankly, I doubt Angela and Miss Clark are even sisters. Otherwise, how do you explain twins with such a staggering gap in intelligence?"

"I say Angela deliberately plotted this. After all, if I hadn’t exposed the truth, then the story would be that Angela saved the day and salvaged the Morris Group!"

"And one more thing, Chairman Morris—my team just checked. Those so-called ’jewelry experts’ in the audience who claimed Miss Clark’s piece was fake? They all received payments from Angela."

At that moment, the so-called "students" and "experts" were dragged forward by Turner Group’s bodyguards. Their legs gave out, and they collapsed to the ground, sobbing in terror.

"It was Miss Morris who paid me to accuse Selina’s Fortune Jade of being a fake—I... I never thought it would blow up like this!"

"Miss Morris gave me a hundred thousand! I swear, I didn’t know, I didn’t know that was the Turner family’s heirloom!"

"Please spare me—it was all Angela! She told me to do it!"

The audience’s scornful stares grew even sharper.

Angela’s knees buckled, her face ghost-white. She almost screamed. From the very beginning, Kevin had been setting her up—plotting against her since the moment in his studio!

But Kevin ignored Angela, his smile dripping with sarcasm. "Chairman Morris, it seems neither you nor your mother have much of an eye. All this effort, just to pave the way for Angela to inherit Morris Group... Willing to hurt your own side worse than your enemies? Truly impressive."

Someone in the crowd actually laughed.

Joe’s head buzzed violently. He wasn’t a fool—now he understood what had happened.

It was Angela who had deliberately framed Selina, which cost the Morris Group their partnership and turned them into a laughingstock.

But... but Angela was his daughter. The daughter he had searched for all these years. Victoria’s child. He—he couldn’t bear it...

Angela buried her face in her hands, sobbing miserably. "I didn’t know, I really didn’t know! I never paid them off, I never framed Selina—it’s not true! Daddy, Daddy, please help me..."

And in Joe’s heart surged a long-lost thrill.

It felt as though, at last, someone was willing to depend on him. His need for male authority, for control, finally had space to breathe.

Back then, neither Victoria nor Selina ever relied on him.

Victoria refused to marry him willingly, refused to give up her career, refused to stay home as a docile wife and mother. She couldn’t tolerate a world that revolved solely around Joe. He had always resented that.

He thought, what use is a career for a married woman? A wife should take her husband as her heaven, serve his meals and clothes, and smile only for him.

Victoria had left decisively. And so he turned to Selina, trying to reclaim that sense of dominance—the satisfaction of holding another’s life in his hands, of forcing someone to depend only on him.

But Selina, like Victoria, had far too much will of her own. She refused to come home, and her competence only made him seem even more feeble.

But now things were different. He had another daughter.

Angela was fragile, helpless, with no one else in her world. She only had him—her father. Even if the entire world turned against her, he could never abandon her.

The thought thundered through Joe’s head, almost out of his control. He felt as though he bore the weight of the entire family, as though he must rise against the world itself for his daughter. He stood, voice brimming with fury.

"Selina! If you knew things would end up like this, why didn’t you stop it? Yes, Angela did wrong, but don’t you bear fault too? It was only because you failed to stop me in time that I smashed the Fortune Jade. You must share the blame!"

Selina: "...?"