CHAPTER 16: UNABLE TO HIDE HER JOY

Back at Hilton Group, Lucas wore a faint smile. The office buzzed—equal parts disbelief and outright panic.

Could they actually live long enough to see the CEO smile?

Alex shoved him into the office and tried, cautiously, "Boss... did it work?"

"Credit my foolish uncle," Lucas said. "If not for him, the little white rabbit wouldn’t have walked right into the cage so fast."

He thumbed through the documents, studying them.

"Boss — are you serious about her? You barely know her. What if she’s after your money..." Alex warned.

"She didn’t even blink when I said one hundred million," Lucas cut in. "Do you know what that means?"

Alex shook his head.

"She’s more than a designer. She’s Luna — worth well over a hundred million. The profile you pulled earlier didn’t show Luna at all."

"I don’t follow." Alex, who’d worked beside Lucas for years, felt suddenly lost.

"The initial intel had no ’Luna’ identity, right?" Lucas asked.

"Right."

"After she returned to the country and revealed her designer identity, your files grew. Correct?"

"Yes."

Alex’s face cleared. "So you’re saying her records are encrypted."

"Finally, not entirely dumb," Lucas said, a hint of amusement in his voice.

Sophia’s dossier was encrypted; she could choose which identities to show and which to hide. From the way she acted today, Lucas was sure she had more cards up her sleeve. She was complicated—and that made her interesting.

She’d carried his children in secret and didn’t even recognize him? That deserved a punishment.

"Boss, as for your uncle, are we going to take action to deal with him now?" Alex asked.

"No," Lucas replied. "Plan’s changed. First we stabilize, then we root out the parasites inside the company. Any faction that protects them—find the right moment, and remove them."

"The right moment?" Alex pressed.

"At least wait until after Sophia and I have our ’marriage,’" Lucas said, the slightest lift at the corner of his mouth. Alex nodded.

Miss Morgan still wasn’t smart enough. What a shame — such a good girl, about to be ruined by Mr. Hilton.

...

Sophia couldn’t hide the smile as she walked home after the meeting. Her little treasures were playing with Harper, and when they saw her, all of them ran over.

"Mommy!" they called, wrapping around her legs until she was surrounded.

Only Harper noticed the odd light in Sophia’s face. "What’s up? Why so happy?" she asked.

"Am I?" Sophia didn’t expect she’d be this cheerful, but she couldn’t hide it.

"It’s obvious. You’re hiding something. Spill it!" Harper said with the certainty of someone who knew Sophia too well.

When she heard Mama was about to discuss something serious with Aunt Harper, the six kids straightened up and sat properly like little soldiers.

"Today I met Lucas. We made a deal."

"Lucas? A deal?" Harper’s voice went up. "Sophia, what are you thinking? Do you know who he is? He can single-handedly shake the entire financial world. People call him the youngest fox in history—ruthless, cold, eccentric. You made a deal with him? Are you out of your mind?"

Harper pressed her hand to Sophia’s forehead like she was checking for a fever—like Sophia might have lost her senses.

Then she was interrupted.

"He’s not as terrifying as you think."

Sophia murmured in defense, only to notice her little daughter’s eyes were rimmed red.

"Faye, what’s wrong?" She quickly pulled the girl into her arms. "Did someone upset you?"

"Mommy, are you going to be with Lucas?"

Sophia froze. She hadn’t even said it out loud yet, but somehow Faye already knew.

Ruffling her daughter’s hair, she soothed gently, "Faye, sweetheart, Mommy will explain everything. Aunt Harper isn’t wrong—Lucas is powerful. But he’s not as monstrous as people say. He and I made a deal: he’ll use me to clean up his family mess, and I’ll use him to crush the Morgans."

The words had barely left her mouth before Harper shot to her feet. "Absolutely not!"

Seeing Harper so riled, Sophia tilted her head. "Why not?"

"Because, Sophia, he’s far too dangerous. I can’t let you take that risk. I won’t watch you walk into a lion’s den!"

"Harper, you’re worrying too much. Lucas isn’t what you all think he is. After talking to him today, I realized—he’s actually easy to deal with. The cold mask? It’s just a disguise."

Sophia chuckled softly. Harper meant well, but her hatred of Lucas ran deep.

"Sophia, don’t laugh! I’m being serious!" Harper snapped. The thought of Sophia ending up with Lucas made her panic—what about her own brother? No. Absolutely not.

"Harper, relax. It’s just a fake marriage."

"What?! A fake marriage too?!"

Sophia covered her ears as Harper launched into a half-hour lecture, her mouth moving nonstop. At last, Sophia poured her a glass of water and handed it over. "Thanks for the effort."

"Sophia, I—"

"I know you’re worried about me. But I’m not stupid." She pulled Harper aside. "This is a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone plan. The kids won’t be begging for a dad anymore, and once I’m done, I’ll walk away clean."

Suddenly—

"Mommy! Something happened!"

Billy, who was always monitoring online news, burst in, shocked.

"What is it?"

Sophia glanced at the screen, surprise flashing in her eyes. She couldn’t help but give Lucas silent credit for his speed.

She handed the phone to Harper.

Lucas had just opened a brand-new Twitter account and tagged her professional Luna account.

[First time using Twitter. Hope my fiancée won’t laugh at me.]

Harper’s eyes nearly popped out of her head.

All of City A—no, the entire country—was shaken!

Everyone was in an uproar.

In their eyes, Lucas was practically a god. Actresses, innocent sweethearts, even a few men had dreamed of getting into his bed.

But the ending was always the same: once they tried, they vanished from his world forever.

And now, the nation’s hottest bachelor has done the unthinkable—he opened a brand-new Twitter account and publicly announced his girlfriend!

In less than a minute, his follower count skyrocketed from zero to over ten million.

Lucas’s move was nothing less than a heavy blow to the Morgan family.

Sophia immediately hit retweet and captioned it: My fiancé’s a genius—he doesn’t even need me to teach him.

The stunt was so wild, Twitter actually crashed!