He Saved Her Seat Not Our Baby Chapter 08
The steps below went instantly silent.
Ethan looked at Lily.
“What did you say?”
Lily clutched her belly, sobbing.
“You were drunk that night. You don’t remember. But this baby is really yours.”
The last trace of color drained from his face.
I didn’t linger. I turned and got into the car.
Before the door closed, Ethan gripped the frame.
“Claire, it’s not what she’s saying.”
“It doesn’t matter either way.”
“I’ll get a paternity test.”
“Mr. Ward, you don’t need to prove your innocence to your ex-wife.”
The word “ex-wife” made him slowly release his grip.
A week later, the paternity results came back.
The child had no biological relation to Ethan.
Lily’s baby belonged to Mark Lawson, Ward Group’s former project director.
Mark had a family. Lily was afraid of exposure, so she used Ethan as a cover.
She was certain Ethan owed the Scott family a life. All she had to do was cry, and he would never press further.
On the day of the Cloud Cabin launch, she was the one who hinted to the media that the baby was Ethan’s.
She needed the identity of Mrs. Ward. She needed the project credit. And most of all, she needed leverage to keep Mark from abandoning her.
When Ethan brought the paternity report, I was in a meeting for a new project.
He waited four hours before catching me in the parking garage.
“The baby isn’t mine.”
“I know.”
He added urgently: “I wasn’t drunk that night. She fabricated the hotel records. Claire, I never betrayed our marriage.”
I stopped walking. “You gave her my ticket. You gave her my work. You gave her my medication.”
“But I never touched her.”
“So you think as long as you didn’t sleep with her, nothing else counts as betrayal?”
Ethan went completely silent.
Noah came out of the meeting room and handed him a document.
“The ruling on Ward Group’s unauthorized use of the design is in. Thirty million dollars in damages, a public apology, and a permanent ban on Ward Group’s involvement in the Cloud Cabin project.”
Ethan took the papers.
“I accept.”
Noah continued: “There are also the fraudulent contracts Lily signed under her Ward Group title. Investors are pursuing accountability.”
“I’ll cover all losses personally.”
I asked: “And her father’s debt?”
Ethan said quietly: “The properties, stock options, and education I’ve provided her over the years are more than enough to settle it. From now on, her mistakes are her own responsibility.”
“You should have understood that a long time ago.”
Gratitude is not a license to indulge. You cannot repay what you owe one person by destroying another.
The next day, Ward Group issued a public apology.
Ethan personally confirmed that Cloud Cabin was my independent creation, and that Lily had no involvement in any core design work.
Reporters pressed him—why had he allowed someone else to take credit?
He stood before the cameras, silent for a few seconds.
“Because of my bias and my arrogance. I took my wife’s concessions for granted and mistook another person’s demands for needs I should meet. Ward Group is responsible for the infringement, and I will personally bear all legal consequences.”
After the press conference, Ward Group’s stock fell for days.
The board demanded his resignation as president.
On the day of the vote, he offered no defense. He simply signed his name at the bottom of the document.
The man who once could not tolerate a single minute’s delay sat alone in the boardroom until late into the night.