The realization hit the room like a physical blow. Chloe had not just lied about the gender to secure her place in the mansion; she had used a pregnancy by another man to trap a wealthy family into supporting her, gambling that she could hide the truth forever once the child was born. She had manipulated Nanay Ising’s desperation for a male heir to guarantee a life of luxury.
When Mark confronted Chloe in her hospital room, the sweet, docile persona she had maintained for nearly a year vanished. Cornered by the medical evidence, she admitted everything. She taunted Mark, mocking his silence and his inability to stand up to his mother, revealing that she had never loved him at all. She had simply seen an opening in a fractured marriage and exploited it for financial gain.
The news of the scandal spread rapidly through their social circles, turning the proud family into a laughingstock. The very house they had evicted me from became a prison of whispers and shame. Neighbors and business associates who had once nodded politely now gossiped openly about how the grand matriarch, Nanay Ising, had been completely fooled by a master manipulator.
