Eleanor shot her husband a look of pure exasperation. "The rooftop is too windy, honey. A garden wedding is much more elegant for our family."

Hearing them argue about the wedding venue, Lyvana couldn’t help but pity the huge challenge awaiting their wedding planner. After all, Isabel’s opinion hadn’t even been factored in yet. Amused by the impending chaos, she giggled softly from under Julian.

The chairman and Eleanor both stopped talking instantly, their eyes moving toward the sofa.

​Julian didn’t move to get up. Instead, he just shifted his position slightly to keep Lyvana comfortable, looking up at his parents with a calm expression.

Underneath him, Lyvana tried to get up, but Julian effortlessly held her down.

​"As you can see, we are a bit busy right now," he said smoothly.

​Eleanor’s eyes went wide as she noticed Lyvana’s bare legs peeking out from behind Julian. A huge, knowing smile instantly spread across her face.

​"Oh! Oh, my goodness," she whispered, quickly grabbing her husband’s arm and tugging him backward toward the door. "Let’s get out! We are leaving right now."

The chairman frowned. "Why, I thought we..."

"We are expected at the Glowen mansion to meet the wedding planner!"

"But we haven’t..." The Chairman didn’t even get a chance to finish his sentence.

Eleanor practically shoved him out of the room.

As soon as the door shut, Lyvana couldn’t contain herself any longer. She burst into a fit of helpless laughter. Rolling over on the sofa, she buried her face into the cushion to muffle the sound.

​​Julian leaned over her, a handsome smirk playing on his lips as he watched her lose control. Reaching down, he playfully tugged the cushion away from her face to look down at her.

​"This is all your fault, you know," Lyvana said, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she looked up at him. "If you hadn’t putten me down here, they wouldn’t have caught us like this."

​Julian raised an eyebrow, his smirk deepening with amusement. "My fault?"

"Entirely your fault." She pushed herself up to a sitting position, smoothing back her hair. "How am I supposed to face them now?"

Julian looked genuinely thoughtful for a fleeting second. "I think my parents are well aware of how their grandchildren were made."

Lyvana’s mouth fell open. Then she immediately grabbed a cushion and threw it at him.

He caught it effortlessly. The smug look on his face only grew.

​Lyvana groaned dramatically and flopped backward onto the sofa, staring up at the ceiling.

​But the peace didn’t last long. In a flash, Julian was on top of her again.

Lyvana’s eyes widened, her hands coming up to press against his chest.

"What are you doing?" she asked suspiciously.

"I’m considering my options."

"Your options?"

"Yes."

"And what options would those be?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Julian gently tapped the tip of her nose. "

"Well," Julian said, as he trapped her easily between his arms. "Option one is whether I should apologize, for getting us caught."

Lyvana narrowed her eyes at him. "And option two?"

"Option two, is to make sure we actually give them a real reason to knock next time."

A blush rushed back to her cheeks, hotter than before. "Julian!"

"I’m just weighing the choices," he said chuckling. "And right now, option two is looking exceptionally good."

Before he could act on it, Lyvana caught him off guard. She suddenly broke free from his hold and slipped out from under him, scrambling off the sofa.

Then she ran across the room, laughing out loud. Julian stood up a second later and chased after her with a playful smile on his face.

They ended up in the huge bathroom together. Lyvana pressed her back against the cool wall, with Julian leaning in and kissing her deeply.

Out on the hallway balcony, Lily published the pre-written wedding announcement on the corporation’s official G-Link account.

At the same time, Nick posted the announcement on Aurora’s official website, exactly as instructed.

The reaction was immediate.

Within minutes, major media outlets around the world had picked up the story. News organizations, business publications, entertainment websites, and social media accounts rushed to repost the announcement.

Traffic on G-Link surged at an unprecedented rate.

The flood of users overwhelmed the platform’s servers, causing the site to crash for several minutes before engineers managed to bring it back online.

Even then, the numbers continued climbing at a staggering pace.

In less than thirty minutes, the announcement had accumulated more than a million likes.

Meanwhile, the hashtag #GrantWedding shot to the top of the global trending charts, claiming the number-one spot worldwide.

Meanwhile in her home, Clarisse was sitting alone in the living room, when her phone suddenly vibrated on the coffee table.

She barely glanced at it.

Then the notification preview caught her eye.

Breaking News: Julian Harrison Grant III Confirms Engagement to Lyvana Montclair. Wedding Scheduled in Seven Days.

Clarisse froze.

For a moment, she couldn’t react. Then slowly, she picked up the phone and opened the article.

A photograph accompanied the announcement.

Julian stood beside Lyvana, one arm wrapped possessively around her waist as she smiled at the camera.

The official statement from Grant Corporation appeared beneath the image.

Then, with an angry shout, she threw the glass of juice she was holding on the wall.

​CRASH!

​The glass smashed, breaking into tiny pieces that scattered across the floor.

Clarisse stood breathing heavily, anger, jealousy, and helplessness mixed inside her. Her hands tightly gripped her phone. While her life was falling apart, Lyvana was getting married to the country’s most eligible bachelor.

​A few seconds later, quick footsteps hurried toward the room. The living room doors burst open.

​"Sis!"

​Clarisse’s sister Melody rushed inside, looking very worried. Her eyes immediately landed on the broken glass on the floor.

​"What happened?" she asked.

​Without saying a word, she handed her the phone.

​The news and the picture of Julian and Lyvana were impossible to miss. Melody understood everything instantly, and her face went pale.

​"Oh... Look, let’s deal with this when we get back from the hospital. Mark and Alex are waiting to do the DNA test.

As tensions continued to rise in the Vaughn family, another man was running out of time.

Zhao’s world had shrunk to four stained walls and a locked door.