Mark froze. "What?"

For a moment, he wasn’t sure he had heard her correctly. Lyvana didn’t repeat herself. She simply stared at him.

The color slowly drained from his face and his legs suddenly felt weak. He lowered himself into the chair across from her desk without even realizing he was doing it.

Then he rubbed a hand across his face, and looked directly at her.

"Is it mine?"

"No," she said flatly.

The word hit him harder than he expected. He felt something inside him break.

"No?" he repeated weakly.

"No."

He shook his head slowly. "That’s... You can’t just... you can’t be pregnant with his child. What if you are wrong. How sure are you that..."

​"I am pregnant for Julian," Lyvana interrupted calmly. "He is the father."

"What if? Just what if it’s mine?"

​"Look, I don’t have time for this. But just to put your mind to rest, I will let you do a DNA test."

​"A DNA test?" he asked quietly.

​"Yes," Lyvana said. "We can do a prenatal DNA test. But I assure you, the result will be the same. Julian is the father. I am only doing this so you wont bother me again. Once the results prove the truth, you will never show your face near me, my husband, or my children ever again."

​Mark felt a single tear roll down his cheek. He wanted to say something, but the words wouldn’t come.

​Lyvana stepped out from behind the desk, her small baby bump clearly visible. She walked slowly towards the side of the desk.

​"My assistant will contact your lawyer to set up the clinic appointment," she added. "Now, if there is nothing else, please leave."

That was when he remembered why he was there in the first place. He quickly got up and knelt in front of her.

"What is this, Mark?" Lyvana asked, looking down at him. "I don’t..."

​"Liv, please listen," Mark begged, looking up at her with tears in his eyes. "I am sorry. I am so sorry for everything I did to you."

​"I have forgiven you, Mark," Lyvana said softly. "I am not walking around with hatred in my heart, for you anymore."

"You don’t know what I have done," Mark muttered, his voice shaking as he stared at the floor.

​"Let’s see," Lyvana said, crossing her arms. "I already know about your affair with Clarisse. About the scheming and the lies. I also know you worked with Catalina once or twice. And if this is about Madame Bovary’s whore house, I could care less."

Mark looked up at her, completely shocked that she knew about the brothel.

He swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and finally let the ugly truth spill out.

The weight of his guilt made his voice crack as he confessed everything. He told her about Zhao, and how the man had stolen all of her money for him. He admitted how desperate and twisted his mindset had become.

"I was angry, Liv... and I wasn’t thinking straight," he choked out. "I thought if... if I could just cripple you, if I could take away your financial freedom, you would have no choice but to depend on me again."

Lyvana gave him a hard slap across his face. Mark’s head snapped to the side.

The confession was sickening. He hadn’t just stolen bits and pieces of her money, but he had actively plotted to destroy her life just to satisfy his own fragile ego.

She took a slow step backward, completely disgusted by the man kneeling before her.

"You wanted to cripple me?" she asked. "You wanted to ruin my company just so you will feel powerful again?"

"I am sorry," Mark choked out. "I was angry, Liv. Everything was falling apart between us."

​Lyvana felt deeply hurt, as she looked down at him. "So you teamed up with this... this man to drain out my account? You thought destroying my life would fix yours?"

​"No! I mean, yes, at first," Mark stammered, looking up at her. "But I was wrong. I admit I was so wrong."

"What do you want? What do you want from me, Mark? I take it you didn’t come all this way just to confess."

​Mark swallowed hard. "I came to beg for your help."

"You came to beg me for help? After what you did? You have a lot of nerve."

Mark lowered his head. "I know."

"Do you? Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like you’re only sorry because you finally got caught."

"Maybe that’s true. Maybe I deserve that."

"Get to the point. What do you want from me."

"I know I don’t deserve it. I know I was a monster to you. But I need you to not press charges against me. If I go to prison, I won’t survive it."

​"You are right about one thing. You don’t deserve my mercy. And I don’t care what ruins you."

​She pressed the intercom button hard. The office door flew open instantly, and Marco strode into the room, his eyes locking onto Mark.

​"Throw him out of my building. If he ever sets foot on this property again, break his legs."

Mark barely had time to react before Marco grabbed him by the arm and hauled him up from the floor.

"Liv, please," Mark said desperately but Lyvana did not look at him.

She turned her back and walked toward the window.

Marco aggressively shoved him through the doorway and out into the corridor.

As Lyvana stood by the glass, her hands trembling slightly as a wave of deep devastation finally broke through her cold facade.

The sheer betrayal of realizing that a man she had once loved, someone who had watched her darkest moments, could actively try to destroy her was a sickening realization.

​But as she looked down at her baby bump, she forced the pain away and drew in a long, steady breath. She refused to let his monstrous actions shatter the peace of her new life with Julian.

A knock sounded at the door, it was one of the new girls bringing her a glass of coconut water she had ordered earlier.