From His Fake Wife to Billionaire Heiress Chapter 310: Suitably Inconvenient

"Oh? That's a surprise." Brandon's voice held a teasing note over the phone. "Ms. Harper, you seemed quite indifferent last time. I remember you brushed me off coldly when I offered to tell you about Sophia. Changed your mind already?"

Riley's eyes darkened slightly. She deliberately adopted a tone that suggested she could walk away at any moment. "If you're not interested, forget it."

"Who said I wasn't? Deal!" Brandon backtracked quickly.

He then added, almost as an afterthought, "And dinner after you wrap things up is fine by me."

Brandon clearly had a firm grasp of the Ashford family's internal affairs.

Just then, two polite knocks sounded at the door.

"Awake?" Sebastian's low voice filtered through the wood.

Riley made an affirmative sound and swung her legs out of bed.

The door pushed open. Sebastian entered, rolling a dining cart.

Seeing she was already on her feet, he guided the cart further inside. It was laid with an assortment of delicate pastries, fresh fruit, and a steaming bowl of seafood chowder. The rich, savory aroma quickly filled the room.

"Get something in your stomach first," he said, parking the cart beside the sofa.

Riley glanced around the empty living room. "Is your mom... asleep already?"

"She caught an afternoon flight back. Said my dad can't manage without her," Sebastian replied, not looking up as he ladled chowder into a bowl.

A soft laugh escaped Riley. "Sounds like your parents are really close."

"Yeah." Sebastian handed her the bowl, a rare, gentle smile touching his lips. "Has been that way for as long as I can remember. So much so that I've always been a solid second place."

As Riley accepted the bowl, Sebastian's gaze dropped to her ankle. The warmth in his eyes vanished, replaced by a sharp intensity. "How's your foot? What really happened?"

Her spoon stilled mid-air. Meeting his concerned look, she answered calmly, without hiding anything, "I was on a call in the hospital stairwell. Someone tried to push me from behind."

An icy chill instantly emanated from Sebastian's presence.

"I reacted quickly, grabbed the railing. Just twisted my ankle. It's fine," she added.

A tangible, threatening aura radiated from him. "Did you get a look at the person?"

"No." Riley shook her head. "They were fast. No cameras in the stairwell either.

"In the Ashford family, the list of people who want me gone is short."

The name hung unspoken in the air, obvious to both.

Sebastian understood.

Sophia. Again.

Sebastian had consistently respected her autonomy, well aware she harbored her own designs and grudges to resolve.

Involving himself in her clashes with the Ashfords was never his intention; his role was solely to provide refuge when she sought respite.

But this crossed a line.

Schemes and traps were one thing—part of their twisted game.

But direct physical harm, an attempt on her life? That was unacceptable.

The dangerous aura around him thickened, noticeable even to Riley.

She set her spoon down. "You're not... planning to do something, are you?"

Sebastian looked up. The frost in his eyes melted, replaced by reassuring warmth. "Don't worry. It won't interfere with your plans."

Just... make things suitably inconvenient for Sophia.

*****

The next morning, dawn had barely broken.

Riley woke not to sunlight, but to a raging storm online. At its center was Sophia, engulfed in a fresh scandal.

A detailed, meticulously sourced report had surfaced. It traced Sophia's rise, citing interviews with old classmates and friends from her hometown and school.

Not a single person recalled her ever mentioning a tragic lost love.

An anonymous former close friend claimed Sophia had been involved with a man around her debut, but she guarded his identity fiercely, calling him a "confidential outsider" whom almost no one ever met.

The report posed a bold theory: The man linked to Sophia, the father of her child, was not her first love.

He was a married man whose identity had to remain hidden.

Her entire tragic love story and subsequent statement were mere smokescreens to protect him.

The article, chillingly close to the truth, was a bombshell.

Yet its lifespan was brutally short.

After the news sent shockwaves across the web for less than half an hour, every related link and search term was scrubbed clean from major platforms by an invisible, powerful hand, erased as if they had never existed.