Something in Madam Neri snapped completely.
With a furious cry, she lunged forward and grabbed Lianna by the hair.
Even Lianna hadn't expected that but she didn't fight back.
With the drugging case still unresolved, the last thing she needed was to hand Madam Neri a leverage to sue her back.
Two maids rushed in to pull them apart, then a third. Still, Madam Neri thrashed wildly, refusing to let go.
Her driver also stepped in, blocking the others.
The scene descended into chaos and that was the exact moment Zahn arrived.
He stepped through the door just in time to witness the storm in full force.
For a brief, disorienting second, he genuinely thought, did someone break in?
Seeing his mother was there, he somehow had an idea what happened.
"Enough!" Zahn's voice cut through the chaos.
Lianna's hair was disheveled, while Madam Neri stood opposite her, breathing hard, eyes blazing with fury.
The moment Madam Neri saw her son, her entire demeanor shifted as if a switch had been flipped. Her expression crumpled into grievance, her voice trembling with practiced indignation as she pointed at Lianna.
"Zahn, look at what she's done!" she cried. "This woman is trying to ruin the Neri family! Just because she's miserable, she wants everyone else to suffer too!"
Lianna let out a quiet, humorless breath.
Madam Neri's gaze sharpened viciously as it snapped toward Lianna. "You think I would scheme to drug my own son and frame you? Why would I ever harm him?"
"That greedy father of yours, he's the real problem! He couldn't wait to sell you off for a price. He even suggested that if you couldn't marry my son, as long as I helped him, he didn't care if you ended up with some old man in the family! For a man like that… how could his daughter be any better?"
For a fleeting second something flickered in Lianna's eyes.
Because no matter how distant, that man was still her father. Madam Neri's words once again reminded her that there had never been affection, not even a trace of guilt from someone who was supposed to be her biological father.
"I said enough!" Zahn snapped again, sharper this time.
He knew out of everything, Lianna's father had always been the one wound that never healed.
But Madam Neri wasn't finished.
"Are you worried the truth would hurt her? This ungrateful wretched doesn't care a bit less. Zahn, i think you're the one who should snapped out. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if she's working with our rivals! Perhaps she's behind your current situation, trying to destroy your reputation!"
Lianna laughed.
"Working with your rivals?" she repeated, her lips curling. "Have you forgotten how you raised me? You trained me to be an obedient dog. For years, I never even attended a single business banquet under the Neri name. The few people who knew I was Zahn's wife looked at me with nothing but contempt. Tell me, how exactly would someone like that have the ability to conspire with your enemies?"
Zahn's expression shifted to guilt, sharp and unguarded, flashing across his face like lightning he couldn't hide.
Even Madam Neri faltered, if only for a second.
Then Lianna's gaze turned meaningful, almost piercing.
"I heard you have quite a… special relationship with someone from the Song family," she said slowly. "Have you ever thought—"
"How dare you!" Madam Neri exploded, cutting her off instantly, her reaction so abrupt it was almost violent like a cat whose tail had just been stepped on.
Zahn dragged a hand down his face, exhaustion etched into every line.
"Mom, leave."
"I- "
"Leave," he repeated, firmer this time.
Reluctantly, Madam Neri swallowed her words, though her glare toward Lianna promised this was far from over.
Saeki walked in and Madam Neri's eyes lit up again.
"Saeki," she said smoothly, "I saw a headline about you and Lianna together. I didn't realize you two were so close."
Saeki who was just there for gossip "…."
Before he could even process it, Lianna spoke, her tone cool and cutting.
"Just because you have a dirty mind doesn't mean everyone else does," she said. "He simply gave Sean and me a ride home."
Madam Neri, who had only just begun to calm down, flared up again.
"What do you mean 'by a dirty mind'?!" she snapped. "The audacity! Do you think you can speak to me this way just because you're divorced? I'm telling you, this isn't over!"
Saeki immediately stepped between them, hands raised like a man trying to stop two tigers from resuming a duel.
"Auntie, it's really not like that," he said quickly. "I was out buying a plushie for Lulu, and it just so happened Sister-in-law was there buying toys for Sean too. So I offered them a ride back. That's all."
Madam Neri pursed her lips. "What sister in-law? Fine, I believe you. But don't be so quick to pity others. Who knows if that 'coincidence' wasn't carefully arranged."
Saeki blinked, speechless.
Zahn's patience finally snapped. This time, there was no room for argument.
Madam Neri shot Lianna one last venomous glare before turning and walking out, her driver trailing behind her.
Meanwhile, Saeki, clearly sensing he had overstayed his welcome in a battlefield, casually hooked an arm around Yeri's shoulder and steered her away.
"Come on," he muttered. "Let's evacuate before we become collateral damage."
Saeki took one look at her and burst out laughing. "You look like you just lost a fight with a hurricane."
"I was trying to help." Yeri reasoned, combing her hair with her hand.
---
This time, only Lianna and Zahn were there.
"Changed your mind?" she asked. "Do you want the villa back?"
Zahn shook his head immediately. "That's not it."
His throat tightened, Adam's apple bobbing as he struggled to form the words.
But before he could say a word, Lianna spoke, calm and indifferent.
"The Neri family's matters have nothing to do with me anymore," she said. "What you do, who you chase, who you choose to be with… none of it concerns me."
Like a door quietly closing, Zahn felt alarmed, his hand shot out, gripping her wrist before she could turn away.
"Lianna… don't say that, okay?" Zahn's voice dropped, strained, rough with something dangerously close to desperation.
"There's nothing between me and Vanessa. I was set up by her. It was my fault for being careless, but nothing happened. Tristan was there, he can confirm it. I was just too drunk… I didn't even realize that woman came near me."
For someone who once held absolute composure in every situation, Zahn Neri now looked unsteady.
Almost like a child, afraid of being misunderstood.
Seeing Lianna's silence, her indifference, something inside him twisted tighter.
"I didn't know she was working with Xavier Song," he continued quickly. "You might not know this, but she's actually Xavier's ex-wife. Even my mother was fooled by them." His jaw tightened. "I'm not asking you to understand her, what she did to you is a separate matter. But you have to believe me. Those articles online… they're all false."
Lianna frowned slightly.
Vanessa was Xavier Song's ex-wife?
So the Song family had really gone all in.
Swallowing the Neri household piece by piece, like a patient predator circling its prey.
But even if she believed him, what would that change?
Zahn stepped closer, agitation creeping into his movements as he grabbed her arms again.
"Let's go to Tristan," he insisted. "He can explain everything. He even has evidence- "
"Can you let go first?" Lianna cut in, her brows knitting. "You're hurting me."
Zahn immediately released her, as if burned.
"…Fine," she said after a brief pause. "I believe you."
Zahn stiffened, his eyes searched her face, intensely, almost desperately like he was trying to dissect every microexpression, every flicker, to confirm if she truly meant it.
Lianna didn't look away.
"Vanessa has been provoking me for a while now. Even before this, at Sean's birthday… she deliberately fell just to frame me. I didn't even touch her."
Zahn's heart clenched.
He remembered it clearly. He remembered he had asked Lianna to apologize to Vanessa.
How blind and foolish had he been?
"I believe you," Lianna continued, her tone even, "because if there really was something between the two of you she wouldn't be acting like that. She wouldn't be so desperate for my attention, seeking validation and stirring trouble."
In fact, when she saw the headline, all she felt was confusion and concern for Sean, not wanting this kind of mess reaching him.
No matter what happens between them, Zahn's still the father Sean admires. The one he's proud of.
Besides, Zahn Neri was raised too rigidly for something like letting a woman sit on his lap in a bar.
The only possibility is either this man is drunk, possessed or brain-dead.
A fragile, almost broken sense of relief seeped into Zahn.
She believed him. Truly.
And yet, that relief didn't just bring comfort, it brought something far heavier.
Because he understood. It wasn't just Lianna who noticed the irony, he did too.
Back then, when she had stood where he was now. When she had looked at him with the same desperation, the same need to be believed...
What had he done?
He had met her with cold indifference.
Offered her empty, emotionless words of "It's all in the past."
The present and the past collided violently in his mind, his vision blurred and a single tear slipped free.
Lianna was stunned and instinctively, she took a step back, eyes widening slightly.
Is he still drunk?
"Don't misunderstand," Lianna said after a moment, her voice quieter now, but still composed. "I believe you just because I know you're not that kind of person, there's no other reason."
Not to mention, no one knows better than she do what it feels like to stand alone while everyone points fingers at you.
She wasn't petty or vengeful enough to deny someone a simple 'I believe you' just to get back at them.
Also, he's still Sean's father. Maintaining a civil relationship would be best for both of them rather than tear each other apart.