The grand ballroom was suffocatingly silent, save for the soft patter of champagne glasses trembling against marble tabletops.
Ella Lin stood frozen, her heart a battlefield of denial and memories she had long buried beneath years of hard-earned pride.
The man before her—no, the devil who refused to stay buried—knelt gracefully before her twin sons, his obsidian eyes burning with dangerous affection.
"Do you know who I am?" His deep, magnetic voice echoed through the golden hall, curling around every soul present like an irresistible curse.
The twins looked up at Ella with innocent, confused eyes.
"Mommy… is he… Daddy?"
Those four simple words detonated like a bomb.
The entire world, watching through live global broadcast, held its collective breath.
News feeds flooded with headlines:
#EllaLin'sHiddenPastExposed#TheDevilKingReturnsForHisHeirs#LeonXuNotDead?
Ella's knees threatened to buckle, but she stood tall, her perfectly manicured nails digging crescents into her palms.
"No," she gasped, her voice cracking under the unbearable weight of the moment. "He's not your father. Your father is… dead!"
Leon Xu—alive, whole, and far more dangerous than ever—rose to his feet, his dark gaze locked onto hers with predatory intensity.
"Dead?" He chuckled bitterly. "Ella, how many times must I tell you? Even if the whole world buries me, even if the earth swallows me whole… I will always come back to you."
He turned to the cameras, his arms opening wide in a darkly theatrical display.
"Let the world hear this!" he declared, his voice booming across every network. "These children are my flesh and blood. The heirs of the Xu bloodline. The kings I leave behind in this world, and the proof that my love for Ella Lin never died!"
Ella couldn't breathe.
She turned to flee, but Leon was faster.
His strong hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her back with brutal gentleness, his forehead pressing against hers.
"Don't run again, Ella," he murmured, his breath hot against her trembling lips. "You've already spent five years lying to yourself. Can you really spend a lifetime pretending you feel nothing?"
Tears burned at the corners of her eyes.
"I don't love you, Leon… I hate you!" she choked out.
But even to her own ears, the words sounded hollow.
Leon smiled faintly, his eyes filled with a maddening, dangerous tenderness.
"Lie to me all you want, Ella. But your eyes… they'll always tell me the truth."
🔥 Chapter Ending Hook:
Suddenly, a reporter's frantic voice cut through the tension.
"Breaking news! Leon Xu's remaining assets have just been unfrozen! The Xu family empire… is rising again!"
Ella's world tilted violently on its axis.
This couldn't be happening.
She had won. She had destroyed him.
And yet, as Leon lifted their sons into his arms, the twin boys giggling without understanding the storm swirling around them, she realized…
The king had returned. And this time, he wasn't asking for her forgiveness. He was here to take everything.