But I just smiled faintly and said in a cold, measured tone：

“So you're telling me you let a group of ten-year-olds run up a tab of nearly twenty thousand dollars in your shop, with no adult present?”

“How do you think the consumer protection bureau would handle that?”

The color drained from Laurel's face.

But she steadied herself almost instantly, her expression shifting to one of wounded innocence：

“Mr. Henson, you don't have to go throwing around threats about regulators to intimidate people.”

“We only extended the courtesy because you're a regular and our neighbor upstairs. We gave your son that tab as a favor to you.”

“You think just anyone gets that kind of treatment?”

As she spoke, her eyes reddened：

“We were trying to do something nice, and now somehow we're the ones in the wrong? Mr. Henson, just because you have money doesn't mean you can bully people like us who work for a living.”

Seeing Laurel on the verge of tears, the other customers in the café couldn't hold back：

“The staff went out of their way for you, and you're threatening them with regulators? That's way out of line.”

“Exactly. You can afford a mistress on the side, but you're going to nickel-and-dime over twenty grand?”

“Denying his own kid and threatening people just to dodge a bill. What a disgrace.”

With public opinion firmly on her side, the corner of Laurel's mouth twitched upward. She turned to Gwyneth, feigning concern：

“Miss, woman to woman, let me give you a piece of advice. When you're picking a man, make sure you open your eyes wide.”

“Don't be the other woman and still fool yourself into thinking you're his one true love.”

Gwyneth's expression darkened.

She looked at me, long and steady, then turned to Laurel and spoke with deliberate weight on every word：

“I believe my boyfriend.”

“Until you can produce actual proof, don't you dare slander him.”

Gwyneth's voice was quiet, but every syllable carried force.

I looked at her, and warmth flooded through my chest.

I'd spent years fighting my way through the business world alone. I'd been misunderstood, schemed against, falsely accused.

But never once had someone stood beside me without hesitation when the whole room pointed fingers.

She was the first.

Seeing Gwyneth refuse to waver, Laurel pursed her lips and let her voice drip with spite：

“Well, if you're so shameless that you want to be someone's side piece, suit yourself.”

At those words, Gwyneth's shoulders trembled, just slightly.

I knew. She was furious.

Being humiliated like that in front of a crowd would make anyone's blood boil.

And I'd had enough too.

“Laurel, you withdrew twenty thousand dollars from my payment account without my authorization.”

“Do you know what that's called under the law?”

“That's theft.”

“Whether this story about me having a son is a deliberate lie or a misunderstanding, I will be pressing charges.”

Laurel's face changed：

“You……who are you trying to scare?”

“Over something this petty, you'd actually sue? You think you own the courthouse?”

“Petty?”

I let out a cold laugh：“Under Section 264 of the criminal code, what you did carries a minimum sentence of three years.”

Laurel frowned, but her voice stayed bold：

“Your son owed our shop money. I made a legitimate deduction.”

My tone went ice-cold：

“Whether or not I have a son, the court will tell you.”

“But spreading lies about me in public and dragging my girlfriend's reputation through the mud? That, I will pursue to the very end.”

The words had barely left my mouth when a group of uniformed officers poured through the door：

“Who called the police?”

The moment the officers walked in, the tension in the room ratcheted up several notches.

“I did.”

I stepped forward and approached the lead officer, Captain Godfrey James, giving him a brief, concise summary of what had happened.

Before I even finished, Laurel cut in：

“Captain James, don't listen to his nonsense. His son brought an entire class of kids into our shop to eat and drink. They ran up a tab of nineteen thousand nine hundred dollars. The boy said Mr. Henson would settle it when he arrived, so I put the whole bill together.”

“And now he's standing here shamelessly trying to weasel out of paying.”

“Honestly, I'm starting to think he and his son planned this together, using our shop for a free meal!”

The other servers jumped in the moment she finished：

“That's right. Every single one of us can confirm it. He has a son, about ten years old, who comes in every few days and calls him Dad right to his face.”

“This time it was his kid who came in to order. We only let the boy run a tab because they're regulars.”

“Who would've thought a company CEO would try to skip out on a twenty-thousand-dollar bill by denying his own son?”

Hearing the servers speak with such unwavering certainty, Captain James frowned and turned to me：

“Mr. Henson, are you certain you don't have a son?”

I nodded：“I'm certain.”

“I've been single my entire life. Never married, never had children. My civil records and registration can verify all of that.”

Laurel let out a mocking laugh：

“Not being married doesn't mean you don't have kids. Maybe you stay single so it's easier to have a different woman every other night.”

“Rich men always have skeletons in the closet. That boy's obviously your illegitimate son.”

I held Laurel's gaze for a long moment.

Then I turned to Captain James and spoke with deliberate gravity：

“Captain James, since they claim I regularly bring my son to this shop, I'd like to request that the public surveillance cameras along the entire route from my building to this café be pulled.”

“The front gate of my complex, the elevators, the hallways, the parking garage. Every public-area camera falls under police jurisdiction. Pull the footage and it'll be clear whether I've ever been seen entering or leaving the building with a ten-year-old boy.”

Captain James nodded and gave a few quick instructions to the young officer behind him.

The officer immediately got on the radio to the command center, requesting the surveillance footage along the route.

Laurel's expression flickered for just a second, but she recovered almost instantly and said in a breezy tone：

“Go ahead and pull it. The facts are the facts. We've got nothing to hide.”

Something cold dropped through my stomach.

That wasn't right.

Laurel's confidence didn't look like an act.

If this really was a setup, the mention of pulling surveillance should have rattled her.

So why did she look so sure of herself?

While I was still turning that over in my head, the young officer called out：

“The surveillance footage just came through.”

Captain James cast the footage onto the café's advertising screen for everyone to see.

The instant the image appeared, every person in the room went still……