Trick Him Into Divorce, Then Flee With His Unknow Kid

Chapter 423: Chapter 423 Ryan’s Ace

Julia stared at the recorder in Diana’s hand.

She couldn’t believe it.

The recording was unmistakable.

Every word of the conversation between the Robinson and Knight families had been captured clearly.

There was no room left for excuses.

No way to call it a rumour.

No way to claim Rose had misunderstood.

The Robinson family’s intentions were laid bare for everyone to hear.

And somehow, Diana had chosen to stand against them.

She was a Robinson herself, yet she’d done what none of the others had been willing to do.

She’d protected Rose.

She’d brought the truth into the open.

Across the ballroom, Liam’s expression changed the moment he saw Diana.

He had been trying to reach her all morning.

Her phone had been off.

No one knew where she was.

And now she had suddenly appeared looking as though she’d barely escaped something.

Liam immediately stood.

He shrugged off his suit jacket, crossed the room, and climbed onto the stage.

Without a word, he draped the jacket around Diana’s shoulders.

“What happened?”

Diana shook her head.

“I’m fine.”

Her parents weren’t nearly as forgiving.

Her father stood up, his face dark with anger.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Diana looked at him.

“You’ve embarrassed the family enough already,” he continued. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

Her mother looked equally furious.

“Diana, have you forgotten who you are? Standing up there against your own family in front of all these people?”

Diana almost laughed.

She had never expected her parents to suddenly grow a conscience.

They had never exactly treated her like the daughter they were proud of.

So why should she be afraid of disappointing them now?

She straightened.

“The Robinson family is the one in the wrong.”

Her voice carried through the room.

“And I’m not going to stand there and watch you hurt Rose just because she’s inconvenient.”

Julia’s face hardened.

She took a breath before responding.

“Let’s not lose sight of the facts.”

Her eyes swept toward Rose.

“Ariel is legally part of the Robinson family. She carries the Robinson name. Whatever the Robinson family decides to do regarding a child who is legally ours is not Rose’s decision to make.”

Rose’s expression changed.

There it was.

Julia wasn’t backing down.

She was preparing to cut Rose out of Ariel’s life completely.

Rose understood immediately.

If the Robinson family could convince everyone that she had no legal standing as Ariel’s mother, they could try to turn the child into a legal asset of their own.

They were counting on paperwork.

They were counting on power.

And they were willing to use both against her.

Dr. Nathan Hale finally snapped.

He slammed his palm against the table and stood.

“That’s enough.”

His voice thundered across the room.

“You keep talking about Ariel like she’s a piece of property because she carries the Robinson name.”

He pointed toward Julia.

“But who raised her?”

His anger was impossible to hide.

“Was it the Robinson family?”

Julia’s expression tightened.

“Nathan—”

“No.”

Nathan cut her off.

“Rose’s daughter has been cared for by me and my wife. We’ve been there for her. We’ve watched over her, protected her, and raised her.”

He looked around the room.

“So don’t stand there and pretend the only thing that matters is the name on a document.”

Suddenly, everything made sense.

Rose’s strange phone call today morning.

The urgency in her voice.

The way she’d repeatedly told him not to bring Ariel to the wedding.

At the time, Nathan hadn’t understood.

Now he did.

Rose had known this wedding might turn into a public fight.

She hadn’t wanted Ariel anywhere near the cameras.

She hadn’t wanted reporters photographing her daughter or strangers discussing her custody in front of her.

Rose had been trying to shield Ariel from all of it.

Even while everything around her was falling apart, she’d still been thinking about her daughter first.

Julia looked at Nathan coldly.

“Dr. Hale, you’re making emotional claims.”

She gestured toward the recording.

“And if we’re going to discuss legal custody, then let’s discuss it properly.”

Her voice became sharper.

“Words and emotions don’t determine legal rights. Documents do.”

She looked toward Rose.

“If Rose believes she has a legal claim, she can take it to court.”

A cold voice came from behind her.

“Gladly.”

Julia froze.

So did everyone else.

The room seemed to change temperature.

People turned toward the sound.

Ryan was walking toward the stage.

No one had noticed him move.

His expression was calm.

Almost frighteningly calm.

He climbed the steps and walked toward Rose.

His eyes dropped briefly to her hand.

She had been gripping it so tightly that her fingernails had dug crescent-shaped marks into her palm.

Ryan’s gaze darkened.

Without saying anything, he reached into his hand and placed the lighter against her palm.

Rose looked down.

His lighter.

The same one he’d been turning over in his hand all morning.

Some of the small diamonds set into it had already been scratched from the pressure of her grip.

Rose instinctively closed her fingers around it.

Her nails dug into the stones again.

Ryan looked at her for one long second.

Then he turned away.

His gaze landed on Julia.

Then Trevor.

Trevor had been standing close to his mother throughout the confrontation, trying to keep her from making things worse.

Ryan’s voice was quiet.

“Who told you my daughter belongs to the Robinson family?”

The question landed harder than shouting ever could.

Rose looked up sharply.

Trevor’s expression darkened.

Julia frowned.

“Ryan, what exactly are you implying?”

Before she could say anything else, the ballroom doors swung open.

A man’s voice carried across the room.

“The Robinson family is really determined to make this complicated, aren’t they?”

Everyone turned.

James Taylor walked into the ballroom.

He was carrying a thick folder.

Rose’s eyes widened.

James had been missing all morning.

Now he was walking toward the stage as though he’d been waiting for precisely this moment.

When he reached the front, he looked at Julia.

Then at the rest of the Robinson family.

“Since everyone seems interested in the legal details, let’s clear them up.”

He placed the folder on the table.

“According to the documents filed and approved by the appropriate authorities, Ariel is legally recognized as a member of the Taylor family.”

Silence.

Absolute silence.

Rose stared at him.

“What?”

James opened the folder.

Inside were official documents.

Court filings.

Updated parentage records.

And a paternity test confirming Ryan as Ariel’s biological father.

Rose’s breath caught.

She looked from the paperwork to Ryan.

He didn’t react.

He simply stood beside her.

Calm.

As though none of this was new to him.

James continued.

“The necessary legal filings have already been completed.”

Rose’s mind raced.

Ariel had been connected to the Taylor family.

Legally.

And the Robinson family hadn’t signed off on it.

James had somehow managed to get everything approved.

Rose looked at Ryan again.

He remained completely unfazed.

Suddenly, his behaviour that morning made sense.

The way he’d sat through the accusations.

The way he’d never panicked.

The way he’d watched her without intervening.

He’d known.

He’d already handled it.

James looked toward the stunned crowd.

“Let me make this very clear. Ariel isn’t legally under the Robinson family’s control anymore.”

He paused.

“And the Knight family has no automatic claim to her either.”

Grace shot to her feet.

She looked at James in complete disbelief.

“You did what?”

James gave her a small smile.

“Handled something that needed handling.”

Even Trevor looked stunned.

He stepped forward and grabbed the folder.

He flipped through the documents.

The signatures were there.

The official stamps were there.

Everything had already been processed.

His eyes hardened.

“When did the Taylor family get involved?”

James looked at him.

“Before today.”

Trevor’s gaze shifted toward Ryan.

James’s smile became faintly amused.

“What did you expect us to do? Announce it to everyone the moment we started?”

He closed the folder.

“If we’d made a spectacle of it, your family might have changed its plans.”

His eyes moved toward Julia.

“And then we wouldn’t have learned just how willing the Robinson family was to sacrifice Rose.”

Julia’s face had gone pale.

Trevor’s expression changed.

He understood.

This hadn’t happened overnight.

Ryan had been planning for this.

Weeks ago, perhaps longer.

James hadn’t initially wanted anything to do with Ryan.

The relationship between the Taylor family and Rose had been complicated enough without Ryan appearing in the middle of it.

But Ryan had approached him with one specific subject.

Ariel.

At first, James had been reluctant to even meet with him.

Then Ryan had told him the truth.

Ariel was his daughter.

And regardless of how she had ended up in the Robinson household, she was the most important person in Rose’s life.

Ryan had understood something the others hadn’t.

If Ariel remained with the Robinson family, she could be used against Rose.

If the Knight family gained custody, the same thing could happen again.

A child without a secure family willing to stand behind her could easily become a bargaining chip in someone else’s fight.

Ryan had asked James for help.

“She’s Rose’s daughter,” he’d said.

“She needs a family that will protect her, not one that sees her as leverage.”

Then he’d said something James hadn’t expected.

“Your family can give her that.”

James had been stunned when he learned the truth.

Not only was Ariel Ryan’s biological daughter, but Ryan had arrived with a paternity test and the necessary documentation proving his relationship to Rose and Ariel.

What followed hadn’t been simple.

The legal process had taken time.

There were filings to make, records to update, and approvals to secure.

James had spent days dealing with attorneys and government offices, making sure everything was completed properly.

He’d even made a trip to Washington, D.C., to deal with the final paperwork himself.

It had been exhausting.

Complicated.

And frustrating.

But he’d gotten it done.

And now there was nothing left for the Robinson or Knight families to argue about.

Ariel wasn’t theirs to trade.

She was protected by the Taylor family.

Trevor slowly lowered the documents.

His gaze remained fixed on Ryan.

“No wonder.”

His voice was quiet.

“No wonder you’ve been sitting there like none of this matters.”

Ryan didn’t answer.

Trevor’s eyes narrowed.

“You already had a backup plan.”

A faint smile touched James’s lips.

“Not a backup plan.”

He glanced toward Ryan.

“A better one.”

The Robinson and Knight families had been so confident in their own arrangement that they hadn’t noticed what was happening right in front of them.

Ryan had never intended to fight them on their terms.

He’d simply waited.

Waited until the legal work was finished.

Waited until Rose was standing in the middle of the wedding with the entire room watching.

Waited until the Robinson family exposed exactly what they were willing to do to her.

And then—

He’d taken away the one thing they thought they could use against her.

Ariel.

The Robinson family had tried to turn Rose’s daughter into their leverage.

Instead, they’d handed Ryan the perfect opportunity to make sure they could never use her that way again.

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