One Night Stand, Eight Surprises: Pampered by My CEO Husband --- - Chapter 46: Chapter 46

The email arrived just after midnight.
Arielle sat in the dim glow of her home office, the soft hum of the baby monitor playing in the background. She had just finished organizing receipts for the bakery’s upcoming audit when her inbox pinged with a subject line that made her stomach drop:
> "Arielle Lancaster’s Real Origin: Exclusive Preview"
She hesitated, then clicked.
The body of the email was brief, menacing in its precision:
> "We know your adoption wasn’t legal. We know what your adoptive father did to get custody. Tell your husband, or we will. The story goes live in 24 hours. — The Insight Feed"
Her hand trembled. For a moment, she couldn’t breathe.
The Insight Feed. A once-obscure gossip blog that had risen to fame through exposés on mid-tier celebrities and crooked politicians. It had recently pivoted to family scandals—and was known to blend truth with just enough fiction to destroy lives.
Arielle’s heart pounded as she dialed Damien.
He picked up immediately. “What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t speak at first. Just forwarded him the email.
Silence.
Then his voice: low, deadly. “Who the hell is behind this?”
By morning, Damien had mobilized an entire team.
His head of cybersecurity, Marcus, stood in the Lancaster living room beside Natalie, holding a tablet.
“The blog’s run by a shell company registered in the Caymans. No direct owner name, but we traced the IP trail to a rented server cluster in Berlin. They use freelance contributors—most of them anonymous.”
“Cut to the chase,” Damien said coldly. “Who gave them the tip?”
“An unverified user. But the metadata leads back to a coffee shop in Midtown.”
“Find the camera footage. Now.”
Meanwhile, Arielle sat on the back patio, sunlight warming her skin, but doing little to ease the knot in her chest.
Her adoption had always been a quiet wound. She’d never hidden it, but she’d never broadcast it either. Her adoptive father had saved her from the foster system—but the way he secured her custody had indeed been... unconventional.
She’d never told Damien the full story.
Now someone wanted to weaponize it.
She flinched when she felt his presence behind her.
“I should’ve told you,” she said quietly. “About my father... what he did.”
Damien knelt beside her. “You didn’t owe me a report. You owed me your truth. Which I already see.”
Arielle’s voice cracked. “If this goes public, people will think I was some fraud... some street girl who tricked a rich man into loving her.”
“They can think whatever they want,” Damien said. “Because by the time they read that blog—”
He stood, pulling out his phone and making a single call.
“—they’ll be reading it on a platform I own.”
By noon, Insight Feed’s founder, Jake Linwood, received an offer he couldn’t refuse. Ten times his site’s valuation. No negotiations.
He accepted.
Within the hour, the blog’s servers, archives, and all employee contracts were absorbed into the Lancaster Holdings tech division.
And that explosive story?
Deleted.
In its place appeared a front-page editorial:
> "We regret the unauthorized and malicious content targeting Arielle Lancaster. Our editorial team has been replaced and new ownership has committed to truth over shock. We apologize unreservedly."
The apology went viral.
Not for its words.
But for what it implied: that no one—no gossip merchant, no faceless bully—could touch Arielle without consequence.
That night, they stood on the balcony again, the city sprawling below like a glittering map of chaos.
“I don’t want you to always clean up my past,” she whispered.
Damien kissed her temple. “You’re not a mess. You’re a mosaic. And I happen to like every shard.”
She smiled through tears.
“I wanted to be enough on my own.”
“You were. You are.”
He turned her to face him.
“And the next time someone tries to rewrite your origin story—just remember: I already read the best parts.”
Their kiss was soft this time. Not a defense. Not a declaration.
Just a promise.