The Ex-Wife They Begged To Keep - Chapter 119: Chapter 119

Keith's expression was ice-cold. When Tara saw him, a flash of guilt crossed her eyes, but it happened so fast that no one else caught it.
"Leave Brannon Creative Group now, Tara. I don't want to make this ugly, but only because of Alyssa," Keith said as he walked over to Serena and pulled Tara up from the floor.
Tara stumbled and looked at Keith with pitiful eyes. "I just wanted to see the child. I wasn't trying to disrupt your life, Keith. Don't be so cold to me, okay?"
Keith wasn't moved at all. He just turned to look at Serena. "Are you okay?"
Serena shook her head hesitantly. She was more confused than anything else. She'd never even met this Tara woman before, and now this whole scene had happened out of nowhere. It was honestly annoying.
"Ms. Corwin, if you don't leave right now, I'm calling security," Keith said with a warning edge in his voice.
Tara's heart jumped when she heard him say that. Seeing how he was protecting Serena, she finally took a deep breath. "Fine, I'm sorry. It's my fault." She wiped away her tears and left. The office immediately fell silent.
Keith's eyes swept over everyone before landing on Nicole, his brows furrowed in anger. "You brought an outsider into the company without approval? Do you think Brannon Creative Group is your personal playground?"
Nicole had been so focused on destroying Serena that she hadn't thought about anything else. She immediately lowered her head when she heard his words. "I'm sorry, Mr. Brannon."
"Go to HR later and get your punishment. We'll handle this according to company policy," Keith said coldly. He was genuinely pissed off this time.
"Serena and I don't have any inappropriate relationship, and that woman wasn't my wife," Keith continued. "If I hear any more rumors about this, you can find somewhere else to work."
Nicole quickly bowed her head, but her eyes were full of jealousy. 'Why does Keith still protect Serena even after all this?' she thought.
The drama ended pretty quickly, but Serena could tell that plenty of people around them had believed Tara's story. She wasn't going to put up with being wrongly accused like this, and she still had no idea what was really going on.
So when Keith turned to leave, Serena followed him directly.
She walked into his office behind him. Keith could see that Serena's whole face was tense, and he knew she wanted to ask him about something, so he spoke up, "You want to know about Tara?"
"Yes." Serena knew Keith had helped her a lot, but she also had the right to know the truth.
"I'm sorry I never brought this up before. I was worried it would upset Alyssa, but the truth isn't what Tara claims. We were never together," Keith said.
Serena went quiet as soon as he started talking. 'If they were never together, then where did Alyssa come from?' she thought.
"Alyssa isn't my biological daughter. She's Tara's biological daughter," Keith continued.
Serena was completely thrown by what he said. Keith's eyes seemed to look through time as they grew distant and thoughtful.
It turned out that Alyssa had also been found at Keith's orphanage years ago. She wasn't Keith's biological daughter at all, and Serena had never noticed this before.
Alyssa was beautiful, with a little dimple that showed when she smiled. Now that she really thought about it, Alyssa didn't actually look much like Keith. She'd just assumed they were related because that was what she'd been assuming from the start.
"Alyssa came from the same orphanage as you. Tara abandoned her because of Alyssa's illness. When she found out I'd adopted Alyssa and that her condition was getting better, she started harassing us." Keith shook his head with a sigh.
'Alyssa came from the same orphanage as me?' Serena thought in shock. She was a bit stunned and couldn't help but marvel at how deeply connected she and Alyssa seemed to be.
"So if you ever run into Tara again, just try to avoid her. A woman who's that greedy for money—there's no telling what she might do next," Keith said with a slight sigh.
His expression grew apologetic. "I never thought she'd track you down here. If I had known, I would never have let her come bother you."
Serena shook her head gently. Even though Keith hadn't told her the whole truth before, she wasn't the type to cause unnecessary drama. She knew perfectly well that if anyone was to blame for this mess, it should be Nicole.
"I understand what happened now, but this whole thing still looks bad at the office. We should probably clear the air at some point," Serena said,
Not many people seemed to believe what they'd just heard, and Serena didn't want to leave things like that.
"Sure, I'll take care of it," Keith agreed.
With that issue resolved, Serena felt a lot more at ease. But when she looked up, she noticed Keith was watching her with a strangely complicated expression. It seemed like he had something he wanted to tell her.
"What's wrong?" Serena asked first.
Keith looked at her with that same complex expression and said, "How's your relationship with the director of your orphanage?"
Serena hadn't expected him to ask about that, but it wasn't anything she couldn't talk about. As she thought back to all the years Tiana had taken care of her, her expression softened considerably.
"Tiana's looked after me since I was little. She's the best person in the world, and I think of her as family—even though we're not blood-related," Serena replied.
But when she looked up, Keith's expression had turned cold. Before Serena could even react, he spoke up. "You can go now. I have other things to deal with."
Serena could tell Keith was angry, but she couldn't figure out why. She was about to say something when Keith's voice got sharper and he spoke again, "Get out."
Even though Serena didn't understand what was happening, she could see that something was seriously wrong with Keith right now. Instead of pushing for answers, she turned around and left his office.
'Did I say something wrong just now?' Serena thought.
There was a group of people outside the door who'd obviously been eavesdropping. Serena wasn't surprised to see them and calmly walked back to her desk without showing any reaction.
Half an hour later, rumors about Serena and Keith's breakup and failed settlement negotiations had spread through the entire company. Serena felt completely frustrated and helpless as she tried to explain, but no one wanted to listen to what she had to say.
Fortunately, Keith kept his word and cleared things up in the company group chat that evening, clarifying their relationship and warning everyone to stop gossiping. At least people in the office finally stopped talking about it.