Seeing Loren suddenly collapse to the ground in pain, Maeve—whose face had just softened with a gentle expression—immediately twisted it into a ferocious scowl.
"You bastard! You absolute fool! Did you really think I was here to serve you tea?"
She crouched in front of him, sneering as she slapped his face like a parent disciplining a disobedient child, her eyes brimming with contempt.
"Why… why are you doing this?" Loren gasped, clearly fighting through intense pain. "Didn't you say the grudges of the last generation wouldn't spill over into ours?"
Hearing this, Maeve burst into laughter. "You fool! You actually believed me? Your father and I share an irreconcilable hatred. I've long wished him dead—and as his heir, you naturally deserve to die too."
"But if you kill me here," Loren pressed, his voice strained but curious, "aren't you afraid you won't make it out alive?"
"Hah! Are you talking about that secretary behind you?" Maeve smirked. "Let me enlighten you: you didn't ingest the poison—you inhaled it yourself. The moment I opened that box, the toxin dispersed through the room."
She gestured vaguely toward the ornate container on the table. "Everyone in here is already poisoned. Your 'beautiful' secretary won't escape it—she'll die right alongside you."
Her face darkened, eyes reddened with malice, making her look truly terrifying.
"So that's your plan," Loren said, slumping against the floor but locking eyes with her. "As my aunt, you really went to great lengths to kill me. Does that mean you were also behind my parents' deaths?"
Maeve let out a cold, derisive laugh. "Don't bother trying to trick me. You're a dead man—why would I confess? But fine. Yes. I had your parents killed. I orchestrated it all."
"Then you've joined Hydra."
Maeve's eyebrows lifted in genuine surprise. "I didn't expect you'd uncovered that much. Honestly, I underestimated you at first. That was my mistake. But it doesn't matter—you'll still die by my hand."
With that, she drew a dagger from her waist and lunged toward Loren's heart without hesitation. Even with his enhanced physiology, a direct strike would be fatal.
But just as the blade descended, Loren—who had lain motionless moments before—suddenly shot out his hand.
He seized Maeve's wrist, wrenched the dagger free with ease, and rose smoothly to his feet.
"You—!" Maeve recoiled, shock flashing across her face. "You can still move? And with that strength?!"
Realization struck her like ice water. She'd been played.
She whirled around and bolted for the exit—only to find 2B already standing in the doorway, having silently cut off her escape. With deliberate slowness, 2B closed the heavy hall door behind her.
Maeve was trapped.
Loren stretched his arms, rolling his shoulders as if shaking off dust. "My dear aunt," he said with a mocking smile, "did you really think I was that naive?"
He stepped forward, the stolen dagger glinting in his grip. "From the moment I entered this hall, I knew something was off. Hiding the toxin in a refreshment box? Clever. But the gas was weak—barely enough to make a normal person dizzy. It had zero effect on me. I had to act poisoned just to see how far you'd go."
His words struck Maeve like a physical blow. Humiliation burned in her chest. That poison had been meticulously engineered—lethal even to super-soldiers. A single breath should've dropped an ox.
But at this moment, Loren actually said that it had no effect. How could she bear this? It was humiliation—naked humiliation!
"You are not Loren. Loren is not as powerful as you, nor does he have as many thoughts as you. Who are you?" Maeve's face was gloomy. She immediately realized that the Loren in front of her was completely different from the Loren in her memory—like a different person entirely.
"Haha, my dear aunt, what nonsense are you talking about? If I'm not Loren, then who is?" Loren wore a joking expression, of course unable to reveal that he was a time traveler.
"You can't fool me. The real Loren Morgan has long been spoiled by his parents—indulged in sensual pleasures and utterly lacking in brains. He's nothing but a loser. And you…" She narrowed her eyes. "I have to admit, you're very cunning and vicious!"
"Really? It seems you know me quite well! But people grow up. My cunning and ruthlessness are nothing compared to yours. As his sister, you actually planned to kill your own brother with your own hands. You're such a vicious woman—you truly deserve to die!"
Loren's tone turned icy. He wished he could kill the woman before him on the spot.
He was a time traveler—and he felt no kinship toward this so-called aunt.
"The one who deserved death was your father," Maeve shot back. "If he hadn't killed my eldest brother, how could I possibly hate him so much? He destroyed everything I had. Of course I had to avenge him. He deserved to die."
"You're wrong—absolutely wrong. My father had no motive to kill my uncle. If you don't believe me, look at this."
Loren activated a projection. The display split into two parts.
The first segment showed a secret conversation between Loren's father and the family elder, arguing fiercely over the succession to the head of the Morgan family. In it, Loren's father adamantly refused the position.
But the elder had cornered him.
The second clip was even more shocking: it captured Maeve's illicit affair with her elder brother—Loren's uncle.
That was precisely why Loren's father had wanted to leave the Morgan family and live his own life. The betrayal had shattered him so deeply that he couldn't bear to stay.
No one could have predicted that his elder brother would die suddenly in an accident—forcing him to assume the role of family head.
But that very turn of events led Maeve to believe it had all been his scheme from the start.
And thus, this chain of tragedy began.
Staring at the images on the projection, Maeve stood frozen—struck as if by lightning. She'd never imagined her younger brother had already uncovered her secret.
"Turn it off! Turn it off now!" she screamed, fury twisting her voice as she ordered Loren to shut the video down.