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Ms. CEO’s Baby Daddy Is the Merchant of Death – Episode 07
Stephen Hayes did not invite Scarlett to sit. He stood at the head of the boardroom table as though it were a throne, financial reports scattered before him like evidence in a trial. The company was hemorrhaging money, he shouted, and she still had the audacity to appear before him. Scarlett met his anger with the cold control that had earned her a place in a world dominated by men like him.
She reminded Stephen that he remained chairman of the board. The failed decisions, reckless expenditures, and shrinking accounts bore his authorization, not hers. If he wanted someone to blame for the disaster, he could begin with the man reflected in the glass walls. Her refusal to accept guilt only deepened the fury around the table.
Scarlett’s stepmother gave a theatrical sigh. In her version of events, the solution had always been simple: Scarlett should have married Bennett Whitmore as ordered. The Whitmore fortune could have rescued Hayes Group, secured its social position, and rewarded everyone who depended on Scarlett’s obedience. Instead, she had fled and returned pregnant by an unknown man.
Danielle seized the opportunity to sneer at Summer. She claimed the company would not be dying if Scarlett had chosen duty over giving birth to a bastard. The word struck with more force than any accusation about money. Scarlett warned Danielle to close her mouth before she made the mistake of saying it again.
Summer was not a bastard, Scarlett declared. She had two parents who loved her, even if Connor had only just learned how much had been taken from him. Scarlett did not reveal the marriage yet; her family would twist any truth they received. Protecting the fragile new bond mattered more than proving them wrong.
Danielle recoiled and complained that Scarlett attacked her whenever she spoke. Her mother immediately gathered her into a performance of wounded innocence. Stephen saw only his favored wife and daughter being challenged. He demanded to know how Scarlett dared speak to her sister that way.
Scarlett rejected the title. Danielle shared her father’s blood, but sisterhood required more than biology. It required loyalty, decency, and the refusal to punish a child for an adult’s choices. Danielle possessed none of those things.
Her stepmother responded with calculated cruelty. Scarlett, she said, was the family embarrassment: a woman who had become pregnant after sleeping with a stranger and had not even known his identity. Each insult was meant to reduce a capable chief executive to a cautionary tale. Scarlett refused to give her the satisfaction of looking ashamed.
Stephen brought the conversation back to Bennett Whitmore. The wealthy heir might still take Scarlett, he claimed, if she removed the obstacle between them. His pause made the demand more monstrous, not less. She needed to get rid of Summer.
Scarlett stared at her father, unable to understand how he could speak so casually about his granddaughter. Stephen corrected her assumption. Summer was nothing to him, he said, only a fatherless accident who belonged in an orphanage. The contempt in his voice reached the small figure listening nearby.
Summer stepped forward before Scarlett could shield her. She announced that she did have a daddy now. Pride lifted her chin because the word finally belonged to her. For one hopeful instant, she seemed to believe the truth would make the adults stop.
Danielle crouched to the child’s height with a smile devoid of kindness. If Summer had a father, she asked, where had he been for the past four years? She repeated the vicious rumors people spread about Scarlett and transformed them into a weapon for a four-year-old to understand. Then she called Summer a worthless accident who should never have been born.
The room went silent. Summer’s brave expression crumpled as the cruelty landed, confirming every playground insult she had tried to forget. Scarlett saw pain enter her daughter’s eyes and felt something inside her break cleanly in two. The company’s future, the board, and the arranged marriage ceased to matter.
Her hand struck Danielle’s face with a sharp crack. Shock sent Danielle stumbling into her mother’s arms. Scarlett stood between them and Summer, every trace of corporate restraint gone. She would accept attacks against herself, but her daughter was beyond their reach.
Danielle screamed, pressing a hand to her cheek. Her mother turned immediately toward Stephen, demanding punishment. Neither woman considered the tears gathering in Summer’s eyes. In the Hayes family, the favored daughter’s humiliation mattered more than the deliberate torment of a child.
Scarlett warned Danielle never to insult Summer again. If she spoke one more cruel word, Scarlett would tear the tongue from her mouth herself. The threat was not elegant, but motherhood had taught Scarlett that civility was wasted on people who mistook restraint for weakness. She pulled Summer behind her and prepared for the consequences.
Stephen’s face darkened with disbelief. He had tolerated Scarlett’s independence only while believing he could eventually force her back into line. Watching her strike Danielle in his boardroom exposed how little control remained. His outrage had nothing to do with justice and everything to do with authority.
Summer clutched the fabric of Scarlett’s dress. She wanted Connor, though she was afraid to say so in front of the adults mocking him. The children’s watch rested against her wrist, his new number stored beneath the name Daddy. It was the first secret that made her feel safe.
Scarlett did not notice her daughter’s fingers closing around the watch. She faced Stephen as he strode around the table, ready to absorb whatever he directed at her. Behind him, Danielle’s tears vanished whenever no one was looking, replaced by a satisfied gleam. She had achieved exactly what she wanted.
“Dad, this bitch just hit me!” Danielle cried. Stephen raised his hand and advanced on Scarlett, ordering her to apologize before he beat her in front of her rotten little daughter. As Summer watched her grandfather prepare to strike, the family argument crossed into something far more dangerous.
