Reborn to Love Mr. Right – Episode 21
Evelyn Scott entered the principal’s office without waiting for permission, and Derek followed as if he had never fled North Road. The expensive suit disguised the mud still trapped beneath his fingernails. Arianna noticed because she knew how often he mistook clean clothes for a clean history. Hayden moved between them before Derek could come closer. The protective gesture was small, but Evelyn watched it with open calculation.
“You were told to come home,” Evelyn said to Hayden. Her smooth tone treated him like an unruly child rather than a young executive with his own security team. She claimed the Scott chairman had authorized her to protect the family from a manufactured Taylor scandal.
Hayden asked why that protection included a fugitive. Evelyn produced a letter identifying Derek as a confidential witness in an internal investigation into Victor Cross. Until his statement was complete, Scott Global’s attorneys had arranged temporary immunity from company security and requested police supervision.
“Immunity from private security is not immunity from kidnapping,” Arianna said. Derek smiled and reminded her that Victor had tied Jeff inside the van. According to his revised story, Derek had pretended to cooperate so he could lead the Taylors to Victor.
The lie was elegant because Victor had issued the visible threats. Derek’s messages could be portrayed as part of an undercover performance, while his escape became fear of retaliation. Evelyn had turned one night of evidence into a shield before the police finished processing it. She had not erased his crimes; she had buried them beneath enough legal uncertainty to slow every consequence.
Ivy stared at Derek from beside the principal’s desk. He did not look at her until Evelyn mentioned the future photographs. Then his gaze carried a warning so intimate that Ivy stepped backward.
Evelyn denied knowing how the images had been created, but called them proof that Donald and Arianna were manipulating Hayden. She held up a leather folder bearing seals from both families. “The Taylors have been planning to acquire Scott Global through him since before these children were born.”
Inside lay an engagement agreement signed by Donald and Hayden’s late mother. Arianna had heard of their parents’ hope that she and Hayden might marry, but the document went further. A hidden clause transferred Hayden’s voting shares to a Taylor-controlled trust upon marriage. The language made affection sound like a hostile acquisition wrapped in wedding vows.
Derek watched her read it. His earlier accusation returned with new force: Hayden might be another man waiting to own—or be owned by—the Taylor name. Arianna hated that doubt could survive even after she recognized its source.
Donald arrived with counsel and rejected the agreement immediately. The signature resembled his, yet he had never approved a transfer of Scott assets. Evelyn invited him to challenge it in court, where the resulting headlines would damage both companies.
Hayden asked whether his father knew she had returned. Evelyn’s composure tightened for the first time. She said the chairman was ill and had delegated all family matters to her, including the responsibility of ending Hayden’s association with Arianna.
“My association is not yours to end,” Hayden replied. Evelyn reminded him that the trust controlling his inheritance still required board approval until his next birthday. She could not command his feelings, but she could strip him of the security, staff, and authority he had used to protect the Taylors.
Arianna recognized the trap. If Hayden stayed, Evelyn would portray him as a captive of Donald’s fraudulent marriage plan. If he left, Derek would gain the separation he had wanted from the beginning. Either outcome would force their private trust to answer a public accusation designed by their enemies.
Hayden removed his Scott Global access card and placed it on the desk. “Keep the title until you remember it doesn’t own me.” The sacrifice silenced Evelyn, but it frightened Arianna. He had surrendered real power for a choice she had not asked him to make.
Evelyn recovered and announced that Derek would return to school under legal protection. The internal investigation, she claimed, had cleared him of direct involvement in Victor’s crimes. The principal objected, but Evelyn reminded him that the Scott Foundation funded the science wing.
Derek approached Arianna as adults argued around them. “In the first life, he lost his family because of you,” he murmured. “This time, you’re making it happen sooner.” He wanted her to carry responsibility for Hayden’s decision just as she once carried blame for Derek’s cruelty.
Arianna met Hayden’s eyes across the office. He showed no regret, only a quiet request that she trust the person standing before her rather than the future Derek described. She closed the engagement folder without answering Derek.
Donald’s attorney took the disputed document for forensic review. Evelyn allowed it because she had already distributed copies to financial reporters. News alerts appeared within minutes, questioning whether Taylor Industries had engineered a marriage to seize Scott Global.
Outside, students gathered to watch Derek return under Evelyn’s protection. He lifted his chin while cameras framed him as a wronged whistleblower. The same crowd that had mocked him after the gala now hesitated, uncertain which wealthy family possessed the truth.
As Evelyn led Derek toward the auditorium, Ivy’s future cloud account refreshed on Arianna’s phone. A new file appeared without an uploader. It showed the engagement agreement burning inside a school trophy case—and beneath it, a timestamp exactly twenty-four hours away.
