The Villain's Wife (WN)

"It wasn't complete." The Duke sighed. "This was A project by the US during the cold war. It does not have the information about what they were studying or what they were doing. But it was indicated that she worked as an assistant for the scientist that was incharge of the project. This was when… she ran away from home."

Lily frowned. She knew that her grandmother ran away from the Facci family in Italy. As the only child, this action broke her parent's hearts. However, she came back to apologize, and everything was okay until her parents died in a car crash. At that time, Lilian was already managing their family business.

After her parent's death, she immediately moved to London and started hustling until she could make the Facci Merchandise into the Facci Group. It was a big jump, and her grandmother worked hard for it.

"One of the reasons why my grandfather was against Lily was becauseshe used to work for an American Scientist. He thought it could attract trouble, especially when the scientist vanished after the project was cancelled. 

"Vanished?" That probably means the scientist was silenced, right?

"Hmmm, no one knows where he is until now. Of course… it would be right to say that he already passed away, but the point is no one saw him after that project was cancelled."

"There was no mention of the experiments?" Lily asked.

"There was none. Of course, this was not something unusual as the government removed all traces of the experiment."

"Biotechnology, right?"

"Yes." The Duke nodded. "However… this… this was only a rumor. My grandfather was not able to confirm this. It's just that he saw a photo of Lilian with the scientist, and he immediately assumed that she was a secretary."

"Where is this picture?"

"It's…" the Duke hesitated for a few seconds. "It's with Lilian."

Lily raised an eyebrow as she waited for him to elaborate.

"She came back after… after that messy introduction and got the picture. Or so… that's what my grandfather said. He also said something else." The Duke gulped. "He said… 'they succeeded'."

"I see." Lily nodded. Now that she thought about it, everything that the Duke says would make sense as her grandmother was the type of woman who would work as a secretary of a scientist. She was extremely detail-oriented and smart.

"I hope that made sense." The Duke said before he smiled. "I know that sounds irrelevant to you. However… I hope it somehow gave you an idea about your grandmother."

"Hmmm. Thank you." Lily said as she met his eyes. "Is that it?"

"Yes. That's all."

"Hmmm. Then I will leave you alone so you could have some time with them." Lily knew that it's been six months since Levi and Eliza had a conversation with their father. Without waiting for the Duke to say anything, Lily went out of the room and asked the twins to get back inside so they could talk to their father.

...............…..

Day of the press conference.

At exactly nine fifty-nine in the morning, Leandro strode inside the room full of reporters. He lifted his chin and eyed every one of the people in the vast room. He then signaled his people to start with the introductions. Leandro did not like wasting any more time. The damage to his reputation is already enormous because of the video that Lily released yesterday. Moreover, the rumors swirling about his support for the terrorists had reached the EU. More and more people are calling his office to get an interview about the matter.

He could not let something like this continue. He eyed Mikaela, who sat next to him, and thought about the huge bags under her eyes just this morning. Just like him, Mikaela was unable to sleep last night. 

"Your turn." Mikaela's voice woke him up from his stupor. "Go ahead."

Leandro nodded, his lips thinned as he walked towards the stand where various microphones were located. This press conference is live on TV, so aside from the mic, there were also some lighting and video cameras behind the reporters. He cleared his throat and looked at everyone inside the room. "Good Morning. My name is Leandro de Nassae, and I am here to address the current issue that has been going around online about my family. As you all know, the Nassae family had been serving the people of Luxembourg since this country had escaped the clutches of other countries. Since then, we have grown into one of the richest countries in Europe. Not only this, we have also acquired a lot of awards and became one of the most competitive financial centers of the world…" After his lengthy introductions about the things that his predecessors had done in the past, Leandro finally decided to address the issue about the video.

"We have here the result of an extreme examination done by a video analyst that states the video showing Mikaela and my father fighting was fake. I will ask my people later to send everyone a copy of this document. You can even ask another expert to examine this document to prove that this is not fake. Second, the accusations of me supporting the terrorist group are not only nonsensical but also illogical. First and foremost, the Nassae Family never associated themselves with terrorists, we never and would never support such heinous acts, as well as the people behind them."

He continued, "The royal family and I are going to file charges to the media company who started spreading the false rumors online. Aside from this, we will also file a case to the bank that was involved. I — as the next Grand Duke, would not hesitate to show my financial records to everyone. That includes the money that was sent to and from my account. I wanted to show everyone that I would never embarrass the blood that is running in the veins, the very same that is serving the people of Luxembourg. And the people who started spreading false articles about my family, I would let my Royal Family's lawyers handle it. We will find out the truth sooner or later, and I wanted everyone to be there with me once the truth comes out in the open. Thank you, and have a wonderful day ahead." He smiled. "I am going to answer ten questions from the reporters now."