Chapter 18 — Hockey Stars Can't Overcome My Figure

Reckless Gambit

Dinh Ba Vong received news from an old acquaintance working in the banking industry that there was an unusual payment for DNA testing services at a reputable center, performed under the name of a woman named Thuy Dung - a name he remembered from internal records related to the incident four years ago. He immediately called his daughter, his voice filled with rare concern.

"Ha Vy, you need to know this right away," he said. "Someone contacted Thuy Dung, and they did a DNA test. If those results get out, our whole plan will collapse."

Ha Vy felt a cold run down her spine, even though she tried to maintain a calm appearance. "Are you sure about this information?"

"Sure," Dinh Ba Vong replied. "And I suspect the person behind this is the analyst of the White Tiger Ice River Team, whom you warned me about before."

Ha Vy sat silently for a long time, her mind racing to calculate options. Her original plan — to gradually squeeze Bao Duy into a marriage through public pressure and guilt — is at risk of complete collapse if the truth about baby Bin's origins is exposed before she can complete her goal.

"We need to speed things up," she said, her voice hard again. "If we wait any longer, we will lose everything. I think we should organize a big event where Bao Duy is forced to publicly pledge responsibility before anyone can object."

"What are you going to do?" Dinh Ba Vong asked.

"I will fake a DNA test result, through my relationship with some people in the medical industry that my family still influences," Ha Vy said, her voice cold and scary. "I will announce it right before the Platinum Cup final, when all the media and the team's leadership will focus the highest attention. At that time, public pressure will be so great that Bao Duy will have no other choice but to publicly acknowledge baby Bin and commit to marriage with him, right on the spot, in front of the camera."

"This is a very reckless move," Dinh Ba Vong said, his voice a bit worried even though he himself was struggling to find a way to save the company that was on the brink of collapse. "If someone finds out the test results are fake..."

"No one will find out in time," Ha Vy interrupted, her voice determined. "At that moment, in front of hundreds of cameras, no one had enough time or tools to verify immediately. And once Bao Duy made a public commitment, withdrawing that promise later would make him look like a liar, regardless of the truth. The public image, once shaped, is very difficult to reverse."

After the call with his daughter, Dinh Ba Vong sat alone in the office, looking out the company office window filled with notices about due debts. He was not unaware that his daughter's plan involved serious moral hazard, using an innocent child as a tool for an attempted marriage. But faced with the risk of losing everything — his company, his family's honor, his own daughter's future — he chose to convince himself that this was only a temporary solution, necessary to get through the most difficult times, and that when things stabilized again, he would find a way to make it up to the child in some way.

It's a self-deception that many people in desperate situations often make — believing that good intentions in the future can compensate for wrongdoing in the present. But deep inside, a part of him still feels insecure about the path his family is taking, but that insecurity is not big enough for him to stop his daughter right now.

The plan was meticulously outlined in the following days. Dinh Ba Vong used his old relationship with a private laboratory to obtain a sophisticatedly falsified DNA test result, convincing enough to deceive those without medical expertise. Ha Vy, through the media relationships she had quietly built over the past several weeks, arranged to have an official press conference held right at Bach Ho Ice Palace, the morning before the final match.

She also sent a private message to Bao Duy, announcing the "test results" and the upcoming press conference, framing it as good news: "Mr. Bao Duy, I have the test results. Just as I have believed all along, little Bin is your biological child. I arranged a press conference so we can publicly welcome him fully, exactly as he deserves. I hope you will stand beside me and the baby at this important moment."

Bao Duy read that message with an indescribable feeling of chaos — both a bit of relief because there was finally a clear answer, and also a vague insecurity that he couldn't explain, a premonition that there was something wrong with the speed and way things were happening too fast and too convenient for the story that Ha Vy always wanted him to believe.

He did not know that, in another corner of the city, Yen Thao and Chan Phong had just received news about the upcoming press conference, through an internal source from the team's media department. They understood immediately that this was the moment they had been waiting for, even though it came sooner and more quickly than they expected.

"They are trying to strike the decisive blow before we can react," Cao Viet Anh said over the phone, his voice tense. "We need to prepare everything quickly and accurately. There cannot be any mistakes."

Yen Thao held the phone tightly, feeling her heart beating rapidly. She knew that the decisive moment of the whole story, the moment when all the efforts of the past weeks would be tested in front of the entire public, was now only one night away.

She immediately called Chan Phong. "Have you heard the news?"

"Okay," he replied, his voice calm but decisive. "Cao Viet Anh also called me. We need to meet tonight to come up with a specific plan. This is not the time to panic, Yen Thao. We have been preparing for this moment for a long time, it's just that it came earlier than expected."

"I know," she said, trying to calm her breathing. "But if they present a fake test result right in front of the public, we need to make sure our evidence is strong enough to immediately refute it, without leaving any room for doubt."

"We will be fully prepared," Chan Phong affirmed. "I'll come pick you up in half an hour. Let's go meet Cao Viet Anh to review all the files one last time before facing them."

That night became a long, sleepless night for all three of them, as they reviewed every detail in the evidence file, preparing for the decisive moment of confrontation that none of them knew for sure which way it would go, but they all understood one thing clearly: there was no turning back.

Near midnight, when Cao Viet Anh took a break to make another pot of tea, Yen Thao sat quietly looking at the thick file spread on the table - the result of nearly two months of silent investigation, of countless sleepless nights, of the risks that both she and Chan Phong had accepted in exchange. She thought of baby Bin, an innocent child sleeping somewhere in this city, completely unaware of the storm that was about to hit tomorrow. She told herself that, whatever the outcome, her ultimate goal was not revenge or regaining anything she had lost, but to ensure that the child, and indeed the truth, would be treated fairly in the end.

Chan Phong, sitting next to her, noticed her distant eyes and gently placed his hand on her shoulder. "Are you thinking about baby Bin?"

She nodded, not hiding it. "He doesn't deserve any consequences from adults' calculations. No matter how things turn out tomorrow, I just hope he is protected from unnecessary hurt."

"That's what I want too," Chan Phong replied, his voice gentle. "And I believe, with our careful preparation, tomorrow will be the day the truth will be protected, not buried again, no matter what the cost."