Chapter 16 — Passionate About A Twisted Love

What Nha Dan and Thien Lam did not know was that their visit to lawyer Trinh Khai Minh did not escape the eyes of the person who had been on high alert for the past twelve years. One of the law office employees, who had been installed by Cao Ba Vinh for a long time to monitor Mr. Minh's movements, immediately reported the entire meeting.

Cao Ba Vinh sat in his private office, his eyes darkened when he heard the report. Over the years, he has always been careful, always calculating every step to ensure his secret is never discovered, but now, just because of a little girl he once despised, the entire plan is in danger of collapsing.

"Even Thien Lam already knows." He muttered, his hands clenched into fists on his desk. "We can't let this continue anymore."

He called a private contact number, his voice became cold and cruel, completely different from the calm and gentle look that everyone often saw. "Prepare a backup plan. I need to eliminate any remaining evidence, and need a story convincing enough to separate the two of them before they can act."

A few days later, when Nha Dan was on her way from her mother's house back to the villa after a routine visit, the car she was sitting in was suddenly hit by a large truck from behind right on a deserted corner. The driver reacted promptly, swerving to avoid a fatal direct collision, but the car still crashed into the median, causing Nha Dan to suffer head and hand injuries and have to be hospitalized in the emergency room that night.

Thien Lam received the news, hastily left the important meeting unfinished, and rushed to the hospital as quickly as possible. When he ran into the emergency room and saw Nha Dan lying motionless on the hospital bed, his head wrapped in a white bandage, his whole body felt numb.

"How is she?" He asked the doctor on duty, his voice shaking with extreme anxiety.

"The injury is not too serious, just a mild concussion and a few skin tears that need stitches. The patient is being monitored and is expected to wake up in the next few hours." The doctor reassured her, but Thien Lam still couldn't feel secure until she saw Nha Dan open her eyes with her own eyes.

He sat by the hospital bed all night, holding her hand tightly, his eyes never leaving her pale face for even a second. In his heart, anger and fear mixed together, he had a clear feeling that this was not a random accident, but a deliberate warning.

Phan Dinh Long, after preliminary investigation, confirmed his suspicions. "The truck that caused the accident was rented by a cover transportation company. The driver disappeared immediately after the incident and could not be contacted. This is clearly a deliberately staged incident, not a normal accident."

Thien Lam clenched his hands, his eyes darkened and filled with murderous intent. "Uncle Vinh already knows we are investigating."

While Nha Dan was still in the hospital recuperating, another scandal storm struck. A series of fake images and messages were distributed on social networks, showing "evidence" that Nha Dan was secretly dating Lam Viet Dang while living with Thien Lam, accompanied by malicious captions accusing her of cheating and taking advantage of the group chairman's feelings.

The images were cut so delicately that it was difficult to distinguish between real and fake, clearly showing the professionalism and power of the person behind this staging. In just a few hours, the story spread rapidly across social networking sites and newspapers, turning Nha Dan from a pitiful traffic accident victim into the center of a loud love scandal.

Cao Tuyet Mai was the first person in the family to see those images and immediately called Thien Lam, her voice was full of anger mixed with a bit of undisguised gloating. "You see, I warned you before. That girl is not worth your concern or trust."

Thien Lam sat in the hospital waiting room, holding his phone in his hand, looking at the viral images. A vague feeling of doubt crept into his heart even though his mind still tried to cling to the trust he had just built with Nha Dan. He knew well about Cao Ba Vinh's sophisticated staging ability, but those terrifyingly realistic images still made his heart flutter.

At that moment, Phan Dinh Long walked in and showed him the preliminary investigation results about the origin of the photos. "I had the technical team check, these photos showed signs of very sophisticated editing, the time and location recorded in the metadata completely did not match Ms. Nha Dan's actual schedule. She never met Viet Dang at the times recorded in the photos, the entire time she was at the villa or with me."

Thien Lam breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, but soon his anger rose more intensely when he realized the level of cruelty and sophistication in Cao Ba Vinh's plot, ready to do everything, including causing a life-threatening accident and defaming the honor of an innocent person, just to protect his own secret.

"He's trying to separate us." Thien Lam said, his voice low and full of determination. "If I doubt Nha Dan, our relationship will collapse, she will lose support, lose motivation to continue investigating, and he will have enough time to destroy all remaining evidence."

He held the phone in his hand so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His eyes looked steadily at the door of the hospital room where Nha Dan was resting. No matter how sophisticated Cao Ba Vinh's plot was, Thien Lam told himself that this time, he had miscalculated one important thing: the feelings he had for Nha Dan were no longer something that could be easily shaken by cheap lies.

But Cao Ba Vinh did not stop there. He knew clearly that if he just stopped spreading rumors, there was a high possibility that Thien Lam with his sharp intelligence would soon expose the lies. He needed a stronger blow, directly aimed at Nha Dan herself, enough to make her confused, doubt herself and the feelings she had for Thien Lam.

Near morning, Nha Dan gradually woke up. Her head was still sore but her consciousness became clearer. The first thing she saw was Thien Lam's haggard face from staying up all night sitting next to the bed, his hand still holding her hand tightly.

"You..." She called softly, her voice still weak.

"You're awake." Thien Lam squeezed her hand tighter, his eyes filled with both relief and sadness. "How do you feel? Any pain anywhere?"

"My head is a bit dizzy, but it's okay." Nha Dan replied, trying to sit up but was gently held back by him. "What happened? I just remember the car getting hit and then passing out."

Thien Lam briefly recounted the accident, trying to keep her voice calm so as not to make her panic more, but when mentioning the possibility that this was a deliberately staged incident, Nha Dan's face turned pale.

"Uncle Vinh did that? He was willing to kill me just because he was afraid of being exposed?" She asked, her voice shaking with both fear and anger.

"We don't have direct evidence pointing to him being behind the accident, but the possibility is very high." Thien Lam replied, his knuckles turning white around the edge of the chair. "There's one more thing you should probably know before someone accidentally shows it to you."

He gave her the phone and showed her the fake images that were spreading online. Nha Dan stared at the screen, her hands trembled, almost dropping the phone on the bed mattress. "This is not true, I swear to you, I have never seen Viet Dang again since the day he came to the villa that time."

"I know." Thien Lam replied immediately, without any hesitation, making Nha Dan stunned and surprised by that absolute trust. "Phan Dinh Long has checked, these photos are edited, the time does not match your actual schedule. This is just another dangerous attack from Uncle Vinh to divide us."

Nha Dan felt tears welling up in her eyes, not because of injustice, but because she was touched by his trust while all the external evidence seemed unfavorable to her. "Thank you for believing in me."

"I trust you more than anything else right now." Thien Lam said, his hand cradling her bandaged hand, his eyes steady. "But we need to be more careful. He has struck this time, he will definitely not stop, and I fear that the next attacks will be much more dangerous and sophisticated, aimed directly at the relationship between the two of us."

Outside the hospital hallway, Lam Phong Group's media team began working all night to remove the fake images and prepare a corrective press release, but Thien Lam clearly understands that, no matter how quickly it is handled, malicious rumors, once spread, will still leave indelible scars in the hearts of the public, and especially in the hearts of Nha Dan herself, who is suffering all those injuries while her body has not yet fully recovered. full.

Nha Dan closed her eyes, leaned her head on the pillow, feeling the warmth from Thien Lam's hand still holding her hand tightly. Even though the pain in her wound was still dull, even though the fear of Cao Ba Vinh's cruelty was still there, she felt a rare bit of peace knowing that, at least now, there was someone willing to stand by her side despite all the doubts from the outside.