Daniel didn't even look at Chloe.
"Mom?!" Daniel gasped, his voice trembling in sheer disbelief.
Chloe’s dramatic crying stopped dead in its tracks. Her jaw went slack, her eyes nearly popping out of her head as she looked back and forth between her husband and the wet woman in the grey uniform.
"M-Mom?" Chloe stammered, her voice cracking as a wave of icy terror washed over her. "Daniel... what... what do you mean, 'Mom'?"
Daniel completely ignored Chloe. He practically threw himself forward, stripping off his expensive navy suit jacket and gently wrapping it around his mother’s shivering, soaked shoulders. His hands shook with a volatile mix of heartbreak, rage, and guilt.
"Mom, are you okay?!" Daniel asked desperately, wiping a tear from his own eyes. "Why are you wearing a staff uniform? What on earth happened here?!"
Mrs. Eleanor offered her son a serene, unbothered smile, gently patting his hand. "I am fine, Daniel. I simply wanted to observe how the woman you chose to marry would treat the people who work under her when she thought no one important was watching."
Mrs. Eleanor then turned her sharp, piercing eyes toward Chloe, who was now trembling violently on the marble floor, her face as white as a sheet.
"And over the past fourteen days," Mrs. Eleanor spoke, her voice ringing out like a thunderclap through the quiet foyer, "I have observed everything I needed to see. On day three, you verbally abused our seventy-year-old butler. On day seven, you broke into the secondary safe and stole family heirlooms. On day ten, you threatened to fire the entire kitchen staff because they didn't bow to you... And today, you threw a bucket of filthy water over my head."
"No... no, that's not true!" Chloe shrieked, scrambling forward on her hands and knees to grab the hem of Daniel's trousers. "Daniel, I was tricked! I thought she was just an insolent maid who wasn't showing me proper respect as the lady of the house!"
"The lady of the house?" Daniel laughed bitterly, stepping back with utter disgust and kicking her hands away. "Chloe, this house doesn't belong to me! Every acre of this estate, along with eighty percent of the Sterling Corporation, belongs solely to my mother!"
Daniel’s words struck Chloe like a crushing physical blow. The horrifying realization settled into her chest: she hadn't married a self-made billionaire with total control of a fortune. She had married a man whose entire lifestyle, status, and authority were completely dependent on the very woman she had just humiliated and drenched in dirty water.
"Mrs. Sterling... please!" Chloe sobbed hysterically, her expensive makeup running down her face in dark, messy streaks. Her former arrogance was completely gone, replaced by frantic, pathetic desperation. She scrambled across the wet marble, trying to grasp Eleanor’s feet. "I am so sorry! I was foolish, arrogant, and reckless! Please forgive me! Daniel, please tell her! We just got married two weeks ago!"
Mrs. Eleanor stepped back, her posture regally erect despite her wet uniform and ruined hair. She pulled a small, silver memory card from her shirt pocket and handed it to the head butler, who had rushed into the foyer.
"Every hidden camera throughout this estate has recorded your continuous harassment, theft, and assault over the last fortnight," Mrs. Eleanor said, her voice dropping into an icy, unyielding calm. "This will serve as irrefutable evidence in court."
Daniel pulled his phone from his pocket with hands that shook with cold determination. He dialed his private attorney and placed the call on speakerphone.
"Steven," Daniel commanded, his voice cutting through Chloe’s wailing. "Draft divorce papers immediately. Invoke the morality and egregious misconduct clause to nullify the prenuptial agreement completely. I want her out of my life and stripped of every legal claim today."
"No! Daniel, no! You can't do this to me!" Chloe shrieked, clawing at the air as she tried to reach him.
Before she could touch him, two heavy security guards—who had received the emergency signal from Eleanor’s walkie-talkie—stepped through the grand front doors and seized Chloe by her arms.
"Remove her from my home," Mrs. Eleanor ordered calmly, holding her head high. "And ensure she leaves with nothing more than the clothes on her back."