Pull victory out of his ass at the last minute.

Seto's eyes rose to meet hers. He saw the passion, the fire he'd felt their first time together. He saw the anger, the frustration of the second. He saw the forbearance, the sympathy of the third. He saw the surprise and excitement from when Marc entered the picture. He saw her outright joy the moment she bounded out of Mokuba's bedroom. He saw possibilities branching into the future. "Mrs. Kaiba, I won't fail you."

Seto closed his eyes as he drew, and then opened one to peek at the card. Megamorph. At least that scheming cyber geek Rebecca had left him with one good card. Fat lot of good it would do him on these monsters, though.

Kayla's sharp voice cut into his thought process. "Face it, Seto. That whore is the one failing you. You've paid her to act this way towards you, but it isn't real. The fact that your heart can't summon Blue Eyes White Dragon right now proves it. Come with me, and my spirit will lead you to victory in every duel."

"Now you've asked for it. You want to see what happens when my heart summons a monster?" Several years ago, Seto had experimented with neural implants. He'd streamlined most of his wetware and rarely used it anymore because of the headaches it caused, but his neural interface still resided in his brain. If Kayla and Rebecca were going to play dirty, he might as well take it up a notch. "The other thing I haven't yet mentioned about my whore is that, above all else, she pushes me to strive beyond my limits." Seto concentrated on his dragon. Its powerful talons. Its massive wingspan. Then a thought came to him. Why settle for one when he could have three? Like the redwood trees, like his new family, they would be stronger in numbers. "I summon Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon!"

A whirlwind appeared before Seto as a gigantic dragon with three heads materialized. Camera flashes glinted off its iolite scales. 4500 attack points displayed beside the massive monster.

A collective gasp preceded absolute silence.

"Hey! You didn't draw that card. You didn't even sacrifice, let alone fuse, any monsters to summon it. That's cheating!" Kayla shouted.

"What constitutes cheating depends on the rules of the game, and I don't date cheaters. When it comes to love, we write our own rules. Kaiba Corp duel disks, on the other hand, come with a user agreement that you apparently failed to read. Since you've already cheated with the help of your hacker friend, there's no point in dragging on this sham. I equip Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon with Megamorph, and since my life points are lower than yours, that means its attack points double."

The holographic 4500 scrolled up to 9000 attack points.

"Enjoy my white lightning, because this is all you're ever going to get. Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, white lightning attack!"

Kayla screamed as the dragon's blast hit her Strength of Prophecy and wiped out all 4000 of her life points in one fell swoop. She dropped to her knees, defeated.

Joan and Mokuba sprang forth to hug Seto. Seto grabbed Joan's face and sucked on her lips as camera flashes zapped their eyelids. Joan didn't care that the world was watching anymore. In fact, she hoped that the backstabbing bitches from her internship were watching. Let them see how little she cared about their belittling, condescending remarks. She and Michael had lasted through the years despite their attempts at sabotage, and now she had everything she ever dreamed of.

Joan took her time kissing Mokuba next, letting a fresh round of flashes capture every angle imaginable. While Seto gave a victory speech and told Kayla to get out of his sight before he decided to file a restraining order, Joan headed back to Marc and Michael. A few cameras followed Joan, but most remained trained on Seto. Mokuba stayed with Seto as well, ready to save face in case Seto went off the deep end with his threats toward Kayla.

Michael wrapped Joan in a bear hug and kissed her.

"You know how to handle your men," Marc said, blown away by the spectacle his bosses had allowed. "They're actually going to pay you for the wife experience?"

"Yep," Michael answered. "They also have baby rabies."

"No kidding?" Marc saw a serious expression on Michael's face and absolute glee on Joan's. "Are you going to let them carry out that part of the fantasy?"

Joan and Michael filled Marc in on the details until Linda reminded Michael that she'd already pushed Nathaniel's bedtime back far enough. Nathaniel whined that he wanted to at least get Seto Kaiba's autograph, so Linda dug a scrap of paper out of her purse and Joan got Seto to sign it with a little note to his future nephew. Joan thanked Marc and Michael again for showing up before they headed off with their other women.