Chapter 9: This was only the beginning.

Audrey's POV

[Audrey, I think you need to apologize to me and my family. Originally I didn't dare speak the truth, but this morning I saw the newspaper and BBC reporting on the psychiatric hospital where I was persecuted. The owner behind it is Audrey's lover. They locked Daniel and me in the psychiatric hospital, claiming we were mental patients, but we're not! Our faces were completely ruined. Just yesterday, Audrey, that demon, injured my little brother so badly he nearly needed amputation, then forced our entire family to kneel in the living room until she was satisfied. I'll post the videos and photos—this is evidence of Audrey's cruelty to us! I'm gathering courage to speak out because I believe justice is never late!]

Below the lengthy text were photos and videos.

The video had been edited to show only the scenes of me "seizing" the villa and injuring Oliver—but for some reason Lyanna was cautious enough not to show my full face.

The comment section below was filled with people calling me vicious, a murderer, and Lyanna's fans expressing sympathy for her.

I'd almost forgotten—after attending the Ashford University with me, Lyanna had begun exploiting the information gap to curate her campus life, becoming an influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers.

Lyanna had been jealous of my position as Director of Communications in the student council, so she'd begged Robert to donate enough to secure her an honorary title as a charity ambassador, which she'd been proud of ever since.

Her statement now corroborated the BBC report, subjecting Milos's hospital to attack. William proposed holding a press conference to clarify matters.

I stopped them. "No, that's not a good idea."

William looked at me with a complicated expression. "Ma'am, if you hadn't let them go, none of this would have happened!"

"Enough, William!" Milos looked at him coldly.

William fell silent, but his attitude made it clear he still blamed me. I wouldn't hold it against him though—I knew he was thinking of Milos's interests.

In my previous life, when Milos's hospital came under attack, tens of thousands of medical staff lost their jobs, and the hospital's program of regularly distributing basic fever medication to the poor was forced to shut down.

And all from a single report by Frank and his allies with unverified evidence. For profit, for congressional elections, they'd brought disaster upon ordinary people.

This time, none of those tragedies would happen.

Because I would personally expose Frank's conspiracy!

Milos decided to take my advice and told William to hold off on any clarification for now.

However, that very afternoon, his hospital came under attack from protesters claiming to stand for justice. Several security personnel were injured in the chaos.

Even Daniel joined the fray, reposting Lyanna's content with his own commentary: [Everyone, I'm Audrey's fiancé. Because she found a better option, she falsely accused Lyanna and me of having an affair and even insulted us! This is a personal attack on my character!]

The photo he attached made me laugh out loud—a shot showing only his nose and forehead, with the word "Fornicators" prominently displayed across it.

William couldn't hold back any longer. "Boss! We can't just sit and watch anymore. We need to take action immediately, or the hospital will be forced to shut down."

Milos's face turned iron-gray. He gripped his phone tightly and shot me a glare.

"Hey, you don't need to be so tense. This is just a minor conflict. I have a better way to resolve it." I patted Milos's shoulder reassuringly.

He turned his head away angrily, refusing to look at me. "That's not what I'm upset about."

Not about the hospital? Then what was bothering him?

Before I could ask, my phone buzzed with a new message.

It was from Sophia, asking when we could proceed. David was eager to participate in this righteous exposure.

[Ok, start now.]

After sending my reply, I stood up and told Milos I was going to take a nap.

Back in the master bedroom, I pulled out my laptop and began typing code at lightning speed. Breaking into Frank's computer was surprisingly easy.

He was a cautious, cunning snake who had layered seven levels of protection on his system. Even David, if he wasn't careful, could easily trigger one of the traps. But I navigated through them effortlessly.

I copied all of Frank's communications with congressional representatives, along with their corrupt money-for-influence transactions, storing everything on my own computer.

William knocked on the bedroom door. When I opened it, he still wore a sour expression. "Madam, the boss retrieved some evidence. You can decide whether to use it or not."

"Ok." I took the USB drive from him and opened it on my computer. Inside were videos of Lyanna and Daniel meeting secretly behind my back, as well as footage of Lyanna—supposedly a charity ambassador—using donation funds to buy luxury goods. The cookies and milk she distributed to the poor were expired, and the medical supplies she provided were defective rejects from the manufacturing process, cheap pills and bandages that had been discarded as substandard.

"God, William, please thank Milos for me. This is incredibly valuable."

William glanced curiously at my computer screen, then nodded and left.

I first uploaded the videos Milos had given me to my personal social media account without adding any caption. Just posting the videos alone attracted a swarm of followers.

Within a minute, people began sharing my videos, expressing shock that they'd almost been fooled by those two despicable people, Lyanna and Daniel.

@Lily: [My God, I can understand why Audrey wanted to torment this pair of cheating scum. If it were me, I'd destroy them both!]

@Nanana: [Ok, I can understand the tattoo incident, but Audrey hurt her own parents and brother, and there's the BBC report. She needs to apologize for that!]

@Mike: [Hey, friends, I don't care about your messed-up love lives. I just want to know—is it true that the hospital kidnapped ordinary people for experiments?]

The share count climbed from one hundred to ten thousand, with countless people tagging me with questions.

I first responded to the user "Nanana": [Hi, if you knew that my father and stepmother got married just one month after my mother died, and that their daughter is only one year younger than me, you'd be just as angry as I am. As for the BBC report, you should know that the news director, Frank, is Daniel's father. I don't believe his reporting comes from an objective standpoint.]

To "Mike's" question, I replied with just one word: [No!]

After that, I kept monitoring David's activities. Finally, five minutes later, using the identity of an anonymous justice-seeker, he released videos and audio recordings of Frank and his associates plotting against Milos and me.

This included the evidence I'd just sent him: proof of Lyanna's charity fraud, and Frank's long-term dealings with certain congressional representatives. As BBC's news director, he had used his position to destroy the reputations of his clients' political opponents.

These revelations hit social media like a stone thrown into a still lake. Users erupted in celebration, countless people saving the evidence and reposting it even after the platform tried to delete it.

I smiled with satisfaction.

Hey, my enemies, are you enjoying what you're seeing?

This was only the beginning. Damaged reputations were the lightest punishment. I was confident that FBI agents would soon be paying Frank a visit.

Linda came to knock on my door, asking if I wanted lunch.

"Is sir still here?"

"Sir went to the company, madam."

Hearing that Milos had left dampened my spirits. Perhaps it was because of last night—I'd grown accustomed to him being inside me, holding me, his scent possessively enveloping me.

Ignoring the reluctance in my heart, I simply told Linda, "Bring me fried eggs with lamb chops and a pumpkin soup."

On my way to the dining room, Linda mentioned that someone claiming to be my father had called.

I remembered blocking Robert and his family yesterday, so it wasn't surprising he'd called the house phone.

I took the phone from Linda. "Robert."

"Audrey! Are you trying to destroy us?! Make Milos delete everything immediately and tell everyone those videos were AI-generated!"