CHAPTER 2 – The Live Broadcast She Forgot
Damian reached for the phone.
The screen was still streaming.
More than forty-three thousand people were watching.
Comments flooded upward so quickly they blurred together.
Poor woman.
Call the police!
Who is that monster?
Someone save the old lady!
Serena had forgotten one simple thing.
She had gone live.
Damian looked at the camera.
His voice was calm.
"To everyone watching..."
He turned the phone toward Evelyn's bleeding scalp.
"This is my mother."
Silence settled over the garden.
"My fiancée assaulted her."
Thousands of comments exploded.
Then Damian ended the stream.
He wasn't interested in public sympathy.
He wanted evidence.
He opened the video gallery.
Serena hadn't stopped recording after ending previous clips.
Several videos appeared.
Each one was worse than the last.
One showed Serena mocking Evelyn while forcing her to scrub marble floors.
Another captured Serena hiding Evelyn's medication inside a kitchen cabinet.
A third showed Serena laughing with a friend.
"By the time Damian finds out," Serena giggled into the camera, "his mother will look senile."
Her friend laughed.
"And he'll believe you?"
"Of course."
Serena smiled confidently.
"I've been recording fake crying videos for months."
Damian's hands tightened around the phone.
Every accusation Evelyn had quietly denied...
Every apology she had made...
Every bruise she claimed came from "bumping into furniture"...
It had all been Serena.
Footsteps echoed from inside the mansion.
Serena returned carrying two expensive suitcases.
She stopped when she saw Damian holding her phone.
Her face drained of color.
"Give me that."
Damian didn't move.
"You recorded your own crimes."
For the first time since he had met her...
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Serena looked genuinely afraid.
Because she knew exactly what was on that phone.
