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Chapter 6: The PR War

For the next few days, I locked myself securely inside the mansion. My phone was powered off, cutting off all contact with the chaotic outside world. Only my father regularly sent me an encrypted message every single day, letting me know that he and my mother were safe.

I knew perfectly well that the elite outside world must have been in utter chaos. The scandalous news of me publicly breaking off the engagement and violently slapping Harrison in the face during the wedding ceremony could not be concealed. The upper class only has so many people; even a small breeze can stir up a huge hurricane.

Moreover, this was a matter concerning the untouchable young master of the Sterling family. Public opinion has never been on the side of the truth when billionaires are involved. Especially when the other side is a family with immense corporate power.

My father was struggling under tremendous pressure. The Sterling family and their ruthless business associates were putting massive pressure on his company—sometimes threatening, sometimes using bribery, employing all sorts of dirty corporate tricks. His office phone was ringing off the hook, and several lucrative projects that were about to be signed had been suddenly suspended for “no apparent reason.”

However, when my father called me on a secure line, he absolutely did not complain about those things. He only spoke in a steady, mountain-like, comforting voice.

“Daughter, do not worry. I can handle it all,” my dad promised. “Someone has already inquired about buying that mansion. A buyer made a very quick, all-cash offer. Although it’s much lower than the actual market price, selling it quickly is worthwhile because I need the liquid cash to build a firewall for us.”

I understood that my dad was trying to convert the physical assets into untraceable cash as quickly as possible to prepare a fallback plan for me.

And the ultimate weapon in my hand was the marriage agreement.

I contacted Lawyer Davis and sent him a high-definition photo of the signed agreement. After reading the clauses, he immediately took a deep breath of amazement.

“Miss Vivienne, this agreement is extremely, unbelievably advantageous to you,” Lawyer Davis said, his voice buzzing with legal excitement. “As long as you can definitively prove that Mr. Sterling is at fault—especially for his psychological manipulation, treating you as a substitute, and causing serious emotional distress—we not only retain all prenuptial assets, but we can also demand a massive, multi-million-dollar sum of compensation from him.”

“Proof? How?” I asked.

“In the treasure drawer in his study,” I chuckled coldly. “I have his personal files. That should be enough.”

Lawyer Davis’s eyes gleamed over the video call. “That evidence is extremely important. Those photos and documents are enough to prove he intentionally concealed his motives and deceived you. Plus, the fact that you were publicly humiliated right at the wedding. As for witnesses, many guests might be intimidated by the Sterling family’s power and wouldn’t dare come forward. But you said Chloe sent you a message that day. If you can convince her to testify…”

I shook my head firmly. “Chloe wouldn’t side with me. She might even wish for me and Harrison to fall into the abyss together. But she isn’t entirely useless. Leave her to me.”

I immediately instructed Lawyer Davis to prepare the massive lawsuit documents, and I couldn’t sit still either. I began to organize and collect all the physical traces that Harrison had left behind in this house. I packed up all his expensive tailored clothes, personal belongings, and luxury decorations, and ordered movers to throw them into a cheap storage unit. Out of sight, out of mind.

While organizing the study, I discovered something incredible.

Tucked into a false bottom behind the heavy metal safe, I found a very small, encrypted portable hard drive. The location was extremely discreet. My sharp intuition told me this was not an ordinary backup drive.

I asked a highly reliable, tech-savvy hacker friend to help me remotely crack the encryption password.

The contents inside made me gasp in sheer horror and delight.

It wasn’t more creepy photos of Madeline. It was the core, highly classified financial data of several key projects belonging to the Sterling Group. Along with it were clearly illegal, shady offshore transactions, and even scanned copies of fraudulent contracts related to massive corporate tax evasion.

Harrison actually dared to do these illegal things inside the company to hide money. Does his terrifying father, Chairman Sterling, know about this?

This hard drive was nothing short of a ticking nuclear bomb. Its destructive power was thousands of times greater than the emotional damage of Madeline’s photos. If this leaked to the feds, Harrison would go to prison for a decade.

I carefully copied a secure, encrypted version to the cloud, then put the physical hard drive back in its exact original place behind the safe.

Holding that detonator in my hands, I felt completely reassured. But I knew very well that Harrison’s vicious counterattack could come at any moment.

Sure enough, on the fifth day after I broke off the engagement, a shocking, sensational news story unexpectedly topped the local internet hot search list.

Runaway Bride Had an Affair Before the Wedding, Slaps Billionaire Groom at the Altar!

The accompanying images published online were extremely sensational and damaging.

The first picture was taken three days before the wedding, when I was driving alone to a quiet cafe. In the picture, sitting opposite me was a man whose face was unclear, showing only a vague glimpse of his side profile and his long, slender hand resting on the table. It looked like we were talking intimately, and my face had a slight, affectionate smile.

The second picture was even more realistic and damaging. It was taken backstage at the wedding venue. I was standing closely with a hotel employee in uniform, wearing a baseball cap that covered almost all of his face. The picture, taken from a tricky, deceptive angle, made it seem to anyone looking that I was impatiently stuffing a wad of cash into the man’s hand.

In reality, I had dropped my expensive bouquet, and the hotel staff member had simply picked it up and handed it back to me.

The third picture shows me violently slapping Harrison in the middle of the crowd at the altar. Due to the deliberately unflattering, ugly camera angle, my face looked distorted and psychotic, while he looked stunned, innocent, and humiliated.

The hit-piece article was written vividly, as if it were a firsthand account from a reliable source, using all sorts of provocative, scandalous language.

The content revolved around me, Vivienne Hayes, who, unwilling to accept my boring fate, secretly had a passionate affair with a mysterious, lower-class lover. At the wedding, because the affair was exposed—or the hush-money price hadn’t been agreed upon—my lover disguised himself as hotel staff and argued fiercely with me. The groom, Harrison, discovered us, and I, embarrassed and angry at being caught cheating, immediately canceled the wedding, even slapping my innocent fiancé hard to create a distraction.

In conclusion, the article stated that the golden crown prince of the Sterling family, infatuated with the wrong, wicked woman, ultimately suffered unprecedented humiliation because of his pure, trusting heart.

The news came from a newly created, anonymous media account, but its viral spread was surprisingly rapid. Clearly, someone with deep pockets was deliberately pushing it to the front page of every site.

Comments exploded below the article like a toxic flood.

Oh wow, this year’s sensational gossip! This girl is so embarrassing! Miss Hayes playing this dirty game? It’s heartbreaking for the handsome and wealthy young master of the Sterling family to fall for this piece of trash. It’s true that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Outwardly she seems innocent, but in reality, she’s just a cheating piece of garbage! What kind of terrible upbringing does her family give their children?!

Comments like, “Filthy, offensive, unbearable to look at” flooded the internet. My newly purchased burner phone was immediately bombarded with hundreds of calls from angry trolls. A barrage of insults and even death threats poured in. Some malicious hackers even dug up my parents’ private information and posted it online for everyone to attack. My father’s corporate company website was also relentlessly spammed and crashed by a DDoS attack.

Harrison’s corporate PR move was both vicious and incredibly insidious. With one single, brilliant move, he had pushed me onto the public pedestal of humiliation, turning me into a national laughingstock. He successfully diverted all public opinion away from his own failures, while he himself played the role of the perfect, lovesick, betrayed victim.

Public opinion completely sided with the powerful Sterling family.

I sat alone in the dark mansion in front of my glowing laptop screen, watching the venomous words pouring out on Twitter. My heart was cold. My fingers were icy.

But my anger, reaching its absolute peak, strangely, beautifully calmed me.

Harrison, you want to play dirty games? I thought, cracking my knuckles over the keyboard. I will play along.

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