Chapter 2 2

The living room of the Pruitt mansion felt like a courtroom where the verdict had already been decided.

Elena threw a Ming vase. It shattered against the fireplace, blue and white porcelain exploding like shrapnel. "Fix it!" she shrieked at the huddle of terrified publicists. "I don't pay you to stand there and look stupid!"

Brande was curled in the corner of the velvet sofa, wrapped in a cashmere blanket. She was sobbing, a wet, hiccuping sound that usually worked on Isla's father.

"We can spin it," the PR director said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Deepfake technology. It's everywhere. We claim it was a malicious AI attack."

Robert paced by the window. He looked older tonight. "Where is she?" he growled. "Where is Isla?"

"She's unstable, Robert," Elena hissed, seizing the opening. "You know she is. She's jealous. She probably hired some hacker to make that video."

Isla pushed the heavy oak doors open.

The cold air from outside clung to her coat. She walked into the room, stepping over a shard of the broken vase.

Robert charged at her. "You." He pointed a shaking finger in her face. "Did you do this?"

Isla didn't retreat. She pulled out her phone and typed, the screen brightness harsh in the dim room. She held it up.

_For the sake of the stock price, you better hope it's fake._

Elena marched over, her face twisted. "You little bitch. You think you can ruin us?"

Isla looked at her. Really looked at her. She saw the fear behind the rage. She slipped her hand into her pocket and pressed the button on her voice recorder.

"We're going with the Deepfake story," Robert announced, turning his back on Isla. "And you," he glared over his shoulder, "you will corroborate it. You will issue a statement saying you had a mental episode and... confused reality."

Isla's stomach clenched. He was asking her to call herself crazy to save the sister who slept with her fiancé.

She typed. _And if I don't?_

"Then I cut you off," Robert said, his voice dropping to a dangerous low. "No medical insurance. No allowance. And I'll have you committed to that facility in Vermont. The one with the barred windows."

Isla let her shoulders slump. She lowered her head, feigning defeat. She made herself look small.

Elena smirked. It was an ugly, triumphant thing.

"Good," Robert said. "Get the statement ready."

The PR team scrambled to type. Within minutes, the tweet went out from the official family account. _Malicious attack... mental health struggles... family unity._

Isla went upstairs to her room. It was small, austere, more like a guest room than a daughter's sanctuary.

She locked the door.

Isla sat at her desk and opened her laptop. The screen glowed blue in the dark. She logged into a secure server.

She pulled up the raw files. The metadata. The GPS coordinates embedded in the video file. The timestamp that matched the hotel registry. The audio frequencies that no AI could perfectly replicate.

She didn't post it herself. That would be messy.

Isla bundled the data and sent it to a drop box. Target: TechCrunch, Wired, and three forensic video experts.

Her fingers hovered over the enter key.

Downstairs, Isla heard Brande laugh. It was faint, but she heard it. "Crisis averted," Brande was probably saying. Chase was probably pouring drinks.

Isla put on her noise-canceling headphones. The silence was instant.

A chat window popped up. _Ghost: Are you sure? This burns the bridge._

Isla typed back. _Burn it all._

She hit send.

The next morning, the breakfast table was a study in denial. Elena was buttering toast. Brande was scrolling through her phone, looking relieved.

Alfred, their butler, poured Isla's coffee. His hand lingered on the saucer. "Miss Isla," he whispered. "I believe you."

Isla nodded, a small gratitude.

"The engagement party is back on," Elena announced loudly. "We'll make it bigger. Show them we aren't afraid."

Robert's phone began to vibrate against the mahogany table. It buzzed like an angry hornet.

He picked it up. His face went gray. Then white.

"What?" Elena asked, pausing with her knife in mid-air.

Robert threw the phone. It skidded across the table and hit the butter dish.

"The forensic report," he choked out. "It's viral. Every tech blog in the country just confirmed the video is authentic. They have the GPS data. They have the uncompressed audio."

Brande dropped her fork. It clattered loudly against her plate.

"It's over," Robert whispered. "The stock is freefalling."

Isla wiped her mouth with her napkin. She stood up.

She looked at them-her father, clutching his chest; her stepmother, frozen in horror; her sister, finally realizing she couldn't cry her way out of this.

Isla offered a small, cold smile. It was a calculated expression, meant not for them, but for the security camera she knew was hidden in the corner of the room. A message for anyone who might be watching.

She turned and walked out of the dining room, leaving the wreckage behind her.