Chapter 6

Alexander stormed out of the hospital, his mind reeling. He scrolled through his phone, and his blood ran cold. The story was everywhere.

A grainy cell phone video from the party, showing Aja cowering as the crowd threw drinks and insults at her. The headline read: "Tech Mogul's Ex-Convict Wife Attacked at Public Event."

The comments were a cesspool of hatred.

"She deserved it."

"They should have finished the job Katerina' s cliff started."

"Someone should put that monster out of her misery."

He was shocked by the intensity of the vitriol. He had known people gossiped, but this was different. This was a lynch mob.

He found Aja back in her hospital waiting area, staring blankly at the wall. She hadn't even looked at her phone. She seemed completely detached, as if the world's hatred couldn't touch her.

He sat down next to her, his anger replaced by a confusing surge of protectiveness. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to put his arm around her.

She flinched away from his touch.

"I'll fix this," he said, pulling out his phone. "I'll have my P.R. team kill the story. I'll sue the website that posted it."

But as he was about to make the call, his phone buzzed with a news alert. The story had taken a new, shocking turn.

Someone had leaked Katerina's true identity. Not just that she was alive, but who she really was: Katerina Collier, the woman Aubrey was convicted of killing.

The narrative flipped in an instant. The public's rage, once directed at Aja, now turned on Katerina.

"She framed her!"

"That poor woman spent three years in prison for nothing!"

"Alexander Brock is a fool for standing by that manipulative snake!"

Alexander stared at the screen, his mind struggling to process the implications. If Katerina had faked her own death... had she lied about everything else, too? The push at the cliff? The attack at the house?

A gut-wrenching sob from the doorway snapped him out of his thoughts.

Katerina stood there, her hospital gown askew, tears streaming down her face. She looked at the phone in his hand, at the damning headlines.

"Alex," she whispered, her voice breaking. "They're destroying me."

He rushed to her side, his protective instincts taking over again. "It's okay. We'll handle this."

"It was her," Katerina sobbed, pointing a shaking finger at Aja. "She leaked it. She's trying to ruin my life, to take my baby away from me."

Alexander looked back at Aja, who sat motionless, her expression unreadable. He didn't believe Katerina, not really. But her distress, her vulnerability, it was a powerful pull.

He made a decision.

He called an impromptu press conference in the hospital lobby. He stood before the cameras, Katerina clutching his arm, and delivered a statement.

He acknowledged that Katerina had made a "terrible mistake" in the past, driven by fear and a "misguided love" for him. But he painted her as a victim, a woman haunted by her past, now trying to build a new life for her unborn child.

Then, he turned his sights on Aja.

"My wife," he said, his voice filled with sorrow, "has been through an unspeakable trauma. It has... affected her. She is not well. Her actions are not her own. She is lashing out, trying to hurt those who love her. We ask for your privacy and compassion as we navigate this difficult time and get her the help she so desperately needs."

He publicly branded her as mentally unstable. He threw her to the wolves to protect his mistress.

From her seat in the waiting area, Aja watched the press conference on a small TV screen. As his final, damning words hit the air, something inside her snapped.

A sharp, unbearable pain shot through her head. The world tilted, the colors bleeding together. She gasped, clutching her temples, a scream building in her throat.

Through the haze of her own agony, she saw Katerina, standing behind Alexander, a tiny, triumphant smile playing on her lips.

She had won. She had finally, completely destroyed Aubrey Lowery.