Part 2The Outcast’s Counterattack

They swarmed me like sharks that smelled blood in the water.

Microphones were shoved in my face.

"Mr. Vance, is it true that your fiancée was caught in bed with your brother?"

"As the new CEO of Vance Holdings, you're starting your tenure with a major scandal. Do you have any comment?"

My face was a mask of stone as I pushed through the crowd, repeating "no comment" over and over.

Then, behind me, I heard Caleb's voice, feigning weakness as he sobbed for the cameras. "It's all my fault. I just love Reese so much. And… and I've been diagnosed with cancer. I don't have much time left. I just wanted to be brave and fight for the woman I love in the time I have left…"

I stopped in my tracks, stunned by the sheer absurdity of it. The way he was acting just moments ago? He was the picture of health, not a dying man.

Then came Reese's choked sobs. "Caleb did nothing wrong," she cried. "The one at fault is Julian. He proposed to me, but he hid the fact that he's impotent."

I spun around, my eyes wide with disbelief.

To protect Caleb, Reese was throwing me under the bus, slinging the most damaging mud she could find. For the heir to a corporate empire, a rumor of physical inadequacy was more destructive than any financial scandal.

Every camera, every microphone, every pair of eyes turned on me like a hundred poisoned arrows.

"Mr. Vance, is this true?"

"Sir, can you confirm your fiancée's statement?"

Their questions hammered down on my already shattered nerves. But Reese wasn't finished.

"I've been a virgin in all but name for five long years," she declared, her voice ringing with false tragedy. "It was only after I was with Caleb that I finally understood what it feels like to be a woman."

She looked at Caleb with a raw adoration I had never seen from her before.

She was the one who insisted on no sex before marriage, citing her family's strict values. She was the one who pushed me away time and time again. And now, to save Caleb, she was pinning it all on me.

The rage and betrayal were too much. My vision swam, the world tilted, and then everything went black.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital room.

Reese was sitting by my bed, her eyes red and puffy. The moment she saw I was awake, fresh tears streamed down her face.

"Julian, you're finally awake! You scared me to death when you collapsed." She gripped my hand tightly, playing the part of the devoted lover.

But she was the one who had put me here.

I yanked my hand away in disgust. "What are you doing here? Come to see if I'm miserable enough for you yet?"

Reese bit her lip, her gaze filled with manufactured guilt. "What I said last night… I had no choice. Reporters from every major paper were there. If the real story got out, Caleb would have been destroyed."

I stared at her. "And what about me? Did you ever stop to think what happens to me now that this rumor is out there?"

She looked away, her eyes flitting around the room. "The story will die down. People will forget."

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "You're a communications professor, Reese. You, of all people, know the internet never forgets. Even if I issue a denial, who's going to believe me now?"

She wrung her hands nervously. "But it's already out there. Julian… can't you just sacrifice for me one more time?"

Five years. For five years, I had sacrificed everything for her. I turned down a strategic marriage alliance with a family of equal standing, all for her, a woman with a humble background. To get my family's blessing, I defied my father, knelt for three days in the family chapel, and withstood the full force of his fury.

I remember her holding my hand in this very hospital after that ordeal, her tears falling onto our intertwined fingers. "Julian," she'd whispered, "you're the only one for me, for the rest of my life."

Her promise didn't even last five years.