Part 3When His Secretary Slandered Me

A searing, numbing pain exploded across my cheek. It felt like a thousand needles pricking my skin, and a loud ringing filled my right ear.

Alistair seemed stunned by his own action. He stared at his hand, frozen.

“Ha!” A bitter, hopeless laugh escaped my lips. I licked the coppery taste of blood from the corner of my mouth and took a step toward him.

Like a mother hen protecting her chick, Lina threw herself in front of Alistair, her body a shield. She looked ready to die for him. “What do you think you’re doing? So what if he hit you? You’re the one who was unfaithful first, you filthy slut!”

Watching her self-sacrificing act, a profound exhaustion washed over me.

“You keep saying I made indecent videos for the internet,” I said, my voice level despite the storm inside me. “Where is your evidence? Or do you think you can just ruin a person’s life with nothing but lies?”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

“She has a point. You can’t just take one person’s word for it.”

Lina bit her lip, looking like a delicate flower braving a storm. “Fine,” she declared. “You forced me to do this!”

She took out her phone and connected it to the large screen behind the stage. The slideshow of my happy photos with Alistair was instantly replaced by a graphic, deeply disturbing video.

On the screen, a woman was entwined with a large, muscular man. Her face, thrown back in a state of ecstasy, was a mask of pleasure and abandon.

And that face, displayed in high definition for everyone to see, was mine.

The ballroom erupted.

Mothers covered their children’s eyes. Men stared, their jaws slack. Others scrambled to record the scene on their phones.

“Holy hell! She’s wild!”

“Tsk, tsk. Look at the way she moves her hips.”

“Who would’ve thought? She looks so prim and proper, but she’s a total degenerate in private.”

“Studying medicine abroad? More like studying how many men she could climb into bed with.”

“The things she’s doing… Can she ever be satisfied with just one man after this?”

The comments were a filthy, relentless tide, each one a fresh stab of humiliation.

Alistair’s face had gone a sickly shade of green. His mother looked as if she were about to faint, but she found the strength to stumble toward me, beating at my dress with her fists. “I pitied you for being an orphan! I treated you like my own daughter! How could you be so shameless? How could you do this to my son!”

Lina clung to Alistair’s arm, her body shaking with sobs. “Mr. Finch, I just couldn’t bear to see you deceived by this… this used-up trash that’s been passed around by other men! You’ve been so good to me. I don’t care if you fire me for this. I had to tell you!”

I folded my arms, a cold, humorless smile touching my lips. “Passed around by other men? I don’t think anyone knows that feeling better than you do, Lina.”