Chapter 8
The comment section exploded.
[Rich girl pretending to be broke?]
[That's just disgusting.]
[Scam marriage confirmed.]
[Loaded but acting poor—what kind of person does that?]
I picked up some greens with my fork and chewed, unfazed.
Macey kept going. "Now she's suing Desmond, trying to take 100 million dollars of his assets. Desmond worked for every single dollar of that. What right does she have?"
Her voice was trembling. "Desmond and I... we were just in love. What did we do to deserve all this?"
The host reached over and handed her a tissue. "Macey, if you could say anything to Emmaline right now, what would it be?"
"I want to say." Macey lifted her head and looked straight into the camera. "Emmaline, you won. You have money and power, and we can't compete with that. But you can't buy your way to a clear conscience."
There were over half a million people watching live.
The comment section was completely lopsided.
[My heart goes out to Macey.]
[Emmaline, come out and explain yourself.]
[The Cardenas family got played for six years. How tragic.]
[So what if she's rich?]
[What's Alexander's background, anyway?]
My dad suddenly spoke up. "She's putting on a pretty good show."
"Aren't you supposed to be eating your fish?" I teased.
"I'm not deaf."
I couldn't help but laugh.
There were a few top-liked long comments in the section.
[Alexander's daughter pretended to be an orphan and married a broke guy. This is a high-end scam marriage. She waited for him to get rich, then came to collect.]
[Macey's the real deal. She waited six years and never asked for a thing.]
[Go dig up Alexander's backstory. You really think all those hospitals got huge out of nowhere?]
I sent the screenshot to Soren. [Check if that last comment's from a bot.]
Soren messaged back almost instantly. [Already looking into it. I've archived the entire livestream.
[I cross-checked Macey's statements line by line and found at least three spots where what she said is in direct conflict with the evidence we've got.]
I replied: [Which three?]
Soren: [First, she said she didn't know Desmond was married until she returned home. But the marriage they registered in Montavia is still in effect.]
Me: [Second?]
Soren: [She claimed she never got involved in Desmond's finances. But there's a 7-million-dollar offshore company in her name.]
Me: [Third?]
Soren: [She claimed that account was just something fans started on their own. But the company running it? Ethan Browning is listed as the legal rep.]
Me: [Soren.]
Soren: [Yes?]
Me: [Is that enough?]
Soren: [More than enough.]
I set my phone down.
Mason stood nearby, his face dark with anger. He'd seen those comments too.
"Ms. Murphy, these people are just spouting nonsense," Mason said.
"Don't worry about it, Mason," I replied.
"They don't know what you've had to go through all these years."
"It's fine."
I turned off the tablet.
I stood up.
"Dad, I'm stepping out for a bit," I said.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Someone's so eager to put on the waterworks in front of me. Guess I'll go hand her a tissue."
My dad spoke up from behind me. "Emmaline."
"Yeah?" I replied.
"Don't rush."
"I'm not rushing."
I grabbed my car keys and pulled open the door.
"I'm just going to let her know. The act's over, and it's time to face the truth," I said.