Chapter 208 

Chapter 187: Paper Tiger Burs 

Upstairs, Alex stood at his window, face uncharacteristically tense as he watched the activity at Adam’s place. The arrival of the security SUV had caught his attention, and he’d tracked every movement since. 

When they later walked the man out to a waiting car, Alex jumped to his computer and pulled up security footage he’d quietly hacked into. A few clicks later, he zoomed in on the face and ran it through his homemade recognition software. 

“Gotcha,” he whispered as results filled his screen. 

His door creaked open as Lucas slipped in, hair sticking up from his e–sleep routine. 

“What’s up?” he whispered, joining his brother. “It’s late.” 

“See him?” Alex pointed to the screen. “Following us at the concert. Uncle Adam’s guys grabbed him.” 

Lucas Jeaned in, eyes widening. “A bad guy? Like in the movies?” 

“Not exactly,” Alex explained, scrolling through data. “Paparazzi. Specialized in celebrity dirt. He was watching Mom and Uncle Adam.7 

Lucas’s face scrunched in thought. “Because Mom’s Dr. Joy?” 

“Probably.” Alex nodded, expression eerily mature. “Someone hired him to get dirt on Mom.” 

“Should we tell her?” Lucas asked, chewing his lip. 

Alex shook his head firmly. “Not yet. Mom’s finally smiling after all the Sterling drama. Why mess that up? Besides,” he added with a hint of a smile, “Uncle Adam’s got this.” 

“How can we help?” Lucas asked, automatically falling in with his brother’s plans. 

Alex opened another program showing a detailed database on the Sterling family. “We find out who’s trying to hurt Mom. 

Lucas studied the screen. “Anna?” 

“Who else has everything to lose if Mom takes her place back?” Alex’s fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up Anna’s profile. “She’s the only one who turns into nothing if Mom fully becomes a Sterling again.” 

The brothers locked eyes, looking suddenly older than five. 

“Mom always fights for us,” Alex said quietly. “Our turn to fight for her.“. 

On his screen, Anna’s smiling face stared back at them. She had no idea she’d just made enemies of two kindergarteners who could hack security systems before they learned to tie their shoes. 

The next morning, with the house still quiet, Alex hunched over his laptop. The screen’s blue glow illuminated his determined face as he broke through ver City University’s security system with surprising ease. 

Claire, Anna, he typed into the search field, waiting as the database responded. 

What appeared seemed clean–but Alex’s software detected digital alterations. Digging deeper, he uncovered the ugly truth: Anna’s prize winning designs had been stolen from another student named Bella Montgomery. 

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complaint, she’d faced vicious online harassment from fake Alex’s eyes widened as he followed the digital trail. After Bella filed accounts. Then came the hospital records–suicide attempts, psychiatric reports documenting depression and trauma while Anna collected awards for stolen work. 

This is seriously messed up,” he muttered, compiling everything in a secure file. 

After building an untraceable routing system, he addressed the file 

Thomas with a simple title: “Anna Claire’s Truth.” 

His finger hovered over the send button. 

“For Mom,” he whispered, and clicked. 

Meanwhile, Adam sat in his sunlit study, phone pressed to his ear. 

“I don’t care what hoops you have to jump through,” he said, voice deceptively calm. “Get me everything on that plagiarism case.” 

Gerald’s voice responded through the speaker. “The university buried it deep. What’s your angle here?” 

“Just make the case bulletproof,” Adam replied before hanging up. 

心 

He returned to Anna’s file, lip curling slightly as he reviewed her calculated rise to Sterling status. His gaze drifted toward Irene’s house, visible through the window. 

“Some people need to learn,” he murmured, “that certain lines can’t be crossed.” 

A knock interrupted his thoughts. Thomas entered, holding 

a secure drive. 

“Boss, someone just sent us everything we need on Anna Claire,” he said, placing the drive on Adam’s desk. “Anonymous source. Completely untraceable. Whoever sent this knows their security.” 

Adam plugged in the drive, eyebrows rising as he scrolled through the contents. “The plagiarism scandal, medical records on the victim, evidence of harassment–this is exactly what we need.” 

Thomas nodded. “Timing’s perfect with what your lawyer’s collecting 

“Let’s prepare a special delivery for our photographer friend to pass along to Miss Claire,” Adam said, a cold smile touching his lips. “Time she learned about consequences.” 

As plans were set in motion at Haven’s residence, Anna hummed in her apartment, arranging the concert photos in sequence. Though grainy, they clearly showed Irene and Adam together–heads close, sharing his jacket, completely wrapped up in each other. 

“Oh, poor Rose,” she murmured with mock sympathy. “Your heartless daughter partying while you’re dying. How terrible. 

Her phone pinged with a message from her contact at the Silver City Times. 

“Still got that bombshell for me? Deadline’s 3pm.” 

Anna smiled, typing back: “Meeting you at 2. Worth every second of the wait.” 

She added captions beneath the photos, twisting innocent moments into damning implications: “Rose Sterling fights for life as D Joy enjoys concert it mystery man.” 

The doorbell interrupted her work. The security camera showed a courier holding a package–probably more dirt from her photographer friend. 

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“Perfect timing,” she said, sigiting for the delivery and carrying the pain box inside, already imagining the damage it would help her 

cause. 

Minutes later, Anna sat with the delivered package on her lap, anticipation buzzing through her veins. 

“Time to burn, Irene,” she whispered, slicing through the tape with manicured nail. 

Inside sat a simple manila envelope. She pulled it open, expecting more concert photos to complete her hit piece. 

The smug smile froze on her face. 

The first photo showed Anna’s award–winning designs next to Bella Montgomery’s originals–identical in every way. Another showed Anna smiling smugly while accepting the Caldwell Prize for work shed stolen. 

Her stomach dropped as more damning evidence appeared–screenshots of fake accounts she’d created to torment Bella, records of the university investigation she’d manipulated, emails proving her involvement. 

rn–Bella lying in a hospital bed, wrists wrapped in white gauze, once–bright eyes 

Then came the photos that made her stomach turn- now empty from the nightmare Anna had created. 

Her hands started shaking so badly that the photos slipped through her fingers, scattering across the floor like accusations. 

A small card fluttered down last, bearing a single handwritten line: Continue playing with fire, and you’ll find yourself the one who gets burned.” 

“How?” The word escaped as barely a whisper. Her head whipped around, suddenly feeling exposed in her own apartment. 

Her phone rang–her newspaper contact calling about the Irene story. The sound made her jump like a gunshot. She fumbled to decline the call, nearly dropping the phone. 

Anna sank onto her sofa, surrounded by evidence of her own crimes rather than the weapons she’d planned to use against Irene. The carefully crafted Sterling persona she’d spent years perfecting now crumbled like ash between her fingers. 

As she stared at Bella’s hospital photo, a chilling thought struck her someone out there didn’t just know her secrets. 

They knew exactly where to find her. 

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