Chapter 9
I paid for a boost and viewers immediately started pouring in.
When the count hit 100K, I dropped the bomb-screenshots of Leonard’s actual transfer records and our complete chat history.
Leonard had sent me money, alright-but it was for his mother’s medical bills.
His mom had been hospitalized at the time, and every large transfer was for her treatment costs.
The moment I showed the receipts, the chat exploded into total chaos.
While they were fighting, I casually dropped another bombshell-hotel records.
Those photos were definitely of me, but the man in them was Leonard.
It was from our first vacation together, and the bastard had secretly installed a camera in our hotel room. Apparently he’d been planning this for years-saving these photos as blackmail material for the day we’d inevitably turn on each other.
After clearing my name, I handed everything over to the legal team.
As expected, Leonard came running to me.
“Maya, how the hell did you get those hotel records?”
I looked at him with pure contempt. “So you’re admitting you bribed the staff to help you fake evidence?”
Leonard’s eyes flickered with panic for a split second before he got all righteous again.
“Maya, I don’t get it-we’re divorced now, so what’s the point of dragging this out? How does any of this benefit you?”
I waved him off dismissively.
“Making you miserable and ruining your day? That’s all the benefit I need.”
Leonard scoffed.
“You? Or maybe your old man who’s got one foot in the grave? Let me tell you something, Maya-I’m not that broke college kid anymore. Once my company goes public, you and your family won’t even be worthy of kissing my ass. Just wait and see how I destroy you!”
I raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing… your company isn’t going public after all.”
The second I finished speaking, Leonard’s phone rang.
I couldn’t hear what the caller was saying, but I watched his face go ghost-white in real time.
After that, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing-call after call after call.
Within minutes, sweat was beading on his forehead.
He hung up and glared at me with pure rage.
“Maya, it was you, wasn’t it? You’re the one screwing me over!”
“Who the hell are you? How do you have this kind of power to make all my key employees quit overnight and get every investor to pull out?”
1 met his gaze and smiled sweetly. “Ever heard of Hayes Industries?”
“The most powerful family in the city?”
“Well, that’s my family.”
I said it so casually.
Leonard collapsed onto the ground.
“That’s impossible… You told me you were from some middle class family. How could you be…”
“Leonard, you only have yourself to blame. Your cheating, your greed-I laid out the perfect path for you, but you couldn’t stay loyal. Actually, scratch that-you never had any loyalty to begin with.”
I bent down to his eye level. “Oh, and by the way? That hotel where you took those photos? My family owns that too.”
Leonard stared at me in complete disbelief.
Only now did he realize that his supposedly foolproof plan to destroy me had been doomed from the start.
As security dragged him out, he was laughing and crying like a maniac, screaming.
“Maya, give me one more chance! I was wrong! I’ll cut things off with Priya right now! I’ll only love you from now on-let’s get remarried! I’ll change, I swear, just marry me again…”
Too little, too late. Nothing he said could change anything now.
Leonard’s little company went bankrupt overnight. After paying out his employees, he and Priya moved into a crappy rental apartment.
I actually thought maybe Priya really did love him-staying with him even after he’d lost everything.
Turns out I was dead wrong. The only reason Priya stuck around was to milk their drama for content.
She kept livestreaming their relationship for money while hooking up with her top donors on the side.
One day, Priya had just checked into a hotel with one of her biggest sponsors when Leonard burst in.
I happened to be across the street and watched as the sponsor’s crew beat Leonard to a bloody pulp while Priya snuggled up to her sugar daddy, looking disgusted.
“You pathetic loser, you really thought you could keep me forever? God, you make me sick just looking at you.”
Some Good Samaritan eventually called an ambulance and got Leonard to the hospital.
The next time I heard about them was two days later on the news. By then, I was already at the airport.
Priya was dead.
Brutally murdered.
Twenty-one stab wounds.
Every single one fatal.
They’d caught the killer-it was Leonard.
I sighed, struck by how unpredictable life could be.
No one knows what tomorrow will bring, but as long as you live authentically today and can sleep with a clear conscience, that’s all that matters.
I turned off my phone and walked over to my parents.
The vacation we’d missed over the long weekend? Our family was finally taking it today.
