Chapter 9 - THE FIGHT BACK
The next morning I called Marcus.
"We fight back," I said.
We gathered everything. The diary. The note. The photographs. The letters. The video. Every piece of proof that showed Elena's true nature.
We spoke to witnesses. We found people who had known them years ago. People who remembered Elena's temper. People who had heard her threaten Grace.
Slowly the picture changed.
The same woman who had once seemed a victim began to look like the aggressor.
I spoke to the press myself. I told the truth. Quietly. Clearly.
"Elena Morrison has spent years destroying lives. She threatened Grace. She hurt my daughter. And now she is lying to take what does not belong to her. We have proof. And we will show it."
Public opinion shifted.
Vanessa called me that night. She did not shout. Her voice was cold and calm.
"You are making a mistake, Adrian."
"You started this."
"I gave her everything. And she chose you. A stranger. It was unfair."
"Grace never loved you the way you wanted. That is not her fault."
Silence stretched across the line.
"She loved me once," Vanessa whispered. "And you took her place."
"I did not take anything. Grace chose me freely."
"Then why did she hide our marriage? Why did she never tell you? Because she was ashamed of me! Ashamed of us!"
"She was afraid of you. She told me so herself."
Vanessa laughed, a sharp, broken sound.
"Afraid? Or guilty? Ask yourself, Adrian—if she was innocent… why did she die so young?"
The line went dead.
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I stood holding the phone, my heart pounding.
What had she meant by that?
