Livestreaming My Husband's Downfall

Chapter 3

Back when the Hale family was scrambling for that authorization deal, they praised Jack like he was the second coming. Then they turned around and treated me like their personal servant the second they got what they wanted.

Listening to the screeching on the other end of the line, I could not help a derisive laugh. "Mom, if the Hale family is so high and mighty, why did they need our tech to lift them out of poverty?"

That lit her fuse with a loud kaboom. "How dare you!" she shrieked, and her voice was sharp enough to shatter glass. "The Hale family rules this city with or without you. Those bargain-bin patents of yours only got our attention because your Wilde family lucked into a little money somewhere along the way."

I ended the call before she could keep running her mouth.

Rick, the guard who had raised me since I could walk, paced like a guard dog with its chain yanked. "With your parents on that classified mission, I will not let these vultures bully you, young miss." I squeezed his calloused hands and steadied him. I might not play the innocent angel act like Bianca, but I was nobody's doormat. In a battle of wits, they would all be crying before breakfast.

My encrypted inbox pinged with the dirt I had ordered. Within seconds, I nuked Twitter with a DNA report and a birth certificate. The smoking gun was that Jack was the father.

With sugar-coated venom, I captioned the bomb. "Oops. My bad. Turns out hubby was not ‘comforting his widowed sister-in-law.' He was just raising his love child. Funny though. Lucas died two years ago, and the kid is only one. Did my nephew pull a virgin birth? Or did Lucas send a baby from the grave? Truly, the Hale family breeds exceptional talent."

The chaos erupted with a hundred thousand reposts in sixty seconds. The internet went thermonuclear. The trolls who had been dragging me did a U-turn, and their outrage was volcanic.

"Oh my God. Plot twist. This is not just an affair but full-blown adultery."

"Cucking Lucas and then making his sibling raise the kid. Wait, the sibling is the dad. This is next-level messed up."

"I would give anything to know how high the weeds are on Lucas's grave by now."

"Dude, Lucas's coffin is shaking from how fast he is rolling in his grave."

Even as the Hale family scrambled to erase every trace online, it was too late because the fire had already spread. Hashtags like #JackSecretLoveChild and #BiancaHomewrecker blew up worldwide, and they steamrolled every other trend.

Thirty minutes later, Jack stormed back in with a face white as a sheet and hands shaking like leaves in a storm. "Fern, what the hell is wrong with you?" he bellowed. "Bianca just got fired from her school. She is holding their baby and screaming about jumping."

I sank deeper into the couch, cool as a cucumber, and I watched him lose it with a smug grin. "Jump? Yeah, right. Your darling sister-in-law would not even chip a nail, much less throw herself off a building."

My words cut through his act like a knife through butter. He completely lost it. With a roar, he flipped the coffee table, and the glasses and dishes crashed to the floor in a deafening mess.

"Shut up!" He stabbed a finger at me with his face twisted in fury. "You will pay for this, Fern. Mark my words. You will not see what is coming."