Chapter 6
1004words
Although I became famous at a young age, I had always taken my content seriously. As a result, not only did I have a huge following, but I was also able to manage my work at the company on my own.
Eleanor had been my manager, and it was fair to say that we had supported each other to reach this point. But even without her, my team still had a large fanbase, and our earnings were substantial. In fact, more than half of the company's income depended on me.
When I returned to the office, I first dealt with the backlog of documents from this period. After that, I called everyone on my team into a meeting.
The scandal involving Joseph was still dominating the internet, but for me, there was no denying that it was a favorable sign. After all, I hadn't gone live in a long time. A sudden return was definitely not as effective as coming back with a trending topic.
Halfway through the meeting, my secretary rushed in, clearly worried. Without waiting for me to say a word, she played a video right there in the conference room.
In the video, Eleanor was taking care of the frail Joseph while addressing the controversy.
"I actually broke up with Victor Blackwell a long time ago. It was only after our breakup that I got together with Joe. The reason I never made it public before was because of Victor. For the sake of publicity, he begged me multiple times not to announce our breakup."
To make her story seem more credible, she even released our chat messages where we talked about breaking up during arguments.
"He said that if we announced our breakup publicly, it would affect his career. I didn't reject his request because of our history, and that was my fault. I apologize for taking up public attention because of this.
"As for Victor's claim that I took the money that was meant to save his life, that's complete nonsense. He wasn't actually sick. It was all fabricated by him to gain attention.
"As for my trip to Norinia with Joe to see the aurora, I'm officially clarifying it today."
As she spoke, she turned to Joseph, unable to hide the affection in her eyes. She held his hand and spoke with adoration. "We'll be getting married next month, and we hope for your blessings."
Eleanor's video caused an immediate uproar. As soon as it was posted, it sparked massive discussion, and countless people flooded the comment section of my previous video. They demanded evidence to support what I had said before.
Seeing that the buzz showed no sign of dying down, my secretary looked at me, clearly concerned.
"Mr. Blackwell, they must have hired paid commenters. No matter what we say, they'll always find a way to twist it," she said.
The other employees began speaking up, one after another, clearly anxious.
"Right. Even if we post the medical records, they'll just say that it's been photoshopped."
"How can Eleanor be this shameless?"
"Exactly."
The room was filled with overlapping complaints and uneasy murmurs.
As I watched the comments continue to explode, I pulled out the phone I used specifically for personal matters. When I tried to go through my chat history, I realized that the device had been swapped for a dummy phone.
I glanced at the dummy phone and scoffed. Now I finally understood why Eleanor's attitude had shifted so abruptly.
Knowing that I never had the habit of backing up my chat history and that all our conversations were stored on that phone, she had swapped it out. She was trying to erase the evidence in advance.
Even if I posted my medical records online, she could still argue that we had already broken up.
However, she really underestimated me.
As the comments grew even more heated, I immediately filed a police report, accusing Eleanor of stealing my savings. After all, when we didn't know how to handle something, it was better to leave it to the authorities.
As soon as I posted the police report online, Eleanor called me in a rage. "Victor, is this really necessary?"
I scoffed and replied casually, "What else should I have done?"
Even through the phone, I could hear Eleanor pacing back and forth in irritation. After half a minute, she finally let out a long sigh and said, "Victor, why are you always like this?
"Why can't you ever give in like Joe does? You were the one who couldn't hold on, so I shifted all the resources to Joe. Why can't you accept that?
"Before your surgery, all you had to do was give in, and I would've come back. Now that we've ended up here, don't you think you should reflect on yourself? If you hadn't refused to clear things up, how would we have—"
I was stunned. I didn't know how to respond. I couldn't believe that someone could be this shameless.
Eleanor actually shifted all the blame onto others. She had truly mastered the art of victim-blaming.
I sneered and replied with biting sarcasm, "Eleanor, did things really end up this way because of me? Wasn't it because you cheated? You were afraid I might actually die in the hospital, so you took the resources I'd worked myself to the bone to earn and handed them to Joseph. Wasn't it because of that?"
After I finished speaking, I hung up and started sorting through all the evidence I'd gathered.
Although the chat logs were gone, there were still recordings from their past livestreams, along with photos of them exchanging Valentine's Day gifts. I even had footage of Joseph coming to my house. Together with the recording from that call, it was more than enough to ruin them.
When the police investigation results came out, I went live and presented all the evidence along with them.
