Chapter 2

Katie's die-hard, lunatic fans even tried to avenge her by hiding near my home and ambushing Mom by throwing a sack over her head. Then, they forcefully took lewd photos and videos of her and leaked everything online.

Mom was in such a state of shame and distress that she left a suicide note before jumping off a building to her death.

Meanwhile, Dad felt so guilty about being unable to protect Mom that he remorsefully drank rat poison and died in front of Mom's grave.

My family was destroyed. I was also slapped with an exorbitant fine for breach of contract by my entertainment company, so I had to work hard to try and pay everything back. In the end, I got scammed into getting sold to Meowmar, and my life was totally ruined.

A couple of years later, the people who spread online hate about me suddenly went online to apologize, saying that they had only continued slandering my name because they were just hopping on the hate train for clout. They recorded an apology video and sent it to me.

More and more people came out and apologized.

However, the one person who should have apologized the most, Katie, gleefully posted a photo of her wedding certificate online instead.

She had stepped on the bones and ashes of my entire family while holding a massive wedding reception in Dayris with my ex-boyfriend, showing off just how much in love with each other they were.

At the thought of that, I felt my chest boiling with unprecedented anger. However, I did all that I could to suppress my emotions.

I started voice recording on my phone and then turned to address the melancholic Katie, speaking in a soft voice, "You don't have to pay any heed to the videos. If you're clean, time will soon reveal the truth."

Katie's expression changed. "I thought that you hated people who spread lewd videos and rumors like this the most, Gabriella. You're my best friend in the industry. Shouldn't you help me find out who's the one behind all this?"

I shrugged nonchalantly and said, "I think it's best that we leave the investigation to the police. I'm just a regular citizen, after all. I don't have the means or authority to investigate people."

Then, I closed my eyes and pretended to drift off.

Katie wouldn't stop droning on and on next to me, trying to convince me to get my connections to investigate on her behalf.

I knew that this was part of her act, so I stood firm with my decision.

When Katie noticed that I wasn't responding to her, she glanced at me curiously before finally leaving.

To prevent her and Samael from framing me and using me as a scapegoat again, I immediately took out my notebook and jotted down everything that had happened in my past life in chronological order to get a better picture.

In fact, I even rejected a number of scripts from famous directors just so that I could avoid Katie as much as possible.

Just when I thought that I was safe from the tragedy in my past life simply because I'd managed to stay out of Katie's business, Katie suddenly went on live stream and sobbed to her audiences, accusing me of getting jealous of her and bullying her by making deepfake lewd videos of her and leaking them online.

She wouldn't stop crying for the entire length of the live stream, and the way she described everything made her sound very legitimate. If it weren't for the fact that I knew I did absolutely nothing, I would have even believed her myself.

That afternoon, there was a loud knock on the door of my rented apartment.

There was a crowd and a number of policemen standing at the door, with Katie and Samael standing right next to the police.

Samael's face was dark as he began questioning me. "Why did you spread Katie's lewd videos online? Are you trying to drive her into a corner?

"We only broke up last time because you wouldn't stop bullying people. I never thought you would still be as evil and hateful even a year after our breakup!"

I looked straight into his eyes and answered with a smile, "If I'm not mistaken, the account that leaked the videos belonged to a private account under Crewsome Entertainment. The only person who has access to that account is you.

"How dare you accuse me of a crime if you don't have any evidence to support it?"

Samael was stunned. Then, he gritted his teeth and said, "Stop acting. You never should have done it in the first place if you never wanted anyone to find out! I'm here with the police today. Are you still not going to admit to your crimes?"

Katie piped up, "That's right! Gabriella, you know what you've done! If you'll apologize to me in front of everyone now, I promise that I'll even write you a statement of forgiveness!"

She then hooked her hand around Samael's arm and leaned into his chest, looking at me with a smug, challenging stare.

I chuckled coldly. "You're making up rumors about me without any evidence, I see. Be careful, or I'll sue you for defamation!"

This was the first time I had lost my temper with the press and reporters around, and everyone was shocked.