Chapter 3

My mind went completely blank.

I spun around and looked at Cedric, who rushed onstage and smashed the screen with a chair he'd grabbed.

The video was one he'd coaxed me into making on his birthday the year before. He'd sworn that no one else would ever see it.

Yet now, it was playing in front of everyone at his wedding.

Tears streamed down Addison's face as she stumbled backward, conveniently stopping beside the microphone. She pointed at me, her trembling voice carrying across the entire room.

"So you're the woman who sent Cedric those private videos to seduce him."

Every eye in the room turned toward me, and I felt as though a thousand needles were piercing my skin.

"I didn't—"

A hand suddenly clamped over my mouth from behind, dragging me backward.

"I'm sorry, Addison," she said. "I never imagined Naomi would take things this far and play a private video like that at your wedding.

"As her friend, I sincerely apologize for her behavior. She knowingly got involved with a man who was already in a relationship and deliberately tried to ruin your wedding."

She inclined her head respectfully toward Addison, and that single gesture was enough to make everyone believe I was the other woman.

The guests' insults poured over me like a tidal wave.

"So she really is the mistress who came here to cause a scene. Disgusting."

"How shameless. Who brings something like that to someone else's wedding?"

"Ms. Ross has a heart condition. What if this woman gets her so worked up that something happens to her? She's horrible."

I didn't even know who struck first. At some point, someone grabbed a plate of leftover food and threw it at me. Someone else kicked me twice amidst the chaos.

I was practically dragged out of the reception hall.

Scarlett hurried after me, sighing as she pulled some tissues from her bag and started wiping the stains from my clothes.

"Naomi, what's done is done," she said. "Stop fighting it.

"Addison isn't someone ordinary. Cedric only has a shot at getting onto the board because the Ross family is backing him. After what you pulled at the wedding today, they could make sure you never set foot in Bexley again.

"Everything I just did was for your own good."

"For my own good?" I choked, my throat so raw that my voice barely came out. "You all lied to me for three years and publicly accused me of being a mistress. And you call that doing what's best for me?"

Scarlett looked away, unable to meet my eyes.

I yanked my arm free, flagged down a cab, and climbed inside. But the moment I arrived at the hotel, I saw a crowd gathered outside, pointing and whispering at something.

My photograph had been plastered across the entrance, along with huge words scrawled in red paint.

"Die, whore!"

In just less than an hour, someone uploaded the wedding video online, and my name and home address had been doxxed.

The comments were filled with people attacking me.

Just then, a message came from my company.

"Naomi, due to concerns regarding your recent conduct and personal affairs, the company has decided to suspend you pending further investigation."

My jaw tightened.

After apologizing to the hotel staff, I found a rag and started scrubbing the words off the door with all my strength. The paint seemed almost impossible to remove. No matter how hard I scrubbed, the letters wouldn't come off.

By the time I finally erased the last one, my fingernail caught against the edge of the doorframe and snapped.

Blood began to surge from the wound, and I finally broke down and sobbed.

Eventually, exhausted from crying, I leaned against the wall and drifted into an uneasy sleep. My dreams were a blur of strange, distorted images. Countless faces flashed before my eyes until everything suddenly came back into focus on the stage at the wedding reception.

Cedric watched from above as I was dragged out of the room, his expression completely impassive.

I jolted awake.

I stared at the photo of Cedric and me on my phone for a long time, then I got up and opened my laptop.

I wasn't going to give in just like this. Why should I let everyone brand me as the other woman when I had been nothing but devoted to Cedric for five years?

Why were the people who had done wrong allowed to walk away without consequence while I was the one being publicly shamed and condemned by everyone?

I hadn't done anything wrong, and I wasn't going to take the blame for them.

I gathered all our messages and records of the money I'd transferred to Cedric over the years and put everything together in a post online. Then I booked the earliest flight out, ready to leave the place where I'd suffered so much.

But the moment I'd packed my bags and climbed into a cab, a voice suddenly came from behind me, low and sinister like a monster from my nightmares.

"Naomi, when are you ever going to learn to behave?"