Chapter 2

I shook off the jacket he tried to hand me and turned away without hesitation. He waited downstairs until it was completely dark.

It was close to midnight when he finally saw me being carried out of the building. The footage ended with a shot of red marks planted all across my exposed skin.

At first, the comments were filled with sympathy for Landon. But the moment they saw me asleep in someone else's arms, the outrage exploded.

The comments refreshed so quickly I couldn't read them properly. I only caught bits and pieces.

"So she sold herself for money?"

"This is brutal. He waited until midnight just to see his girlfriend come out with another man."

"That filthy bitch. Can we strike her already?"

"This couldn't have been the first time. He got cheated on and still waited. How miserable!"

"I want Annabeth Leavitt to be struck to death right now!"

I stared at the screen, momentarily frozen, and my eyes began to sting. The pressure coming from the court made it hard to breathe. I braced myself, barely managing to stay seated.

Yvette looked conflicted as she frowned at me. "Annabeth, if you know you were wrong, this can still stop."

"I don't—"

Landon's face had gone completely pale. He was clutching his head, tears streaming down his face as he murmured my name over and over again.

"Annabeth…"

The comments grew even more frenzied, like they couldn't wait to answer for me.

"Why stop now? Trash like her should be struck dead!"

"It can't stop. If it does, who knows who she'll hurt next? She's already made enough money off those racy streams!"

I forced a strained smile. Then, I turned toward the judge and said quietly, "Let's continue."

The scene shifted. This time, it moved to the heart of the matter.

Yvette looked pained as she held out a flash drive and handed it to the judge.

On the screen, I appeared to be stealing confidential files from Schmidt Group and selling them to rival companies.

The footage cut again, showing me at the hospital, deliberately provoking Landon's critically ill father, George Schmidt. Not long after I left, George died from the shock.

Later, when Landon confronted me, I put on a pitiful act and demanded a large sum of money as a wedding gift.

After Schmidt Group went bankrupt, he begged me not to leave. I stepped straight into an expensive Rolls-Royce and didn't even look back at him.

But it didn't end there.

Landon sold off all his remaining shares and liquidated his mansion. He waited outside my apartment for three days straight before I finally agreed to see him.

I took the money and became a streamer. I treated him like a servant and even had him come pick me up after entertaining wealthy patrons.

He couldn't get clean water and had nowhere to stay. When he wasn't sleeping under overpasses, he was curled up on park benches.

What moved people the most was that every time he woke up, he would go to the river, fetch water, and wipe down the bench.

Meanwhile, I lived in a mansion, earning millions of dollars from racy streams.

The condemnation from tens of thousands of viewers didn't let up. Their words gathered into thin currents of electricity that tore through my body.

Vote after vote filled the panel, calling for severe punishment, full confiscation of my assets, and compensation for Landon.

Yvette broke down completely. She was crying so hard she could barely speak.

"Annabeth, I never wanted things to turn out like this, but you can't keep going like this. If it hadn't been for you, my mom wouldn't have divorced my dad, and she wouldn't have taken her own life."

The gavel came down with a sharp bang.

I flinched, then looked at Yvette with a smile. "If your dad hadn't been greedy and unfaithful, he wouldn't have driven your mom to her death. Shouldn't you hate him instead?"

The viewers were outraged the moment the words left my mouth, and the comments section blurred together as more people weighed in.