Chapter 4

A bad feeling settled in Gemma's chest.

It wasn't long before a girl she didn't know stopped her in the hallway. "You actually have the nerve to show your face at school? Someone as shameless as you should be expelled!"

Gemma stared at her, confused. "What are you talking about? Spell it out."

"Wow, you really can play dumb. No wonder Rachel kept saying you can't live without a man. Your mother's no better. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Everyone's already seen what you two are really like. It's all over the school subreddit."

"Don't you dare say another word about my mother!"

The force in Gemma's voice startled the girl. In the end, she didn't dare say anything else.

Holding back her anger, Gemma logged into the school subreddit. A post titled "The Dirty Secrets of School Belle Gemma Sinclair and Her Mother" was pinned at the top of the subreddit.

The post didn't just smear Melinda, claiming she'd used underhanded tricks to break up Rachel's parents. It also said Gemma was an illegitimate child whose biological father was some mystery man and that she'd stolen the life that should've belonged to Rachel.

There were even several explicit private videos supposedly featuring Melinda. But those clips were AI fakes. In reality, Melinda had been ravaged by illness and was far thinner than the woman in those videos. Chemo had also taken all of her hair long ago.

And in the most explicit clip, the woman wasn't even Melinda anymore. The footage was a bit blurry, but the face was still unmistakable—it was almost identical to Gemma's.

Her breathing quickened, but she forced herself to stay calm. "I'll have the videos professionally analyzed, and I'm going to the police. I'm gonna clear both my name and my mom's."

She had nothing to hide, so she wasn't afraid of anything. Even though her hands were shaking with anger, she immediately began searching for a professional service that could verify the authenticity of the videos.

The next second, someone yanked her phone out of her hand. Harry lazily stepped in front of her, blocking her way.

"I thought you only refused to let Mr. Sinclair bring Rachel home because you were afraid people would find out you're a bastard. I didn't realize that in private, you were actually this… cheap."

Pretty much everyone at school knew Gemma and Harry had grown up together, that they'd been joined at the hip their whole lives. Coming from him, those few sentences were enough to confirm the post as true.

Gemma stared at him in disbelief. "What the hell are you talking about? Give me my phone."

She reached for it, but Harry was taller; she couldn't get anywhere near it.

In the struggle, the buttons on her blouse popped open. The bruises and injuries scattered across her skin were suddenly exposed to the crowd.

Harry's lips curled mockingly. "And you keep saying the videos are fake. How do you explain all these marks, then?"

He raised his voice on purpose. In an instant, everyone targeted Gemma. Nasty insults and vulgar comments flooded toward her like a wave.

"You know perfectly well those are—" She went rigid mid-sentence. When she met his amused yet indifferent gaze, everything clicked into place. Her voice shook. "It was you?"

Harry just smiled like it was nothing, then leaned down and whispered into her ear, "That's right. I made the post and faked those videos. Your mother hurt Rachel's mother, and you got Rachel injured. I had to help her get even somehow."

Gemma staggered backward. Just to make Rachel feel better, Harry had fabricated all this nonsense? He'd dragged both Melinda and her through the mud for something they'd never done?

"Harry, you asshole!" She swung her hand toward his face, her eyes red.

He easily caught her wrist mid-air. His expression turned cold as he opened his mouth to speak, but her phone rang before he could.

Seeing that it was the hospital calling, Gemma stomped hard on Harry's foot. As he doubled over in pain, she snatched her phone back. As soon as she answered, the voice on the other end delivered devastating news.

"Ms. Sinclair, your mother suffered a severe shock, and her condition turned critical. We need a family member to sign before we can proceed with emergency treatment, but we can't reach your father."

Panic instantly seized Gemma. She dropped everything and ran for the hospital. But before she could even make it through the hospital entrance, Rachel appeared with several thugs and blocked her path.

The thugs didn't give Gemma any chance to react or call for help. They ambushed her, covered her mouth, and stuffed her into a van.

She was taken to a theater and shoved onto the stage. Two men pinned her arms so tightly that she couldn't move.

The theater was dark. Then, in the next second, the lights blazed on.