Chapter 3

“Vivian Spencer, what are you doing?!”

Chloe shrieked and shot to her feet.

I ignored her and called Ethan.

“Did you have my lock changed?”

Ethan didn’t deny it.

Instead, he said casually,

“Vivian, this is the second time you’ve bothered me outside your allotted time.

“The spare key was missing, so I had building management change the lock.

“You hardly use that room anymore. Chloe needs to prepare materials for the hospital’s Resident of the Year award, so I let her borrow it.”

“Ethan, this is my recording studio. That’s my equipment.”

I cut him off, but he gave a cold laugh.

“You haven’t taken a paid voice-over job in three years. What’s wrong with letting Chloe use it?”

Then he hung up.

Chloe took off the headphones and looked at me without the slightest hint of guilt.

Just then, a notification chimed from the computer as a viewer sent a virtual gift.

I glanced at the account she was logged into.

Then I froze.

It was the late-night audio channel I had secretly started after leaving my job three years ago.

I had never revealed my identity.

Over the years, I had built up hundreds of thousands of followers.

And Ethan was the only person I had ever given the password to.

Now Chloe was taking advantage of how similar our voices sounded.

She was using my account and pretending to be me.

She had even publicly attached her own professional credentials to it.

Now everyone believed Chloe was the comforting voice behind the channel.

Completely unfazed, Chloe put her headphones back on and spoke into the microphone in an aggrieved voice.

“Guys, I have to end the stream now.

“Someone’s jealous of my accomplishments and came here to give me trouble, so I might have to disappear for a few days.”

The comments immediately flooded with people defending her.

I strode over and yanked out the power cable.

“Do you realize you’re stealing my work?”

Chloe tilted her head and smiled.

“Vivian, since we’re being honest, I might as well tell you.

“All those popular medical articles you wrote before? Ethan gave them to me to use for my award applications.

“You barely even get a chance to talk to him.

“So what if I took your account too?”

Her smug expression finally pushed me over the edge.

I raised my hand and slapped her.

Her head snapped to the side.

Then, with her eyes reddening, she took a selfie of her face, grabbed her bag, and ran out.

Once I had calmed down, I plugged everything back in.

Messages from the fan group immediately started popping up.

Chloe was already accusing me in the chat.

She claimed I had deliberately barged in, hit her, and tried to force her to hand over the account password.

The comments below were full of people attacking me.

Some were even threatening to track down my personal information.

I took a deep breath.

I remembered when Ethan had first started working at the hospital.

Behind the scenes, I had written popular medical articles for him and helped him build a good reputation.

Back then, he had told me not to reveal my identity.

He wanted me to remain anonymous.

So this was why.

He had planned to hand all the credit to Chloe.

A bitter laugh escaped me.

I had been unbelievably stupid.

I organized all the evidence, saved copies onto a flash drive, and reset the passwords on my equipment.

But the moment I stepped outside, I saw a crowd gathered in front of my building.

“That’s her! She stole someone else’s work!”

A cup of ice water splashed across my face.

Someone tried to yank my bag away.

Others shoved cameras toward me, filming nonstop.

Just as panic started closing in on me, Chloe called.

“Vivian, you’ve been acting really badly lately, so I had some people teach you a tiny lesson.

“But I still care about you.

“Whether you get out of there in one piece is up to you.”

I looked up just as a cab pulled toward the curb.

I fought my way through the crowd and jumped inside.

But once we got onto the highway, the car kept going faster.

When we reached a sharp curve, the driver didn’t slow down at all.

He jerked the wheel.

The rear of the car plowed into the roadside landscaping.

Just before I lost consciousness, I heard the completely unharmed driver pull out his phone.

“You said last time it wasn’t serious enough.

“This should do it, right?

“When are you sending the money?”