CHAPTER 70: The Illusion of Safety - Part 3

I felt sick.

My knees buckled.

I dropped the phone.

It clattered against the floor, the video still playing, the sounds echoing through the apartment like a violation.

I crawled toward it, hands shaking, and paused the screen.

Stared at the frozen image.

Her face.

My face.

Was it deepfake?

Was it staged?

Was it… me?

I didn’t know.

I couldn’t know.

And that was the worst part.

Because if he could fake this…

What else could he do?

I sat there, in the dark, the video paused on a version of myself I didn’t recognize, and felt the walls close in.

Somewhere, out there, someone was watching.

Someone who knew me.

Someone who wanted to break me.

And I had no idea how far they’d already gone.

I didn’t sleep that night.

Not even for a moment.

The video had embedded itself into my mind like a parasite, replaying in endless loops, each frame more disturbing than the last. I kept watching it over and over again, pausing at every second, zooming in on the edges, searching desperately for a glitch, a