Chapter 8: The Smear Campaign

The shadow of the capital city stretched long and thin over the tarmac as Victoria’s private jet touched down.

Inside the primary suite of the plane, Victoria sat in a velvet armchair, nursing a cup of black tea while reviewing the legal briefing for Friday’s hearing. Across from her, Ethan sat on the leather bench, his laptop open, his fingers typing furiously as he dispatched his private intelligence teams across the capital.

For the first time in five years, they were sharing a space without screaming, but the silence between them was thick, heavy, and pregnant with unspoken tension.

Suddenly, Mark stepped into the suite, his face pale and dark. He held a tablet in his hand, his eyes shifting nervously between Victoria and Ethan.

"Boss," Mark said, his voice unusually tense. "We have a major situation. Samuel Vance just fired his opening shot."

Victoria didn't even raise her eyes from her documents. "What did the old man do?"

"Ten minutes ago, three major national media outlets published leaked medical records from the Capital General Hospital," Mark reported, handing the tablet to Victoria. "The headlines claim that five years ago, immediately following your divorce, you were admitted to a private psychiatric facility for severe emotional instability and violent tendencies."

Ethan’s head snapped up. "What?!"

He snatched the tablet from Mark, his eyes scanning the viral news articles spreading like wildfire across social media. Attached to the articles were scanned hospital documents complete with Victoria's name, fake doctor signatures, and fabricated progress notes describing a complete mental breakdown.

"This is utter bullshit!" Ethan slammed his laptop shut, his deep voice shaking with sudden, explosive rage. "She was never admitted to any psychiatric facility! She was staying at—"

Ethan froze mid-sentence, his voice cutting off as a brutal wave of realization hit him. Five years ago, after Victoria vanished, he had been told by Melanie that Victoria had gone into hiding to seek psychological treatment. He had believed it back then because he was too blinded by guilt and Melanie's lies to look deeper.

He slowly turned his head to look at Victoria.

Victoria sat in absolute silence. Her expression hadn't changed, but her pale fingers were clenched so tightly around her teacup that the porcelain cracked softly under the pressure.

"Victoria..." Ethan’s voice dropped into a low, agonized whisper. "You... you never went to a hospital, did you?"

"I was living in a damp, one-room basement apartment in the slums for three months, Ethan," Victoria said, her voice terrifyingly quiet, empty of any emotion. "Morning sickness was tearing my body apart. I had eighty dollars left in my bank account. And while I was throwing up blood into a rusty sink, your grandfather and Melanie were forging medical papers to make sure that if I ever came back, I would be declared insane."

Every word she spoke hit Ethan like a sledgehammer to his chest. He felt like he couldn't breathe. The sheer magnitude of the cruelty she had endured—while carrying his twin children—was a weight heavy enough to crush him completely.

"I didn't know..." Ethan gasped, his bloodshot eyes burning with unshed tears. "Victoria, I swear to God, I didn't know..."

"It doesn't matter what you knew back then, President Vance," Victoria interrupted, placing her cracked teacup on the table with a cold *clink*. "What matters is that Samuel Vance is using those forged documents in the High Capital Court to claim I am an unfit mother, creating grounds for the state to grant him immediate temporary custody of Leo and Chloe."

"He won't touch them," Ethan growled, his aura shifting into something downright murderous. He pulled out his phone and dialed his chief legal counsel. "Director Chen! Issue an immediate injunction against every media house circulating those documents! Sue them for criminal defamation! And issue a personal statement from my office declaring that those records are fraudulent!"

"Wait," Victoria commanded smoothly, holding up a hand.

Director Chen’s voice echoed nervously over the phone line. "President Vance? Should I execute the order?"

"Hold," Victoria said into the phone. She looked at Ethan with an unyielding, icy composure. "If you issue a defensive statement now, it looks like a cover-up. Samuel Vance wants a mudslinging match in the press to drag my name through the gutter before Friday. We give him what he wants."

Ethan frowned, deeply concerned. "Victoria, the public opinion is already shifting. If the judges see the public questioning your mental health—"

"Leo," Victoria called out toward the rear lounge.

The door swung open, and four-year-old Leo stepped out holding his high-tech tablet, a cold, mischievous smirk playing on his small face.

"I've already mapped the digital forensic signature of the leaked files, Mommy," Leo reported casually, tapping his screen. "The P*F documents posted by the news outlets were uploaded from an IP address inside the Vance Family Manor twenty minutes ago. Furthermore, the digital timestamp on the medical signatures shows the file was created three weeks *after* you left the city, created on a software license registered to Samuel Vance's personal lawyer."

Ethan stared at his four-year-old son in utter shock. The child had dismantled a national media smear campaign in less than fifteen minutes.

Victoria stood up, smoothing down her designer jacket.

"We don't block the news, Ethan," Victoria said, a lethal, breathtaking smile spreading across her lips. "We let the story trend to number one nationally. And on Friday morning, in front of the press and the entire Capital High Court, Leo will run the live digital trace on national television."

She stepped close to Ethan, her bright eyes locking onto his with absolute intensity.

"Samuel Vance wanted to play dirty using the past," Victoria whispered, her tone dropping into a icy promise. "On Friday, I will use his own trap to destroy the Vance family's legacy once and for all."

Ethan looked into her sharp, fierce eyes, feeling a rush of fierce pride and deep, aching love. He straightened his posture, leaning in slightly toward her.

"Then let him dig his own grave," Ethan replied softly. "And on Friday... I'll be the one holding the shovel."

Suddenly, Leo's tablet buzzed with a emergency high-priority alert.

"Mommy," Leo said, his smile disappearing instantly. "Grandfather Vance's legal team just filed a secondary motion with the Capital Court. They've dispatched federal marshals to the Sterling Villa right now to enforce an immediate 'Child Welfare Inspection' before the trial!"