All Chapters of One Night With My Brother’s Worst Enemy : Chapter 71 - Chapter 75

The book launch was in three days. Vienna's mother had been working on it for over a year. The Man I Loved. The story of Marcus Cross. The truth that had been buried for so long. She had poured everything into it. Her grief. Her guilt. Her love. Every page was a testament to the man she had lost and the years she had spent in hiding. But now, with the launch only days away, she was falling apart. Vienna noticed it immediately. Her mother had stopped eating. She had stopped sleeping. She spent hours staring at the wall, her eyes vacant, her hands trembling. She jumped at sudden noises. She cried for no reason. Vienna found her on the balcony one evening, staring out at the river. "Mom," she said softly. "What is wrong?" Her mother did not turn around. "I do not know if I can do this." "Do what?" "The launch. The interviews. The readings. All of it. I do not know if I can stand in front of all those people and talk about your father." Vienna crossed the balcony and stood beside

The weeks after Marcus Webb's trial were strange. Vienna had expected to feel relief. She had expected the truth to set her free. She had expected closure to bring peace. But instead, she felt hollow. Empty. Like a wound that had been reopened and was now bleeding again. She went through the motions. She woke up each morning. She made coffee. She went to the center. She came home. She ate dinner. She went to bed. But she was not really there. Part of her was still in that cabin. Still hearing Marcus Webb's confession. Still seeing the face of the man who had killed her father. She could not stop thinking about it. The injection. The board's plan. The years of silence. The guilt her mother had carried. The guilt she now carried herself. She tried to push it down. She threw herself into her work. She spent long hours at the center. She answered emails until her eyes blurred. She planned events and wrote speeches and shook hands with donors. But the grief would not be ignored. ---

The news of Marcus Webb's innocence spread quickly. Vienna had not intended for it to become public. She had wanted to keep the truth private, to process it with her family, to grieve and heal in her own time. But the prison had leaked the story to a journalist. And the journalist had run with it. Within days, the headlines were everywhere. The Man Who Didn't Kill Marcus Cross The Board's Failed Murder Plot A Killer's Confession: I Lied to Save Him Vienna read the articles and felt sick. The world was feasting on her family's pain. They were turning her father's death into a spectacle. They were turning Marcus Webb into a hero. But he was not a hero. He was a complicated man who had made a terrible choice in an impossible situation. He had lied. He had let them believe he was a murderer. He had carried the guilt of a crime he did not commit. He was not a hero. He was a human being. --- The phone calls started the next day. Vienna's office phone rang constantly. Her cell pho