Todos los capítulos de Blindsided by Love: Capítulo 1 - Capítulo 10

I slammed the door open.The sharp noise made all four people on the couch look up at the same time.My childhood friend, Austin Walter, froze with his drink halfway to his mouth, while my best friend, Bailey Somner, had a frozen smile on her face.Only my boyfriend, Sam Marshall, didn't panic.He stood up smoothly and said, "Penelope, you're just too proud. Ruby only wanted to take you down a notch. She didn't mean any harm."My throat felt dry, as if I had swallowed gravel."Sam, you went to law school too! That's defamation! It's slander!"Sam frowned, clearly annoyed. "The video's already been taken down. Why are you still making such a scene?"All of a sudden, a memory flashed through my mind. I remembered the exact day Sam passed the bar exam. He had wrapped his arms around me outside the firm and sworn with total sincerity, "Penelope, if anyone ever picks on you or treats you unfairly, I’ll fight for you."I turned my head and stared at Bailey."Bailey, do you think so

I walked into the house, only to be met by a heavy, suffocating silence in the living room.My older sister, Allison Hill, threw out a casual remark. "The background check board called today. Because a family member poses a major risk for public scandal, my security clearance is most likely going to be put on hold."She looked up and glanced at me. "Are you happy now?"My mother immediately began laying into me. "Your sister worked so hard to get this spot, and here you are dragging her down with this dirty scandal!"I stood in the middle of the living room, completely drenched, water still dripping off my clothes. "Mom, the video is fake. It's an AI deepfake. I'm the victim here.""Enough!" my father barked, cutting me off. "Who cares whether it's real or fake? The whole internet is talking about it, and everyone believes it!"He pointed to a piece of paper lying on the coffee table. "Your mother and I have talked it over. There's only one solution. You're going to post a statem

After filing the police report, I didn't stay around to wait for the cops to show up.I was done with hysterical confrontations and done doing the foolish work of pulling out my heart just to prove my innocence.I stepped out of the apartment lobby and headed into a nearby 24-hour convenience store.As I pushed through the glass door, a wave of cool air hit my face, carrying the sharp scent of fast food and cheap coffee. I used to hate that smell, but right now, that mundane, ordinary atmosphere gave me a long-lost sense of security.Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, I had a crystal-clear view of the front door to my grandmother's building. It didn't take long before a police cruiser pulled up right out front.I watched as two officers and a deputy stepped into the entryway.About twenty minutes later, noisy commotions echoed down the stairwell.I saw Sam and Ruby being escorted down by the police. Sam was hauling two massive suitcases, the luggage Ruby had just moved in wit

The next morning, I met with Russell Gilbert at his law firm, right as scheduled.Russell was an alumnus of my university and a prominent trial lawyer in the city. The second he saw me step into his office, he froze."Penelope, you..."My calm demeanor likely caught him off guard. I hardly looked like the pitiful victim who had just suffered relentless cyberbullying, abandonment by her family, and betrayal by her boyfriend."Mr. Gilbert, thank you for meeting with me."I took a seat, pulling out a flash drive along with a thick stack of printed chat logs from my bag."Here is all the evidence."Russell took the documents, turning through the pages as his brow creased deeper with every line."This Austin Walter… He's your childhood friend? And Bailey Somner is your best friend? As for this Ruby Price..." He paused, looking up at me with a complex expression. "Where does your boyfriend, Sam Marshall, fit into all of this?""He was the final straw," I replied plainly. "While he

The police moved even faster than I had anticipated.On the fifth day after the formal case was opened, Austin was taken into custody.Word was that he was in the middle of a gaming session, even boasting to his teammates over voice chat. "What is there to be afraid of? It's just a video. Is that little idiot Penelope actually going to send me to jail? I'm a tech guy, which means all the data's been completely wiped. Not even God could trace it back to me."However, when the officers pulled out the original raw data recovered directly from the cloud servers, he was speechless. The source files, draft renders, and chat logs with Ruby he thought were gone forever had all been recovered as hard evidence.Inside the interrogation room, Austin was still desperately trying to play it off."Officers, this was just a prank! We were just playing a harmless joke on her!"Besides, Penelope and I grew up together! How could I possibly try to hurt her? I did it to help her out! I wanted to