2: 2

But I hadn't expected Vanessa to cover her face and burst into tears.

“Zoe, you still won't believe me? What girl would ruin her own reputation just to smear someone else?”

“You want me to take a paternity test? Isn't that just a slap in my face?”

The doctor who'd just examined Vanessa came out of the exam room and snapped at me.

“A pregnant woman shouldn't be put under stress. You're her friend. You should be taking better care of her.”

Vanessa kept her head down and said pitifully,

“Doctor, don't blame Zoe. It's all my fault. I shouldn't have let her fiancé force me...”

The doctor's hand tightened until his knuckles went white.

“Force you? Vanessa, if you need help, the hospital can call the police for you!”

Watching Vanessa put on this act made my stomach turn.

It was exactly like last time. Vanessa used that innocent face of hers to spread poison online.

On nothing but her word, strangers dragged Graham into the eye of the storm.

He didn't just lose his job. People tore through his hometown until nothing was left buried.

His parents, far away back home, were cursed at all day long.

Some people went even further. One of them actually livestreamed himself digging up the Henson family graves.

The man faced the camera with an air of righteous indignation.

“I want to see whether the ancestors who bred an animal like this were animals too!”

Graham couldn't bear the disgrace. He left me a suicide note and jumped to his death.

With her living target gone, Vanessa turned the blade on me.

She cried that I had set the whole thing up that night, arranged the chance for the two of them, that I was nothing less than an accomplice.

I was already drowning in grief over the sudden death of the fiancé I'd loved for years, and the endless abuse from those extremist strangers pushed me straight into severe depression.

Then, in my eighth month in the psychiatric hospital, Vanessa showed up in front of me on the arm of a man in his fifties.

She said, grinning,

“Sorry, Zoe. I got it wrong before. That night was actually my husband, not your fiancé.”

Remembering it, I let out a cold laugh.

“Vanessa, you won't call the police and you won't take a paternity test. So you think **you can just open your mouth and dump this filth on Graham's face?”

The people around us started to catch on too.

“That's right, girl. If you've got nothing to hide, a crooked shadow can't scare you. It's just a paternity test. Take it!”

Vanessa shook her head.

“You think I don't want to? But it's too early. For a paternity test I have to wait until four months.”

“I can't work these next few months. How am I supposed to support myself?”

Vanessa turned to me, her eyes bloodshot red.

“Zoe, and to think I treated you as my best friend.”

“I'm facing the hardest thing in my life right now, and your first reaction is to rush to prove yourself innocent!”

“You're so cold-blooded!”

With that, Vanessa ran crying out of the hospital.

My phone rang.

It was Graham.

“Zoe, believe me. That day I dropped Vanessa off at the entrance to her complex and left...”

“I believe you.”

I cut him off.

Graham went quiet for a few seconds.

“Let's call the police.”

I smiled.

“No rush. I've got an even bigger surprise waiting for her.”

3: 3

But I hadn't expected Vanessa's revenge to come faster than I'd imagined.

The next morning at work, a coworker rushed over and pulled me aside.

"Your friend reported Director Henson to upper management. She's saying he's got no morals. Chairman Lawrence is furious. He's talking about firing Director Henson."

I walked quickly to Chairman Lawrence's office and knocked before going in.

When he saw it was me, his face went dark.

"Zoe, I know Graham is your fiancé, but this thing has blown up too big."

"Vanessa's out there crying and carrying on like she's ready to die. The two of you owe her some kind of answer!"

I looked at Vanessa, sitting on the couch, sobbing her heart out, and felt a cold weight settle in my chest.

Back then, the only reason Vanessa got hired here at all was because of my connection with Graham. Otherwise, with nothing but a community college degree, she wouldn't have made it past the front door.

I'd thought I was helping some harmless little rabbit. I never guessed she was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"What answer do you want, Vanessa?"

Vanessa stopped sobbing and lifted her head.

"Zoe, I know you blame me, but I'm the victim here."

"Graham owes me an answer. Raising a kid costs a fortune, and I can't cover it on my salary alone. I'm not asking for any title. I just want you and Graham to give me a hundred thousand up front for the delivery costs, and after that, five thousand a month in child support. That's all!"

Graham sucked in a sharp breath.

"A hundred thousand? Why don't you just rob a bank?"

"That day I dropped you off at the intersection and left. I never touched you."

Vanessa gave him the look of a woman staring down a man who'd done her wrong.

"It's your mouth. You can say whatever you like."

Graham was getting frantic now.

"If you don't believe me, we can go pull the security footage."

Vanessa fixed her eyes on him, unblinking.

"The camera outside my building broke ages ago. There's no surveillance on that whole street. That's the exact reason you thought you could do whatever you wanted with me."

I took out my phone.

"Well, since it's her word against his, let's just call the police."

"No!"

Two voices went up at once, Vanessa's and Chairman Lawrence's.

"The company just went public. A scandal this big, if the police get involved, it'll wreck our stock. Which one of you is going to answer for that?"

Chairman Lawrence scratched his head and paced back and forth, agitated.

"Here's what we'll do, Vanessa. This did happen on company grounds, so the company will put up fifty thousand for Director Henson, and the two of them can cover the rest themselves. How's that sound?"

Graham's mouth hung slightly open, his face bloodless. He didn't say a word for a long moment, but he already had the look of a man about to give in.

Vanessa's smile only grew brighter.

I stood up and slammed my hand down on the desk.

"No. That's just forcing us to admit Graham assaulted Vanessa, plain and simple!"

If we really did it Chairman Lawrence's way, then Graham would be the one falling into a pit he'd never climb out of.

Chairman Lawrence pointed at me and couldn't get a single word out.

I didn't hesitate any longer. I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

Vanessa's face went white in an instant.

4: 4

The call had barely connected when Vanessa lunged and ripped the phone out of my hand, smashing it against the floor.

"Zoe, I kept this quiet for your sake, and you're actually going to call the police? You don't care about Graham's reputation at all?"

I glanced at Graham, standing off to the side, head lowered. His brow was furrowed, his face grim.

I understood. Squeezed between the boss's pressure on one side and Vanessa's accusations on the other, he had nowhere to stand.

The next second, the door to Chairman Lawrence's office flew open.

A crowd of reporters came surging in with cameras and mics leveled at Graham.

"So you're the rapist?"

"Word is you're a director at this company too. Have you got no shame at all, doing something like this?"

"The victim is this Ms. Jenner, isn't it? Ms. Jenner, tell us something."

Vanessa's face shifted at once into the picture of a fragile, wronged little flower.

"Everyone, please don't jump to conclusions. Graham, he... he didn't force me. It was all my choice."

"I just want him to take responsibility now..."

I shoved Vanessa aside and pushed to the front of the cameras.

"Don't let her one-sided story fool you. My fiancé, Graham Henson, had a vasectomy a year ago. There's no way he could have gotten Vanessa pregnant."

I pulled out the freshly reprinted vasectomy report.

But not one of the reporters moved.

"We already heard about that. You used AI to fake a vasectomy report to cover for your fiancé. You're just as bad as he is!"

"Fine. In that case, I'll call Graham's attending physician and get it straight."

"The doctor definitely won't lie!"

Before the call even went through, Vanessa was on her feet.

"Zoe, your aunt is the hospital director. Of course you can make them say whatever you want."

The reporters' eyes turned to me, thick with contempt.

Chairman Lawrence stepped up too, distancing himself. Facing the cameras, his voice earnest.

"I only found out about this today. I'm already processing Graham's termination. It takes effect today."

Vanessa lowered her voice at me, her tone laced with open provocation.

"Zoe, just let Graham own up to it. Otherwise this blows up, and it's bad for everyone."

I looked at her and let a calm, faint smile cross my face.

"Vanessa, the baby in your belly is Orson Lambert's, isn't it?"

Vanessa froze for a beat.

The next second, the office door was flung open.

A young woman came storming in, dragging a man past fifty behind her.

She jabbed a finger straight at Vanessa and let loose.

"So you're the one carrying my husband's baby?"