I ran a hand through my hair again, biting my nails trying to think.
No, this problem can still be fixed.
After all, I have several options right now, and if it even comes to it I could ask Damien for help.
I let out a rough sigh, thinking about how much I had already burdened him, even though I had only been his wife for a few days.
“Young Madam, are you awake?” I immediately straightened my back when I heard Thomas’s voice outside my room.
He sounded a little worried, maybe because he had also seen the video that had practically torn my reputation apart.
I opened the bathroom door and shouted, “I’m awake!
Wait a second!”
I glanced briefly at my reflection in the mirror and adjusted my hair to look as presentable as possible before hurrying towards the door.
I though a deep breath and finally opened the door.
“What’s wrong, Tho—” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw Damien beside Thomas.
This time, he was sitting in his wheelchair, looking neat and tidy, probably already prepared to leave.
“Oh, Damien?
I thought you said were going out of town today?” I asked.
He had already canceled his schedule for me yesterday, so it didn’t seem possible for him to cancel it again today.
That would look unprofessional and could damage his image.
“I am leaving,” Damien said as he rolled his wheelchair closer to me.
“But I wanted to see you first.” His eyes swept over me from head to toe, steady and searching.
“Are you alright?”
A thought suddenly passed through my head and I pressed my lips into a thin line, my expression faltering slightly.
Without another thought, I pulled his wheelchair into my room and shut the door behind us, leaving Thomas waiting in the hall.
The moment the door clicked shut, I covered my face with my hands and crouched in front of Damien.
I really didn’t want him to see me cry, but maybe the hangover and the pounding headache made everything too hard to hold back.
“People are talking badly about me,” I whispered at last, my voice shaking.
Slowly, I lifted my face, forcing myself to meet Damien’s eyes.
but now they’re attacking me.
They’re saying it makes sense for Audrey to bully me because they think I stole her father.”
A bitter laugh slipped out between my sobs.
“Doesn’t that sound ridiculous?” My voice cracked as tears choked me.
Honestly, at this point, I couldn’t even tell anymore whether I was acting because I genuinely did feel Eliana’s emotions pouring out.
I tried to wipe my tears as I desperately kept talking.
“Mireille Beauty just contacted me.
They said if this problem doesn’t go away soon, they might cut off our partnership.
I haven’t even started my career yet!”
My voice broke into a whine.
“Doesn’t that mean I’ll have to pay back their advance?
What about the penalty fees?”
I cried even louder as I thought about all the bullshit that had happened in less than a day.
In my past life, when something like this happened and I really couldn’t hold back my tears, I was all alone in my high rise apartment, crying my heart over a bottle of tequila.
But now …
at least I wasn’t alone.
Now, I could cry and pour out all my frustration in front of my poor husband.
But wasn’t I only adding to his burden?
He was already prepared to leave for his business trip out of town, yet here I was, forcing him to listen to me whining and breaking down over some bullshit on the internet.
“I’m sorry …,” I whispered, sobbing a bit louder.
“You should have already left to do your work, but I made you stay here and listen to my rambling.”
“Eliana.” Damien finally spoke once I had calmed down and stopped whining.
“Can I take care of it?”
My mind went blank for a while second and I blinked twice trying to understand what he had just said.
“Huh?”
“Would let me take care of this?”
I looked up at him, holding my breath until my chest felt unbearably heavy.
He said it so calmly, as if what he was suggesting was as easy as flipping a hand.
“How…How are you going to do that?”
“I can ask someone I know to remove all the hate videos about you from the app, if you’d like that.” Damien said.
I bit down on my lip, contemplating, “I don’t think deleting them is the right move,” I muttered, dragging my hands down my face, trying to think straight now that I was feeling less emotional.
“People would only assume I pulled strings to cover it up, and let’s be real …
gossip about celebrities is rarely ever seen as bullying.”
“Don’t worry about that.” Damien reached out, gently brushed my hair to the side, tucking it behind my ear so he could see my face more clearly.
His eyes softened as he said, ” Just let me handle it, I’ve found something even more interesting about her.”
“Something more interesting?” I asked softly, a bit confused.
Audreh had always acted like the perfect sister to me on her social media.
That’s why people found it so easy to believe she just snapped at me on the day she pushed me.
“Do you want to see it?” Damien asked as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
He unlocked the screen with a swift motion and held the phone out toward me.
“Here,” he said.
On the screen, a video began to play, showing Audrey screaming at an employee in a boutique who looked on the verge of tears.
My stomach twisted as the clip shifted to another, showing her drunk and laughing with her friends, beating up an old man as if it were the funniest thing in the world.
Before I could even process it, Damien swiped again.
The next video made my blood run cold.
It was grainy and old, clearly from high school.
Audrey stood with her little clique, scissors in hand, cutting at a girl’s uniform.
One of them kicked her legs, forcing her to kneel on the ground in a dog position, while Audrey shoved her face in into the toilet as they all burst out laughing.