Chapter 4

The internet moved faster than anyone expected.

At first, netizens treated it as cheap entertainment, mocking my humiliation.

But gradually, people began to notice the sheer cruelty behind the stunt.

The tide turned violently. A wave of outrage surged toward Natalie.

— [What kind of psychotic sister invents a 'loyalty test' just to film her sister peeing herself for clout? Disgusting!]

— [Knowing her sister is deathly afraid of heights and still forcing her to jump from the fifteenth floor while the parents just stood there watching? This whole family is toxic.]

— [The fiancé is terrifying too. Watching his future wife get tormented like that and calling it 'harmless fun'? Run, girl, RUN.]

A barrage of backlash drowned all three of them.

Natalie was the first to lose it. Unable to handle the online hate, she dragged Mom and Dad and stormed straight into my hospital room.

Her eyes were bloodshot, her face twisted in theatrical victimhood.

"Avery! Did you go online and post lies about me?!"

"All those clueless idiots are attacking me because of you!"

"Go into the comments and clear my name right now!"

I sat on the bed, staring coldly at her tantrum.

"Clear what? Did they say anything that wasn't true?"

"Did you not force me to jump off the fifteenth floor? Did you not deliberately film me to humiliate me?"

Dad stepped forward, snatching my phone with a commanding glare.

"Avery, record a video and post it right now!"

"Tell them this was all just a harmless family game, that we planned everything in advance!"

"Say your reactions were just acting and that it had nothing to do with us!"

Planned in advance? Oh, they certainly planned it—planned it to watch me get destroyed.

My arm trembled around the IV needle. The deep, aching pain in my muscles from the wire harness still hadn't faded.

Looking into the three pairs of glaring eyes, my voice was quiet, but unbreakable.

"In your dreams."

It was never a harmless game, and it was never a test of love.

It was a sick farce staged using my life, my fear, and my shame.

Now that their cruelty had backfired, they expected me to clean up their mess? Pathetic.

Those three words pushed Mom over the edge.

She lunged forward and, with all the strength in her body, slapped me viciously across the face.

A deafening ringing instantly exploded in my right ear.

I looked up at her in shock. Her face was distorted with rage, her mouth moving, spit flying as she screamed.

Yet I couldn't hear a single word.

A suffocating terror swept over me.

Suddenly, the door was shoved open again. Julian strode into the room.

For a brief, pathetic second, I thought my savior had arrived.

No matter what, Julian wouldn't let me go deaf.

Like a drowning person grasping at a straw, I desperately grabbed his sleeve.

"Julian... my ear..."

"Avery, you need to record a clarification video right now! Some bloggers found out who I am, and Vance Enterprises' stock is plummeting!"

His fingers gripped my shoulders like a vise.

Through the faint, muffled hum of my right ear, every word he said registered with brutal clarity.

The last spark of light in my eyes died completely.

He wasn't here to save me. He was here to finish me off.

Seeing me sit there motionless, Mom aimed her phone camera directly at my face.

"Don't let this woman's innocent act fool you!" she yelled into the screen. "We planned this prank together beforehand! It was all staged!"

"Now she's twisting the truth to incite online harassment against her own sister!"

"My poor Natalie has become suicidal and depressed from all the cyberbullying!"

Right on cue, Natalie grabbed a fruit knife from the bedside table, pretending to slash her wrist.

"Natalie! Don't do it!"

Every single person in that room rushed over to comfort her, surrounding her in a protective huddle.

A sudden itch trickled from my right ear. I reached up and touched it.

When I brought my hand back, the bright crimson on my fingers burned my eyes.

When I woke up again, the doctor stood over me with a somber expression.

"Your left eardrum has suffered nearly ninety percent damage. You're practically deaf in that ear."

"The right eardrum has around twenty percent perforation."

"With proper care, your right ear might recover, but the damage is severe."

I stared at him in a daze, lifting my left hand to touch my ear. I couldn't even react.

It wasn't until the doctor walked out and closed the door that the tears finally spilled over.

I curled into a ball on the bed, hugging my knees, sobbing so hard my whole body shook.

Not a single person walked through that door.

I discharged myself, went back to the villa, and packed my bags.

Before walking out, I placed the formal cancellation of our engagement and my medical diagnosis side by side on the dining table. Then, I headed straight for the airport.

Meanwhile, Julian had spent the day putting out fires regarding his company's plummeting stock.

When he finally rushed to the hospital to drag me to a press conference, the room was empty. He called my phone over a dozen times, but nobody answered.

An ominous dread twisted in his gut.

He drove back to the villa. The house was dead quiet.

The only things waiting for him were two sheets of paper lying silently on the dining table.

He picked up the medical report, frozen in disbelief.