Chapter 5

I closed my eyes. I lifted one hand and pointed at the door.

"Get out."

The next morning, a black sedan pulled up at the hospital entrance.

Several bodyguards dragged me out of bed and pinned me between them.

"Ms. Zoe, Mr. Johnson has asked us to bring you to the engagement party. If you'll come with us."

It was phrased as a request, but their grip left no room for escape.

When I was pushed through the entrance of the venue, the Johnson family was in the middle of a press interview.

The moment Ethan saw me step out of the car, he rushed over and took my arm, dropping his voice.

"Zoe, after everything we've been through — you'll help me, right?"

"I know you're upset. Once the press conference is over, I'll make it up to you privately."

Before I could answer, he steered me in front of the reporters.

A wall of camera flashes went off all at once. The room went quiet.

Everyone was waiting for me to speak.

I opened my mouth and said four words.

"It's all a lie."

The room erupted. The reporters swarmed like they'd smelled blood.

"Ms. Zoe, what exactly is a lie?"

"Is it true that Ms. Maya interfered in your relationship with Mr. Johnson?"

"What happened to your eyes?"

Questions came at me from every direction.

Through the crowd, I caught Ethan's face going pale with fury as he pushed toward me.

Bodyguards carved a path through the press.

In full view of every camera, Ethan's hand cracked across my face.

"Enough. How long are you going to keep this up?"

The room went dead silent.

Ethan's mother stepped forward with a carefully composed expression, already spinning the story.

"Zoe, Ethan has been quietly supporting you for years. Is this how you repay him?"

"Everyone — after Ethan came back to the family, I insisted he end things with Zoe. For years, she has been the one pursuing my son. The Johnson family has never approved of this match."

Ethan's father stepped up beside her, holding up footage from a security camera.

"When Zoe was injured in our home years ago, I was at a board meeting. My entire staff can verify that. The claim that I assaulted her and caused her blindness is completely unfounded."

Maya turned to me with tears running down her face.

"Zoe, you're my best friend. Ethan and I didn't get together until two years after you two broke up. How can you say these things about me?"

They were burying me under an avalanche of lies.

Every word was another nail pinning me in place.

And then, in the middle of it all — my vision came back.

Not blurry. Not foggy. Clear.

I could see every face in the room.

Contempt. Dismissal. Indifference. Scorn.

I looked straight at Ethan through the noise of it all.

"You think everything they just said is true. Don't you."

He didn't answer. He just looked at me.

His voice was tired.

"Zoe, just let it go."

Just let it go.

Four words. And in them, everything.

Every last scrap of hope I had left — gone.

I looked out at all those cold, hostile faces staring back at me.

And I laughed.

"Ha — hahaha!"

His mother's brow furrowed.

"What is so funny?"

I stopped laughing. My gaze moved slowly and steadily over everyone in the room.

"I'm laughing at all of you. How naive."

I said, "You really think burying me in lies is enough to keep your hands clean?"

"You think destroying the evidence means you can rewrite the truth?"

"Fine. You want to destroy me? Then let everyone see exactly who you are."

I raised the shattered phone in my hand.

I turned the volume all the way up.

The recording played out clearly enough for every person in that room to hear.