Chapter 5

Ever since returning from the club that day, everyone in the Rasmus family had been acting a little strange.

Especially Mason, who started having sleepless nights.

Sometimes she would wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in a cold sweat, grabbing George and asking.

"Hey, you don't think something really happened to Carol, do you?"

George would turn over irritably. "Don't be so paranoid!"

But after he said it, he couldn't sleep anymore either.

On the internet, news about me started popping up out of nowhere.

At first, it was just some gossip accounts posting comparison videos.

"'Fake Heiress Audrey is the True Socialite,' 'Carol is Evil, Bullies Poor Audrey.'"

In the videos, Audrey was gentle, kind, elegant, and noble.

And I was edited to look like a vicious, scheming, jealous true heiress.

The comment sections were flooded with abuse.

"I heard she got kicked out of the house. Serves her right."

"Audrey is so pitiful, being bullied by someone like that for so many years."

Audrey held her phone, unable to suppress the smile at the corner of her mouth.

She pretended to be worried. "Mom, Dad, should we clarify? I'm afraid Carol will be sad if she sees this..."

Holt sneered. "She has the nerve to be sad?"

George even directly told his assistant to fuel the trending topic, pushing the hashtag #Carol The Evil Heiress# to the top.

I floated in mid-air, watching those filthy words, my heart felt like it was being carved by a thousand cuts.

But slowly, the tide began to turn.

Someone anonymously posted a few photos.

In a dim basement, a woman covered in blood was kneeling on the ground.

She was barely clothed, her left hand was empty, missing three fingers, and her back was covered in crisscrossing wounds.

There was also a blurry video clip.

In the video, a woman was being forced to crawl through a man's crotch and bark like a dog.

The men around her roared with laughter.

And that woman, curled up on the ground like a dying dog.

Although her face was mostly hidden by blood and matted hair, anyone familiar with her could still recognize it was me.

The internet exploded instantly.

"WTF! Is that Carol?"

"For real? That's so brutal."

"I thought it was just running away from home?"

"This is a crime!"

When Mason scrolled to the video, her face went white as a sheet. Her phone fell to the ground, shattering.

Holt stared intently at the screen, his breath ragged. "How is this possible..."

George, for the first time, fell silent.

The entire living room was deathly quiet.

Just then, Audrey suddenly cried out.

"Look! There are already people online analyzing it, saying the video was deliberately faked to smear the Rasmus family!"

Sure enough, a massive number of accounts started posting like crazy.

"'Secret of the Rich! The Rasmus Family's True Heiress Suspected of Being Sacrificed'"

"'The Rasmus Family Made Their Fortune Through Dark Arts, Their Biological Daughter Was Used to Ward Off Disaster'"

"'Carol is Dead, Her Vengeful Spirit Appears at the Rasmus Family Home for Revenge.'"

The rumors got more and more absurd, and someone even Photoshopped a picture of me, covered in blood, standing in front of the Rasmus family home.

For a moment, the entire internet was buzzing, and the Rasmus family actually felt a sense of relief.

Yes. With things this ridiculous, it must be fake.

Holt irritably turned off his phone. "A bunch of psychos."

George sneered. "I told you someone was deliberately messing with us."

Although Mason's face still didn't look good, she reluctantly nodded.

Only I was desperately shaking my head. It wasn't fake.

Those wounds were real. That blood was real.

Audrey suddenly let out a little "ah!"

"Carol's online on Twitter!"