She’s Poking the Tiger, and I’m Enjoying the Show Chapter 07

She’s Poking the Tiger, and I’m Enjoying the Show Chapter 07

Mrs. Bennett cried even harder.

“What does any of that matter? My daughter is fighting for her life in the ER right now! She’s only twenty-four!”

I looked into her red-rimmed eyes and thought of my own mother in my previous life.

She had cried until her voice gave out.

But back then, Mrs. Bennett had stood in a hospital hallway blocking reporters and defending her

daughter.

“Aria was terrified too. She was only trying to get back inside the van. The other girl panicked and

fell out on her own.”

No one had asked whether I had been in pain.

The dead had no voice, so the guilty could rewrite the story however they pleased.

I handed my phone to the officer leading the investigation, with the park’s safety director standing

beside him.

“The complete recording is on this phone. I’ve already backed it up, and this is the original,

unedited file.”

Ethan stood nearby, his face ashen.

The officer nodded.

“We’ll collect the van’s dashcam footage, the park’s surveillance footage, and a copy of the livestream. Everyone who was there will need to give a statement.”

At the mention of the livestream, Mrs. Bennett stopped crying for a moment.

She clearly knew what her daughter had said on camera.

At nine that night, doctors finally managed to stabilize Aria.

She was going to live.

She had suffered severe bite wounds to her neck, shoulder, arm, and thigh and had lost a dangerous amount of blood. Doctors would need more time to assess the extent of the nerve damage.

When she regained consciousness, the first thing she did wasn’t admit that she had been wrong.

She asked a nurse for her phone and sent a tearful voice message to her fan group chat.

[I thought my coworkers would save me… I never thought she’d lock me out…]

Her followers quickly spread the message online.

Within half an hour, my DMs blew up.

[How could you just leave her out there to die?]

[Would opening the door and pulling her in have killed you?]

[Aria’s hurt that badly, and you can still sleep at night?]

The company group chat erupted, too.

Someone tagged me.

[Emma, people are attacking the company online. Can you please explain what happened?]

Then Ethan sent me a private message.

[Don’t respond yet. Wait for PR to issue an official statement.]

An official statement.

I knew exactly what that meant.

They hadn’t decided who would take the fall yet.

In my previous life, their official story had pinned all the blame on me.

This time, I wasn’t staying silent.

I didn’t post anything online or argue with Aria’s followers.

Instead, I sent copies of all the unedited files on my phone to the police, the park’s safety

department, and the company’s legal department.

I added one warning.

[If anyone edits this footage in a misleading way or makes defamatory statements about me, I will

take legal action.]

By the next morning, investigators had established the basic sequence of events.

The park’s surveillance cameras had captured everything clearly.

Before the minivan had fully stopped, Aria deliberately opened the left sliding door. Once outside, she took out the freeze-dried treats and feather wand and tried to lure the tiger toward her.

Her own livestream had captured every word.

“Today, I’m going to prove that animals really can read my energy.’

“Don’t let my coworker scare you. A tiger’s still a cat.”

“I’ll only be out for ten seconds. As soon as it responds, I’ll

get

back in.”

The clearest evidence came from the park’s exterior surveillance footage.

When the tiger forced Aria back, she ignored the closer left sliding door, which was still partly open.

She circled the minivan, ran around to the right side, yanked repeatedly on my door handle, pounded on my window, and dug her fingers into the rubber seal as she tried to pry the door open

The camera angle captured every expression on her face.

Terror.

Hatred.

And the ruthless determination to drag someone else down with her.