The Comments Said My Baby Was Worth A Billion-Dollar Empire Chapter 08

The Comments Said My Baby Was Worth A Billion-Dollar Empire Chapter 08

By the time the police arrived, Lily was already at the hospital. She’d fallen down a side stairwell inside Vance Enterprises, five stitches across her forehead.

The security footage showed us entering the stairwell moments apart. I never touched her.

All I’d wanted was to confront her about the milk. She was standing on the steps, and then she just fell. Backward. On her own.

She caught my sleeve on the way down, her voice barely a whisper. “You can’t fight the plot, Chloe.”

I was too shocked to move. And now everyone was saying I pushed her.

Julian showed up too, hovering behind the officers. I couldn’t read the look on his face.

“Chloe, Lily’s seriously hurt.”

I didn’t blink. “And?”

“We can make this go away if you just apologize.”

I was shaking.

Victor’s voice cut in from beside me, flat and final. “She didn’t do it.”

Julian turned to him. “You’re not even going to look at the evidence?”

Victor lifted his gaze. “I’m looking at her. That’s enough.”

Heat flooded my chest.

The comments stalled briefly, then erupted.

[AHHH THAT LINE. Somebody put that on a billboard.]

[The original second ML is out here playing judge and jury while the so-called villain is already protecting his wife]

[The surveillance footage has been edited tho. Chloe’s in real trouble this time.]

They sat me down for a statement. Victor didn’t leave my side.

He sat beside me, turning a plain band between his fingers while the officer ran through the questions. I couldn’t stop staring at it.

He caught me looking and closed his hand around it. Picked it up on the way here.

I stared at him. Just like that?

“I’ll get you a proper one tomorrow.”

I fought a smile. You’re racking up a lot of IOUs.

He held it out. Give me your hand.

I offered it.

He slid the ring onto my finger, slow and deliberate. The officer cleared his throat.

“You two. We’re in the middle of a statement.”

My cheeks burned. Victor’s face didn’t move.

“Keep going.”

Before long, Victor’s team recovered a deleted section of the footage. In it, Lily lost her footing on her own, then glanced back at the camera before she fell.

The officers’ expressions shifted. Julian had nothing to say.

I walked into Lily’s hospital room with a tablet in my hand.

Lily was propped up in bed, face wan. She managed a thin smile when she saw me.

“Chloe. To what do I owe this visit?”

I turned the screen toward her and hit play. The smile died on her face.

I slapped her hard across the face. “That’s for trying to frame me.”

She pressed a hand to her cheek, and the mask finally cracked. What looked back at me was pure venom.

“Everything you took from me, Chloe. You’ll give it all back.”

I leaned in close. “Victor isn’t a thing. Neither is this baby. You don’t get to call it theft just because they chose me.”

Her smile came back, slow and wrong. “You think a marriage certificate is going to save you?”

“The plot corrects itself tonight. Midnight.”

Every hair on my body stood on end. My phone rang.

Victor. “Chloe. Don’t be afraid. I’m outside the courthouse. I had them open the doors for us. I’m waiting for you.”

I opened my mouth to answer. The corridor lights cut out.

A hand clamped over my mouth from behind.