Chapter 5 - THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN
Victor didn't wait for me to strike. He owned half the media in the city, and the next morning, my face was plastered across every television screen and news website in the state.
MALE NURSE PREYS ON DEMENTIA PATIENT FOR BILLION-DOLLAR FORTUNE.
The articles were vicious. They claimed I was a predator who had manipulated a vulnerable, mentally declining woman into a deathbed marriage to steal her wealth. They interviewed my old landlord, my coworkers, anyone who would paint me as a desperate, money-hungry sociopath.
The public outcry was deafening. There were protestors outside the courthouse. I was the most hated man in Chicago.
Mr. Harrison looked at me across the hotel dining table, sipping his coffee. “This is his strategy. If he ruins your character in the court of public opinion, a judge might annul the marriage based on predatory coercion.”
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“Let them talk,” I said, staring at the television. I felt Eleanor’s heavy ledger resting in my lap. “He’s playing a PR game. We’re playing a criminal one.”
We left the hotel through the underground garage, flanked by private security I had hired with the bearer bonds, and headed straight to the FBI field office.
