Chapter 4 - The Digital Honeytrap
The collective gasp from the wedding guests was deafening.
Nicholas let out a strangled cry of anguish as he watched his bride betraying him on the giant screen.
Chloe turned pale white, screaming at Julian to unplug the tablet immediately.
Julian smashed the tablet onto the floor, but the video continued playing from the main projector booth.
"You really thought a world-class ghostwriter wouldn't have digital booby traps on her servers?" I asked Julian sweetly.
I walked out from behind the kids' table, finally feeling the power of my own voice in front of my family.
"That flash drive was a honeytrap, Chloe," I explained, my voice echoing through the silent room. "The moment you plugged it into Julian's device, it downloaded his entire personal cloud."
Nicholas fell to his knees in his designer suit, sobbing openly in front of his former business associates.
My mother rushed to his side, glaring at me as if I were the villain for exposing the truth.
"You ruined your brother's wedding on purpose, you vindictive little monster!" my mother shrieked at me.
Emmett stepped firmly in front of me, shielding me from my mother's toxic rage.
"She didn't ruin anything; she exposed a nest of vipers," Emmett said, his voice laced with dangerous authority.
Julian wiped the sweat from his forehead, trying to salvage his shattered reputation.
"A sex tape doesn't prove she wrote those speeches, Stewart!" Julian barked desperately. "Your stock is still going to crash when I tell the press your ghostwriter is a fraud!"
I pulled my own phone from my small clutch purse and smiled at Julian.
"You want proof of my writing process, Julian?" I asked softly.
I pressed a single button on my screen, sending a mass email to every reporter in the country.
"I just published the original drafts of every speech, complete with timestamped keystroke logs showing my edits."
Julian's phone immediately started buzzing with frantic calls from his public relations team.
He glared at me with pure hatred, realizing I had just destroyed his credibility permanently.
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But Julian did not retreat in defeat as I expected.
Instead, he reached inside his silver suit jacket and pulled out a heavy, matte-black handgun.
