Just State Your Terms

A heavy silence stretched across the phone line before the paparazzo finally replied, his voice wary. "Mrs. Blackwood, we're just tabloid journalists. We can't delete posts from the internet. Our only tool is manipulating public sentiment. But currently, the evidence supporting Evelyn is undeniable. Flooding the web with smear campaigns would be pointless now; nobody would believe us."

Patricia's jaw clenched hard. "You useless idiots! I don't care about your methods! Just make this disaster vanish!" Her words were razor-sharp, laced with pure rage, challenging him to defy her.

But the paparazzo had reached his limit. His voice turned cold as ice. "Mrs. Blackwood, this is a problem of your own making. We are withdrawing from this situation."

He ended the call without another word.

"Vultures! Cowards!" Patricia seethed, her anger erupting.

She instantly hit redial, but the call went directly to a automated voicemail greeting. The truth hit her; he had blocked her number.

Struggling to maintain her composure, she drew a sharp breath and opened her social media application.

The screen refreshed, unleashing a torrent of pure vitriol. Her direct messages were flooded with hateful comments. Notification after notification piled up—each tagged post was another public flogging of her reputation.

A tightness gripped her chest, her breath catching as she scrolled through the endless stream of abuse. The sheer scale of the public outrage made her heart pound violently against her ribs. The room suddenly felt suffocatingly small.

It wasn't long ago that Patricia had delighted in every vicious comment aimed at Evelyn, watching the spectacle like a monarch observing a execution. She had believed Evelyn deserved every ounce of that hatred.

Now, trapped in the internet's crosshairs herself, the collective loathing felt like a physical weight crushing her.

So this was how it felt...

Her pulse raced as her eyes scanned the insults. Each word chipped away at her pride, fueling the inferno of her fury. She couldn't stand it any longer. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed her phone and stabbed Evelyn's contact.

Evelyn answered almost immediately, her voice infuriatingly calm. "Patricia. To what do I owe this call?"

That steady tone only amplified Patricia's rage. Her grip on the phone tightened until her knuckles turned white. "Evelyn, if you have any sense, you will remove those posts now," she hissed. "Or I swear, you will live to regret this."

Evelyn didn't flinch. Instead, she gave a soft, almost mocking laugh. "Is that so? And how, precisely, do you intend to make me pay, Patricia?" Her voice was smooth, utterly unruffled, as if she was dealing with a petulant child.

That blatant indifference shattered the last remnants of Patricia's control. She leaped to her feet, her chair screeching backwards across the floor. "I'll contact the authorities! I'll hire the most powerful legal team and sue you for everything you have! You think you're immune? Think again! One way or another, you will pay for this!"

Evelyn emitted a quiet chuckle, her tone deceptively light but edged with steel. "Please, be my guest. Call the police. I'd be very interested to see whom they side with first—you and Isabella, or me, the actual victim in this entire affair."

She let the implication hang in the air before adding with a deliberate sigh, "The evidence I've presented is unequivocal. Are you having difficulty comprehending it, or are you simply so desperate that you're still trying to distort reality?"

A flicker of uncertainty crossed Patricia's face for the first time. Her bravado faltered as her hold on the phone intensified.

Her voice dropped, forced into a strained, urgent whisper. "Evelyn, enough games. Just state your terms. Name your price, and we can reach an agreement. But you must secure Julian's release first."

Evelyn let out a derisive scoff, her voice dripping with scorn. "Are you still living in a fantasy? You and Isabella confined yourselves to spreading slander, but Julian? He escalated to actual criminal acts—assault, kidnapping. Do you honestly believe I would simply overlook that? Even if I were inclined to mercy, the law is not. Accept it. It's over. Stop wasting your time."

Patricia's hands balled into fists, her entire body shaking with unrestrained fury. Her mind was a whirlwind of frustration.

She sucked in a sharp breath, forcing herself to appear calm. "Fine. Set Julian aside for the moment. Just tell me what it will take for you to remove those posts? If this continues, our family's name will be utterly destroyed."