Chapter 75

Chapter 75
Lila's POV

I don't know why, but something felt off about yesterday. Garrett suddenly started acting weird, drove us back the minute he felt something was off and said something about being watched.

When we got home, I couldn't go through the envelope. Maybe it was out of fear, maybe I was trying to pull back my curiosity. But today, I had it with me and I wanted to check it.

I took the envelope to my bed and sat down, still clutching the other pile of documents I'd been holding on to for days.

The ones I'd gotten on my own before all this, before Garrett even knew what was going on. I didn't even know why I'd kept them so close all this time, maybe because I knew in my gut they were important, or because I know I couldn't trust anyone else with them.

I started with the new stack, sliding the papers out slow like they might break. The paper edges were worn, and some of the print was slightly smudged like they'd been handled way too many times.

I spread them out, my eyes running over line after line, dates, amounts, names, signatures.

At first it was just numbers, a blur of transaction records that I had to read twice before they even started to make sense. But then I started spotting names I recognized. Not just Nora's. Others. People I had worked with. People I had trusted.

My chest got tight.

I reached for the old stack I had and started comparing. Side by side, the same names kept popping up, the same damn account numbers showing up in both sets. Garrett's contact hadn't been lying, these were connected, all of it.

I dug deeper, flipping through pages quicker now, my fingertips starting to sting from the paper edges. And then I saw it.

My own name, my own signature too. Except it wasn't mine.

It was close enough to pass at a glance, but I knew my handwriting better than anyone else could. The loops were wrong. The slant was a bit off. The pen pressure wasn't the same. Someone had forged my signature, and on legal documents too.

I sat back for a second, pressing my hand to my mouth. My stomach was twisting, this sick heat rising up through me.

Flipping through again, I found more signatures on reports, statements I had supposedly given, even a consent form for something I'd never agreed to. And the worst part? They'd done it so cleanly, so… professionally, that I had no doubt some people had already taken it as real.

Then I got to the part that made my blood go cold.

The medical reports.

Page after page detailing an “incident” where I had “allegedly assaulted” my own manager, Nora. The reports were thorough, complete with injuries, broken ribs and bruised parts listed, diagrams, medical jargon I could barely read. They made it look like I'd snapped, attacked her, and sent her to the hospital.

And right beside those? There were witness statements. All fake obviously because I didn't assault her and I didn't recognize a single name, and yet the documents made it sound like there had been multiple people who had seen it happen.

My hands were trembling now, but I couldn't stop. I didn't want to because I needed to see it all.

Then I found the videos.

Not physically in the envelope of course, but printouts, screenshots, titles, upload dates, file references. My stomach turned as I saw what they were supposed to be. Deep fake videos of me, in situations I had never been in. Some were… obscene. Some were meant to look like I was on drugs. Others made it look like I was violent and out of control.

And then the images. Nude photos of me in different pose. I froze when I saw them, my mind racing with questions. "How could someone go this far to ruin me?"

They had paid people for this too. It was right there in black and white, transactions to random names, some obvious aliases, others maybe real. Large sums.

Everything was here. Everything.

It wasn't just about discrediting me anymore. They were trying to erase me, to turn me into some kind of monster in the public eye so that no matter what I said, no one would believe me.

I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until it came out all shaky. I just sat there staring at the papers, my own name smeared across lies that could ruin me forever.

My hand went to my forehead, pressing hard like maybe I could force my thoughts to stop spinning. "What the…"I whispered under my breath.

The room felt smaller now, like it was closing in on me.

I didn't even hear Garrett come in until his shadow moved across the bed.

"Lila." His voice was soft at first, but when I didn't look up. "Lila. Talk to me."

I glanced up at him, and I could feel how red my eyes were. "It's… it's all here. Garrett, they didn't just want to ruin my job. They wanted to ruin me as a whole. They wanted to bury me so deep I couldn't even crawl my way back up if I tried."

He came around the bed, kneeling down beside me so he could see my face. "Hey," he said firmly, "look at me. We're not letting that happen."

I shook my head, trying to pull away from him. "You don't get it. This is everything. They forged my signature on documents. They faked medical reports saying I assaulted Nora. They've got videos, fake videos, Garrett...." I paused, inhaling hard. "They're are nudes of me, who knows what else they posted and spread like wildfire. And the worst part is that they paid people for it. Paid them to destroy me."

"Lila, it's okay—"

"They wanted me gone, Garrett. Not just gone, they wanted me dead inside."

His jaw tightened, and I could see something dangerous in his eyes. The kind of look that said if Nora or anyone else involved was in this room right now, they wouldn't be walking out.

He reached for my hands, pulling them away from the papers. "Lila. I'm going to help you get your life back. Every single one of them who touched this, every person who signed off, who took a dime to lie, they're going to regret it."

I blinked hard, my throat tight. "How? It's too big. They"ve covered every angle."

He shook his head. "No. Nobody covers every angle. And I'm not stopping until I find the one thing they didn't plan for."