Chapter 254 Chapter 254
Outside the broadcast room, in the backstage corridors.
As soon as the heavy studio door closed, Claire grabbed her personal assistant’s arm so hard that her designer nails tore through the fabric of the girl’s blouse.
“Give me your phone!” Claire hissed, her expression monstrous and hardened. “Has someone posted something about me on Instagram again?! What the hell is going on?!”
The assistant swallowed hard, her eyes brimming with tears of pain and terror. She had already seen the news break more than twenty minutes ago.
But she felt it would be suicide to interrupt the live stream to tell Claire. Fearing her boss’s fury, the girl replied quickly, her voice breaking: “C-Claire… someone just leaked a dossier about you on Instagram and Twitter.” The post exposed your IP address and has been shared by all the major tabloids and gossip accounts in the country... The entire internet is talking about it! And... Ms. Amy, your new PR manager, called in a panic. She demanded that you return to StarColi headquarters immediately!
The assistant pointed with a trembling finger down the hall. “Oh, and there’s more… security warned that dozens of reporters and paparazzi have already surrounded the entrance to the network’s building downstairs. They’re waiting for you!”
Claire’s face went completely pale as she snatched the phone from the assistant’s hand and opened Instagram.
She didn’t have to look far. The story was at the top of her feed, the most talked-about news in Brazil. The post’s caption blared in bold letters, like a knife held to her throat:
\[BREAKING NEWS! The mask has fallen! Brazil’s darling, Claire Ford, was actually the mistress in a 10-year affair! Her current billionaire fiancé was, in fact, her own half-sister’s fiancé! That eye-poker not only stole her sister’s love behind her back, but was also caught orchestrating cyberattacks and spreading disgusting lies about abortion to destroy the girl’s reputation!\]
Claire was blinded by rage as she read the headline. She squeezed her phone so hard that the screen almost cracked under her fingers.
Her assistant watched from the side as the young star’s face contorted into an angry, tense, and demonic expression, not daring to even let out a loud sigh.
Claire had always had a rotten, sadistic temper behind the scenes. She often used the staff as a punching bag to relieve stress. And now that the whole world knew she was a fraud, the consequences would be deadly.
Trying to protect herself, the assistant slowly crept into a dark corner of the hallway, trying to minimize her presence and go unnoticed until the storm passed.
But Claire, panting like a cornered animal, noticed the movement.
When Claire turned her head sharply and saw the girl trembling in the corner, a wave of irrational hatred took over her mind.
There was something sickening about that assistant: Claire had hired her specifically because the girl’s facial features vaguely resembled Caroline’s. She loved having a “cheap copy” of her perfect sister to boss around, humiliate, and subjugate on a daily basis.
As she looked at that frightened face that reminded her of her triumphant arch-enemy, Claire lost the last shred of control.
She lunged forward in a rage, raised her hand, and delivered a brutal slap to the girl’s face.
SMACK!
“I pay you a salary so you can just stand there trembling and being useless?!” Claire screamed through clenched teeth, spitting out the words as the assistant fell to her knees on the floor, sobbing. “Why didn’t you warn me about that post before I went live to make a fool of myself, you good-for-nothing?!”
The assistant’s face swelled and turned red almost instantly from the cowardly and unjustified blow.
The girl’s face was overcome with sheer terror, and her eyes, red and watery, threatened to pop out of their sockets. She clutched her swollen, throbbing cheek, sobbing: “I-I’m sorry, Claire! You were in the middle of the live stream… I was afraid of ruining the recording if I showed you that disaster right then!”
Claire knew better than anyone that the assistant was not at all to blame for the leak of the dossier. But Claire’s sanity had completely vanished.
As she looked at that round, delicate face, which so closely resembled Caroline’s hated features, blind fury took control. The more the assistant whimpered and looked pitiful, curled up on the floor, the more Claire’s fingers itched with the urge to deliver a second slap.
The image of Caroline—that manipulative vixen, who knew nothing but how to play the poor little victim all day long to steal others’ sympathy (and their billionaires)—burned in her mind.
“Afraid of distracting me?!” Claire’s expression darkened demonically as she crouched down toward the assistant.
She grabbed the girl’s chin, squeezing it with brutal force. Unleashing all her venom, Claire dug her long, sharp nails into the soft skin. “You were just waiting for me to fail on national TV and be destroyed, weren’t you? I know you’re celebrating my downfall inside, you worthless thing!”
The designer nails pierced the girl’s flesh, creating small, crimson crescent-shaped cuts on her cheek.
“C-Claire, I swear I didn’t! I wouldn’t dare!” The assistant gasped, paralyzed with fear and trembling from head to toe, thick tears of pain streaming down her wounded face.
“You’re just like that sly little bitch of a sister of mine! All you know how to do is make a scene to get attention!” Claire spat out the words, her face mere millimeters from hers. “But, tough luck for you, there’s no rich heir around here to save you! So what if you make that poor, wronged little face?” Do you think some executive in a suit is going to show up in the hallway to comfort you? Or do you just want to cry out loud so the whole studio knows I’m punishing you?!
"Claire, p-please... I really didn’t..."
The assistant shook her head furiously in denial, choking on her own sobs, completely terrified by the monster in front of her.