Chapter 33 CHAPTER 33
Let the media know
“This is war, and I’m not about to lose,” Chloe whispered to herself, pacing the length of her dressing room, her heels clicking against the polished wooden floor. Her chest rose and fell sharply, her nerves frayed, her lips trembling as she spoke into the empty room. “They think they can paint me as the villain? No. Not when I’m Mrs. Chloe Ares Langford.”
She stopped in front of the mirror, her reflection staring back at her flawless hair, makeup perfectly done, her designer dress hugging her body. Yet behind the glamour, there was panic in her eyes. The internet had turned viciously against her since the restaurant incident. Headlines screamed about “the jealous wife” who attacked her husband’s business partner. Comment sections were filled with thousands chanting Justice for Tessa while calling her the pick me girl.
Everywhere she looked, Tessa’s face was plastered. Tessa smiling, Tessa crying in the hospital bed, Tessa trending. And Chloe? Chloe was being mocked, insulted, turned into a meme. She clenched her fists so hard her manicured nails dug into her palms.
“They don’t know me. They don’t know the truth,” Chloe muttered, pacing again. Her mind was a raging sea. She had been silent too long, waiting for Ares to defend her, but Ares hadn’t so much as looked her way since that night. He barely spoke to her, ate nothing she cooked, came home late, and left early. She was invisible in her own marriage.
But not anymore.
Her phone lit up on the vanity table. A notification blinked: Channel 7 News — Live Interview Scheduled. Her heart skipped, and then steadied. She had already made the calls. Arrangements were set. If Tessa could manipulate public sympathy, she could manipulate public hate.
At the same time, Lady Bianca and Marcus were at the family estate, seated across from each other at the long mahogany dining table. A luxurious spread of dishes lay untouched before them. Sizzling lamb chops, bowls of Caesar salad, a basket of warm bread. Marcus had the television remote in one hand, flipping through channels half heartedly while sipping his wine.
Lady Bianca was elegantly poised as always, a scarf draped around her shoulders, flipping through the day’s fashion magazine.
“Why do you always ruin lunch with football replays?” she sighed, not lifting her eyes from the glossy page.
Marcus smirked, leaning back. “Why do you always ruin lunch with fashion? We all have our sins, Bianca.”
Their light sparring was interrupted when the television screen froze on a breaking news alert.
Marcus frowned. “Hmm? What’s this?”
The reporter’s voice filled the dining hall: “We interrupt this program with an exclusive live interview. Mrs. Chloe Langford, wife of billionaire mogul Ares Langford, has come forward with shocking revelations concerning the viral scandal surrounding Tessa, the woman that was seen with her husband. Stay tuned.”
Lady Bianca’s head snapped up, her eyes narrowing. “What nonsense is this?”
Marcus raised a brow, reaching for the volume button. “Oh, this should be entertaining.”
The screen shifted. Chloe appeared on live television, seated in the studio under bright lights, wearing a pristine white dress that gave her an angelic glow. Her posture was perfect, her hands folded delicately on her lap. She tried to look like the victim, poised but trembling slightly, just enough to stir sympathy.
The interviewer leaned forward. “Mrs. Langford, thank you for being here. The public has seen you trending after the unfortunate incident at the restaurant involving Tessa. Many have criticized you harshly. What do you want to say to the world today?”
Chloe’s lips quivered. She lowered her gaze as though fighting tears, then lifted her chin with a forced smile. “I’ve been silent because I wanted to protect my family,” she began, her voice soft yet clear. “But the truth… the truth is too heavy to keep inside anymore. People deserve to know who Tessa really is.”
Lady Bianca stiffened. Marcus leaned closer to the television, suddenly interested.
The interviewer nodded. “Go on.”
Chloe inhaled shakily, placing a hand over her chest. “Tessa… she is not who she pretends to be. She is a single mother of four children she abandoned. Her kids are my husband’s quadruplets, whom I’ve raised as my own for years. Tessa was in school of nursing, she started following bad gang, going to parties and doing drugs until she got pregnant and didn’t know who the father was…”
She paused, wiped a tear then continued. “I cared for her at the dorm until she put to birth. She met Ares at the hospital and begged him to take them and ease the burden from her. Ares was kind enough to offer her marriage and introduced her to the world, planning a wedding if you guys can remember…Yeah she was the one…but guess what? She left them without a second thought. Left Ares heartbroken. Left those children without their mother. And why?” Chloe’s eyes flashed with rehearsed pain. “Because she ran away with another man. She eloped. She didn’t care about anyone but herself.”
Marcus’s brows shot up. “What?”
Lady Bianca’s magazine slipped from her fingers. “She said what?”
On screen, Chloe dabbed her eyes with a tissue, her voice trembling. “Seven years. Seven years, Ares raised those children alone until I came into his life. I stepped in. I became their mother, their caregiver. And now Tessa returns, acting like a victim, deceiving the world with her fake tears and her… surgeries.”
The interviewer’s eyebrows arched. “Are you saying Tessa abandoned her family?”
“Yes.” Chloe’s reply was sharp, firm. Her voice grew stronger as she sensed control. “She is manipulative. Evil. Wicked. I’ve seen it firsthand. The way she twists stories to make herself look innocent, the way she uses people especially men for her own benefit. And now she has Ayisha, who’s equally manipulative, coaching her. This is their plan, to ruin my marriage, to destroy Ares’ peace, and to make fools of us all. She threatened to destroy my marriage if I don’t pay her and her friend ten million each. Which I did and will drop the receipts. They’ve been blackmailing me and trying to get more money from me. I said no and that’s the real reason she was seeing Ares, to threaten him of taking the kids away. And that’s why she’s suing me.”
Her words were like daggers, sharp and deliberate.
Lady Bianca’s breath quickened, her hand clutching the edge of the dining table. “This girl has lost her mind. What is she doing?”
Marcus’s smirk faded. He sat straighter, eyes narrowing at the screen. “She’s burning bridges with dynamite, that’s what she’s doing.”
On the screen, Chloe’s voice rose with passion. “I love those children as if they were mine. I love my husband even though he never…” she caught herself, swallowed, then continued smoothly, “…even though he never stopped mourning her. But I stayed. I stayed because they needed me. And now the same woman who deserted them suddenly wants to play the hero? No. The world must know the truth. I will not sit back and let my family be destroyed.”
The interviewer leaned forward. “Mrs. Langford, are you implying Ares is not even the biological father of the quadruplets?”
The studio went deathly still. Chloe hesitated, then her lips curved in a bitter smile. “Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Those children are not his. Tessa deceived him from the very beginning. She trapped him with pity, and now she wants to do it again. But I will not let her.”
Lady Bianca gasped, her hand flying to her chest. “Oh my God…”
Marcus dropped his fork onto the plate with a loud clang. “She did not just…why she is lying? Those are my grandkids! They look like us.”
But Chloe wasn’t finished. On screen, her eyes blazed with self righteous fury. “So to the world chanting ‘justice for Tessa’… I ask you: where was her justice when she abandoned her kids? Where was her justice when she fooled Ares into raising children that aren’t even his? She’s no saint. She’s a liar. And I refuse to let lies destroy my marriage.”
The interviewer cleared his throat, clearly stunned. “That’s… quite an allegation, Mrs. Langford.”
Chloe’s expression hardened. “It’s not an allegation. It’s the truth. And I will prove it if I must.”
The screen cut to a commercial break, but the damage was done.
Lady Bianca’s hand trembled violently as she reached for her glass of water, missing it completely. Her chest rose and fell in uneven gasps. Her face paled, beads of sweat breaking out on her forehead.
Marcus shot up from his chair. “Bianca? What is it?”
Her hand clutched her chest tighter, her eyes wide with panic. “That… that foolish girl… she’ll ruin us all…”
Marcus rushed to her side, but before he could reach her, Lady Bianca let out a strangled gasp, her body jerking as though struck by an unseen force.
She collapsed sideways onto the floor, her silk scarf slipping from her shoulders.
Marcus’s eyes widened in horror. “Bianca!”