Chapter 17 BACK TO BUSINESS
Ethan slowly lifted his gaze, his jaw tightening just enough for the cameras to catch. Then, with a quiet, calculated breath, he stepped back to the mic.
Ethan: "Yes, Vivienne is currently staying at the Sinclair family house in Rome."
A wave of stunned murmurs surged across the room.
"And I'm here, in Greece, on my honeymoon with my wife."
Everyone was stunned. The press conference was held in Greece, which was just an hour and a half away from Rome, so most people assumed Ethan had flown in just for it.
He calmly explained that he had been in Greece the whole time. He and his wife were currently on their honeymoon, and this press appearance was just a brief moment in between.
Ethan explained that he hadn't addressed the rumour earlier because he didn't seen the need to. the Sinclair family has better things to do than respond to petty rumours. With that, he ended the press conference and walked out with Lena by his side, leaving the room buzzing with silence and confusion. No one expected that response, and no one knew what to make of it. All they could do was watch the couple disappear, calm and composed, while the headlines wrote themselves.
BREAKING: "Ethan Sinclair Shuts Down Rumors, Ex Was Never on His Honeymoon"
That was the new headline dominating every major entertainment blog by the next hour.
From gossip sites to business tabloids, the story had taken a complete turn. Clips of Ethan and Lena in Greece, timestamped and geotagged, were now circulating like wildfire. One video even showed Ethan stepping out of a sleek black car into the marble entrance of his Grecian mansion Lena right beside him, her hand resting easily on his arm.
Meanwhile, the photos of Vivienne entering the mansion in Rome were under heavy scrutiny.
"Turns out the Sinclair family owns several nearly identical mansions around the world," one outlet reported.
"Sources confirm Ethan was over 800 kilometers away when Vivienne was spotted in Rome."
It was all starting to add up. The timestamps didn't match. The locations were off. The puzzle was coming together and the conclusion was clear:
Ethan had never been in the same place as Vivienne.
In fact, the footage released by his media team was a masterstroke, casual, unbothered, and very public. Ethan and Lena weren't hiding. They looked very much in love and entirely unaware of any drama.
The public was eating it up.
Fans flooded Lena's page with apologies and praise, while others laughed at how fast the blogs had jumped to conclusions. A popular meme even trended with the caption: "Vivienne entered the wrong Sinclair mansion."
Vivienne was getting dragged. Hard.
Blog after blog began retracting their earlier headlines, now replacing them with ones like:
"Vivienne Misleads the Public, Sinclair Mansion Confusion Sparks Online Outrage"
"Jealous Ex or Master Manipulator? Vivienne Under Fire After Greece-Rome Mix-Up"
Though Vivienne had never explicitly said she was at Ethan's honeymoon home, she had implied it heavily. The background in her photo, the familiar golden arches of the entryway, the signature Sinclair marble floors it was all there. She didn't need to say the words. She let the public do the guessing.
And they did. Until the truth dropped.
Once Ethan's team released the actual footage, the story flipped fast. People felt played.
Comments flooded Vivienne's page
"Girl, this isn't cute. You lied and got caught."
"Ethan was never in the same country. This is embarrassing."
"Jealous ex energy. Move on, sis."
"You were hoping Lena would look bad, but it backfired. Yikes."
Worse still, anonymous burner accounts,some believed to be insiders, started whispering that Vivienne had tipped off the blogs herself. That she'd paid for the paparazzi photos. That she knew exactly what she was doing.
The rumor spread like wildfire. And the public didn't take it lightly.
"She tried to hijack their honeymoon," one Twitter post read, racking up over 300,000 likes.
Another trending comment simply said:
"You can't force your way back into a Sinclair fairytale."
Vivienne didn't respond. Not publicly.
But inside the Sinclair mansion in Rome, her phone buzzed nonstop, each notification louder than the last until she finally turned it face down on the table.
The plan had backfired.
Vivienne paced the guest room like a caged animal, her thoughts spiraling as fast as her anger. Her phone was buzzing nonstop, each alert another dagger headlines mocking her, blogs retracting their earlier stories, commenters calling her desperate.
But what enraged her most... was the lie.
Because she had seen Ethan.
She wasn't guessing. She wasn't fantasizing.
She had looked him in the eye. She had confronted him. Right here. In this very house.
Her eyes narrowed as her mind went back to that day. The paparazzi. Not just hers she knew who she hired. But there were others. Strangers with cameras, across the street, parked in black vans, lenses aimed at the gate.
Real paparazzi's Watching.
They had seen him too. They had to.
So why weren't they saying anything?
Why were the blogs so sure she was lying?
Had they been paid off? Silenced? Or was this a calculated move another cold, precise strike from Ethan?
Vivienne's stomach twisted.
He was rewriting the truth. And no one was questioning it.
Not even the ones who saw what she saw.
Hugo's phone buzzed, the screen flashing: Private Number.
He answered without a word.
The voice on the other end was shaky. "M-Mr. Hugo... the photos, they're gone. Every single one from Rome. Deleted. Like you said. Even the backups."
Silence.
Hugo leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the city skyline through his office window.
"Good," he said, cold and sharp.
The man's voice cracked. "Please... don't ruin me. My name, my career I've done everything you asked please...."
Click.
Hugo ended the call before the man could finish begging.
Ethan wasn't foolish. He was handling a multimillion dollar deal, One headline about a jealous ex could spook investors and wreck the deal. There was no room for gossip, no space for mistakes.
So Hugo made the call. Within hours of Vivienne's arrival, Ethan and Lena were moved to Greece. Quietly. Discreetly.
The Sinclairs held more than wealth they held power. Real power. The kind that moved quietly, without announcement. Their movements were always discreet, their locations never public. Only a select few ever knew where they were at any given time.
The day Vivienne arrived in Rome, only a handful of reporters were near the estate.
With a generous sum and a few carefully worded threats those reporters went silent. The footage? Erased. Every frame. Every backup. Gone.
The story was buried before it ever had the chance to breathe.
As far as the world knew, Ethan and Lena had never been in Rome at all.