Chapter 14
Emily Windsor's POV
Jacob's tax evasion scandal spread through New York's high society and legal circles like wildfire.
The once-rising star of the legal world had become a pariah overnight. Law firm partners withdrew their investments one after another, clients fled en masse, and everything he'd built with such painstaking care was crumbling at a devastating pace.
Just when I thought victory was mine, an unexpected blow caught me off guard.
Julie called a press conference.
I watched the live broadcast on the television in Luke's office.
On camera, Julie wore a simple white dress, her makeup flawless yet expertly touched with a hint of haggardness. Tears streaming down her face, she painted Jacob as a pitiful victim of his ex-girlfriend's insane vendetta.
"Miss Windsor has been consumed by resentment over my relationship with her ex-boyfriend," she told the camera, crying beautifully, eliciting sympathy from viewers. "She exploited her former position at the firm to steal confidential business information, fabricate evidence, and frame Jacob with false accusations. She's doing this not just to get back at us, but to destroy him—to destroy our entire family!"
She paused for effect, then delivered her most lethal accusation: "As a lawyer, she's broken the very laws she swore to uphold—she has no professional ethics whatsoever! I'm begging the Bar Association to investigate and give Jacob justice, and to restore integrity to our profession!"
Cleverly, she'd reframed a clear case of corporate crime as emotional revenge between lovers, twisting me from a righteous whistleblower into a woman scorned, driven mad by jealousy and willing to destroy anything in her path.
Public opinion shifted in subtle but dangerous ways. People who didn't know the full story began sympathizing with Jacob, the man whose career had been ruined by his vindictive ex. Meanwhile, my professional reputation faced an unprecedented crisis.
"Quite the performance," Luke's voice came from behind me, emotionless.
I switched off the television and turned to face him, expression blank. "She wants to destroy my career, drag my name through the mud."
"And what do you plan to do about it?" Luke studied me, ice-blue eyes glinting with curiosity, as if watching an increasingly entertaining drama unfold.
I considered for a moment. Julie thought she was Jacob's savior, but she had no idea how catastrophically stupid her move had been. Her biggest mistake? Voluntarily stepping onto my battlefield.
"Luke," I raised my head to meet his gaze, "I need information on Julie. Everything. The more detailed, the better. I want to know every skeleton in her closet."
"Done." Luke's lips curved into a slight smile. He picked up his phone and sent a single, brief message.
Less than an hour later, an encrypted file arrived on my computer.
Luke's intelligence network was terrifyingly efficient. The file contained Julie's complete history from birth to present, detailed to an astonishing degree.
I scanned through it quickly, my cold smile deepening with each page.
This woman, who played the innocent victim on camera had a past that was anything but clean.
Plastic surgery. Forged academic credentials. She'd been a kept woman for multiple wealthy men, even had an abortion for money. Her current socialite status was nothing but a carefully constructed facade, built with cash from various benefactors.
The most ironic part? She'd only met Jacob and gotten introduced to his parents through a middle-aged businessman she'd once "serviced."
I organized all this damning material—the sordid photos, the bank transfer records—into neat, categorized files.
But I didn't release them publicly. That approach was too crude, too easy to turn against me.
Instead, I sent one package directly to Jacob's parents.
The Johnsons were an old-money family, proud of their prestigious lineage, who looked down on precisely this type of social climber. They'd tolerated Julie only because of the image she'd cultivated: well-bred, gentle, virtuous. I was curious to see their expressions when they discovered who Julie really was.
The second, more comprehensive dossier I sent anonymously to the core members of Julie's elite social circle.
That world of upper-crust socialites might look glamorous on the surface, but beneath the veneer, they were ruthless. They worshiped success and trampled failure, tolerating no imperfection. A fraud who'd infiltrated their ranks with a fake identity? That was unforgivable.
Having set everything in motion, I closed my laptop and waited for the show to begin.
The storm arrived even more violently than I'd anticipated.
The next day, the Johnson household erupted into chaos.
Apparently, Jacob's mother's blood pressure spiked so severely upon reading the email that she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance.
His father flew into a rage, throwing Julie out of the Johnson estate like garbage.
The socialite circle's reaction was even more direct and brutal. They spread Julie's dirty secrets throughout their exclusive network without mercy. Overnight, she went from a coveted candidate for a wealthy family's daughter-in-law to the laughingstock of high society.
Friends who'd once treated her like a sister scrambled to distance themselves, terrified of being associated with the scandal.
Cast out by the Johnsons, penniless and completely rejected by the social elite, Julie called me.
Gone was the gentle, pitiful voice from the cameras. Instead, she shrieked hysterically, hurling curses.
"Emily! You bitch! It was you! You destroyed everything I had!"
Phone in hand, I walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows, gazing down at the glittering cityscape below, my tone perfectly calm. "I simply showed the world who you really are, Julie. You never should have come after me in the first place."
Before she could continue her tirade, I hung up and blocked her number.
The farce ended with Julie's complete downfall.
I stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of Luke's office, looking down at the city's dazzling lights, yet I felt no joy in my victory—only a hollow exhaustion. The rush of revenge was brief and empty, like fireworks: brilliant for a moment, then nothing but ashes.
Soft footsteps approached from behind. A suit jacket, still warm from body heat, draped over my shoulders, shielding me from the late-night chill. The familiar scent of cigars and cold fir enveloped me as Luke's tall figure came to stand beside me, sharing my view of the night.
"Not happy?" His deep voice broke the silence.
I shook my head, pulling his jacket tighter around me. His lingering scent somehow eased my taut nerves. "Just feels... pointless. Jacob and Julie were nothing more than my ticket into your world. Now that the ticket's been used, they're irrelevant."