Chapter 6
Christi didn't go back to her apartment. She walked three blocks, slipping into a dingy, underground cybercafe in the basement of a strip mall. No ID required.
She pulled a black baseball cap low over her face and sat at a computer in the darkest corner. Her fingers flew across the sticky keyboard, routing her connection through three different VPNs to mask her IP address.
She logged into an anonymous proton mail account. She attached the high-resolution photos of Jensen and Fallon kissing. Then, she attached the audio file she had paid a hacker ten grand to extract from the Maybach's dashcam cloud backup.
In the audio, Jensen's voice was crystal clear: "Just endure it a little longer, Fallon. Once we secure the family trust by having a baby, I'm kicking that bitch to the curb."
Christi hit 'Send'. The recipients were Page Six, TMZ, and the top three financial news outlets in New York.
She pulled the USB drive out, ran a military-grade wipe on the computer's hard drive, and walked out into the Manhattan night.
Two hours later, the internet caught fire.
Page Six pushed a breaking news notification to millions of phones: WALL STREET GOLDEN BOY'S FAKE MARRIAGE: Rivera Heir Caught in Steamy Affair with Socialite Fallon Ratcliff.
Twitter exploded. The hashtag #RiveraScandal hit number one in ten minutes.
Inside the top-floor boardroom of the Rivera Conglomerate, Jensen hurled his crystal whiskey glass at the wall. It shattered into a thousand pieces.
His PR director ran into the room, sweating profusely. "Sir, we can't get the posts taken down. The platforms are refusing our cease-and-desist letters. There's massive capital backing the spread of this story."
Jensen's eyes were bloodshot. He grabbed his phone and dialed Christi's number. It went straight to a busy signal. She had blocked him.
He turned slowly to his private assistant, Ethan Cole. Ethan was shaking.
Jensen walked over, his face twisted into a mask of pure cruelty. He threw a stack of papers and a blank check onto the conference table. "Sign the NDA, Ethan. You're going to tell the press you borrowed my car and my jacket. You're the one in the photos."
Ethan stared at the papers. "Sir, my career will be over. I can't-"
Jensen leaned in close, adjusting his tie. "Sign it, or I cut off the medical funding for your mother's dialysis by midnight."
Ethan choked back a sob. His hands shook violently as he picked up the pen and signed his life away.
At 11 PM, the Rivera Conglomerate released a desperate, legally dubious statement claiming mistaken identity, attaching Ethan's forced confession.
Sitting on her sofa, Christi read the statement on her phone. A cold smile spread across her face.
She dialed Arthur Finch. "Why hasn't Vogue Business published the dashcam audio?"
Arthur stammered on the other end. "Christi, Rivera just bought out our entire ad space for the next quarter. We can't run it."
Christi bit her lower lip, tasting copper. "Arthur, I have the audio. If you don't publish it as your morning headline, I'm giving it to Vanity Fair. They will ruin you."
Arthur, driven purely by greed and traffic metrics, caved instantly. "Fine. 6 AM. It goes live."
Christi hung up. She poured herself a glass of cheap red wine and raised it to the empty room.
Across the city, in the penthouse study of the Apex building, Leo Vance stood before Cornelius.
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