Chapter 12: Global Trending Lists Explode—His Public Image Collapses for the First Time

The recording detonated across the internet in the early hours of the morning like a nuclear bomb.

#Liam’sPerfectImageCollapses

#SelenaTheFakeAngel

#DidWeBlameEvelyn

All three hashtags climbed the global trending charts at a rate of millions of views per minute.

This time, the names burning beneath the trending icons were Liam and Selena.

Overnight, millions of fans abandoned him.

The president of Liam’s official fan support group published a lengthy statement.

Its title was:

“I Cyberbullied an Innocent Woman for Three Days Because of a Liar.”

“The moment I heard him call his fans ‘idiots,’ I finally woke up.”

“We thought we were protecting our idol. In reality, we were nothing more than tools he could manipulate and exploit whenever he wanted.”

The post spread like wildfire.

Some of the people who had once attacked me most viciously were now the quickest to turn against him.

Ordinary users began reviewing the entire incident.

Someone enlarged the nine photographs supposedly showing Selena’s injuries and discovered obvious signs of digital editing around the wounds.

Others compared the timeline and realized that on the day I had supposedly cheated on Liam, I had actually been at the hospital accompanying him during surgery.

There were surveillance recordings, medical records, and nurses’ statements to prove it.

Someone else dug up the three audio clips in which I had allegedly committed domestic violence.

All three had been maliciously edited, with the beginnings and endings cut off and the original order of the sentences rearranged.

Not a single one of the accusations could withstand careful examination.

“This is terrifying when you think about it… Every one of those accusations was full of holes. How did we ever believe them?”

“Because we never wanted to verify anything. We just wanted someone to attack.”

“I’m sorry, Evelyn. I’ll be the first to say it.”

The first wave of apologies began.

The more passionately people had attacked me before, the more ashamed they felt now.

The backlash came swiftly and viciously.

Those who had once edited my face onto memorial photographs and sent me death threats quietly deleted their posts and changed their usernames.

The gossip accounts quickly changed direction.

Overnight, they deleted their articles and changed headlines from “The Vicious Woman Exposed” to “Shocking Reversal? Superstar Actor Faces Trouble.”

When someone falls, everyone rushes to push them down.

The tide had turned.

This time, the couple being roasted over the flames was Liam and Selena.

At the center of the storm, Selena panicked for the first time.

She started a livestream to explain herself, but before she could even speak, the comments were already flooding the screen with three words:

“Fake white lotus.”

In her confusion, she accidentally turned off her beauty filter.

Her exhausted face appeared on screen, and screenshots of it were quickly turned into a new wave of memes.

Liam’s public relations team was overwhelmed with calls, yet they couldn’t produce a single convincing response.

At four in the morning, he finally posted an update.

It contained only four words:

“The innocent need no defense.”

The most-liked comment beneath it was a question.

“Then why don’t you release the complete, unedited original?”

He didn’t dare.

Nothing frightened a liar more than being publicly asked to produce evidence.

Liam knew better than anyone that if the original recording were released, his defeat would be even more complete.

I looked at his statement and smiled faintly as I poured myself a glass of wine.

The ice had been broken.

But this was nowhere near enough.

The recording could only shake his public image.

The real evidence capable of dragging both him and Selena into the abyss had not yet been revealed.

I opened the next folder.

My eyes settled on two words:

Academic Credentials.

Selena, it was your turn.