Chapter 14
The headlines exploded before noon.
“Collin Riley’s Dark Past Revealed.”
“Wife or Pawn? Linsey Brooks Caught in Web of Lies.”
“Secret File Exposes Billionaire’s Hidden Motive Behind Marriage.”
Every screen, every phone, every whisper in public carried their names. Photos of the manila envelope contents were plastered across news sites. Reporters dissected every piece of paper—every surveillance photo, every line of Linsey’s sealed juvenile file, every connection between Collin and the powerful man who’d once hired him to ruin her.
By mid-afternoon, the media wasn’t just questioning their marriage anymore.
They were calling it a trap.
Inside the penthouse, Linsey sat on the floor of the bedroom, phone in her lap, hands shaking.
She had barely spoken since the leak.
Messages poured in from people she hadn’t heard from in years. Some expressed sympathy. Others asked if it had been a con from the beginning. Even her old college professor emailed her: “Tell me it’s not true.”
She didn’t reply.
She couldn’t.
Collin stood by the window, watching the city buzz with chaos—his world unraveling, brick by brick.
He hadn’t said a word since the story broke. Not to the press. Not to the board. Not even to her.
Finally, Linsey stood up, her voice steady but low. “It’s out.”
“I know,” he said.
She faced him. “You told me first. I want to believe that counts for something.”
“It does.”
“But you should’ve told me long before this,” she continued. “Before the wedding. Before you let me fall.”
He met her eyes. “I didn’t let you fall. I fell with you.”
There was silence.
Then she whispered, “Did you ever love me? Or was this all just guilt?”
His gaze broke for a split second—just long enough to hurt.
“I loved you before I even knew what love was,” he said. “You just… didn’t see me yet.”
Her throat tightened. “And now?”
“Now,” he said, stepping forward slowly, “I don’t expect you to trust me. I just hope you won’t leave me.”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she walked past him, headed straight for the door.
Collin’s heart sank. He didn’t stop her.
But Linsey paused at the threshold.
“I’m not leaving,” she said. “I just need to breathe.”
And with that, she stepped out into the city—alone.
Flashbulbs erupted the moment she left the building. Reporters swarmed.
“Ms. Brooks, did you know about the investigation?”
“Was your marriage staged?”
“Are you planning to file for annulment?”
Linsey didn’t speak. She kept walking, head high, shoulders square.
She wasn’t running.
She was thinking.
Hours later, she found herself at the old bookstore. The same one where she first met Collin. It hadn’t changed. The bell above the door chimed softly, the scent of old paper and quiet memories still clinging to the air.
She wandered to the same corner table. Sat in the same chair.
Back then, she was just a girl trying to escape her past.
Now, she was a woman trying to decide her future.
She pulled out her phone and opened the press photos again. Not of her. Not of the headlines. Just one image—the surveillance shot from years ago. Grainy, black-and-white, of her sitting right here, reading.
The caption read:
“Subject: Linsey Brooks. Target under observation.”
But the man who’d once been paid to watch her… had ended up standing by her when no one else did.
She exhaled slowly and whispered to herself, “What am I supposed to do with that?”
She stayed there for hours, surrounded by silence. By truth. By questions without answers.
And somewhere across town, Collin sat alone in their apartment, replaying the moment she walked away.
Not forever.
But just far enough to remind him how easily love can slip away… if you don’t fight for it.