I Knelt For Three Years For A Lie. Now I’m Back For Blood Chapter 09
Owen’s voice exploded through the ballroom speakers, distorted and deafening.
Every word of his greed, every ounce of his contempt, was forced into the ears of every reporter in the room.
The press, who had been swooning over his “devoted lover” act seconds ago, turned like sharks smelling blood.
Every lens in the building swung toward the stage.
“Mr. Cole, is that your voice?”
“Was the ‘foundation’ just a front to harvest your ex’s traffic?”
“Is Mia Shaw even sick, or did you just kidnap her?”
The flashes were a blinding wall of white.
Owen backed away, his hands clawing at the air.
“It’s a fake! It’s AI! She’s a lunatic! You’re going to believe a psycho over me?”
Marcus scrambled off the floor, scrambling for the sound system.
“Security! Get her out! Shut it down!”
I stayed planted on my branch. I watched them thrash on the hook.
For the first time in three years, I felt cold. Real cold.
“Don’t go yet,” I whispered into the silence. “The best part is coming.”
I hit play again.
This time, it was Jenna. Her voice was a poisonous purr, recorded at my hospital bed.
“You think it was luck that I showed up to comfort Owen every time you two fought?”
“That was your dear brother. Start to finish. He watched you sink. He loved every second.”
The room didn’t just erupt—it shattered.
This wasn’t just a scam. This was cannibalism.
A brother, a boyfriend, and a best friend, picking a girl’s bones clean while she was still alive.
Jenna sat frozen. Her face looked like it had been carved out of gray chalk.
The kid in her arms started to scream. The sound was a drill against my skull.
She tried to bolt, but the reporters boxed her in like wolves.
“Are you the ‘best friend’?”
“Whose child is that? What really happened on that cliff three years ago?”
Jenna covered her face, her voice turning into a shrill, ugly shriek.
“Stop filming! I don’t know her! She’s a monster!”
I dragged my bad leg toward her, one agonizing inch at a time, until I was breathing the same air.
“You don’t know me?” I looked into her shifty, terrified eyes.
“Three years ago, you held my hand and promised to give Owen back. You knew me then, Jenna.”
I ripped her hands away from her face.
“You faked a death for the insurance. You traded your name for a lie. You think you can just delete a life?”
At the word ‘insurance’, Marcus snapped.
He threw himself through the crowd and grabbed my collar. His eyes were shot through with blood, wide and wild.
“Mia! You won’t stop until we’re all buried, will you?”
“I’m your brother!”
I looked at that face. The face that had haunted my thousand-day walk.
I wanted to laugh. So I did.
“Brother?”
I caught his wrist and bit down. I bit until the copper taste of his blood filled my mouth.
I didn’t stop until I felt his skin tear.
Marcus howled and threw me off.
“Where was my ‘brother’ when you were plotting my funeral?”
“Where was my ‘brother’ when you pumped me full of drugs to keep me quiet?”
I pointed at the screen—at the image of me bleeding on the dirt.
“Every time I bowed, you three were there, drinking the blood I left behind.”
I held up the flash drive.
“Everything is on here. The recordings. The paper trail of the insurance scam. “
“Even the money Marcus stole from the company to buy your new lives.”
The air left the room.
Owen’s legs gave out. He slumped onto the stage steps like a discarded rag.
He knew. The lie had run out of breath.
The ballroom doors slammed open.
Uniforms. Badges. The heavy thud of boots on the carpet.
“Owen Cole, Marcus Shaw, Jenna… You’re under investigation for insurance fraud, unlawful imprisonment, and embezzlement.”
“Move. Now.”