Chapter 2
But her craziness didn’t stop there.
The day after Chloe took her own life, the audio from the voice recorder was posted on her Ins account.
It was a scheduled post.
Seems like she’d set it up before she died.
The recording, combined with a lengthy, emotionally manipulative caption, was enough to utterly ruin my reputation.
That day, her fanatical followers flooded my DMs with messages too vile to even glance at.
Even though I was already dead, even though I couldn’t reply or defend myself, they remained obsessed, and negative headlines spread like wildfire.
Chloe truly lived up to her “A-list actress” title; she’d even orchestrated our deaths for her own narrative.
Her fans didn’t see her as a murderer. Instead, they believed she’d endured and schemed for years, all to make me pay for what I’d done out of love.
I, the victim, was painted as the ultimate villain, the one who tore a perfect couple apart, the one who caused such a talented actress, in the prime of her life, to die.
My entire life story was dug up and aired for public consumption online.
My tombstone became a twisted landmark for her crazed fans, who found sick joy in defacing it.
If the staff hadn’t stopped them, they probably would have dug up my ashes and scattered them to the winds.
The Cooper Group’s stock crashed.
Even worse, the rival company mysteriously got their hands on the Cooper Group’s confidential core data.
In just a few days, my family’s company was facing bankruptcy.
My name, my career, my life—Chloe had utterly destroyed everything.
Even my very existence was taken by her hand.
Never had I realized so clearly that the woman who’d slept by my side for so many nights had only ever wanted me dead.
That’s when it finally hit me why Chloe hated me.
Seven years ago, I’d blocked Chloe from rushing into oncoming traffic.
Because of that, Liam was hit and killed by an out-of-control car.
It turned out, from that moment on, Chloe had blamed everything on me.
She said I made her miss the chance to confess to Liam, the idealized crush she’d worshipped from afar for three years.
It made no sense.
Even if I hadn’t confessed to her that day, she wouldn’t have confessed to Liam anyway.
I was just unlucky.
Unlucky not only to confess to Chloe the day Liam died, but to fall in love with that lunatic.
I thought, This time, I truly regret it.
The next moment, a piercing shriek dragged me back to reality.
A figure slammed into me, pushing me hard, then sprinted toward the surging traffic.
“Alex Cooper, get out of my way! If anything happens to Liam, I’ll make you pay for it with your life!”
I watched her hold Liam close, like she’d found the most precious treasure. I let out a bitter, mocking smile and tossed the bouquet in my hand into a nearby trash can.
Pay for it with my life?
Does Liam even deserve that?
By the time I died, I’d already figured it out.
There are so many women in the world. Why was I so hung up on this one?
She was a beautiful but poisonous poppy, demanding my very life.
What was the point?