Chapter 3: Digital Witch Hunt

I stopped Marcus, who was just about to step in. "Wait a moment. I have something to ask."

For the sake of the Sterling Group's reputation, I needed to prove my innocence to the thousands of people watching online. We were in a critical period leading up to our IPO, and I couldn't afford even the slightest risk.

"Mom, I won't bring up how you abused me all those years," I began. "I won't even argue about how you cursed me to die before I went overseas. I just want to ask you one thing. We haven't had any contact in ten years. On what basis are you claiming that I seduced my own father?"

I fully expected her to act confused and dodge the question, just like she had done the many times she framed me in the past. Unexpectedly, she suddenly seemed full of confidence.

She pulled a stack of documents from her bag, held them up to the phone camera, and declared loudly, "Princess naturally has evidence!"

I took a closer look. They were printed chat logs, and the contact name at the top was actually mine.

"These are all the messages between you and Princess's husband! You called him 'husband' and begged him to buy you cars and houses. You bitch. The moment I saw I had given birth to a daughter, I knew you were here to steal my man. I've been guarding against you for years, but you still found a way to take advantage!"

I had always known she hated me. When I was born, she refused to breastfeed me, claiming her chest was her dear husband's exclusive territory and only he was allowed to touch it. She wouldn't let my father bottle-feed me either, insisting that his embrace belonged to her alone.

I was so starved that I was nothing but skin and bones. My tiny hands looked like chicken claws, and I cried through the night. Instead of comforting me, she complained to the neighbors. "I'm the real princess, and I haven't cried once since becoming a mother. Why is this girl crying so much?"

The elderly woman next door couldn't stand it anymore. Whenever my parents went out on dates and dumped me with her, she fed me goat's milk and practically raised me.

"I should have been ruthless enough to starve you to death when you were a baby, you old hag trying to seduce my husband," she threatened viciously.

I never realized she had genuinely wanted me to starve to death back then.

Taking a deep breath, I forced down my anger and asked, "Chat screenshots can be easily faked, especially printed ones. How can you prove these are authentic? Where are the original messages on your phone?"

Her answer genuinely caught me off guard. "Princess can't use a phone. The radiation is bad for my skin. No wonder you look so old, ugly, and wrinkled. Just unlock your phone and let everyone check your messages. That will clear things up."

The livestreamer who had accompanied her started rummaging through my room with the others until they found my phone. They demanded that I unlock it.

With Marcus shielding me, I snatched the phone back.

The crowd immediately erupted into insults.

"You're feeling guilty, aren't you? If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. You won't show us because you know you're guilty!"

"Bah! You absolute slut. You even went after your own father. When you get married, are you going to sleep with your father-in-law too?"

I unlocked my screen, fully intending to clear my name right then and there. But as I glanced at the comments flooding the livestream, I froze.

[Well said. How could just two men satisfy a bitch like her? She'd probably sleep with anyone in the neighborhood.]

[This is repulsive. Her own mother is confronting her, and she's still trying to argue.]

[She's the chairwoman of the Sterling Group? From now on, whenever I see news about her company, I'm going to remind everyone about her disgusting history.]

[Tsk tsk. In the old days, a woman like this would have been drowned in a river.]

The online audience was already swept up in a frenzy of blind outrage. Even if I showed them the real chat records, they wouldn't believe me.

Instead, I asked my secretary for my father's contact information. I typed out a quick message and hit send.

A reply came through almost instantly.

[Dear daughter, please cut me some slack. I'm begging you.]

I raised an eyebrow and typed back: [Get to the ancestral mansion right now and explain everything clearly. Otherwise, I will end you.]