The live chat was filling up with comments like that, eating up every lie my aunt and grandmother had been feeding them. They kept throwing dirt on me and my dad, and the more I stayed quiet, the more it stuck.
My aunt, meanwhile, looked like the cat who’d just caught the canary. She put on this pitiful, wronged expression, milking the sympathy from the viewers.
“So, dear viewers, you have to stand up for us, a poor widow and her orphaned son,” she said sweetly. “I am Manfred’s lawful wife, and my son is his legitimate child. Not like this little temptress here, who, at such a young age, already knows how to steal a man’s heart!”
Now, the only person who seemed genuinely worried for me was Pansy. She grabbed my arm and whispered urgently, “Mirabelle, you’re killing me here! What on earth happened between you and your dad? Just tell them already!”
But I couldn’t. If I said it out loud, my father’s entire reputation would be destroyed.
The viewers didn’t know that, though. They just saw me hesitating and decided they’d guessed right. The insults then started flying so thick and fast in the chat that it was like a tidal wave of hate.
My grandma and aunt were also throwing a deathly glare at me.
Just then, two police officers entered the hall behind James. One of them was holding a sealed file.
“Hold on. We also have a DNA report.”
