She poked her own temple. "My mommy is a world-famous brain specialist. She could perform a craniotomy for you. Sounds like you need to drain some excess fluid from your head."
Stunned silence. Then a ripple of stifled laughter.
The mockery snapped Joanna's last thread of reason. She lunged forward, reaching for Lucy. "Come with me!"
Before she could touch the girl, I stepped out from the shadows. I moved swiftly, placing myself between the crazed woman and my daughter.
Joanna froze. Her pupils contracted, her breath hitching as if she were staring at a ghost.
"Asher?" Her voice trembled. "You didn't die?"
The revelation sent a shockwave through the crowd. Whispers ceased. All eyes locked on me.
The man who had jumped from a rooftop six years ago was standing here, alive.
A figure shoved through the stunned onlookers. Matthew Dickerson.
He looked me up and down, his lip curling into a sneer.
"So, it is you. The Farley chauffeur."
Matthew crossed his arms, radiating arrogance. "You staged that suicide six years ago as a ploy for sympathy, didn't you? And now you're dragging the kid back into the spotlight. Quite the performance."
His gaze swept over Lucy and me with undisguised contempt.
"I see what this is. It's no coincidence she took first place today. No coincidence she ran into Joanna."
He stepped closer, raising his voice for the audience. "You orchestrated the whole thing. Trained the girl to act cute, win over the judges, and deliberately let Joanna recognize her. You're using the child as a pawn to claw your way back into the Fox family fortune."
Matthew laughed darkly. "And the kid—so young, yet so manipulative. Calling her own biological mother 'Auntie,' playing hard-to-get. Like father, like daughter. Truly calculating."
As his accusations hung in the air, the atmosphere shifted. The audience's gaze turned suspicious, and murmurs rose once more—sharp and judging.
The temperature in Joanna Fox's gaze dropped to absolute zero.
She let out a sharp, caustic laugh.
"I gave you too much credit, Asher. I actually thought you had a spine—thought you were the type who'd rather jump off a building than bow his head." She stepped closer, lip curling. "Now I see how wrong I was."
"You've got it all figured out, don't you? Risk your life just to stage a scene for money. Have you no shame?"