By morning, the rumours were dead. Not fading. No questions, everything just erased. Every headline that had screamed scandal now whispered misunderstanding.
Every video was labelled as fabricated. Every source is suddenly unreliable.
TideWest's official statement was short, confident, and airtight. By noon, the world had moved on.
Inside the penthouse, Jasmine hadn't.
She stood by the window, phone clenched in her hand, rereading the same articles again and again, each one insisting that what she had seen with her own eyes had never happened.
Julian (in Brown) watched her from across the room, "So that's it?" Jasmine asked quietly. "I imagined everything?"
"No," he said. "You saw something that was meant to be twisted." She turned to him then, tears finally spilling.
"I walked into that office," she said. "I saw you. I heard my own heartbeat break."
Her voice shook. "And you paid the world to tell me I was lying." Silence stretched between them.
"You don't deny it," she whispered. "You just bought a better story." He didn't respond
Jasmine laughed once. sharp, hollow and in a mockery of herself.
"I don't know who you are," she said, stepping back. "But whoever you used to be… he would have never done this."
She picked up her bag, ready to leave.
"I loved a man who doesn't exist," she said. "And I won't grieve over him twice." She slammed the door after storming out of the room.
Julian (in Brown) didn't move or flinch a muscle; he stood still.
That same afternoon, he went back to the office, and the call came from downstairs.
"Sir," the receptionist said carefully, "there are two people here to see you. They insist and say it's urgent" Julian (in Brown) paused a bit and frowned. "Names?"
A pause over the line.
"Isabella and Victor de Almonte."
The world tilted in his head; it was like a nightmare. He had to maintain his cool.
Minutes later, they stood in his office, elegant, controlled, unmistakably foreign to New York's cold rush.
Isabella looked at him the moment she stepped inside and froze. Not at his face, but shelookedk deep into his cute eyes, she always loved those colours of his eyes right from his childhood days, just then it dawned on her, she knew who he was from within.
"My God," she whispered. "It's you."
Julian (in Brown) breath caught. "Whoa?", he dragged.
Victor closed the door behind them. "We knew something was wrong," he said calmly. "People don't change overnight without reason." Isabella stepped closer, hands trembling. "We felt you," she said. "A mother always does."
He said nothing. There was no point lying to people who had already recognised his soul.
"How did you guys find out I was here?" He asked curiously, "your cousin, Jasmine, she always knew you were the one but she kept quiet and told us everything that was going n", Isabella said, "then why did she pretended all this while", " we told her to do so, darling", she replied and moved closer to him, "is truly you my boy", she said and pulled him in, arms wrapped around his back so tight, hugged him so tight, its been years she saw him, "I've missed you son", victor added, "so now whats the plan", h asked, "Natasha says something big is coming for Amira, her husband is taking revenge for lying to her about the child", Isabella said, "what child", Julian (in Brown) asked, she at down on the chair across him and sighed, "years back when Amira was pregnant, she had a baby girl in her, but family wanted a boy, she sold her only daughter off in replacement for a boy, which is the well known Brown Caldwell", Isabella explained, "that's so bad", he said, "yeah he truly deserve whats coming for her", Isabella added.
Across the city, Amira Caldwell sat in the back of a black car, watching the news replay itself into obedience.
Fabrication. Extortion attempt. False rumors.
She smiled faintly. Right on time.
Her phone buzzed. A single message appeared on the screen:
It's unravelling, they're.
Amira typed back without hesitation.
It always does,s and be prepared.
She looked up just as the car slowed in front of her.
Red and blue lights flashed across the glass.
The door opened. "Mrs Caldwell," an officer said politely, "you'll need to come with us." Amira stepped out calmly, adjusting her coat.
As the cuffs clicked into place, she leaned closer and said softly,
"You're late, I despise unpunctual souls"
She had always known he would come back for her. She never expected her arrest to be this calm, but she knew she would be arrested soon.