Winning the Heir Who Bullied Me
Chapter 189
It all unfolds like a fever dream.
At first, the video is fuzzy–a result of being filmed on the tiny camera in the floral brooch Lara gave me.
Confusion tipples across the glittering ballroom as voices filter through the speakers overhead.
Whispers swell. Heads tilt. Some guests begin to murmur to one another, eyebrows lifted in question. On the screen above, the grainy image stabilizes.
And Lucas Ashford’s voice fills the hall. Clear. Cutting. Smug.
Lara doesn’t look away from him. Her lips are pressed into a thin line, her expression unreadable. She already knows what comes next.
But the rest of the room doesn’t.
Gasps ring out in waves as the dialogue unspools. “You know what I love most about girls like you? You believe the world plays by the rules. That if you follow the law, tell the truth, shout loud enough, someone will listen. Someone will care.”
Each sentence, each vile implication, hits like a hammer to glass. Guests shift in their seats, hands rising to mouths. Some of the older attendees visibly recoil. Others lean forward, eyes narrowed in disbelief.
The audio cuts in and out just enough to add to the surrealism, but there’s no mistaking what’s being said.
The truth pours out with horrifying clarity. Lucas’s threats. The confession about Sarah and Monica and all the others. The violence laced into every word. The manipulative venom.
“I’m invincible, April. I could fuck you right now, here in this room, with your stupid spy lipstick recording every second–and no one would do a goddamn thing.”
Every. Last. Bit. Of. It.
As his cruelty sharpens, a heavy kind of silence overtakes the room–a dead hush, broken only by the sound of breathing, the shuffle of chairs.
The screen plays on, showing Lucas–the real Lucas–without his mask on.
On the stage, he stands frozen, no longer the poised heir in tailored cashmere. His mouth is slightly open. His skin has gone an unnatural shade of white, eyes darting like a trapped animal.
The silence is eerie, and no one moves. They can’t. They’re locked in place, hypnotized by the horror unfolding.
When Lucas grabs my wrist in the footage, there’s a collective cry. Several guests rise to their feet, shouting. “Is this real?” someone demands. “Is that today?”
And then the sound glitches again–before cleanly replaying his final threat.
“Still holding on to bravado, even with your back literally to the wall? This is going to be so fucking fun.”
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18:49 Thu, Oct 16 –
Chapter 189
Then the screen goes blank, the silence absolute for one tense second.
The reaction is explosive.
Samuel Ashford is out of his seat first, face twisted with horror and disbelief. Marisol grabs his arm, trying to pull him back, but he yanks free and marches up the aisle, yelling something incoherent.
Marisol follows, heels clicking like gunshots.
“Lara, what is this?!” Easton’s voice cracks through the mic of his headset as he turns to her, no longer smooth or polished, but raw. “What did you do?”
Lara remains perfectly still. Her expression hasn’t shifted. Her eyes remain locked on Lucas.
“I told the truth,” she says quietly. Into the microphone.
That hits harder than the footage.
Chaos ignites.
Several members of the press are already on their phones, typing furiously. The screen flickers again, now displaying an auto–captioned version of the footage.
Notifications start dinging in rapid succession all around me.
It’s been uploaded to TikTok. Then Instagram. X. Threads. YouTube. All under Lara’s accounts.
Accounts that have hundreds of thousands of followers–millions on TikTok.
“It’s going viral,” Bea breathes next to me. “It’s everywhere.”
“Oh my God.”
Her head snaps up, her wide gaze snapping to me. “April,” her voice trembles. “Is this true?”
My breath hitches. I’d anticipated the chaos that would unfold, but I’d imagined that Lucas would bear the brunt of it all.
I don’t know why it never occurred to me that I, too, would be a spectacle.
“Oh, April. You stupid, stupid girl.”
The video is replaying.
“This is slander! That recording is doctored! It’s fake–you’re all falling for a malicious edit!”
My head snaps to the stage to see Lucas screaming into a mic, spittle flying. His eyes are wide, wild like a cornered animal.
“Analyze it then,” Lara’s voice is calm, a sharp contrast to Lucas‘.
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Chapter 189
She turns to the crowd. “I invite you to inspect the video frame–by–frame until it’s branded into your mind. Until you can’t get the look on Lucas‘ face out of your head. Until every time you close your eyes, you see the depraved monster he truly is behind his curated mask
and
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“Shut the fuck up!”
My eyes widen, and I shoot out of my seat as Lucas lunges for Lara, his hand closing around her delicate throat.
“You fucking bitch!” he screams.
Before the rest of the horrified crowd can react, Julian is on the stage. He grabs Lucas’s collar and tears him away from his sister.
I move then, rushing to the stage too. I catch Lara as she staggers backwards, the first real emotion flickering on her face since this
started–fear.
I hold her tight as she leans into me. “God, Lara, are you alright?”
“He…” A shaky hand wraps around her throat.
I understand how she feels. It’s one thing to know what he’s capable of; it’s another thing to be on the receiving end of Lucas‘ brutality.
Around us, the chaos level just keeps rising and rising.
Julian, it seems, is stronger than Nathan because Lucas is finding it impossible to get his friend off him as Julian pummels him with heavy fist after heavy fist.
“Julian!” I call out, refusing to let go of Lara.
“How fucking dare you?” he’s growling.
The flashing camera lights threaten to blind me as they move nearer. The entire decorum of the ballroom has dissolved.
Security surges from nowhere, trying to push the press back, but it’s useless. This story is too big. Cameras keep flashing as voices shout over one another:
“Lara Ellington!”
“Can you give us a statement about what just happened?”
“Is this your doing?”
“April Farrah!”
“Are you truly the subject of the video?”
“Can you tell us what really happened?”
The sound of the vultures closing in on me and Lara is what pulls Julian off Lucas. His body blocks the view, and I can’t see what state Lucas is in as Julian leads me and Lara off the stage.
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Chapter 189
I notice that most of the elite guests have vanished. Were they escorted out, or did they simply leave on their own?
Eliza and Peter are gone, too, as planned.
It seems that Nathan never showed up.
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Julian uses his body as a protective wall between us and the reporters and cameras. Lara and I duck our heads together, not out of fear or submission.
To hide the giddy smiles on our faces.
Because we fucking did it.
Chapter Comments
טל
Visitor
7 days ago
Yes!!!
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
