Chapter 8
672words
As long as I didn't restart the mission, my ending was still certain death. Before I left, I wanted to clear my name.
Shiloh glanced at her phone irritably. "What is this now? Are you trying to frame Irvy again? Aren't you tired of fabricating this kind of stuff?"
But the moment she played the video, her eyes suddenly widened. As she was a professional photographer, it was easy for her to tell that the footage was real.
In the video, when I was shielding Shiloh from her dad's brutal beating, Irving was standing right beside her dad's new girlfriend.
"If you want to deal with Shiloh, you have to get rid of Lucian first. I have a way to make Shiloh and Lucian completely turn against each other."
Irving had hired several thugs with unsavory fetishes to humiliate me. But as the thugs were about to abduct me, Shiloh unexpectedly went to deliver some photo papers to Irving. So, he was taken by mistake instead.
Shiloh stared at Irving with eyes wide open, clearly unable to believe he could do such a thing.
The video continued. The second clip showed Irving cheating at the photography competition. On top of that, he had also tried to destroy Shiloh's photography submission so she wouldn't get into a top university. That way, she would be left with no choice but to go back to her abusive father.
To protect Shiloh's competition entry, I had refused to let go of the USB drive. Even as the men Irving sent beat me up until my bones were fractured, I never let go.
Mavis, who was standing to the side, covered her mouth in shock. "So you got so badly injured back then because you were actually protecting Shiloh's work…"
Shiloh turned to stare at her in disbelief. "Mavis, when I asked you before whether Lucian had ever been hurt, didn't you say no?"
Mavis lowered her head guiltily. "Luc wouldn't let me tell you. Irving also said Luc was beaten up because he did something to betray you. He begged me not to tell you."
Shiloh staggered, and her eyes filled with tears as they landed on Irving.
"How could this be? Didn't you say that Luc framed you for cheating? You said you found out about it and tried to stop him, but he beat you up severely. You also said that he deliberately pretended to be injured to fool me!" Shiloh screeched.
Seeing the guilt in Irving's eyes, Shiloh looked at me in anguish. "I'm sorry, Luc. So the one who's been lying to me all this time was him. Irving told me he was often beaten by his stepfather and constantly bullied. I empathized with him deeply, so I wanted to protect him. But I never thought—"
"You never thought it was all a carefully fabricated lie," I said with a light smile, though my eyes were already devoid of life.
Shiloh nodded through her tears.
Just as she was about to say something, Kimberly's expression turned livid the moment she caught sight of her phone screen.
"Lucian, did you post these photos? Are you trying to destroy Irvy?" she demanded.
Photos of Irving being caught in bed back then were suddenly circulating online. In the pictures, the woman's face was obscured by her hair, making her impossible to identify.
That was why Kimberly had originally assumed the woman was someone I had hired to deliberately frame Irving.
Irving suddenly dropped to his knees in front of me and sniveled pitifully. "I know you hate me, Lucian. You can do whatever you want to me. But I'm Nat's husband now. I don't want my actions to damage her reputation. Lucian, what do I have to do for you to stop coming after me?"
Natalia and Kimberly rushed forward to help Irving up with faces full of concern.
"Irvy, we'll definitely help you prove your innocence. You don't need to beg him."
