Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
At twenty-three, Adeline was just as warm as she had been at ten.
Zoey, Grace, and the others stared at the screen, their faces pale.
Yes, the woman’s profile looked like Lily.
But deep down, they trusted her. They loved her. They knew she wasn’t that kind of girl. They believed the woman in the video wasn’t Lily.
Nancy’s stunning face hardened into ice. “Blanc, have someone investigate this immediately and find out what’s going on! If you don’t expose the rat who set Lily up, you’ll be sleeping in the guest room from now on!”
“I…”
Blanc felt so wronged.
He wasn’t the one framing Lily-why was he being punished?
How could he sleep without his wife in his arms?
Still, the matter was urgent. Blanc wanted answers too. So he pushed aside his complaints and quickly called his men, ordering them to investigate the matter thoroughly.
“This has to be Elsa’s doing again!”
Ivan leapt to his feet, furious. “You mustn’t let others twist this to turn you against Lily! She has dignity and self-respect. She would never do something like that!”
James never doubted Lily.
He had been with her intimately too many times not to know the truth. There was no way he could mistake the woman in the video for her.
For instance-the woman in the video had a mole on her chest, the size of a soybean, and another in a hidden place.
Lily had no such marks.
And that was only one difference…
He didn’t waste time explaining to Ivan. Rising quickly, he dialed Ashton’s number, issuing instructions even as he strode swiftly toward the stage.
The memory of the last time Lily had nearly been shoved off a high platform at the theater still haunted. him. This time, he would not-could not-allow anyone the chance to hurt her again.
“Lily is disgusting!”
The video had shocked Lily’s fans. It hurt them, but most of them stayed calm.
After all, so many times before, accusations against her had turned out to be deliberate traps.
Yes, the images carried a heavy impact. But they truly loved her, and they weren’t ready to condemn her without hearing what she had to say.
The loudest curses and insults came not from real fans, but from the paid trolls Elsa had planted in the crowd.
They all knew about Lily and James. They wouldn’t dare offend the Luke family directly.
But in their minds, if Lily had really done something so shameless, the Luke family would surely discard her. James would throw her away like trash.
So they let loose their filthiest words, thinking they were helping the Lukes vent their anger. Safe from retaliation, they hurled venom with abandon.
“Lily must be disgusting! That sleazy man can’t be her only lover. She’s probably cheated on Mr. James plenty of times!”
“Ugh, I’ve never seen a woman dirtier, cheaper, or trashier! Even if she worked the streets, the clients would turn her down!”
“With how loose she is, she must be crawling with disease. Mr. James needs to kick this filth away before she infects him!”
“Lily is a whore! Whores should die! Let her whole family die!”
Hearing the vitriol rain down, Elsa’s lips curved upward beneath her mask.
She had suffered humiliation abroad, tormented mercilessly by Hudson.
Just days ago, John had even witnessed her at her lowest.
Why should she suffer, while Lily stayed untouched, pure?
No-Lily must be dragged lower than her, dirtier, fouler, until the very thought of her stank.
Today would be the day John, Simon, James-all of them-turned against Lily with revulsion.
Marilyn and Elsa were seated two places apart.
Their eyes met. Marilyn gave her a subtle nod and then made her way toward the front, where the Bale and Luke families sat.
She knew families like the Lukes valued reputation above all.
With such filth laid bare, they would surely cast Lily out like trash.
And Marilyn would make sure to fan the flames, until both families despised Lily enough to crush her completely, leaving her ruined for life.
Lily had dared call her a thief? Then no matter how miserable Lily’s end, she would deserve it.
“Grandpa, Grandma, Grandfather, Grandmother…”
Reaching the first row, Marilyn greeted each of them sweetly before turning the knife.
“The woman in the video-it’s Lily! James treated her so well, how could she betray him like this? She’s gone too far… I can’t stop thinking about how happy James was, waiting for his child to be born, and yet the baby in her belly belongs to another man. It breaks my heart, I…”
“Shut up!”
Victor’s eyes were sharp as-ice. “Lily is not that kind of person!”
Marilyn froze.
What?
The video was crystal clear. The evidence lay in front of them. Shouldn’t the Luke family be condemning Lily, branding her shameless, filthy, and vile?
Had Victor gone mad? Why would he defend her?
“Marilyn, has your brain been eaten by a dog?”
Before she could recover, Ivan’s voice cut through, laeed with anger and disgust.
“If the woman in that video were truly Lily, and if the one who released it really wanted to destroy her reputation, why not show her full face? Wouldn’t that make it more convincing? The fact that they only dared show a profile proves something-her real face doesn’t look enough like Lily! That’s the only explanation!”
Marilyn’s eyes widened like a startled goldfish.
Elsa’s father had indeed found several women recently.
The woman in the video-Jennie-was the one who most resembled Lily.
And “resembled” was generous. From the side, maybe five or six points of similarity. From the front, no more than two or three.
They had hired a makeup artist skilled in imitation, painted Jennie’s face, filmed her profile, and played with lighting. Only then had they managed something that could pass at a glance.
But she never imagined Ivan would piece that together so quickly.
Was he some kind of worm living inside their stomachs, knowing everything they did?
Victor and Ivan both spoke up for Lily, and Marilyn couldn’t stop the flicker of panic inside.
But then she remembered-the majority of the crowd already believed the woman in the video was Lily, and Elsa’s hired trolls were shouting the loudest.
If even an ordinary mother-in-law couldn’t tolerate a daughter-in-law being a “worn-out shoe,” how could Nancy, the matriarch of the Luke family, possibly accept such filth?
Victor and Ivan must have been seduced by Lily’s shamelessness, Marilyn reasoned. But Nancy? Nancy must already loathe her, must be itching to tear Lily apart.
With that thought, she steadied herself, her confidence crawling back. She didn’t argue with Ivan but instead turned red-eyed toward Nancy, her voice pitiful and trembling.
“Mom, I’m only thinking of James. I never expected Victor and Ivan to accuse me like this… James is brilliant, proud, extraordinary. He’s so excellent, so good-how could he be fooled for life by a worn-out shoe? Mom, you must seek justice for James!”
Her teeth clenched at the memory of Lily’s closet-rows of jewelry, shelves of limited-edition bags. Hatred surged in her chest.
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