Chapter 55

The words detonated through the office like a grenade, leaving a stunned silence in their wake. Inside and out, the air grew thick with tension—so quiet you could hear a feather drop. Every person in the room froze, their expressions morphing from shock to horrified disbelief.

What had they just heard?

Sleeping together? Disgusting? Them?

The "them" in question was Damian and Camille—but weren’t they siblings?

A collective shudder ran through the crowd as all eyes darted between the two accused and their parents.

Under Genevieve’s blistering accusation, Damian and Camille first went deathly pale, then flushed crimson as if the weight of every judgmental stare was branding their skin.

"Have you lost your damn mind?" Camille shrieked, her voice cracking with hysteria. "You’re so jealous you’ve invented this twisted fantasy! You’re insane!"

Damian’s face twisted in fury. "Genevieve, if you don’t shut your mouth right now, we’re done!"

Genevieve let out a sharp, humorless laugh. "Oh, please. I was dumping you the second I walked in here. The sight of you makes me sick. Jealous? Of you? You’re nothing but sewer rats—filthy, disgusting, pathetic!" Her voice trembled with rage, her knuckles white where she gripped her bag.

Damn. Who knew the quiet artist had this much fire in her?

The shock on Damian and Camille’s faces was almost comical. They hadn’t expected the girl they’d walked all over to finally snap.

Even the Blackwoods—Nathan, Margaret, Richard—stared at Genevieve like she’d grown a second head. Their sweet, soft-spoken daughter had just unleashed hell.

Gregory and Gwendolyn Campos exchanged a fleeting glance of panic before doubling down.

"You lying little brat!" Gregory snarled. "Spreading vile rumors like this—we’ll sue you into oblivion!"

"She’s deranged!" Gwendolyn wailed, clutching her pearls. "How dare she slander my innocent children like this!"

The murmurs in the crowd swelled.

"If this is a lie, it’s beyond cruel. Accusing siblings of that? Unthinkable."

"Some girls get possessive over air if it’s near their boyfriends. Remember how Genevieve used to follow Damian around like a lost puppy? She’s clearly lost it."

"Maybe she’s jealous because they’re close siblings and she’s an only child!"

This wasn’t good. If this kept up, everyone would dismiss Genevieve as delusional. And without proof, her credibility would be shredded.

Margaret and Richard exchanged frantic looks. They knew Genevieve’s outburst came from Evelyn’s thoughts—but they couldn’t exactly announce that in public.

Then Nathan spoke, his voice cutting through the noise like a blade.

"They’re stepsiblings. No blood relation. And yet—" His gaze locked onto Damian. "—when Camille started university, you suddenly rented an apartment near her campus. No stable job, no reason not to live at home. Why?"

The room went dead silent.

That one question—so simple, so logical—shifted everything.

If they’d been blood-related, the idea would’ve been dismissed as absurd. But step-siblings? That was soap opera territory. And the way Damian had followed Camille? Suspicious as hell.

A girl in the crowd snorted. "My real brother wouldn’t cross the street for me. Why’s he so obsessed with his stepsister?"

Inside the Campos family, panic erupted.

Camille’s hands shook. "Y-You have no proof! This is slander! I’ll ruin you!"

But the damage was done. People were looking at them differently now.

Then Genevieve pulled out her phone.

"You forgot," she said coldly. "I record my painting sessions. There’s a hidden camera in that room. Want to see the footage? I can show everyone."

Camille’s face drained of color.

Damian looked like he might vomit.

And the crowd leaned in.