Chapter 9 - The Court of Public Opinion
By noon the following day,
the internet was on fire.
Stephanie,
true to her nature,
had been the first to strike.
She had posted a "Get Ready With Me" video on TikTok,
but instead of a luxury bathroom,
the background was the bleak,
gray interior of the storage unit.
“I can’t believe I’m making this,”
she sobbed into the camera,
her mascara artfully smeared.
“But my sister-in-law,
Jessi Miller,
the 'great' CEO everyone loves,
just threw us out on the street.
My brother,
my mother,
and me.
We have nowhere to go.
She sold the house while we were away,
took all our money,
and now we’re living in a storage unit.
Is this what 'women's empowerment' looks like?”
The video went viral within an hour.
The comments were a battlefield.
“OMG,
I always knew she was cold!”
“How can you do that to your own family?”
“Cancel Jessi Miller!”
Luca followed up with a carefully worded statement to a local news outlet.
He portrayed himself as a devastated father,
kept from his newborn daughter by a "vindictive and wealthy" woman who used her power to crush him.
He spoke about the "sanctity of the home" and the "trauma" of being locked out.
He didn't mention the Miami trip.
He didn't mention the changed codes.
He didn't mention the pre-nup.
For a few hours,
the narrative was in their favor.
Jessi’s company stock took a minor dip.
The PR team at her firm was in a panic.
“Jessi,
we need to respond,”
her head of communications urged over a conference call.
“The 'homeless' angle is killing us.
People are calling for a boycott.”
Jessi sat in Evelyn’s kitchen,
holding Lily.
The baby was sleeping,
a tiny,
peaceful island in the middle of a hurricane.
“No,”
Jessi said,
her voice calm.
“Let them talk.
Let them dig the hole a little deeper.”
“But the reputation damage—”
“Is temporary,”
Jessi cut in.
“The truth is permanent.
Phoebe,
is the footage ready?”
“Ready and verified,”
Phoebe replied.
“We have the doorbell camera footage from the night of the lockout.
We have the GPS data from the private jet.
We have the receipts from the Miami hotel.
And we have the audio of Luca in the storage unit discussing how he’s going to 'make sure she doesn't have a reputation left.'”
“Wait for it,”
Jessi said.
“Wait until the evening news.
Wait until the peak of the outrage.”
She watched the clock.
She watched the comments on Stephanie’s video grow more and more toxic.
People were calling for her to be stripped of her awards,
her titles,
her very life.
Then,
at exactly 6:00 PM,
Phoebe hit "Send."
A single video was released to every major news outlet and posted on Jessi’s official accounts.
It started with the doorbell footage.
The rain was audible,
a low,
hissing roar.
The camera showed Jessi,
pale and trembling,
holding a three-day-old infant.
It showed her entering the code.
It showed the red light flashing.
It showed her trying again,
her face contorting in pain as she clutched her side.
It showed her standing there,
homeless in the rain,
because her husband had changed the locks to take his mother to Miami.
Then,
the screen split.
On one side,
Jessi in the rain.
On the other,
a montage of social media posts from Luca,
Wendy,
and Stephanie in Miami.
Sipping champagne.
Laughing on a yacht.
The timestamp on the Miami photos was exactly one hour after the lockout.
The video then cut to the audio from the storage unit.
Luca’s voice,
clear and cold:
“The public loves a victim.
And if I can’t have her money,
I’ll make sure she doesn't have a reputation left to protect.”
The silence that followed the video’s release was deafening.
Then,
the internet exploded again.
But this time,
the target had shifted.
“He locked a woman who just had a C-section out in the rain?!”
“They were on a yacht while she was shivering on the porch?”
“The storage unit video was a setup!
Look at the audio!”
The "Cancel Jessi" movement evaporated,
replaced by a wave of fury directed at the Vance family.
Stephanie’s TikTok account was deactivated within minutes due to the sheer volume of reportings.
Wendy’s "friends" in Boulder suddenly didn't know her.
And Luca?
Luca was no longer a victim.
He was a villain.
A man who had tried to weaponize his own cruelty and failed.
Jessi turned off her phone and looked at Lily.
“The world knows who they are now,
baby,”
she whispered.
“They can’t hide behind lies anymore.”
Evelyn walked in,
holding a glass of wine.
“The buyer of the house just called,”
she said,
grinning.
“He saw the news.
He wants to know if he can donate a portion of his first month’s revenue to a charity for single mothers in your name.”
Jessi smiled.
It was a small victory,
but it tasted like justice.
But as she looked out at the mountains,
she knew the hardest part was still to come.
The legal battle wasn't just about money or houses.
May you like
It was about Lily.
And she knew Luca wouldn't give up his last leverage without a fight.
