I Chose Me Over My Marriage novel Chapter 85

The second Lyra stepped out of the Lennox Group lobby, she could feel the bizarre stares burning into her back.

It was a heavy, evaluating gaze—the kind of look people give someone when they are scrutinizing a scandal right in front of them.

The girl walking beside her, Courtney Miller, clearly felt the shift in the atmosphere too.

She leaned in and whispered, "Lyra, is it just me, or is everyone staring at you?"

Lyra let out a quiet, humorless laugh. "It's not just you."

It was a fact.

Sensing something was horribly wrong, Lyra pulled out her phone and immediately checked the trending topics on Twitter.

Just as she suspected.

Her name was plastered across the top five search rankings.

[Lyra Lennox forced Maxwell Sterling into marriage.]

[Lyra Lennox faked a pregnancy to trap the Sterling family.]

...

And a dozen other variations, all pushing the exact same narrative: she had used disgusting, manipulative tactics to claw her way into the Sterling dynasty.

Reading the headlines, Lyra felt a wave of absolute disgust wash over her.

She didn't even have to guess who was behind this.

"He really is acting like a cornered animal. To stoop to something this vile..."

Courtney didn't quite catch the context and looked at her in total confusion.

Lyra snapped out of her daze, turned to the younger girl, and offered an apologetic smile. "I am so sorry, Courtney. I don't think I can make it to coffee today. Why don't you go ahead without me? I have an emergency I need to handle."

Courtney didn't know the exact details of the drama, but she was well aware of Lyra's identity and her highly publicized split with Maxwell. She immediately nodded, her expression entirely understanding.

"Don't even worry about it. It's just coffee, we can do it anytime. If there's anything I can do to help, just say the word."

Lyra smiled softly. "Thank you for understanding."

It wasn't a question. He already knew she was looking at the fallout.

"Yeah. I'm going to have someone pull my actual medical records from the hospital. This is a remarkably stupid lie. It won't be hard to clear up. We just release the real documents, and this whole thing goes away."

Anticipating her exact reaction, Miles's voice came through the speaker, low and sharp. "If you do that, you're walking straight into his trap."

Lyra froze, completely failing to follow his logic. "What do you mean?"

"Have you stopped to ask yourself why he would use such a brainless, easily debunked lie? Everyone can see it's flimsy, yet he chose this specific method anyway."

Miles's question forced Lyra to stop and actually analyze the play.

"Because the second you issue a public clarification, you fall into the self-proving trap."

His words hit her like a bucket of ice water. In a flash of terrifying clarity, the entire scheme made perfect sense.

"You're saying... his fake records look real enough, which means my real records will just look like better fakes. The public always defaults to whoever broke the story first. They won't believe my defense unless I can secure undeniable, nuclear evidence that destroys his credibility entirely."

The moment Lyra realized the sheer malice of the trap, a cold sweat broke out across her back.