The Wife He Dumped, The Queen She Returned As novel Chapter 77

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"It's nothing. Just a corporate issue," Quentin replied, deliberately avoiding her gaze as he turned to leave.

Chloe immediately reached for her own phone, but Quentin's hand shot out, gently clasping her wrist.

His eyes were swirling with complex emotions. "Chloe, please trust me. I can handle this before it gets out of hand."

Gabriel chimed in from the side. "Ms. Reed, Mr. Shaw is keeping this from you for your own peace of mind. It's really better if you don't look."

Chloe's voice was faint, but laced with unshakeable resolve. "Quentin, please trust me. No matter what they've done, I'm not that fragile."

She gently slipped out of his grasp and unlocked her screen.

Her phone had been on silent. Only now did she see the barrage of dozens of missed calls, along with an endless stream of local news notifications flooding her screen.

Even though she braced herself, the moment she read the headlines, the blood froze in her veins.

The bright red text practically screamed off the screen.

[Fake Grave Holding County Hostage for a Decade! Local Police Chief Framed and Begs for Justice!]

In the attached video, Jeremiah Gordon looked thoroughly exhausted and devastated. Staring directly into the camera, he tearfully detailed how Chloe had selfishly occupied prime real estate with an empty, fraudulent grave, stubbornly refusing to cooperate with civic development.

Beside him sat his brother Gus, playing the victim. His bruised, battered face from yesterday's beating was prominently displayed as he delivered a slick, impassioned speech about how the new development project would theoretically pull the entire county out of poverty.

The video had acted as a match in a powder keg. The internet was utterly enraged.

The comment sections were a bloodbath of vitriol directed at Chloe. Worse, malicious rumors were already spreading about Zachary Reed, painting him as a morally bankrupt, deadbeat thug who abandoned his family to run the streets.