Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 10

Ethan also tried to reason with her. “I know you’ve been wronged, Mira. Can we please deal with this privately?”

He had clearly gone to the butler to check the surveillance footage himself, but the video was a blurry mess, revealing nothing.

He had also questioned several servants, and they all claimed to have seen Mira push Mara with their own eyes.

“Deal with it privately?

Mara made sure everyone knew about this and demanded a public apology from me. Why didn’t you tell *her* to deal with it privately?

My dear, *good* Ethan.”

Mira played another video without waiting for an answer.

The new clip showed the immediate aftermath. Mara was screaming, accusing her sister of pushing her.

“I know my sister doesn’t like me, I’ll just leave…”

Then came the brothers, each one’s condemnation harsher than the last.

No one, including Lacey, would listen to Mira’s defense. When Mira tried to explain, she was met with a hard slap from her father, followed by her sentence: three days and nights in the basement with no food or water…

When the video ended, the buzz among the guests grew even louder.

“What is going on? How could a man as shrewd as Mr. Mercer be so easily deceived?”

“What’s wrong with the Mercers? Has that girl completely brainwashed them?”

“We’d better stay far away from that ‘new one’ in the future, or she might try to frame us, too. She’s willing to hurt herself just to hurt others.”

“What kind of upbringing produces a child like that? She’s pure evil.”

…

As the comments grew more and more vicious, Adrian snatched the microphone.

“I apologize for this embarrassing display. This is a private family matter, but I assure you I will investigate the truth of what happened, including the authenticity of the video my daughter has presented, and I will provide a proper explanation. I am so sorry to have alarmed you all tonight. As a token of my apology, I will be sending a gift to each of our guests.”

Her “award-winning actor” of a brother warned.

Mira ignored him and continued her speech.

“My video was uploaded to the cloud from my phone in real-time. It is absolutely authentic. As for why I didn’t show it at the time, well, you all saw what happened. I was facing my sister’s false accusations and the condemnation of my entire family. I was terrified. How could I possibly have been thinking clearly enough to remember it?”

“Mira, can you just stop?!”

Julian shouted impatiently.

Mira still paid him no mind.

“I have one more way to prove the video is authentic.”

Mira’s eyes scanned the room and landed on the butler, who was on the phone.

“Norman, let me borrow your phone for a moment.”