9

Grey stormed into Natalia's house the moment the door was opened.

"What is the meaning of this Azure?" his eyes burned with rage as he threw the tabloid on the center table.

Azure, who had been frightened by his rage, stood up, maintaining a distance from him as she grabbed the papers swiftly. She took a look at them and she knew why he was so angry this early, for all she knew, it was only 7 in the morning.

The headlines reported, 'Miss Ruth Pierce, Alive and a whore?'

Azure's eyes widened like a saucepan at his outburst of anger. She wasn't scared that he'd hit her, to be real, she didn't know why she was scared. She believed that he was worried about his name and reputation being dragged into the mud and she felt sorry about that. She had even forgotten that the headline was focused on her.

"How the fuck did you get in contact with that bitch! How the actual fuck does she have all these information! Answer me Azure." Azure flinched at his tone.

"Calm down Nicholas, you're scaring her. Rather than think about something as trivial as that, you should take a good look at this" Natalia gestured towards the television she had now put on and increased the volume.

Right there was Katherine, the woman Azure believed to be her best friend, the woman who blackmailed her boyfriend before and was currently making her into a whore in front of the whole world.

'This is Mrs Katherine Robbhood reaching out to you live from LKS news. By the afternoon of yesterday, the supposedly dead Miss Ruth Pierce was found alive and breathing. I personally had an encounter with her and she revealed a few things to me.

She claimed that the reason why she had not been in contact with the world is because she felt guilty about causing her mother's death.

She said that she was a bit high on sugar and was the reason for the accident. The sad part of the story is that she became a total dirty whore after the accident, I say this because she revealed to me that she begged her father to keep her locked up in their house away from the public view so as to avoid the wrath of the public. This must have been the reason no one was allowed to visit her father after the death of the mother and daughter.

Being a woman with needs, she managed to lure her father into sleeping with her to satisfy her since she couldn't have any other man at the moment.

He father was caught and sent to a mental hospital seeing that people say that he is sick in the head and that it is caused by the trauma of her mother's death.

She seduced a broken man into believing that she was his wife and he slept with her. Now he is in an institution and rather than feel sorry for the damage she caused to the poor man, she set out to find new preys since her father had been caught and won't be able to sleep with her anymore.

Her latest conquest is a certain Mr Nicholas Corner, the ladies man. A lot of people would remember that I and Mr Corner once had a thing to do with each other, they have also been wondering the reason we broke up.

I have kept the truth a secret for a long time and I'll say the reason now.

Nicholas is a rapist. He tried to force himself on me and I begged him to stop. He had his way with me in the end and paid me off to be quiet. There is a footage that will play right after now which will show when he paid me for my silence.

The two, Nicholas and Ruth, they make quite a pair don't they?

One a rapist, and the other a whore and seductress.

LKS news,

We bring you the true information, verified and certified.

I'm Mrs Katherine Robbhood, Goodbye. '

"I didn't. S-she is lying right now, I swear I didn't have this conversation with her. You have to believe me I wouldn't—I'd never..... I'm so sorry, it's because of me that you're being tagged with that name in front of the world. I know you're not what she says you are and so I'm sorry Grey. I'm sorry Natt, your brother is losing his face because of my stupidness." Her greatest fear right now was having the siblings hate her for this. This is exactly what she had been scared of before as well, she just realized that that's all she was scared of.

"Azure, this isn't about my name for crying out loud! You haven't even made a public recognition yet to say that the fucking casket in the cemetery is empty and she has already made you into a bitch over there. She turned the whole world against you. My name can be cleared any time but the public will forever see you as the heartless monster who seduced her mourning father. The fuck are you thinking about my name for? I don't give a fuck about my name here, you're my concern!"

She was shocked, she couldn't believe that the reason why he was so mad wasn't because she tainted his name but because she was being insulted in public. She felt proud that she wasn't crying about it, she was proud that her boyfriend was concerned about her well-being rather than his.

"This is too much"

Natalia decided to join in the conversation. "She has already gone public and so we won't be able to pay her to stay out of our business. Nick's right though, you were painted black in public, you should be worried about how the public will view you from now on. You definitely cannot go somewhere public from now on, not until it dies down. Also Nick, you have to set up some guards for her. She isn't safe, not with the entire public after her. The only thing we can do is to pay the bitch to go public once again and say she was misinformed about the facts of the news she delivered. We have to..."

"We will not be paying Katherine a dime." Everyone, Azure inclusive, was shocked at Azure's confidence. It was like she knew what she was going to do already. "She will not blackmail any of us anymore and I promise if she doesn't say the truth in front of the public, I'll ruin her career and I'll ruin it today. I want to see her, right now. Grey will you take me to her or do I go on my own. There isn't any option of stopping me. " She walked out of their presence not waiting for Grey's answer. She took a shower, changed her outfit, did her hair and make up and came back down.

"Have some break... "

"I'm not hungry Grey, let's just go. Natt, I don't want to bother you, you don't really have to come." Now Grey was super shocked. 'not hungry' and 'azure' never went together in the same sentence.

"I'm coming as well." Talia said without thinking twice.

"Katherine is currently still at work, I hear she is in her office and has refused to come out for any reason. If we leave now, we just might as well meet her there, I'm curious however, what you have to say to her. "

"You'll see. Make sure that out conversation is being recorded. Whatever we say will be useful later on today if she doesn't do as I ask of her."

***

"The woman says that she will cause a scene in front of the building if you don't see her and her friends now. She is pretty persistent" Katherine's assistant came back in, frustration evident in his tone.

"I can't have any rest with you guys around. I just gave an exclusive, I don't want to be disturbed."

Katherine was trying her possible best not to feel guilty for what she just did. She didn't want to, but what could she do? Her career was on the line and if she didn't have any exclusives by tomorrow, she'd be fired. She had to take care of herself.

"But Ma'am, she isn't going to leave. Just see them and get it over with. You just gave an exclusive which the whole world saw, it's pretty obvious that all eyes are on this company, think what will happen if she causes a scene outside. It will be bad and you'd still get fired."

"Fine, send them into a private room. I'll be there."

Azure had on a blonde wig and dressed in the most casual way. Same with Grey, he wore a regular washed out jeans a T-shirt and a face cap. Natalia didn't have to do much, just wearing some shades concealed her identity. They had to do this else, everyone would know it's them and they wouldn't get a chance to talk with Katherine.

"So, what exactly is the reason you had to disturb my rest?" Katherine started as she entered the room locked the door and closed the curtains.

"Katherine, you bitch!" Azure wasted no time in lunging towards Katherine throwing a slap across her cheeks, she threw punches and pulled her hair to get some satisfaction in her pain. "You lied against me, you made me into a whore in public."

"Calm down Azure. " Unless he was willing to watch her kill Katherine, Grey knew to pull her back only to find that a chunk of Katherine's hair was in her hand.

"You fucking lunatic. You've pulled my hair out! Who the hell are you?" Katherine cried out in pain.

"You listen to me now!" Azure removed the wig from her head revealing her long red hair. "You're going to go back to your camera, and you're going to say that it's all a lie. You're going to say that I never said nor did any of the things you accused me of. You're going to confess that I am innocent and Nick never forced himself on you."

"Ruth?" she scoffed when she realized that the three present with her were the subject of her news. "Now why would I do that? You obviously slept with your father, there's no way a slut like you would remain a virgin for all those years. Then again, My story won't be as delicious if I don't paint Nicholas as a rapist. Didn't you like my ending note? I choose to think that it was amazing."

"Amazing indeed. Katherine what the hell has come over you? We are supposed to be best friends aren't we?"

"No, Ruth! Fifteen years ago we were best friends. Life happened and I had to survive. I have twins to take care of and I'd do anything even if it means ruining people's careers if it means that I provide for myself. Fifteen years happened to me okay, and don't for one second think that we are ever going to be friends. I'd never mix up with someone as filthy as you. If you don't leave now, I'll call security to take you out."

"I'm going to leave, but I'd like to make one thing clear. Since it's okay for you to destroy people's lives just to make yours alright, I guess I won't be wrong to do the same. Another thing, you're mistaken, I'm the one who will never be friends with someone as filthy as you are. Your kids don't even live with you, don't even know you. All they know is their father and it won't be a problem to them either if you are jobless and on the streets. I'll make sure to end your career Katherine and this won't be with the help of my boyfriend asking your boss to fire you. This will be me taking my revenge on you the same manner which you destroyed my face in public. Let's leave here please."

"I need you to please set up a meeting with reporters of various news stations. I need to make an appearance anyways and I think that now is the perfect time." Azure said to Grey once they left the building.

"Azure, are you sure? " Nick and Natt were very worried.

"Yes Zuzu, this is going to be a bunch of soul eating people who hate you present in that room. Are you sure you want that?"

"I'm sure Natt, as a matter of fact, I'd like for there to be more than a hundred reporters there as I make an appearance. For now, we have to change into proper clothes."

***

Azure had to admit, saying that she wanted to be present in front of hateful reporters was easier than actually being in front of them. They were all giving her angry and disappointed stares and one or two persons had managed to discretely throw squeezed papers at her. She didn't mind though, her source of strength and his sister were in the crowd and keeping her eyes fixed on them seemed to be her only way of keeping still.

"Good afternoon everyone. I'm the Miss Ruth Pierce. You probably all know that the reason I'm here today is to say that all that Katherine said on the news today is false. It's true that I was alone in the car when my mum died, however I was not high on sugar. We had gone to see her parents and my dad had some work to do so he stayed at home. We were coming back home and I was so tired I slept off through out the ride. I did not kill my mother. Again, it's true that I lived alone with my father for the past 15 years and I never left home, I wasn't running away from the world because I killed my mum, I was locked up there and had no choice." Azure paused to take in deep breaths. She wasn't going to go down like that, even if they refused to believe her. At least the world would know what she went through.

"I was ten, I had no breasts, no butt, no hips. I ate like a pig, still do." A few people managed to chuckle despite the serious situation.

"How on earth could I have seduced my father and make him believe that I was my ever elegant mother. If he really thought that I was my mother, then wouldn't he take special care of me and protect me from the world? He gave me a few slaps sometimes, made me do the dishes, clean and cook. It was alright then because I figured he was only hurt that my mother died, his wife died." Azure cleaned the tears that slipped from her eyes. She noticed that the amount of reporters that looked angry had reduced. Some were beginning to feel pity.

"It was my eleventh birthday and I asked him if we could go to the park and celebrate my birthday like old times and do you know what he did to me? He..." Azure chocked on her sobs and tried to take in as much air as she needed to speak.

Grey stood from where he sat and wanted to go to her but she raised her hand in his direction indicating that he shouldn't come to her.

"That day," she continued despite her shaky and irregular breaths. " It was the first time that h-he raped me. It was so horrible and painful. I thought I was going to die but death never came to me. Have you ever seen an eleven year old beg to be raped? I never slept with my dad, it was always forceful. He had those he owed come to the house sometimes and they did the same thing, over and over again until they were beat and couldn't go anymore."

A loud sob broke from the audience and Azure's gaze shifted to see who it was. It was a woman of at least 30 who was crying at the torture that she, Azure, went through.

"I'm twenty five and the last time I was in a place like this was when I was ten and now that I'm here, it's to prove that I didn't seduce my father into sleeping with me and that I didn't kill my mother. Katherine claimed that I told her all of what she said earlier on when we met yesterday but we met in the restroom. Looking at the CCTV footage outside the restroom I only spent five minutes there. I spent at least three minutes doing my business and do you think it's possible to have that kind of conversation in two minutes? I have no phone yet and I gave her my boyfriend's number. She never called him and so that means there is no way we spoke together about this. She lied to you all.

I have more than enough proof for that. I was found before my father was taken to that institution and so there is no way that I deceived the public and sent him there. When I first arrived at the hospital, I was bloodied up and unconscious, would I beat myself that way just to prove a point? After this speech, my hospital reports will be presented to all of you, the conversation I had with Katherine right before I came here and also, I'll take off this dress so you see the evidence of the past fifteen years of my life."

"Well, about your boyfriend Mr Corner. Is he really a rapist?" One of the curious reporters raised his question.