Alexander

Present...

I sat behind my desk, staring at my phone. The screen was dark, blank, mocking me with its silence.

No new messages. Nothing from the blackmailer.

The same photos that had arrived last week were now plastered across every media outlet in Los Angeles. Someone had taken my silence as permission to go wide, to turn private leverage into public scandal.

I pulled up one of the articles again, scrolling through the photos with clinical ...