The next morning, Colin came to me with a statement draft.
“I’m holding a press conference today. All you have to do is read this and say that we kept the content private as a married couple and it was accidentally leaked.”
“Then say Vivian only stumbled across a vulnerability, and that she had nothing to do with the distribution or the transactions afterward. This will blow over soon.”
I looked at the pages. I didn’t take them.
“So you came to convince me — so I’d lie again. For you. For Vivian.”
Colin frowned. “Elara. I’m asking you to think about the consequences.”
I smiled faintly. “Aren’t the consequences exactly what you two should be facing?”
*****
The press conference was in the corporate media room.
By the time I walked in with them, it was packed with reporters.
Colin spoke first.
Then it was Vivian’s turn. She lowered her head, tears falling, and said she’d only been curious — she’d tested a friend’s home security once. She insisted she’d only gone in one time and never saved anything.
Then she turned it on me.
“Also, Elara hasn’t been in a good place mentally lately. She’s said some things that aren’t true. I hope everyone can stop pushing her.”
Every camera swung to me.
“Mrs. Caldwell, can you explain the situation?”
I set my husband’s script back on the table and looked straight into the lenses.
“The video is real.”
The room went dead silent.
“I never gave anyone permission to access my home cameras.”
“I never authorized anyone to upload, distribute, or trade my private content.”
Colin’s face shifted. He signaled the back to cut the screen.
But the next second, a chat log appeared on the monitor.
It was a screenshot of him sending my account permissions to Vivian.
The next screenshot showed how Vivian had bypassed the security restrictions and uploaded the video to the dark web.
“It also showed how Vivian bypassed the restrictions to register on the dark web and post the video.”
Vivian tried to hold on. “If my account was hacked, those traces would show up too!”
My mother-in-law clicked the last page.
“Then explain why the IP address for every login traces back to the computer you normally use.”
Reporters pressed in.
Vivian panicked and grabbed Colin. “Say something! You gave me the camera access in the first place!”
When the investigators moved to take Vivian away, Colin finally panicked and turned to grab me.
“Elara, let me explain. I didn’t mean to. I just—”
I threw the divorce papers in his face.
“It doesn’t matter what you meant. What matters is that you leaked my private information. You should be going to prison for this.”
His face went white. He reached for me again. “We can still start over.”
I stepped back.
“Colin. We’re done.”
I stood and walked out.
*****