?Chapter 116:


    Elliana had gone to bed far toote, so waking up at the crack of dawn instantly soured her mood. All she wanted was to stay cocooned in her nkets. However, the crying echoing from downstairs was too unsettling to ignore. It kept escting in volume until her head throbbed, forcing her to snap out of her grogginess.


    As she focused on the noise, it became clear—it was Jeff wailing like a maniac.


    Elliana rolled her eyes in pure irritation. Whatever emotional mess Jeff was stuck in, she couldn’t have cared less. Trouble or not, she had no intention of stepping in.


    Yet, the relentless noisepletely shattered any hope of falling back asleep. With a heavy sigh, she gave in, reached for her phone, and began scrolling through thetest headlines.


    The night before, she had blown the lid off Paige and Luciano’s shady antics, and she couldn’t wait to see the digital world explode over it. But to Elliana’s absolute disbelief, the inte was a ghost town. There was nothing—no buzz, no gossip about Luciano’s sketchy past or Paige’s sneaky cheating during thepetition. The trending clips and stream highlights had vanished. Not a single media outlet had picked it up.


    Without thinking, Elliana bolted upright. Something was definitely off. The chaos that eruptedst night had lit up the livestream, and fans were going wild. There was no way things would go radio silent like this by morning. Someone had clearly worked overtime to erase every shred of Paige’s scandal and muzzle the press. Whoever pulled it off had strong influence.


    A sly grin tugged at Elliana’s lips as one name popped into her mind—Merritt.


    Being Paige’s godfather, Merritt had his hands dirty too, rigging the entirepetition alongside Luciano. Most likely, he had flexed his power to cleanse the inte and keep the media under control.


    Right now, no one could find a single trace of Elliana’s Rosa persona online, and any evidence tying Paige to her scandals had vanished just as thoroughly. It was as if the entire showdown had been erased from existence.


    To the artmunities, Paige had be a running gag. Yet, to her online followers, she was still wrapped in digital perfection.


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    With a bitingugh, Elliana flung her phone aside and rose with deliberate ease, heading toward her clothes. Nothing could stop her from exposing Paige’s meltdown from the night before—one post, and it would be all over. Still, she wasn’t…


    Elliana wasn’t ready to end the game just yet. Making Paige and Kiara flinch with every move was far more satisfying than delivering a single knockout.


    Rather than ending their little charade, Elliana watched them scramble to control the narrative. Every misstep they made gave her another reason to strike—and she never missed.


    Dressed in her usual pped-together outfit, Elliana shuffled into the bathroom to rinse off the night and smear on her grotesque version of makeup.


    Annoyingly, the weeping from downstairs had only intensified, echoing through the walls like some private apocalypse was unfolding. Ignoring it was no longer an option. Elliana was irritated but intrigued. Was Jeff seriously falling apart down there, or did something worse happen?


    Dragging her feet, she nudged her door open, ready to investigate the mess herself.


    Paulina was waiting outside, clearly expecting her.


    “Good morning, Mrs. Evans,” Paulina said, her voice sweet and polished like a hotel concierge. Offering her a crooked smile, Elliana asked, “Any reason it sounds like someone’s dying downstairs?”


    “They brought Miss Henderson’s body over this morning. The Hendersons are falling apart. Now they’re ming Jeff, saying he’s responsible and should cover everything,” Paulina exined, her tone caught between pity and exasperation.


    Whatever drowsiness Elliana felt evaporated in an instant. Wait—Barbara Henderson was dead? The words didn’t line up in her head. While Elliana had asked Matthew to ry her refusal of Cole’s request to seek Milena’s treatment, some part of her still felt for Barbara. The part that couldn’t watch a young woman fade away without trying to help. Thus, during some free time when she took the SATs, she had snuck into the hospital in disguise—just to check on Barbara in secret.


    The fall Barbara suffered two years ago had damaged her nerves, leaving her unable to walk. But that wasn’t supposed to be fatal. What had really been killing Barbara was something far more sinister—a rare, slow-moving toxin called Scorpion King, festering in her system for years.


    Most would barely find a whisper of Scorpion King in ancient medical texts. It was almost a myth.


    It was said that the Scorpion King had not been seen for ages, and even the most seasoned doctors couldn’t identify it anymore.


    A toxin like that didn’t just show up by ident. Someone with power—and serious malice—had to be behind it. Who had the Henderson family crossed to earn that kind of enemy?


    Because of the wrong diagnoses from clueless doctors, Barbara had been treated for everything but the real threat. And that gave Scorpion King all the time it needed to rot her from the inside out.


    Elliana remembered Scorpion King well—it wasn’t new to her. She’d first learned about it when she was just five.


    Rita had once gone behind the Scorpion King’s back, digging through her research until she pieced together a remedy of her own. That little pill she crafted in secret eventually made a name for itself across Ublento,ter known as Venacure.


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