CHAPTER 187: HAUNTED BY THE GHOST OF THE PAST
The next morning, the internet exploded with incriminating images of James and an unfamiliar woman. The pictures were laced with scandal: erotic, enticing, and damning. Some were blurry shots of the two in a bedroom, kissing and wrapped in a heated embrace. Others were clearer, more dangerous. Accompanying them were voice notes tagged with heavy insinuations.
James was jerked awake by the shrill ring of his phone.
He grabbed it on instinct. "Boss, you need to go online right now," Angelo's panicked voice shot through.
Still half-asleep, James bolted upright and logged in. One look was enough. His chest tightened. His secretary wouldn't have disturbed him this early if it wasn't serious.
And this, this was worse than serious.
His face was in the images. His voice in the recordings.
He felt the air leave his lungs.
No... he knew this face. He knew this setup.
He had buried this part of his past years ago.
But life had a cruel sense of humor. He never imagined the ghost of it would rise now, right in the thick of everything. Right when things were starting to unravel in too many directions at once.
Without thinking, he called Jared.
"Jared, tell me you've seen what's online," James barked. "Tell me it's fake. You said you destroyed everything. So what the hell is this?"
On the other end, Jared sounded just as shaken.
"Bro, I swear I deleted everything. Every last file. I don't understand where the hell this is coming from."
James ran his fingers through his hair, heart racing. "Then someone's been watching all along. Someone had a fucking copy Jared."
He looked again at the images, the voice notes. Each one a nail in a coffin someone was preparing for him.
"And hell, how do I even refute this?" he muttered bitterly.
James immediately dialed Jerry's number.
"Jerry, tell me you've seen this?"
"Seen what?" Jerry replied groggily, his voice thick with sleep.
"Fucking go online, man!" James snapped, his voice tight with panic.
Seconds passed before Jerry returned, now fully awake and shaken.
"Fuck... James. I swear I didn't know it had gotten this bad. Yesterday, it was barely anything, but now? It's everywhere. They didn't just leak it. They launched a goddamn media assault."
James was pacing now, hand raking through his hair, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
"They planted it on every major platform," Jerry continued. "News sites, gossip blogs, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube; hell, even random WhatsApp statuses. Before we even think of taking it down, half the damn world would've already seen it."
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!" James cursed under his breath, dragging his palms across his face.
"What do we do now?" Jerry asked, clearly just as rattled. "This isn't going to be easy to wipe out. I've already tried pulling some strings, but it's like a hydra; you cut off one angle, and two more spring up. This was done with expertise, precision. They've been planning this for a while."
Meanwhile, the internet raged like wildfire.
Speculations were flying.
Who was the mystery woman?
Was James cheating?
Was his marriage a façade?
Was this the reason Diana looked distant at the gala?
Some were cautious, afraid of the Stone Group's reputation and legal wrath.
But others, bold or foolish, voiced their opinions anyway:
> "He's always been a player. Marriage or not, I'm not surprised."
"That woman doesn't look like someone new. Feels like there's history there."
"Diana deserves better. She's been glowing alone lately."
"This might be a setup... but if it's real, then James isn't who we thought he was."
The world wasn't just watching, they were dissecting every detail.
And James knew this wasn't just a scandal. It was war.
"James, don't worry," Jerry said firmly. "The way Jared cleaned it up, they won't find anything else, at least not for now. Meanwhile, I'll put my best people on this. We'll get to the bottom of it."
With that, he ended the call and immediately got to work.
Jared exhaled from his end. "Bro, I'll handle our internal connections. I'll loop in Angelo and we'll do everything we can to make sure this doesn't crash our stock prices too hard."
James gritted his teeth. "Speaking of stock prices... where are we now?"
"I just got a message from Angelo. It's dropped 1.5%—and it's still falling. Rapidly."
James clenched his fists, fury simmering just beneath the surface. "Jared, I swear I'll kill someone for this. It's been a long time since I shed blood."
His voice dropped, dark and dangerous.
"And I wouldn't put it past Timothy Hutchkins to pull this kind of stunt... or your dear stepbrother, Daryl."
"Bro," Jared snapped, his voice cold. "He's not my stepbrother. I don't have one. We'll have a serious problem if you call him that again."
James nodded slightly, even though Jared couldn't see him. "Fine."
"I'm getting down to business now," Jared added.
"And I'll handle the Queen," James said, his voice quieter now but no less intense. "She'll want to hear my side of the story."
He ended the call.
James stood up and stormed over to his desk, flipping things upside down in a wild rage. His fists clenched tightly as his body began to heat up uncontrollably. Every breath he took felt like fire burning through his chest. He wanted to lose control, to let everything loose and bring down the walls of the building with him.
His eyes flared red, and the temperature in the room rose to a suffocating level. The walls gave a soft groan, a crack snaking through one of them as more pressure surged out of him.
At that moment, Diana walked in but the force in the room hit her like a wall. Her body trembled as she tried to scream, but her voice barely made a sound. It was as if James had trapped himself in a mental maze, swallowed by his fury and pain.
Diana dropped to her knees, gasping for breath, her lungs tightening with every second. A trickle of blood slid down from her nose again. Tears filled her eyes as she tried to crawl closer, whispering the only word she could muster through her choking sobs: "Please." Over and over. "Please…"
Buried in his emotional storm, James suddenly heard something, soft… fragile… real. A voice. Her voice.
It sliced through the chaos in his head.
Diana.
"Fuck," he cursed under his breath, the realization slamming into him.
Immediately, the violent aura around him vanished, dissipating as quickly as it had come. He spun around, eyes locking on her frail body crumpled on the floor.
He was by her side in a flash, falling to his knees.
"Diana, please… come on, baby," he whispered, his voice thick with fear.
She fluttered her eyes open.
Relief rushed through him like a wave. He scooped her into his arms, holding her tightly as a sob tore from his throat.
"God, Diana… I warned you. I've told you to stay away from me when things aren't okay. Why do you never listen?" he asked, more pained than angry. "Why can't you just stay away?"
"Because I love you," she murmured weakly.
His breath hitched.
"I love you, James. And not even anything I see online now… not even the worst of it… can change the way I feel about you."
His jaw clenched. "Even if it's all true?" he asked, barely above a whisper, afraid of the answer.
"Even if it's all true," she replied, her voice faint but firm.
He bit his bottom lip hard, emotion choking him. Without another word, he lifted her into his arms and in a heartbeat, they were in their room.
He laid her gently on the bed, then dashed to fetch a bottle of water. He held up her hair as she sipped carefully from the glass.
"I'm calling Harry," he said, not giving room for protest.
After a short, tense call, he returned to her side, dipping a towel into warm water and gently wiping the blood from her nose. His hands moved with care, as if terrified of breaking her. He cleaned her face slowly, tenderly, his silence speaking louder than any words ever could.