Chapter 109: Love Out Loud
"Today, I’m speaking as someone who’s witnessed firsthand how vicious, aggressive and reckless journalism can destroy a person." Craig said, voice low but cutting,
A few murmurs rippled through the crowd, followed by a single dry cough from the back row, but his gaze didn’t waver.
"You’ve harassed a college student. A grieving one. One who spent a year believing her mother was dead, only to discover she was alive. And worse, that the person who tried to kill her... was her own father."
Several reporters shifted in closer, almost stepping over each other, with desperation to get the best angle, the best audio.
"She didn’t just lose a parent," Craig continued, voice thickening. "She lost both. In two different ways. Her mother, to a year of mourning and grief. Her father, to the kind of betrayal that can’t be undone."
Somewhere near the back, Phoebe and Megan stood frozen, their textbooks clutched tightly to their chests.
They had just rushed out of class, along with other students, the moment they heard Craig Lesnar was speaking to the press, they followed the noise and ended up there, watching, breath held, as everything unraveled.
"We should be sympathizing with her," Craig said, voice quieter now but somehow sharper, like a blade gliding slow. "With her siblings. With the unimaginable loss they’ve endured. Instead, you chose cruelty. Because it got clicks. Because it got views."
In the middle row, a journalist shifted uncomfortably, her eyes darting around, looking every where behind her, she was suddenly unsure if recording this felt right anymore.
Phoebe swallowed hard, her fingers digging tighter into the spine of her book. Megan, beside her, blinked fast, her mouth parted with something close to guilt.
There were no flashes now. Only the low static of the live broadcast and the occasional click of someone swallowing hard.