An AI-generated voice intones, “The little porn star from the Earls can’t be satisfied. Now she is openly with two men.”
His phone vibrates again. He glances at the screen as another video begins to play. It opens with the same AI voice, then cuts to the matron making her disgusting comments, followed by a deep male voice saying, “Interesting timing for this slander.”
I place my hand on Tianna’s shoulder.
“What was that?” I ask.
Coulson checks the screen once more before answering.
“Social media chatter. One video attempts to take Christianna down, similar to the previous deep fake. The second is a stitch from an unknown user defending her by redirectingattention to what happened tonight. Meg has also posted the performance. Comments are currently positive.”
Madame clears her throat and every eye turns to her.
“If I may?” she asks, tilting her head slightly.
Coulson nods and leans back.
“The woman you refer to as Biancholli has another name. Or rather, she used to.” She gives Tianna a look I can only describe as regretful. “Her married name was Thorne.”
Tianna lets out a small sound and curls into Erik’s side. The Notes immediately abandon Madame for her. Bass burrows against her while Treble rests his head in her lap.
“I’m fine. It’s just a bit of a shock,” she says, her voice muffled. Her hand strokes Bass’s ears in a slow, steady rhythm, soothing both of them.
Tianna looks between Madame and Coulson. “His widow? Do you think she is behind the attacks?”
“It would explain why they feel so personally directed at you,” Coulson says. “We can’t know definitively until we dig into her. She wasn’t on my radar.”
“She has always been a vile woman,” Madame says evenly. “Spoiled by her father, then married into the Thornes. They believed their money placed them above everyone else. Horrid people.”
She folds her hands over her cane.
“Normally I speak only in facts. But in light of Christianna’s harassment, you should know this. It was rumored she paid off Silas’s former students. You could not call them girlfriends. They were always students in his class, which removes the question of consent.”
The room goes still.
“One girl was said to have taken her own life after receiving harassing calls and threats. Similar to what Christianna experienced. The phone calls. Her car being vandalized.”
“I don’t understand,” Tianna says. “I was paid off, I took their damn blood money, it was through attorneys, but I did it, I haven’t told anyone. Well I told Remy and Erik, but there is no way she could know.”
“She was fine, when you were invisible,” I tell her, “but now you have emerged. You’re thriving.”
She’s shaking her head. “It’s been seven years. I didn’t even know who she was. We never crossed paths.”
“Christianna,” Coulson breaks in. “Logically, the fact you are moving now in her circles, emerging stronger. She wants you beaten down. She only wins if you stay small.”
Chapter one hundred twenty
Christianna
I am reeling. When will this be over? This is such fucking bullshit.
My thoughts break off as Ruiz strides toward the door. It flies open just as he reaches it, and his hand pulls back before he registers who is standing there.
“Oh crap, sorry Ruiz,” Meg says, folding her umbrella. “I didn’t see you there.”
Coulson is already moving, striding toward the entry as Colt heads for the music room door that opens to the yard. He kills the lights as he slips inside.
“I didn’t get an alert that you were here,” Ruiz says, checking the security panel while Coulson scans his phone.
