THE LIE THAT WORE A RING - Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Alina was gone—but not gone.
Her things had been removed from the mansion. Her access to Nicholas’s accounts was permanently revoked. The media frenzy had cooled after the custody ruling. In the public eye, she had vanished into silence.
But Nicholas knew better.
So did Ava and Ethan.
People like Alina didn’t fade. They waited. Calculated. And then came back swinging.
It started with a text.
From an unknown number.
You think it’s over. You have no idea what I still know.
Nicholas stared at it, jaw clenched. He didn’t show it to the kids. Not yet. He forwarded it straight to his attorney and changed every security code in the house.
She was baiting him. Testing for weakness.
But this time, he wouldn’t fall for it.
Meanwhile, Ava was finally returning to school. She walked through the gates with her head held high, earbuds in, ignoring the whispers.
Some kids pitied her. Some judged her. But Ava didn’t flinch.
She’d lived through something real—raw and ugly. No classroom rumor or smug smirk could reach her now.
Until she opened her locker and found a folded piece of paper:
“Your family is a joke. He’ll leave you like he did her.”
No name. Just venom.
She crushed it without blinking.
But inside, a flicker of fear.
Ethan had his own shadow following him.
A man in a gray car parked down the street from his gym. Ethan saw him three times in one week. The license plate changed once—but the eyes didn’t.
He told Nicholas.
Nicholas called security.
“Hire the best,” he told his assistant. “Round-the-clock protection for both kids. No questions.”
This wasn’t paranoia.
It was a warning.
Alina was laying the groundwork for something.
They got confirmation two days later.
A letter from Alina’s new attorney. She was suing for “emotional distress, reputational damage, and financial hardship.”
In short: she wanted money.
“She’s broke,” Nicholas muttered, tossing the letter onto the table. “She’s trying to squeeze anything she can from the wreckage.”
His lawyer nodded. “She’s using the lawsuit as a distraction. But there’s no legal ground—just noise.”
Still, the move rattled Ava and Ethan.
“She can’t just keep coming back,” Ava whispered. “We already survived her.”
Nicholas knelt beside her. “And we’ll do it again. Together.”
But Alina wasn’t just after money.
She was hunting power. Revenge.
An anonymous podcast episode dropped late that week. A woman's voice, disguised but familiar. Telling twisted stories about Nicholas’s parenting, about secrets in the mansion, about “a man who destroyed her.”
The episode went viral within 24 hours.
“Unmasking the Billionaire: The Alina Files.”
At breakfast, Ethan slammed his phone down.
“This is insane. She’s still controlling the narrative.”
Nicholas took a breath. “We stay quiet. We stay smart. Truth doesn’t expire, even when lies go viral.”
Ava looked up slowly. “What if we don’t stay quiet?”
Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“She wants attention? Let’s give it to her. But our way. The truth.”
That night, the three of them sat down and began to record.
No dramatics. No disguises.
Just Ava, Ethan, and Nicholas—speaking plainly. About what happened. About who Alina really was. About surviving her, together.
The episode dropped two days later under the title:
“The Real Winchesters: Our Story.