Thorns Grow After Betrayal (Celeste and Chester) novel Chapter 268

Chester tried to steady his voice, anxiety edging his words. “I believe you, Joanna. Please, trust me too. This will blow over—I promise.”

The video was almost airtight in its logic, a calculated hit that left little room for doubt. But targeting Joanna so ruthlessly? It wasn’t some deep-seated grudge, not really. In the end, it all boiled down to one thing: money.

With the right price, even the creator of that video could be persuaded to admit it was all a fabrication. That much Chester was sure of. Yet, even after sending people to dig into the paparazzi, he couldn’t get a single useful lead on whoever was behind it.

He pressed a hand to his aching forehead. “Joanna, go to the hospital and get a certificate proving you haven’t had any facial surgery. Stream the whole thing live.”

If he couldn’t find the puppet master, at least this kind of approach might keep her fans on her side. He never believed Joanna would do something as reckless as getting secret cosmetic work done. Still, things were complicated. His relationship with Celestine was tense, and the old man was watching his every move, ready to pounce.

He could no longer leverage the Fordham family’s power to simply scrub Joanna’s name off the trending lists and silence the rumors overnight. And with the way people were talking, trying to suppress it would only make things worse.

Joanna’s lips were colorless as she bit them hard. “Chester, is there any other way?” she pleaded. “I don’t want to go to the hospital. I’m terrified the doctors will judge me, stare at my face like I’m some kind of specimen…”

He had the power to shut down the tabloids, to erase her name from every headline, yet he was forcing her to prove herself in this humiliating way.

She’d only just finished another round of restorative procedures—not plastic surgery, but the kind of careful touch-ups her work demanded. If she went to the hospital now, it would be walking straight into a trap.

Chester assumed she was just anxious about the doctors and tried to reassure her. “Don’t worry, Joanna. The doctors are all top experts. There’s no way they’ll misjudge your face.”

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