Chapter 72. Photo Scandal (1)

Vanessa's POV

The first thing I saw that morning wasn’t the sunlight or the alarm clock blinking 6:45 a.m. No. The first thing I saw was my phone—lit up with dozens of notifications, buzzing nonstop like it was about to explode.

My heart skipped a beat. Somehow, the social media algorithm had picked up that I was somehow related to DGG, because my feed was flooded with news about the company.

Frowning, still groggy, I tapped the first post made by a gossip blog. The headline screamed at me in bold black:

DGG CEO, Andre Garcia, Caught in Secret Kiss with Mystery Woman at Paris Gala!

The next post was the bombshell.

A photo—grainy, shadowed—of Mr. Garcia and me, kissing.

The angle was terrible, like someone had snapped it from behind a curtain. The lighting was low, the photo half-blurry. But Mr. Garcia’s face was unmistakably clear, while mine was buried in his.

Still, I knew. I knew in the way my heart clenche