Chapter 163: Culprit
Vivian’s POV
Despite her knowing him as just Ryan. The truth was that out there in the world, her boyfriend was someone famous. People wanted to know all about what made him tick.
They wanted to know every single thought he had, and did not bother to hide that. She was pretty certain that some would pay big money just for the chance to get a strand of Ryan’s hair in their hands. Probably thinking that just by holding it, they were closer to some divine being.
Vivian had never really looked at him like that. All that she had seen when they had first met was a man, a very gorgeous man that she’d felt the need to climb like a tree, but a man nonetheless.
Thanks to her seeing him as just a regular guy, she had actually managed to convince herself that Ryan was not that much of a big deal to the outside world. The fact that his fame had never really affected her, had also helped Vivian believe her own little lie more and more. Unfortunately though, that side of his life had finally sucked her in.
To make matters worse, she had been pulled out into the spotlight in the most awful way possible. Were it up to her, her relationship with Ryan would have remained something just for the two of them to enjoy without any outside forces pushing against them. But Vivian no longer had a choice in the whole thing. Somewhere out there a foul human being had found out about their relationship, and had decided to not respect their privacy at all.
Rather than keeping their mouth shut and going about their lives, whoever the person was had immediately gone online and had started sharing the news of Vivian and Ryan’s relationship with the rest of the world.
***
Were it just a simple post saying that Ryan had been seen with some random lady Vivian would have taken offence, but she would have been able to endure it. After all if the news had been exposed like that it would have given her and Ryan plenty of room to manage the situation. They would have been able to pick and choose what to share, and would have also been able to portray their relationship in a positive light.
But whoever the leak was, they were somebody who clearly did not like Vivian at all. Scrolling through her phone and finally seeing all that Ryan had tried to protect her from. Vivian was glad that she had taken his advice to be somewhere more comfortable when she finally viewed the posts. The things that were being said about her were absolutely horrendous.
Had she not been pressed to Ryan’s side with his solid warmth grounding her, Vivian was certain that she would have been a crying mess on the floor.
"This is awful," She whispered as she made her way through various AI generated pictures of herself. In every single one she was mostly half naked, there were some where she had on pig ears. Other times she had a pig snout and in other pictures it was her body that was shaped like that of the pig. Pushing past her shame and revulsion at what she was seeing Vivian began to notice a familiar pattern.
Whoever it was that had exposed their relationship seemed to be very attached to pigs. Staring at yet another pig-themed photo, Vivian frowned.
"What is it?" Ryan asked, his fingers lightly caressing her arm in comfort. Absent-mindedly shaking her head, Vivian continued to look at the photos.
"You do not have to go through all of them, you’ve seen enough," Ryan offered gently, but again Vivian shook her head, and moved her hand away when he tried to take the phone. There was something that was niggling away at her. She just had to put the pieces together and she knew it would come to her. Switching from the fake photos and going to read what was being said about her, it only took Vivian a few more articles before her mind finally clicked on what was bothering her so much.
Pig...pigs...piggy... of course.
***
Vivian had always known that Bryce did not like her.
The man had not tried hard at all to disguise that fact, especially when they had been a couple. But as she stared down at the smear campaign that he was currently waging against her, it finally truly sunk in.
The man did not just hate her, he detested her.
All of the insults that were being used were things that Bryce had called her to her face, and now he was hiding behind a keyboard and calling her all of those things for the world to read. Staring blankly at her phone, Vivian startled when Ryan’s hand came into view as he took the device away from her.
"Enough of that now, I already have people working to track down the IP address where all of this came from. We should have information in a matter of hours, whoever did this will not be getting away with it Vivian," He paused, his jaw so tense she worried he would break it if he did not relax. After taking a moment, he started speaking again.
"As soon as my people find out who they are, I am going to make them pay,"
Vivian shook her head, when she stopped, her grey eyes settled on Ryan’s blue ones.
"What, what is it? Please do not tell me that you do not wish for the person to be found," Wiping a tear away, Vivian reached out and gently patted Ryan’s cheek.
"There is no need for you to have your people on this," Ryan opened his mouth, clearly ready to argue, but Vivian beat him to it.
"We do not need a team to search for the culprit because I already know who it is,"
"Who?" Ryan asked his voice soft in a way that just promised pain to the owner of the name that Vivian was about to drop, and she found herself in full agreement with that.
"The person who did this is my ex, it was Bryce,"
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