Vanessa paced the entire length of her bedroom, her heels clicking softly against the hardwood floor as her thoughts spiraled.
Her mind was a battlefield, torn between anger, ambition, and a gnawing sense of urgency. The room was dimly lit, but the glow of her phone screen, which had been ringing incessantly, illuminated her worried expression.
She glanced at the device, frowning at the unknown number that kept calling. Who keeps calling me? she wondered. It wasn't like her to ignore a ringing phone, but given the current situation, she wasn't in the mood to talk to just anyone.
Her mind raced back to Jake. His arrest had made the headlines, and every media outlet seemed eager to paint him as a villain.
It didn't matter that Vanessa believed in him. What mattered was how the world saw him and, more importantly, how she could use this chaos to her advantage.
