Ch. Bounded To My Mate 8 Bounded To My Mate 8

Chapter 8 

Acollective gasp swept through the guests, and they stared at Jack with undisguised contempt. 

“God, how could he be so vile?” 

“That’s vicious! He wouldn’t even get his own hands dirty. He put other people up to bullying her.” 

“He’s absolute trash!” 

The blood drained from Jack’s face, and cold sweat immediately soaked through his dress shirt. 

He waved his hands in a panic, trying to explain and making no sense. “Sophie, listen to me. That footage was doctored. Back then, I didn’t…” 

I raised my hand and slapped him hard across the face! 

The blow snapped Jack’s head to the side, and a vivid red handprint appeared instantly on his left cheek. 

“That slap was for the seventeen–year–old Sophie you bullied, shoved into a fountain, and stripped of every last shred of dignity.” 

I withdrew my hand, took out a wet wipe, and wiped my fingertips clean with deliberate elegance. Then I tossed it at his feet. 

“You contaminate even the air around you.” 

Ella lost it completely, tearing at her veil and pointing at me. 

“Sophie! You bitch! How dare you cause a scene at my wedding! 

“Security! Where is security?! Throw this crazy woman out! Throw her out!” she screamed wildly at the security guards below the stage. 

Yet the dozen or so estate security guards in black suits did not move. Instead, they took up positions on either side of the stage. 

I snatched Tom’s microphone and curled my lips in a mocking smile. 

“Easy. You’re next. 

“Ms. Reese, didn’t you just claim online that I plagiarized your work in high school?” 

Ella instinctively slipped into the victim role, immediately covering her face and letting out a string of fake sobs.” Sophie, I moved on from the past a long time ago. After all, we were classmates for years. Do you really have to ruin the happiest moment of my life?” 

Several of her closest friends immediately rushed over to back her up. 

“Sophie, you’ve gone way too far! Ella’s already falling apart, and you still won’t leave her alone?” 

“Exactly! So what if you look better now? You’re still just as vicious inside!” 

“Don’t burn bridges; you never know when you might need one. Keep this up and karma will catch up with you!” 

I let out a soft laugh. “I wouldn’t be so sure which of us is the vicious one.” 

I raised my hand and snapped my fingers again. 

1/2 

15804 

The image on the 4K LED wall behind me shifted again. 

his time it was security footage from the high school art room. 

The footage showed the empty classroom as a teenage Ella slipped inside. She went straight to my desk, opened my portfolio tube, and pulled out the designs I had prepared for the competition. 

She spread the designs across the floor and used her phone to quickly photograph each one in detail. 

Then she picked up a cup of water from the next desk and poured all of it over the work I had bled for, without a moment’s hesitation. 

Even that was not enough for her. She ground and dragged the heel of her shoe across the soaked designs until they tore into a heap of soggy scraps. 

Then she stuffed the mess back into the tube and walked out humming, as though nothing had happened. 

The evidence was irrefutable. 

The crowd erupted again. 

Quite a few of Ella’s influencer friends and followers had slipped into the wedding that day, and the footage left them looking as if they had swallowed something rotten. 

“I must have been blind to follow her for so long! Turns out she’s the damn plagiarist!” 

“I’m unfollowing her right now! She’s a horrible person, and I can’t believe I used to go after Sophie for her!” 

“She’s terrifying. She’s all beauty on the outside and pure venom underneath!” 

Ella looked utterly humiliated. Pointing at the 4K LED wall, she shrieked, “Fake! It’s all been fabricated! All of it is fake!” 

She turned to me, her eyes blazing with venom. 

“Security footage from all those years ago! How could you possibly have it?!”