SHE THOUGHT NO ONE SAW HER PUSH HER PREGNANT DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OFF THE CLIFF—UNTIL THE COLD DEAD HAND ON HER SHOULDER SPOKE!

"What is the meaning of this?!" Victoria hissed into the dark. "Security, restore the backup generators immediately!"

Instead of the lights returning, the gigantic seventy-foot LED screen behind the stage flickered to life with blinding brilliance.

A high-definition video appeared on the screen.

The crowd fell dead silent.

The video showed the snowy expanse of Devil’s Leap. The camera angle was low, looking up from the snowmobile chassis. On screen, clear as daylight, was Victoria Sterling standing behind Emily’s wheelchair.

Every speaker in the room blasted the crystal-clear audio:

*"Die, you little parasite."*

The footage showed Victoria violently shoving the wheelchair down the steep, icy slope. The ballroom erupted into gasps of horror. Several socialites dropped their champagne glasses, the crystal shattering on the parquet floor.

"Turn it off!" Victoria screamed, her face contorting into a mask of feral panic. "Julian, turn it off! It's a deepfake! It's an AI smear campaign!"

Julian did not move. He was staring at the screen, his face drained of all color, his hands shaking so violently the golden award fell from his grip and clattered onto the stage.

The video continued. It showed Daniel’s heroic interception, the brutal crash against the fence, and Daniel hanging over the five-hundred-foot drop by his fingertips.

Then came the climax.

On the eighty-foot screen, Victoria Sterling walked forward. Her voice echoed through the ballroom with demonic clarity:

*"A heroic effort, boy. Pity peasants never learn their place."*

The footage showed her sharp heel stomping down onto Daniel's knuckles until his grip failed and he vanished into the abyss.

"Mother..." Julian choked out, turning toward her, tears streaming down his face. "You... you tried to kill my wife? You tried to kill my child?!"

"Julian, listen to me!" Victoria shrieked, grabbing his lapels, her aristocratic composure completely shredded. "She was nobody! She was poisoning you against me! She would have taken half of everything in a divorce! I did it for you! I did it for the family!"