Chapter 6: The Betrayal
Chapter 6: The Betrayal
"He cut the wire," Bridget croaked, her voice trembling violently. Her throat burned with the abrasive, raw friction of the recently removed intubation tube, leaving her voice as barely a raspy, broken whisper. She fought desperately against the plastic oxygen mask tightly strapped to her pale face, her chest heaving as the monitor beside her bed began to beep with an erratic, frantic tempo.
Detective Hayes, who had been standing as silent and still as a shadow in the far corner of the dim hospital room, immediately stepped forward into the sterile light. With a deft flick of his thumb, he clicked on his digital voice recorder, holding it close to her bed to capture every single agonizing word.
"Take your time, Bridget. Just tell us exactly what you remember about the rigging," Hayes coaxed gently, his usually gruff voice dialed back to a low, comforting rumble.
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"Tyler told me we desperately needed a massive viral hit," Bridget sobbed, the tears tracking hot and fast into her hairline. "A crazy, shocking hook to go viral and save the house. He orchestrated the whole thing. I was supposed to scream my lines, fall back, and land in the mesh. But the stunt net... when I fell... there was no net. He moved the net before the party started, and the wire... it just gave out. He promised me it was safe."
The horrific, crushing realization slammed into Bridget's chest with the devastating force of a freight train. The man she loved, the man she had sworn to spend her life with and supported through years of failed creative endeavors, had willingly and maliciously sacrificed her. He had traded her physical health, her safety, and her spine for a few million digital views, a temporary spike in engagement, and a quick payout. It was a suffocating, paralyzing wave of sheer, unadulterated terror and profound, irreversible heartbreak. As she stared at the acoustic ceiling tiles of the ICU, she finally understood the darkest truth of all: to Tyler, she wasn't a partner. She wasn't even a human being. She was just an expendable, highly monetizable prop for his content.
