Page 184 of A Smile Full of Lies
I scoffed.
“You’re the one about to blow up the internet.”
His mouth quirked. I slipped my hand into his, fingers lacing tight.
“Still sure about this?” I asked.
He didn’t hesitate.
“You laid the groundwork for unmasking me the second you wrote that book, baby. Might as well let the world catch up.”
My heart pounded.
“Your fans are going to lose their minds.”
“I know.”
“They’re going to want to fuck you even more now, regardless of our relationship.”
“They can try,” he said, leaning in until his breath grazed my jaw, “but I belong to you.”
Heat bloomed under my skin. I kissed him. Soft. Quick. Grounding. Then I stepped back, my heart still racing.
“Go get set up,” I whispered. “I’ll finish this. Then come find you.”
He nodded, and without another word, he disappeared through the service hallway backstage, where the tech crew was waiting. The same team we’d quietly cleared this with last week. The same people who had promised us the final two minutes of airtime. Two minutes was all he needed.
The interview went better than expected.
Jenna was sharp and funny, disarming me right away with a question about my glasses.
“They’ve got villain origin story energy. Are they plot armor or foreshadowing?”
I laughed and spent the next thirteen minutes answering her questions. We talked about the book. About the case. About the legacy of the Knox family and what it meant to tell the story right.
I didn’t cry. Didn’t panic. Didn’t even flinch when she asked the question everyone had been hinting at:
“You never disclosed how you uncovered the security footage that helped you break the case. Why?”
I met her gaze and held it.
“Because the source of the footage doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things,” I said. “The family does. Philip Knox does, and he’s already been through enough.”
She nodded, like she understood. But behind her eyes, I saw the flicker of curiosity. And I knew the audience saw it too. People always wanted to know the thing they weren’t allowed to.
Good. Let them want.
The lights dimmed at the close of the show. The band played a low outro behind us. Jenna stood to thank the crew, and then, just before they cut to commercial — right before the red light above the camera winked off — I smiled at the audience and said,
“Before we go, I’ve got a special surprise for you all. One last video. Something special from the man behind the Nox Obscura mask.”
I felt the entire crowdshift.Whispers erupted like wildfire. Gasps, too.
Even Jenna looked stunned as the large video screen behind her desk that usually showed a cityscape cut to black, then flickered to life again.
Only now it showed a man in a hotel room. Black hoodie. Head down. The familiar black and purple neon mask sitting on the table beside him.
The world froze. And then… he lifted his head. Knox. Unmasked.
