All Chapters of Collateral Damage: Love and Lies: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

"Sandra, you shouldn't have falsely accused Lorraine in the first place," Neil said, his eyes straying over to Lorraine's stomach. He looked pained. "You brought this on yourself. You'll have to live with the consequences of your actions."He was blaming me for the loss of Lorraine's baby.Did he really love children that much?My heart ached.We once had a child together too.Back then, Neil had gone missing while hiking up a snow mountain. To find him, I had scaled the same mountain but ended up falling off a cliff and landing in a pool of my own blood, losing our child in the process.He had probably forgotten how he had cried while holding me at the time.Just as our standoff grew tense, a man wearing a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles entered the police station."Peter?" I said.Peter Sutton nodded at me. "I've brought the detection equipment from the institute."The police officer immediately made the call. "Good. We have the equipment now. This is a serious matter. Let's

"She's speaking the truth," Peter said.He towered almost half a foot over Neil. When he leaned in, his commanding presence made Neil instinctively back away."You again?" Neil glanced between us suspiciously. "Is this what you've been keeping secret? Every time you disappear for months, telling me that it's for your job and that it's top secret, you're actually with him, aren't you? "You've already slept with him, right? So, stop pretending to be a victim when it comes to Lorraine. You're disgusting."Peter raised his hand and punched Neil, sending him sprawling.Seeing this, Lorraine finally couldn't continue pretending to be a normal stranger. With a cry, she rushed over and helped Neil up. "How can you be so violent in broad daylight? Aren't you afraid that we'll call the police?"I leaned over and gently brushed my hand against her hair. A few strands stayed in my palm even after I drew away. "You're losing a lot of hair. You should get that checked at a hospital. Then, onc

The conspiracy-laden comment was logical enough to satisfy most people's curiosity. It was quickly copied and shared widely throughout the Internet."The logic checks out. Case closed!""Oh my God, that's terrifying. She must be super smart to be able to pull that off!""Lorraine might be in the wrong morally, but did Thesis Lady really have to kill her?""I think I can understand her boyfriend now. It must be terrifying, living with someone like her."Public opinion quickly turned against me. My name soon became synonymous with crime and murder.Even Neil's affair with Lorraine was quickly spun into a redemption story. Neil was recast as a pitiable man forced to endure my tyranny and finally found the courage to escape from my grasp after meeting his angel, Lorraine. The creative twist they managed to weave into the story was truly awe-inspiring. As a STEM nerd, I was left completely speechless."Maybe you two should write a novel together," I marveled."You're the reason I'

This time, Neil stopped covering for Lorraine.According to what he said in his testimony, the police, along with Peter, put on radiation suits and dug up the stolen Iridium-192 in Lorraine's garden.The material looked just like a normal metal keychain.Peter carefully resealed the Iridium-192 and took it back to the research lab for proper handling."We only opened the container once and left it out in the living room for two hours," Neil said. Those two hours were enough to expose both of them, who had been in the same room, to significant amounts of radiation.Now that the case was finally resolved, the police released an official statement.Lorraine's reputation was beyond salvaging now.She lost a lot of followers, and in turn, the products she had previously endorsed saw a drop in sales as well.The brands that had worked with Lorraine suffered heavy losses because of this and began filing claims against her.The three of us were called to the police station again to

When the police arrived to take Neil away, he suddenly snapped back to his senses and began struggling wildly. Pointing at me, he screamed, "You should arrest her! She's the one who planned all this! You're a murderer, Sandra! You should've died on the mountain all those years ago!"I watched him coldly as the police forcibly pushed him into the car in his frenzied state. The car door slammed shut, cutting off his desperate screams.A gust of cold wind swept through, stirring up the thin layer of snow on the ground.It reminded me of the blood-streaked snow from that mountain, a weight I had carried in my heart for so many days and nights. But now, the wind had finally blown it away.The case of the stolen Iridium-192 finally came to a close.Apart from theft, I also sued Lorraine for defamation and Neil for physical assault.Not that either of them had the energy to face any legal proceedings.Their conditions deteriorated rapidly, and alarmingly so.At first, they were pu