Chapter 521 The Live
Tessa’s POV
I locked the door to my apartment and turned off every light except the ring light I used for my livestreams. The camera was already set up on the desk. I had changed into a red top that matched my lipstick and brushed my hair until I looked like I had not just walked out of a man’s house with his hands still on me. My phone sat on the desk beside the camera, with the file Elliot had sent already downloaded. I opened the streaming app, checked the camera angle one last time, and went live.
The viewer count climbed faster than I expected. People had clearly been waiting. I smiled at the camera the way I always did when I had something they wanted.
“Good evening,” I greeted my viewers. “I know a lot of you have been asking where I have been. Some of you have been quite loud about it, and a few of you have been downright rude. Well, I have been working, and tonight, I am finally ready to talk, so settle in.”
I leaned forward slightly so the light caught my face. Comments started flooding the screen. I glanced at a few of them and laughed quietly to myself.
“Before we get to the reason I am here, I want to clear something up,” I began. “A lot of people have spent the last year asking who Jules is. The unknown racer who never loses and disappears the moment a race is over. Some of you have theories, but most of them are wrong. I have always known who he is. I just never said it out loud because some things are better kept between the people who were actually there.”
I paused to let my words sink in. The comments slowed for a moment before picking up again. Someone accused me of lying, and I smiled even wider.
“Jules is Julian Windsor,” I revealed. “I have known since Monaco. During the Grand Prix, we ran into each other at a private party after the race. We talked, we drank, and then we kissed. It was not a long kiss, and it was not a public kiss, but it happened. He is a very good kisser, by the way. After that night, I understood exactly who had been beating me on those back roads for years. I never said anything because Julian and I shared something that night that did not belong to the cameras. I respected that, until now. So, if any of you were still guessing, you can stop.”
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my legs. “But that is not why I am live tonight. The real reason is Catwoman. And before any of you start typing that I am obsessed, yes, I am. She has been beating me for months, and I want the name. So here it is.”
The chat exploded with comments. I waited until things settled enough for people to follow what I was saying.
“Gail Windsor stood in front of cameras and claimed she was Catwoman,” I continued. “She looked calm and confident, like she genuinely believed what she was saying. And a lot of you believed her because no one from the Windsor family stepped forward to say she was lying. When I first questioned her confession, no one bothered to clear things up. There was no statement, no denial, nothing. Their silence told me everything I needed to know. Families like that do not stay quiet unless they are protecting something. Or someone.”
I reached for my phone and held it up to the camera so everyone could see the screen. The photograph Elliot had sent was already open. It was grainy and had been taken from a distance, but the image was clear enough to make out Katia Windsor standing beside a black car on an empty road, holding her mask in one hand, her hair still damp from wearing a helmet.
“Catwoman is Katia Windsor,” I announced. “The CEO of IG Technologies. Julian’s wife. The woman who has been racing under that visor for years while the rest of us were expected to accept a lie. Gail took the blame to protect her, and the family allowed it because they thought no one would ever be able to prove the truth. Cute. Wrong. But cute.”
I lowered my phone onto the desk and looked directly into the camera. Someone in the chat asked if I was jealous, and I laughed.
“Jealous? No. Annoyed. There is a difference,” I replied. “I have been racing against a woman who gets to hide behind a mask while the rest of us put our real names on the line. And when someone finally asked questions, her sister-in-law stood up and lied for her. So yes, I am saying it out loud. Catwoman is the CEO of IG Technologies, Katia Windsor. The woman who has been winning races she was never supposed to be in. The woman whose sister-in-law stood in front of the entire city and lied to protect her. If that bothers you, feel free to leave the stream.”
I leaned back in my chair and watched the comments flood the screen. Some people were calling me a liar, while others were already sharing old racing clips. A few viewers remained quiet, but I continued speaking.
“I am not asking you to take my word for it,” I told them. “I am showing you the photograph and telling you what I know. The next time Catwoman shows up on a road, you will know exactly whose face is under that mask. You can be angry about it. You can say I should have kept my mouth shut. But you cannot say you were not told. And you cannot say the family cleared it, because they did not.”
I stayed on the livestream for another twenty minutes, answering a few questions and repeating Katia’s name twice more so no one could claim they had missed it. When someone asked if Julian knew, I smiled and said that was between him and his wife. When the viewer count began to drop, I thanked everyone for watching and ended the broadcast. The apartment fell silent again. My hands remained steady as I switched off the ring light. I sat in the darkness for a moment, watching notifications light up my phone. Elliot’s name was not among them, but I had not expected it to be. He had already gotten what he wanted from me. Now the entire city knew the name, and whatever happened next was no longer entirely within my control.