Cynthia Sharpe sat in the silence of her apartment. The television was off. The lights were dim. On her laptop screen sat the article she had spent weeks crafting: *The Gambler’s Daughter: How Sophie Laurent Was Bought.*
It was the nuclear option. It would humiliate Sophie, ruin the wedding, and shatter William’s “healed” narrative. It was everything Cynthia had wanted for a year.
But as she looked at the cursor blinking, all she could feel was the echoing silence left by Jaxson Vane. He had offered her a life of genuine connection, and she had traded it for a moment of petty destruction. She was miserable.
“He was right,” she whispered to the empty room. “I’m chasing a ghost.”
With a sudden burst of clarity, Cynthia highlighted the text. She didn’t just close the file; she hit *delete*. Then she emptied the trash folder.
She picked up her phone. Her thumb hovered over Jaxson’s number. She didn’t call–she wasn’t ready yet–but she sent a text to the editor of the tabloid she had been feeding. *The story is dead. Don’t contact me again.*
For the first time in Season 5, Cynthia Sharpe chose herself over her hatred.