Rhys looked towards Dex, who finally swiveled his chair around, his expression a mixture of satisfaction and concern.
"I've got something," Dex said, his fingers still hovering over his keyboard. "The initial upload points to a specific IP address… a residential connection. And guess who it's registered to?" He paused, his eyes meeting Rhys's. "Tiffany Wright. Lena's older sister."
Rhys stared at Dex, a cold fury replacing the anxiety that had been churning in his gut. "Lena's older sister?"
Dex nodded grimly. "Looks that way. The connection was brief, masked through a couple of VPNs, but the originating IP points back to a residential address registered under the name 'Tiffany Wright' in Peridot City."
"Tiffany," Rhys repeated, the name a bitter taste in his mouth. "So, the obsession has family support."
Heather's eyes widened. "Her sister is helping her?"
"It seems so," Dex confirmed, tapping a few more keys. "It's possible Lena used her sister's connection without her knowledge or Tiffany is likely aware of what's happening and is helping her."
Rhys stood up, his fists clenching. "This just keeps getting better and better. First, threatening packages, then fabricated DMs, and now her sister is potentially involved? What is wrong with these people?"
Daniel's earlier warning echoed in his mind. 'The longer this goes on, the more damage it does.' They needed to act fast.
"Dex, can you trace the VPNs? See if there's any other identifying information?" Rhys asked, his mind racing. "We need concrete proof, something we can take to the label, to the police."
Dex nodded, his fingers flying across the keyboard once more. "I'm on it. The VPN logs might hold some clues, but they're usually wiped clean pretty quickly. I'll see what I can dig up."
Just then, Rhys's phone buzzed again. It was Henry. He answered, putting it on speakerphone.
"Rhys, man, this is insane," Henry said, his voice tight with concern. "The internet is a war zone. People are actually believing this crap. I saw one comment saying you should be arrested!"
"We know, Henry," Rhys said, trying to keep his voice steady. "It's all fake. Lena Wright is behind it."
There was a stunned silence on the other end. "Lena? That girl who was always hanging around backstage? Seriously?"
"Yeah," Rhys confirmed grimly. "And it looks like her older sister might be involved too."
"Her sister?" Emmett's voice joined the call, sounding equally shocked. "What the hell is wrong with them?"
"We don't know the full extent of it yet," Rhys said. "But Dex has traced the initial upload of those DMs to her sister's IP address."
"So, what do we do?" Dave asked, his usually quiet voice laced with worry. "The label is freaking out. Daniel's been calling non-stop."
"We gather proof," Rhys said, his voice hardening with determination. "Dex is working on it. We need to expose Lena and her sister for what they're doing. We need to clear my name and protect Heather."
He looked at Heather, offering her a reassuring smile. "This isn't over. Not by a long shot."
"Dex, can you dig deeper into Tiffany Wright?" Rhys asked, his voice tight with urgency. "See if she has any known connections to online smear campaigns or anything that might suggest she's capable of this kind of manipulation."
Dex nodded, his fingers already flying across the keyboard. "Running searches now. Social media activity, public records... anything that might give us a clearer picture of her involvement and her relationship with Lena."
Minutes stretched into an eternity, the only sounds in the room the rhythmic clicking of Dex's keys and the low hum of his computer. Heather sat silently, her gaze fixed on Rhys, a silent offering of support in her eyes.
The weight of the accusations online felt heavy in the small apartment, a suffocating presence that no amount of reassurance could completely dispel.
Finally, Dex leaned back in his chair, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Tiffany Wright... she's got a fairly active online presence. Mostly lifestyle stuff, fashion, travel. But there are a few older posts... around the time Lena started becoming more vocal about her 'admiration' for you, Rhys."
He pulled up a series of screenshots on his monitor, enlarging them for Rhys and Heather to see. They were comments on fan forums and social media posts, seemingly innocuous at first glance
.
"Look at the usernames," Dex pointed out. "'RhysIsMyDestiny,' 'LuxNumberOneFanForever'..."
Rhys frowned. "Lena used handles like that."
"Exactly," Dex said. "Now look at the posting patterns. These accounts were often active around the same time, sometimes even responding to each other in ways that suggest a coordinated effort. And guess who else occasionally liked or even replied to these posts?"
He highlighted a username: "TiffW_Official." Tiffany Wright's verified social media handle.
"She was egging her on," Heather whispered, a chill running down her spine.
"Looks that way," Dex confirmed. "It's not definitive proof, but it strongly suggests Tiffany was aware of Lena's obsession and might have even been encouraging it, at least online. There's also a pattern of these 'fan' accounts suddenly going silent or being deleted shortly after Lena's more… intense outbursts."
"So, Tiffany was helping to cultivate this delusion," Rhys said, his anger simmering. "And now she's potentially helping her sabotage my life."
"It's a strong possibility," Dex agreed. "I'm trying to see if there are any financial connections, anything that might link Tiffany directly to the creation or dissemination of those doctored DMs, but that's going to be tougher to trace."
Just then, Rhys's phone rang again. It was Daniel. He answered, bracing himself for another barrage of worried questions.
"Rhys, the label is demanding a statement," Daniel said, his voice tight and urgent. "They want you to publicly deny these allegations. Now. What do you want me to tell them?"
Rhys looked at Heather, then at Dex, the weight of their situation pressing down on him. They had a lead, a potential connection to Tiffany Wright, but it wasn't solid proof yet.
"Tell them... tell them we are aware of the allegations and that they are entirely false," Rhys said, his voice firm despite the uncertainty swirling within him. "Tell them we have reason to believe this is a targeted attack and we are working to uncover the source. But Daniel… no apologies, no hedging. We deny these claims unequivocally."
"Unequivocally?" Daniel repeated, a hint of relief in his voice. "Are you sure about that, Rhys? Because if this turns out to be true..."
"It's not true, Daniel," Rhys insisted. "Trust me. We will prove it."
He hung up the phone, the weight of his promise settling heavily on his shoulders. He looked at Dex. "We need more, Dex. We need concrete proof that links Tiffany, or Lena, directly to those DMs. The clock is ticking."
Dex nodded, his gaze fixed on his monitors, his fingers dancing across the keyboard with renewed urgency. "I know, Rhys. I'm digging deeper. There has to be something. They made a mistake somewhere. They always do."
The hunt for the digital truth had intensified, with the involvement of Lena's sister adding a disturbing new dimension to their fight.
Hours bled into the late evening. The small apartment felt thick with the hum of Dex's computers and the nervous energy emanating from Rhys and Heather.
Dex had unearthed more circumstantial evidence – online forum posts where Tiffany seemed to subtly steer conversations in Lena's favor regarding Rhys, and a few instances of Tiffany vaguely alluding to Rhys's "true nature" in cryptic comments.
But the direct link to the doctored DMs remained elusive.
Rhys paced restlessly, his phone clutched in his hand. He kept refreshing his social media feeds, watching the relentless tide of accusations and judgment washing over his online presence. Each new comment, each new share, felt like another nail in his coffin.
Heather, though visibly shaken, remained a pillar of quiet strength. She brought Rhys water, offered words of encouragement, and simply sat beside him, her presence a tangible reminder of what he was fighting for.
Just as despair threatened to creep in, Dex let out a sharp cry of triumph. "Got it!"
Rhys and Heather rushed to his side, peering at his monitor. Dex had pulled up a series of encrypted files, their gibberish text slowly resolving into recognizable code.
"Remember that specific encryption pattern I mentioned?" Dex asked, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "It's not commonly used. I ran a wider search, and I found a few instances of it being used in conjunction with image and text editing software… software often used for creating deepfakes and manipulating screenshots."
He highlighted a specific file path. "This one… it's a temporary file, likely deleted, but I managed to recover a fragment from the system's cache. Look at the timestamp."
The timestamp corresponded to the period just before the doctored DMs started circulating. And the file name? It was a jumbled string of characters, but Dex had managed to partially reconstruct it. The last few letters were "Rhys_DM_edit.tmp."
"A temporary edit file," Rhys breathed, a surge of hope coursing through him.
"Exactly," Dex said. "It's not the smoking gun, but it's strong circumstantial evidence linking someone on Tiffany's IP address to the creation of those manipulated messages."
He then pulled up another piece of information. "And get this. Remember those VPN connections? One of the exit nodes they used was traced back to a server with weak security. I managed to pull some logs. There's a record of file transfers around the same time the DMs were uploaded. The file names are encrypted, but the size and transfer duration match what you'd expect for a batch of image and text files."
"Can you decrypt the file names?" Rhys asked, his voice tight with anticipation.
Dex shook his head. "The encryption is too strong for a quick decryption. But the timing, the IP address, the temporary file… it's all pointing in one direction."
Rhys grabbed his phone. "I'm calling Daniel."
This time, Daniel answered on the first ring, his voice still strained but tinged with an anxious anticipation. "Rhys? What is it? Have you found something?"
"We have something, Daniel," Rhys said, his voice firm with newfound conviction. "We have evidence linking the initial upload of those doctored DMs to the IP address of Lena Wright's older sister, Tiffany Wright. We also found a temporary file on that connection related to editing direct messages around the time they were leaked."
There was a stunned silence on the other end. "Tiffany? Lena's sister? Are you sure?"
"As sure as we can be without a direct confession," Rhys said. "It's strong circumstantial evidence. We need to take this to the label, to the authorities."
"Alright," Daniel said, a new urgency entering his voice. "Alright. Stay put. Don't say anything publicly. I'll contact the legal team. We need to strategize how to handle this."
As Rhys hung up, a sense of satisfaction washed over him.
The tide was starting to turn.
Lena and Tiffany's carefully laid plan was beginning to unravel, thread by digital thread. The fight was far from over, but for the first time since the online onslaught began, Rhys felt a flicker of hope.