Marcus's threat hadn't broken Aris, but it had brought him to a crossroads. Since childhood, his only dream was to become a great actor, not a whistleblower. However, Marcus's systemic power left Aris no room to breathe. Aris realized that to protect his future, he had to dismantle the fake fortress Marcus had built around himself.
This time, he didn't use The Sight for a scene. He used it to find the cracks in Marcus's private life. During set breaks, he tracked the tense whispers between Marcus and Julian, the shifts in Marcus's tone during private phone calls, and the scent of guilt hidden behind that unshakable image. He discovered that Marcus was collaborating with illegal betting rings and laundering money to eliminate his industry rivals.
Aris didn't go directly to the media; he knew Marcus's control over the press was too strong. Marcus had only one true enemy: Elias Vance, another industry titan who had been in a bitter rivalry with Marcus for years.
Aris reached out to Elias through a secret contact. At midnight, in an abandoned theater on the outskirts of Lumina, he met with Vance. With the precision of an actor, Aris laid out all the evidence—the voice recordings and the secret documents bearing Marcus's signature.
"Why me?" Elias asked, scanning the documents.
"Because I just want to be an actor," Aris said, his voice trembling but firm. "Marcus tried to take my dreams away from me. So, I'm taking everything away from him."
The next morning, every news channel and digital platform in Lumina was rocked by a single headline: "The Golden Boy's Dirty Legacy: Marcus Thorne's Crime Empire." The information was leaked from an "anonymous source," but the documents were so concrete that even Marcus's elite PR team couldn't contain the damage.
In the middle of the set, a heavy silence fell over the crew as police officers cuffed Marcus Thorne's wrists. As he was being led away, Marcus spotted Aris in the crowd. Aris wasn't looking at him with hatred, but with a profound sadness. In that moment, Marcus realized that Aris hadn't just seen his soul; he had written his destiny.
As Marcus was hauled off to prison, a new era began at Studio Aethalgard. Marcus Thorne's reputation was in ruins, but the real challenge for Aris was just beginning: after witnessing so much filth, how could he ever return to the pure acting he had once dreamed of?