10
My hands were shaking as I scrolled through the comments. I thought I could let Maddie off the hook, but she was still playing dirty.
“Harper, calm down,” Riley said, trying to take the phone from me. She could see how furious I was. “Here, have some water.”
I took a sip, forcing myself to calm down. But if Maddie wanted a fight, I was ready to go all in.
“I’ve still got the footage of Maddie sneaking into my room to swap my designer bag with a fake. I’ll take screenshots of her post and the comments exposing my personal info. Let’s see who wins this.”
But Riley was more level–headed. “Posting won’t help. We need to use the law to defend your rights.”
So, I contacted the lawyer who worked with my parents‘ company. Within hours, the viral post was taken down. The blogger publicly apologized, admitting the story was completely made up. They promised never to post unblurred photos of people without permission again.
After that, my lawyer sued all the people who had posted slanderous comments about me.
The next day, Riley and I were walking through University Square Park when we ran into Maddie.
D
1:03 PM
<
She glared at me like she wanted to rip me apart. “Harper, how dare you hire a lawyer to threaten me?”
“Are you clueless about the law?” I snapped back, pulling out my phone to record her. “Everything you say right now is being recorded for
evidence.”
“You think a little bit of money lets you get away with anything?”
Maddie tried to keep up her tough act, but seeing my phone recording made her hesitate. Still, she couldn’t completely hide her anger.
“You’ve got nine hours,” I said calmly. “In nine hours, if you don’t post a video online apologizing and telling everyone the truth, I’ll be reporting this to the police. My house has security footage of you stealing my purse. So, think carefully: do you want to apologize, or spend time in jail?”
Maddie knew she was in the wrong. She shot me a glare before storming off, grumbling under her breath.
But within the deadline, she posted the apology video.
In the video, Maddie looked pissed, but she didn’t have a choice. She apologized for lying and admitted she had made everything up to get sympathy.
Her fans were furious, realizing they’d been played. They turned on her instantly, digging up all sorts of personal information about her and her family.
Some trolls even started sending her eggs and funeral wreaths to her dorm.
The situation blew up so much that the school had to step in. They gave Maddie a disciplinary warning. From that point on, every time she left her dorm, people would point and whisper. It got so bad that she eventually took a year off from school.
After that, I barely thought about her. She was out of my life for good.
The last time I saw her was six months after graduation.
