You Made Me Do This

Compared to the kind of scandals celebrities get dragged into, what I had dropped barely counted. It was just a test run.

When the second eight-hour mark hit, I released the next piece.

This time, it was evidence that Paul had deliberately set up a scheme to suppress a local company.

Back then, he had driven them into the ground and wrecked their lives. The owner had been appealing for years. I just handed over the proof he needed.

The two leaks hit at once, and the reaction online was way bigger than I expected.

People started reaching out to me that same day, but I didn't reply to anyone.

The internet blew up on its own. It didn't take long before people started digging and uncovered the history between me and Paul.

[So she got laid off without severance and decided to expose him? Doesn't sound like she's innocent, either.]

[Did she just get out of prison or something? That's bold.]

[OP, can you take a look at this company's stock? Is it still worth buying? I'm thinking of getting in cheap.]

The comments were all over the place. Some supported me, some didn't. I didn't care either way.

But it definitely hit Paul where it hurt. He couldn't sit still anymore.

He messaged me directly.

[You just want compensation, right? Fine, I'll give it to you. Name your price. Just stop messing with me, alright?]

I laughed under my breath.

Did he really think this was just about money?

Not even close.

I didn't reply. I stayed outside Oliver's hospital room. As his condition slowly improved and he finally started waking up, the tight knot in my chest loosened.

At the same time, the data on my laptop finished processing.

I stared at the screen for a moment, then pressed send.

When I didn't respond, Paul called to threaten me.

"Selene, if you don't want trouble, you'd better keep your mouth shut. Your husband still needs money, right? I'll give it to you. It's just severance. I'll settle it at double compensation."

I let out a short, cold laugh.

"That's nothing," I said. "You pinned billions in losses on me and ruined my name. Now you think a few hundred thousand will make it go away?"

"So what do you want?"

"Two million."

"In your dreams! I'd rather spend that hiring people to bury you online than give it to you!"

"Then there's nothing more to talk about."

I hung up.

Right then, the third drop hit the trending charts.

[BloomRise Foundation Charity Fraud]

That one set the entire internet on fire.

[Wait, this is fake? Then where did all the donations go? Didn't they say it was for building school libraries?]

[Are you serious? They spent ten grand on travel, but only six grand on donated school supplies. So this was basically a group-funded vacation? And they even picked a school out by a tourist spot!]

[Fun fact: that school shut down two years ago. So where did the money actually go?]

[Mr. Cunningham's busy right now. He's off climbing a mountain.]

[The one exposing him used to be an accountant. This is one of those moves where you hurt them but hurt yourself, too. She's not planning to survive this!]

They were wrong.

It wasn't that I didn't want to survive.

It was precisely because I wanted to survive that I chose this path.

By now, Paul was clearly panicking.

In just 24 hours, I had dropped three major leaks. One set his personal life on fire. One damaged his reputation. And the last one shoved him and his company straight into the spotlight.

Questions flooded in from every direction.

Both his personal account and the company account were buried under demands and ridicule. Their PR team was falling apart trying to keep up.

A former coworker I was still on good terms with messaged me privately.

Paul had rushed back. Everyone was working overtime, scrambling to come up with a response as fast as possible.

I couldn't help but smile.

If it were that easy to fix, I wouldn't have picked these three in the first place.