“You’ll forgive me, right?” Monica called after Julia at the lack of a reply.
Julia didn’t look back and settled her gaze on the floor. She replied mildly, “Either way, I do owe you something. I can’t deny that. Rest well, alright? We’ll talk about everything else later.”
I could sense Julia’s sorrow. After bending over backward to treat Monica wholeheartedly, she found out that Monica had been plotting against the people closest to her the whole time. Anybody would be rattled by that. When I left the hospital, I could still hear Monica wailing and sobbing behind me.
This time, there was no one to comfort her.
“Chris, you should go home to check on Julia later.” I felt slightly wary. Christopher had told Julia the truth in order to stop her from protecting Monica, but the truth hurt. As always, the ones who cared the most got hurt the most badly. I felt that Christopher should go home and have a proper chat with his mother.
“Are you coming with me?” Christopher asked.
“I don’t think I should.” If I went along with Christopher at a time like this, it would just seem like I wanted to join in the drama. Julia needed time to calm down and she definitely didn’t want to see my face around her. “We have plenty of chances to go together in the future, so you should go alone for now. By the way, I’m not leaving any dinner for you.”
I shoved him into his car and helped him start the engine. “Bye! You know distance makes the heart fonder, right? If I stare at your face for too long, I might start to get tired of it,” I joked.
Monica’s issues seemed to be settled for now, but the rumors floating around on the internet continued to emerge. Since the National Youth Art Exhibition and Contest was such a huge event, all the participants’ information had been dug up.
As the ultimate ‘third party’, I received a ton of hateful messages on Twitter. They didn’t just attack me, they attacked my art as well and scoffed that any high school student could draw better than I did.
That was how cruel cyberbullying could be. The people behind the screens didn’t care about the truth. All they wanted was to follow the crowd, and the crowd happened to hate me.
I jolted awake in shock in the middle of the night. After sitting up, I couldn’t stop panting. It felt like the hairs on my arms were standing on end and I couldn’t shake that creepy feeling.
Despite how I felt, I couldn’t remember what I had dreamed about. It felt like I was standing in an endless, dark space with no one around me. I was rotting on my own, destined to be alone forever.
Every time I had a nightmare, it was a premonition for something bad happening. I blinked and wondered if something was about to happen before I realized that the space beside me was empty. With a glance outside, I realized that the living room light was on.
Why isn’t Christopher asleep?
I wiped off the cold sweat on my forehead and put on my clothes before walking out. Christopher was typing away on his computer faster than I had ever seen him work, and he was murmuring as he typed.
The Lane family business may have been busy, but I didn’t think it warranted working overtime until three in the morning. I silently padded over to Christopher. Once I got near enough, I noticed that he was arguing with someone under a forum post.
The title of the post was glaringly insulting: ‘The Woman Determined To Be A Mistress.’
Was it talking about me?
I leaned even closer. The post had been written by an anonymous user and was basically slandering my every move. Even worse, nothing they were talking about was true. The post talked about how I had always liked seducing my seniors in high school and got an abortion when I was just fifteen. It also mentioned that I had a different boyfriend every month in my junior and senior years and that by the time I was in college, I had three boyfriends at the same time. I also had ‘special relations’ with some CEOs throughout the years, apparently.
Then, the post talked about how I started attacking those around me and set my sights on Crystal, my cousin’s lover. Based on the post, I snatched him away from her but got bored of him in less than two years and switched targets to Monica’s love, Christopher. In order to win him over, I slept with him countless times and finally won his heart after six months. After kicking Lyle to the curb, I was finally about to marry Christopher and become the wife of a CEO. The post made sure to call me the pinnacle of embarrassment for women everywhere, too.
