Chapter 3

In the small hours of the next morning, an edited video went up at the same time on the local forum and the short-video platform.

The footage shook badly, Jean's phone camera nearly pressed against my face.

Someone had cranked the background audio on purpose, so even my one line came through clean: Yes, I told him to go.

No before, no after, just those seconds, but the caption slapped on top knew how to catch an eye.

Snake of a best friend sets a trap, hands her drunk sister into the tiger's den.

Children's dance teacher Fox, and this is her true face.

At eight in the morning, the second I reached the studio door, a cluster of parents surrounded me.

They held up their phones and pointed and cursed.

"That's her!"

"That's the woman from the video!"

"Someone like this has no business teaching kids!"

"Refund! We want our money back!"

The studio director came charging out and dragged me into the office.

"Eleanor, what kind of trouble have you gotten into?"

"There's a scene out there, and the phone won't stop ringing."

I handed him the case-filing receipt from the police station.

"The police already have it on record. This is extortion. I'm being framed."

He gave it one glance and pushed it back at me.

"I don't care who's right and who's wrong. The studio can't sit here taking the heat with you."

"Go home for now, classes are suspended. Wait for word."

I packed my things into a bag and left through the back door.

I'd barely settled into the car when the group chats blew up.

Narelle posted a long voice message in the college alumni group.

"Honestly, Eleanor didn't mean any harm. She's just too greedy for money."

"That Jeremy paid her a nice finder's fee. A moment of bad judgment, it happens."

"Everyone, don't pile on too hard. It wouldn't be good if we drove her to something."

The group only caught fire faster.

"Greedy for money means you get to sell out your best friend?"

"Disgusting. I say she gets blacklisted, plain and simple."

Loretta's message popped up right behind it.

"See that?"

"This is what happens when you don't pay."

"Last chance. Six hundred thousand."

"Money hits my account, I delete the video and clear your name right away."

"Otherwise, next stop is your parents' place."

My hands clenched too hard on the wheel, the knuckles going white in waves.

Red comments jumped across my eyes, like someone frantic to throw the words straight into my face.

【It's tonight!】

【They're going to corner your parents!】

【Last life, they hounded your mom into a stroke, she went down in the stairwell and never woke up again!】

Something bore down hard on my chest, and my breath came up short.

The next second I floored the gas and the car shot forward.

Twenty minutes later I pulled the car sideways at the foot of my parents' building, a tire scraping the curbside stone post with an ugly screech.

I wasn't even inside the stairwell yet when Jean's shrill voice came drilling out ahead of me.

"Everybody, come look!"

"This household raised a woman who talks people into rape!"

"Ruined my daughter's whole life, and now she's hiding, too gutless to show her face!"

I rushed up to the third floor. Jean stood there banging a battered metal basin, cursing between the clangs.

The stairwell was packed with neighbors. No one stepped up to stop her. They just muttered to each other and watched the show.

Behind the security door, my mother's voice was shaking so hard it barely held together.

"Get out of here!"

"My daughter would never do a thing like that!"

I opened the camera on my phone and dialed 911.

"Hello, is this 911?"

"Someone's making a disturbance outside my home, and they're extorting us."

"The address is……"

Jean saw me, threw the basin aside, and came at me clawing and screaming.

"You little slut, you've got the nerve to show up here!"

Her hand shot toward my face. I stepped aside, keeping the camera steady on her.

"Keep going."

"I'm recording every word."

Ten minutes later officers arrived and cleared out the gawking crowd.

I stood in the stairwell, took a written request out of my bag, and handed it to the officer.

"Officer, I'm formally requesting that you pull the evidence."

"On the night of the fifteenth last month, the dashcam from the Uber Loretta took after she left the Blue Harbor Restaurant."

"And the city surveillance cameras along the route."

Jean's face froze for a beat, then twisted into a sneer.

Loretta sent a voice message to the group chat.

"Pull it, then. You think I'm scared of you?"

"Let's see what you manage to dig up!"

I looked at the message and let out a small laugh.

Of course you're not scared.

Because you have no idea what that car actually recorded.