Chapter 2

The next second, I burst into tears.

"Mom, Dad, you know how easily scared I am."

"That place has been abandoned for years. Who knows if it's really haunted?"

"What if something possesses me? What if something happens to Genevieve out there? How would we ever explain that to Uncle Ronald?"

My words snapped them awake at once.

After all, the life of their own daughter meant nothing.

But her, the pampered, precious daughter of their money tree, couldn't be treated carelessly.

I don't know what went through their heads, but the next second they were already on the phone with the security firm.

"Hello, is this the security company? Yes, I need ten bodyguards!"

Genevieve, mid-fake-cry, panicked and cut her performance short.

She grabbed my mother's hand, her voice edging into awkwardness.

"Auntie, there's really no need for all that. How could there be ghosts?"

"Ghosts, monsters, that's all superstitious nonsense, none of it's real!"

"Besides, my sister and I are going to test our nerve. With that many people around, how would we ever build any courage?"

Genevieve scraped the bottom of the barrel for excuses, because I knew.

She'd already filled that haunted house with every kind of prank prop and livestream camera.

If ten bodyguards actually went in with us, how would her stream turn out the way she'd planned?

I watched coldly as she made her promises to my parents.

They agreed out loud, but their faces gave away what they were really thinking.

I followed Genevieve into the car heading for the abandoned haunted house without a word.

She sat up front, watching my expression again and again in the rearview mirror.

I gripped my legs, held my body rigid, kept a look of unease on my face.

Satisfied, of course, she slumped into the passenger seat and put on her earbuds to listen to music.

I took the chance to open my phone.

I quickly made a burner account and, through Genevieve's livestream page, got into her group.

But the moment I joined, a payment code was shoved in front of me.

【Welcome, newcomer. Entry fee is $100 to join the group.】

【We play prank videos from time to time. The top donor can set the next round's prank.】

I froze, and only then noticed that the group files were all videos of me.

The one where Genevieve pulled the breaker and forced me to rewrite my thesis, where I lost it and smashed my laptop: 27 likes.

The one where she spread the rumor I had cauliflower disease and I sat furious on the rooftop: 56 likes.

And the most recent one, where she took my boyfriend out to dinner and drove me to break up with him.

The clip of me crying under the covers: 207 likes, somehow.

I'd guessed Genevieve was making money off my worst moments, but I never imagined...

She was hanging my humiliation up here, a public execution.

I shot her a vicious glare, and it instantly put her on alert.

But the next second she just smiled and rolled her eyes at me.

"What are you staring at? Not my fault you're a coward."

"If you want to blame someone, blame your mom. She's the one who made you such a chicken."

"Haven't you noticed? Even your own parents don't protect you. Maybe they think you're useless at everything too."

Afraid I might miss her smug little face, she leaned back toward me, her triumphant eyes blinking at me.

I smiled too, and dropped a $1,000 exclusive cash gift right into her fan group.