Chapter 3

"A dog that pees the second you touch it? It's been beaten, no question."

"Yeah, my dog used to act up, and after a few beatings it'd piss itself the moment you laid a hand on it."

"You really need a streamer to fix something this small?"

Before I could even open my mouth, the onlookers were already talking.

Jared didn't like that one bit. He jabbed a finger at me and started shouting.

"Gay Pruitt, you're framing me?"

"Everybody knows I love dogs more than my own life. Why would I ever hit one?"

"You can't fix the problem, so you smear me instead? Careful, or I'll sue you!"

Autumn jumped in right behind him.

"Jared's been streaming for three years, and his fans have followed him the whole way. Who doesn't know how much he loves dogs?"

"And over the years, Jared has rescued at least ten thousand dogs!"

"That highway convoy that got blocked hauling dogs off to slaughter, Jared led the whole thing. Thousands of those dogs, he's the one feeding them!"

The stream chat went wild too.

"She actually said the little Bichon gets beaten? What a piece of trash, spreading lies!"

"How about you go bury your mother first, then come back and lie?"

"I really hope Gay Pruitt just drops dead right here. Right now!"

Even some of the people watching started chiming in.

"Right? I've been watching Jared's streams for two years now. Donated plenty of cat and dog food too, the Fregate brand, and that stuff isn't cheap."

"Never would've guessed it. Pretty little thing like her, and she's this good at making stuff up."

"No wonder they're cursing her out. This kind of behavior really is despicable."

I actually laughed, that's how angry I was. My best friend showed up right then, so I handed her my phone to hold.

The camera swept across everyone there first, then settled on me, Autumn, and Jared.

Only then did I speak, cold and even.

"From the moment Autumn told me to fix the little Bichon's peeing problem, have I said a single word?"

"It was a few of the folks watching who guessed the dog gets beaten regularly."

"Then Jared started accusing me of spreading lies, Autumn steered it along, and after that all of you in the stream started cursing at me."

"So let me ask. Are you blind, or are you deaf?"

"Did you see me say it? Did you hear me say it?"

The whole place went quiet in an instant.

A good-looking guy in the crowd spoke up right away. "Yeah, actually, Gay Pruitt didn't say anything just now."

An older woman said, "Can't you see it? That Autumn and Jared, they're deliberately smearing this girl. Their intentions couldn't be more obvious."

A young girl with attitude said, "Watched too many soap dramas, huh? Thinks everyone else is brain-dead, and whatever they say, people'll just believe it."

Autumn and Jared's faces turned ugly all over again.

In the stream, the cursing died down too.

But.

I heard Siri's voice. "Smart assistant, did Jared really rescue a lot of stray cats and dogs?"

The smart assistant let out a cold laugh.

"Not a chance."

"Those strays are just his tools for raking in cash and scamming donations."

"And whenever he's in a bad mood, he goes and tortures the dogs and cats."

"He's always treating people to hot pot too. Your Autumn goes all the time, you didn't know?"

But Siri said, "I've only been bought half a month ago. I don't know anything about what happened before."

Hearing that, on top of the anger, I felt a lot more sure of myself.

Autumn tried to change the subject again, just like before. "We're talking about the little Bichon. Stop dragging in other stuff. Don't tell me you just can't fix it?"