Chapter 4

Just when I was naive enough to think this whole mess was finally over.

Anita drawled her line into the chat: "I'm too old to be sticking my nose in other people's business. She wants to run around naked, let her. What's it got to do with me?"

Then she added: "Ethel, honey, I was wrong. I apologize. From now on I'll keep my own curtains shut, and you can do whatever you please."

Her show of backing down only fanned the crowd's anger hotter.

"Anita, you didn't do anything wrong. You don't owe her an apology."

"Since when is running around naked in broad daylight okay? @property management, are you people going to do something or not?"

"Anita, post all the videos so everyone can see how shameless this little slut really is."

"Everyone, Anita's doing this for our sake. Don't let her down. You can't go soft on trash like this who drag the whole neighborhood down."

Some of the owners who'd just been cursing me even wanted to come to my face and demand an explanation.

"I appreciate everyone's kindness, but Ethel, she…"

She trailed off, playing the victim for the chat.

I @'d her again: "If you have proof, show the proof. Stop milking your age for sympathy."

"If you can't produce proof, then you're spreading lies, and no matter how old you are, you'll do jail time for it."

She saw that I'd caught on to her act.

She dropped the pretense completely.

"Me, playing the victim? Ethel, have a conscience when you talk. The video shows it clear as day, and over a thousand people in this chat saw it."

"Are you blind, can't you see it? Fine, I'll send it again."

A few minutes later, she posted a screenshot.

"Ethel, honestly, this neighborhood's dirty laundry shouldn't go public, but you forced me to send it again, so it ended up in the supermarket discount chat."

She dropped in a helpless little emoji.

That discount chat had over two thousand people in it.

She'd posted the video there for one reason: to threaten me.

To nail it down as fact that I ran around naked in my own home.

"@Anita, right now over three thousand people are going to see this video. That's at least five years for you."

I thought she'd be scared.

Instead she said, without a trace of concern: "What I posted is the truth. I'm doing this for everyone's good."

"Ethel, don't think that just because you know how to read a few characters you can scare me."

"My daughter's a college graduate too, and she knows the law."

At that point Kenneth from property management cut in again.

"Anita here was kindly warning you in the chat, and you shouldn't throw the law around to scare her just because you're young. Her daughter, Olivia Lambert, just got hired by a city agency. She knows a lot more than you do."

Soon the crowd that had been cursing me right alongside her started fawning over her.

"I didn't want to get involved in her mess, but our Olivia's always telling me the neighborhood is our big family, and I should have a sense of social responsibility."

Listening to her high-minded speech, I couldn't help but spit a few times.

"Our Olivia knows about all this too. She says I did nothing wrong, and she backs me."

Reading that line, I couldn't stop myself from laughing.

No wonder Anita, who'd only ever known how to screech like a fishwife, was slandering me with this much finesse this time.

Like a whole different person.

"Ethel, our Olivia says as long as you admit your fault and beg everyone's forgiveness, this can all be settled easily."

So that was it. Anita had gone through this whole elaborate song and dance.

And her daughter was coaching her behind the scenes.

As if to prove her daughter really was backing her.

She @'d property management: "I've pulled my daughter into the chat. Kenneth, approve her."

I watched someone join, a profile picture of a person in a business suit, using her own photo.

And in that instant I understood why this mother and daughter had teamed up to come after me in the chat.