Chapter 6
Zephanie’s POV
4.53%–
With that, I created a new account and immediately followed Lesley.
Without my ideas to feed off, she had nothing new or exciting to post anymore. Her latest video looked forced, just something to keep her fans from leaving. Same recycled style, same tired formula.
When viewers started questioning it, she claimed it was old footage from her content stash. But I recognized the pomegranate flowers in the background. Clearly, it was just shot recently.
As I stared out the window, inspiration suddenly struck. The scenery outside sparked an idea, and before long, I had a brand–new concept in mind. I buried myself in the script, and within a few days, my video was fully edited and ready to go.
Just as I double–checked everything one last time, Lesley dropped a video, too, right on cue. She couldn’t wait, exactly as I expected.
But this time, the comments weren’t flattering.
[This background music… is she serious? How tone–deaf can you be?]
[Gross. Unfollowed and blocked.]
[Hope her life turns out just like that disgusting song.]
[Has anyone else noticed the text is a hidden acrostic?]
[Yeah, it spells out, ‘I am a plagiarist.‘]
Lesley realized something was wrong almost instantly and deleted the video, but it was too late. People had already downloaded it and were spreading it everywhere.
That was my little gift to her.
If she had taken the time to actually review the video, she would’ve noticed the traps I’d laid. But she was too desperate. She had been waiting for me to post for a long time. And now, scared I’d beat her to it, she rushed and didn’t double–check the captions or the music.
The background track I’d chosen deliberately was an infamous banned piece, written by a convicted murderer who’d tortured women. The whole song dripped with misogyny and cruelty.
As for the copy, I’d hidden a subtle acrostic in the subtitles. It might’ve seemed petty, but I wasn’t letting this go without a fight.
The backlash grew so intense that Lesley’s agency had no choice but to push her into a livestream to explain herself.
I opened the stream out of curiosity. By then, over 100,000 people had flooded in. The live chat was a flood of insults and hate.
Pale and shaking, Lesley kept insisting she didn’t know anything about the music or the
Chapter 6
11:36 Fri, 23 May
53%
captions. She also said the video hadn’t been edited by her but by someone on her team. She apologized over and over, promising to be more careful next time.
But then the chat exploded.
[She’s lying. None of us touched that video. She posted it all on her own.]
[Now that there’s a problem, she wants to throw the team under the bus?]
[Since that one viral hit, she’s refused to take any input. Calls us brainless pigs and demands we follow her exact plan!]
[She’s abusive to her assistant, too. She hits her and screams all the time. I work on her team. I dare anyone to fact–check me.]
More and more of her coworkers started speaking up. At first, Lesley pretended not to see the messages, but eventually she couldn’t keep up the act. She ended the stream in
silence.
The next day, her account was banned entirely.
It didn’t take long for her and Gavin to call me over the phone for help.
“You planned this, didn’t you? You knew!” Gavin shouted, his voice like a jackhammer in my ear. “Lesley’s been getting torn apart for two days. How could you do this to her?”
Then came Lesley, sobbing.
“Zephanie, I’m sorry. Please, just help me out this one time. If you say you ghostwrote the video for me, I’ll give you three hundred grand.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Seeing me unmoved, she upped the offer. “Seven hundred grand! I’ll give you seven hundred grand!”
Still, I said nothing.
“One million! I really don’t have more!” she sobbed.
I glanced over at Blanche, who was focused on his work in the room.
Then I turned back to the call, calm and clear. “I don’t want a single penny. All I ask is that you admit the video was plagiarized from me and that you publicly apologize. Do that, and I’ll help you clear things up.”
“Never!” Lesley screamed. “Don’t think I don’t see through your game. If I do that, I’m finished! You just wait. There’s no problem I can’t survive without you.”
“I’ll lay low, and soon, people will forget about this issue. I’ll ride this out,” she confidently laid out her plan.
Seeing that she was completely unwilling, I ended the call without another word.
Just then, Blanche had already finished his task and came over.
“All done?” I asked.
He smiled confidently and answered, “When I handle something, you can trust it’s handled.”
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