Chapter 4

After setting out from Maddox’s place, I floored the gas pedal to get to the viral escape room place from the photo.

As luck would have it, one of my close college buddies happened to be a partner in that store.

Through him, I had access to pull up the security camera footage from six months ago.

On the security room monitor, Melody clung to the arm of some hip, fashionable guy while giggling away.

Once they completed the game, the pair started making out shamelessly in front of the souvenir card kiosk.

The guy handed her a customized souvenir card printed with cartoon avatars of the two of them.

Watching their revolting behavior in the video, I smiled.

‘Melody, since you have zero shame, I’ll gladly play this game with you to the bitter end.’

I asked my buddy to download the high-res file straight to my USB drive.

The next day, I went into the office as usual.

I stepped into the lobby, only to catch a commotion. A crowd gathered there.

My mother-in-law, Keisha Baldwin, and Melody stood right in the middle of the crowd.

Keisha slumped to the floor. Slapping her thighs, she wailed at the top of her lungs.

“Woe is me! Look at this monster!

“Now that this heartless man has made something of himself, he wants to dump the woman who has stood by him this whole time!

“My daughter married him when he had absolutely nothing, not once looking down on him. She cooked, cleaned, and took care of everything for him.

“The moment his mother showed up, she started pretending to be sick to get sympathy. She manipulated her son to hit his wife!

“He’s demanding a divorce and put all her cards on hold. He’s trying to leave my daughter with nothing. Tell me. Is this fair?”

Standing nearby, Melody held her phone up to livestream the whole thing.

She said nothing, just kept her eyes red and her expression wounded, as if the world had done her wrong.

My colleagues were pointing and whispering among themselves. Even strangers passing by stopped to film.

The company’s security team attempted to break things up, only to be met with shoving and resistance from Melody’s relatives. The whole scene quickly spiraled out of control.

With the viewer count on the livestream skyrocketing, the chat was flooded with vile insults aimed at me.

“Fire the toxic loser! Boycott this company!”

“If trash like him can make VP, there's no way he's clean. Audit this guy immediately!”

“Even if he looks presentable, he’s a sick, calculating monster. I feel bad for the girl.”

Just then, Adrian and several executives emerged from the elevator with grim expressions.

Adrian took one look at the mess and flew into a rage. His hands were shaking as he pointed at me and yelled, “Parker, is this your idea of handling the situation?

“You’re fired, effective immediately! Get out of this office now!”

Melody and Keisha stopped crying.

They exchanged looks, panic flickering across their eyes.

The whole public stunt was just an attempt to weaponize the internet and force me to cave to their demands.

The old me was putty in their hands and always ready to pay.

If I lost my VP job and my income disappeared, what would they have left to milk me for?

Melody started fumbling for words, hoping to turn things around, but I beat her to the punch.

“Mr. Harp, give me five minutes.

“If I can’t resolve this within five minutes, I’ll resign immediately. I won’t allow this scandal to damage the company any further.”

“What more do you have to say? The evidence is right there for everyone to see!” Adrian looked annoyed.

I turned to Lee, who had always been on good terms with me.

“Lee, plug my USB drive and project it onto the lobby’s LED screen.”

Lee quickly booted up his computer and hooked it into the lobby's huge video wall.

The lobby screen paused its corporate promo loop and flickered for a second.

All eyes were glued to the screen.

Getting a bad feeling, Melody went white.

She lunged forward to stop the feed, but it was too late.

I grabbed the megaphone from a member of the security crew, my voice carrying across the entire lobby.

“Before anyone takes their side, I’d like you all to watch something.

“Once you’ve seen the video, you can decide for yourselves whether these two liars are worth defending.”