Chapter 1

"Why are you crying? Ten grand is a cheap price to pay for a lesson!" My mom, Wilma Jordan, shrieked from the living room.

My little sister, Esther Jordan, sat on the couch while wiping away her tears.

Her phone screen showed that the wealthy, handsome guy she'd met online had blocked her.

I, Rebecca Jordan, had just gotten home from work when I pushed open the door. Mom immediately turned around.

"Rebecca, you're home at just the right time.

"Esther is too naive. Some guy scammed her out of ten grand. You're her big sister. Now that you're home, you can teach her a lesson."

I frowned and instinctively felt uncomfortable. "Mom, Esther got scammed. She should report it to the police. What exactly am I supposed to teach her?"

"What good would the police do? Can they teach her how to spot a jerk?"

Mom sneered as she typed furiously on her laptop keyboard.

She'd been a top student in computer science. She'd quit her job for the sake of the family back then, but she'd never let her technical skills get rusty.

"I want her to see what a real scumbag looks like and what happens to them in the end."

The moment she finished speaking, the huge 75-inch television in the living room suddenly lit up.

What appeared on the screen wasn't some educational video. It was my computer desktop.

My eyes went wide. "Mom! What are you doing? Did you hack my computer?"

I ran forward to pull the plug, but Mom pushed me away.

"Sit down! I spent the whole afternoon putting this lesson together. Don't you dare waste my hard work!"

The television screen showed a carefully designed PowerPoint presentation.

The title was in bold, red letters.

[The Art of Shaming: How to Make One a Cautionary Tale]

The background image was a private photo of me in a swimsuit at the beach during my sophomore year of college.

"Mom! Are you insane? That's private!"

I screamed and lunged at the television, but Esther suddenly wrapped both arms around my waist.

"Rebecca! Stop it! Mom is doing this for me, and she's doing it for you too!"

There were still tears in Esther's eyes. "I want to know what you normally do online too."

"Let go of me!" I screamed.

I struggled desperately, only to hear Mom's cold voice. "The livestream has already started."

I froze.

In the bottom-right corner of the television screen was the unmistakable interface of a livestream platform.

There were over five thousand viewers watching the livestream.

I saw the title.

[Expert tech mom teaches daughter how to avoid jerks using her sister's private life.]

The comments flooded in.

[Holy crap! Is that actually her mother? This is hardcore!]

[Her older sister is pretty hot. Her private life must be wild.]

[Come on, hurry up! I want to see the real deal!]

Mom held up a laser pointer. The red dot landed directly on my chest in the swimsuit photo.

"Everyone, this is my oldest daughter, Rebecca."

She spoke to the camera in a gentle voice that sent chills down my spine.

"She looks respectable on the outside, but behind closed doors, she takes shameless pictures like this and keeps them in an encrypted folder.

"Esther, don't forget this. A good girl doesn't show her body like this to other people."

Esther nodded eagerly while looking at Mom with admiration. "Mom, I understand. Rebecca really is shameless."

My entire body trembled. It felt like all the blood had been drained from my veins.

"That was a beach vacation! What's wrong with keeping a picture of myself on my own computer?"

Mom completely ignored me. She clicked to the next slide.

It was a series of screenshots of my conversations with my ex-boyfriend and the painful journal entries I'd written after we broke up.

Every moment of self-doubt and every pathetic attempt to beg him to stay was blown up ten times larger and displayed before thousands of complete strangers.

"Look at this part." Mom pointed at one line from my journal and laughed.

"She was willing to die over a man. This is what you get when you mix a hopeless romantic with a woman who has no self-respect.

"Esther, you got scammed out of ten grand. Your sister practically handed a man her dignity and let him stomp all over it.

"And here's her browsing history." She clicked to another slide.

"At two in the morning, she was searching for ways to get her ex back. Tsk, tsk. She really is an embarrassment to the entire Jordan family."

The comments went wild.

[She's so pathetic. She's basically a simp.]

[She acts all high and mighty, but turns out she's a total flirt.]

[Women like her deserve to get dumped. If I were a guy, I'd use her up and toss her too.]

"Turn it off! Turn it off right now!" I roared.

I didn't even know I had the strength, but I broke free from Esther, grabbed the vase from the coffee table, and hurled it at the television.

Crash.

The screen shattered and went black, but the livestream audio was still playing.

Mom turned to face the camera and put on a helpless, indulgent smile.

"See that, everyone? We exposed her true colors, and now she's freaking out.

"That's what emotionally unstable women are like. Whoever marries her is going to regret it someday."