Chapter 3

As my air ran out, I didn't fight her.

Maybe it was the emptiness in my eyes. The despair. Whatever she saw, Vivian abruptly let go.

I collapsed, coughing. My head struck the corner of the table, and blood trickled down my face.

She stepped toward me as if to help.

Then Julian called.

His sobs carried through the phone. "Vivian, come quick. Something happened—"

She left without looking back.

I'd barely gotten to my feet when the hospital called about Dad's account.

"Mr. Hayes, your father's balance is past due again. We can't keep carrying it. If you could—"

I didn't have time to fall apart.

I wiped my eyes, pulled myself together, and went live again.

A comment appeared almost immediately.

"Don't worry. We found your wife's boyfriend and taught him a lesson. We've got your back!"

I thought it was just someone trying to make me feel better.

I was about to thank them when the front door burst open.

Half a dozen strangers in matching red shirts pushed inside. One grabbed my hair. The others took my arms and hauled me toward the door.

I struggled in panic.

"Who are you? What are you doing?"

They dragged me out onto the sidewalk.

Vivian stepped out from behind them.

"You sent your followers after Julian. Dead rats. Razor blades. He was so frightened he ended up in the hospital."

I shook my head automatically.

Then I remembered the comment.

"Still denying it?" She smiled coldly and signaled to them. "Apparently you need a lesson of your own."

They swarmed me, pinned my arms, and held me at the curb.

A rented screen truck was already parked there. AI-generated images of me with women played across it on a loop for the whole block to see. None of it was real.

The rest of them worked the sidewalk with signs and banners calling me a slut and a serial cheater.

Vivian had paid them, and they earned it, telling every neighbor who slowed down about my supposedly filthy private life.

People stopped to film.

By evening the worst moments of my life were trending.

My account lost two million followers in a single day.

They kept me out there for dozens of hours. It was well after dark before Vivian finally told them to let me go.

I could barely move.

"I signed," I said through tears. "I signed your divorce papers. Why couldn't you leave me the one thing I needed to survive?"

She came closer, took out a handkerchief, and gently wiped the blood from my face.

"You hurt Julian," she said. "That's the one thing I won't tolerate."

I looked at her in the dim light and understood that I had never known her at all, and that she frightened me.

"Remember this. Tomorrow, you're coming to the hospital to apologize."

She walked away.

I closed my eyes, shaking with pain and cold.

Without the stream, I couldn't keep paying for Dad's care.

Bruised and bleeding, I dragged myself toward a bank. Maybe I could get a loan.

Just as I reached it, the hospital called again.

"Mr. Hayes, please come right away."

A pause.

"Your father saw the videos. The news. He became very distressed… He disconnected his life support himself."

The cold went all the way through me.

I sank down on the empty sidewalk and cried like a child who had lost everything.

At two in the morning, I stood in a crematorium and watched them take my father away.

When they gave him back, he fit inside a small urn.

My phone rang. Vivian.

"Why aren't you home?" she asked, irritated. "I sent a doctor to look at your injuries. Where did you go?"

I said nothing.

She seemed to take my silence for anger about what she'd done that day.

After a moment, she softened her voice.

"Don't worry about the money. I'll take care of you now. I've already covered your father's bill for the month—"