Chapter 2

In any case, Patrick's scandal was nothing compared to the kind of scandals celebrities were involved in. The post only made a tiny splash, but I was just using it to test the waters anyway.

When the second eight-hour mark hit, I exposed how Patrick had deliberately given the order to set up a local company, solely for the sake of suppressing the competition.

He'd driven the founder of the company to ruin. For years now, the victim had been trying to take him to court—and I just so happened to provide the evidence to back the victim's claims now.

Following the release of both exposés, the situation went a lot more viral than I'd expected.

That same day, people started asking me about what was going on. Although I didn't respond to anyone, the online community was in an uproar already. Everyone was able to follow the trail of clues and dig up the conflict between Patrick and me.

"So, he got laid off without compensation, and now he's exposing the dirt he has on his boss? Sounds like the guy's no saint either!"

"Whoa! Does he have ties with the criminal underworld or something? I can't believe he's going for the jugular like that."

"Hey, man, do you think it's still worth investing in your old company's shares? I'm thinking about buying some while the prices are low."

The comments were mixed, but I didn't care.

As it was, this situation was enough to cause Patrick quite a bit of trouble. He could no longer sit still, choosing to message me about it. "You just want some compensation from me, don't you, Heath? Fine. I'll give it to you. How much do you want? Just stop screwing with me, okay?"

I snorted. Did he think I was only after his money?

That was not nearly enough to satisfy me.

I didn't bother answering him. I was busy watching over Georgia at the hospital. Her condition was improving, and once she regained consciousness, I finally exhaled in relief.

At the same time, all of the data on my laptop had finally been processed. I gave it some thought before choosing to upload the data.

When Patrick didn't get a response from me, he called to threaten me. "Heath, if you don't want trouble, you'd better keep your mouth shut! You need money for your wife's treatment, right? I'll give it to you.

"It's just your severance pay anyway. I'll give you two months' salary for every year you've worked for me!"

That made me snort. "That's chump change. You accused me of things I didn't do and made me the scapegoat for a loss of over a billion dollars, Patrick. You think you can just use a few hundred thousand dollars to get me off your back?"

"How much do you want?"

"Ten million dollars."

"Dream on!" Patrick fumed. "I'd rather spend ten million dollars on hiring Internet trolls to drown you out than give you the money!"

"In that case, I guess we won't be coming to an agreement."

After ending the call, I released the third exposé that instantly went viral as well.

"United Foundation Donation Fraud!"

This bombshell sent the online community into a frenzy.

"Are you serious? The foundation has been lying about their donations? Then, where did all the money I donated go? Didn't they say the funds were being used to set up libraries for elementary schools?"

"You've got to be kidding me! They spent 50 thousand dollars on travel expenses and only 30 thousand dollars on donating school supplies? So, they basically used our money to go on a fully funded vacation! Look at the school! It's located in a tourist destination!"

"Here's a little-known fact for everyone's reading pleasure—that particular elementary school was closed down two years ago. So, where did the money go?"

"Well, the almighty chairman, Patrick Hoffman, is too busy to answer our questions on that. He's still on his snow mountain climbing trip!"

"The guy exposing these things used to be an accountant for United Enterprise. He's basically shooting himself in the foot just to get back at his old boss. It feels like he doesn't care what happens to him anymore!"

They were wrong about that. I cared a great deal about what was going to happen to me. That was the only reason why I came up with this plan.

Patrick was clearly in panic mode now. In just 24 hours, I'd dropped three major exposés. The first drove a wedge between him and his wife. The second ruined his reputation. And now, the third resulted in both him and the company being the target of public scrutiny.

Questions began flooding in from all sides. Both his personal account and the company's account on social media were being besieged with confrontational questions and mockery.

The PR department at United Enterprise was cracking under the pressure.

Some of my ex-coworkers who maintained good relationships with me secretly kept me updated on the situation in the office. Patrick was back from his trip. He'd called for everyone to work overtime and come up with a solution for this crisis as quickly as possible.

I sneered. Why would I have chosen to release these three specific exposés if they could be resolved so easily?