Chapter 1

By the time I woke up to my phone going off, the family group chat had already exploded with hundreds of messages.

I tapped into the group and scrolled all the way to the top.

The first message was from my sister-in-law, Denise Snyder, sent at 5:00 am. She had sent a screenshot first, followed by an extremely long essay underneath.

The screenshot was of a recruitment system interface from a well-known company prominently displaying the words, "Sorry, your application has been rejected."

The name on the application belonged to her daughter, Erica Cortez.

Denise's message was very accusatory.

"I can't believe that the top student from the best university in the country actually lost out to shady dealings like this!

"Siobhan Cortez! You're a successful manager at that company! How can you have absolutely no conscience when it comes to your own family?

"Erica ranked first during the preliminary interview! How could she possibly fail to get hired? You deliberately struck her off the list of new hires, all for the sake of your old classmate, didn't you?

"Don't you know how hard Erica prepared for this? Don't you know she cried all night because of what you did?"

Aunt Melanie was the first to respond to the chat, sending a sticker of an angry-face emoji.

"How could something like this happen? How could you do this to your own niece, Siobhan? How dare you ruin Erica's chances for some outsider?"

Aunt Melissa chimed in next. Her tone was angrier than that of Aunt Melanie's.

"Exactly! We're family! You're supposed to take care of your own family before anybody else! Blood is thicker than water! Have you never heard of that saying?

"How could you do this? Don't you know that your behavior is akin to humiliating Denise in front of everyone else? You're humiliating the entire Cortez family!"

Uncle Morgan then sent a long voice message. I tapped on it in frustration, and his loud, booming voice immediately blasted through my speaker.

"Siobhan! Come out and speak for yourself! Did you do it or not? If you did this, then you'd better make it up to Erica no matter what! Don't you know that she hasn't had it easy?"

I read the rest of their messages and felt my hand shaking in rage.

How could they accuse me of something like this?

I didn't know which department Erica had applied to. In fact, I didn't even know that she'd applied to my company until Denise mentioned it in passing over lunch a week ago.

I took a deep breath and tried to suppress the fire in my chest.

"Do you have any proof, Denise Snyder? How can you accuse me of shady dealings and messing with Erica's recruitment based on nothing but your word?

"I work in Business Development. The HR Department handles all recruitment and hiring processes. Did you think I would know what was going on in HR?"

Nobody in the group chat cared about my explanation. Denise didn't even bother arguing with me. She just sent another voice message into the chat.

I could already guess her teary and resentful voice without even playing the voice message.

The group chat buzzed back to life again with even more messages.

Aunt Melody said, "Just admit you did it, Siobhan. You know, I always thought that you were a little proud and arrogant. I see now that you're not just arrogant but also vengeful."

Uncle Memphis added, "That's the problem with society nowadays. People think that they can step all over everyone else just because they're richer or more influential. I feel so sorry for Erica. Poor girl."

I watched as the rest of my relatives, who usually treated me politely, continued attacking me in the group chat. None of them cared about the truth. They just wanted an outlet to vent, and I was the unlucky victim they had chosen.

I'd done quite well for myself—I'd moved to a big city, drove an expensive car, and received large year-end bonuses from the company. And so, they all thought that I deserved to take the blame and be slandered like this.

I tossed my phone onto the bed and got up to wash up.

The woman looking back at me in the mirror had a pale face and faint dark circles under her eyes.

I splashed cold water on my face, letting it stimulate me and wake me up a little more.

I couldn't afford to act impulsively. The more hasty I was to clarify myself, the more it would appear as though I was guilty.

However, after coming back out of the bathroom, I saw another dozen or so new messages on my phone that made my blood boil all over again.

Denise sent another photo in the group chat. It showed Erica sitting on the floor—her hair disheveled and her eyes hollow—clutching a crumpled-up copy of her resume.

The text after that said, "Erica's now suffering from depression. Are you happy now, Siobhan?"