All Chapters of Cut Out, Cashed In: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I was jolted awake by someone hammering on my door."Lexi Harmon, who do you think you are? You had your phone off?" Sandra Holt shoved her way in and got right in my face. "Why didn't you go live last night? Do you have any idea how much money you cost us? 500 pre-orders—all refunded! And now the platform is docking our credibility score and downgrading our ranking!"I leaned against the doorframe and yawned. "Aunt Sandra, didn't you say I was useless? If I'm so useless, what does it matter whether I go live or not? You're so capable. You do it."Wade Holt shoved forward and grabbed me by the collar. "Shut up and get back to the office! My mom went on by herself last night for four hours. Screamed herself hoarse and moved $200 worth of stuff. All your followers were asking where you were. Get on and explain yourself."I knocked his hand away hard, my expression flat. "Explain what? That I busted my ass moving product while Aunt Sandra took my commission to buy you a house and a ca

Chapter 2

On the other end of the line, the supplier laughed it off, his tone breezy and dismissive."Lexi, sweetheart, Sandra actually just called me. She prepaid the full order for next quarter and threw in an extra 2% on the rebate."We're all just trying to do business here, you know how it is. You're fresh out of school. Going solo is a big risk. My inventory's tight right now, I can't really supply you at the moment."Three calls. Three polite rejections.I gripped my phone and took a slow breath.Aunt Sandra was shrewder than I'd given her credit for. She knew I had the supplier relationships, so she'd moved fast. She threw money at every one of them and cut off my lifeline before I could even get started.That afternoon, Aunt Sandra posted on social media.It was a photo of Wade sitting in the streaming setup, surrounded by a pile of products she'd selected. The caption read: [New face, big potential. We let our results do the talking.]I clicked into the stream.There were fewe

Chapter 3

Grandma pressed a hand to her chest, her finger trembling as she pointed at me."Get on your knees! Apologize to your Aunt Sandra! Do you think she has it easy, making money? You're going to be the death of her!"I looked at Aunt Sandra's face—that smug, wronged-party expression she'd perfected—and felt nothing but contempt."I stole money? Aunt Sandra, you want to put the books on the table and go through them together? I pulled an all-nighter on International Women's Day and sold $5 million worth of product. $400,000 in commission, and you handed me $500. And I'm the thief?"Mum froze, her face going pale. "How much? $400,000?"Aunt Sandra's eyes darted around the room. She raised her voice, covering for herself. "What $400,000! That was gross revenue! After costs, labor, venue fees, and promotions, there was barely anything left! Lexi, since when do you lie to your elders?"I pulled out my phone, brought up the settlement screenshot from the backend, and held it right in her f

Chapter 4

"Lexi, you just wait! I'm hiring people to run the stream around the clock! You're not seeing a single cent!"I pulled out my phone and started reaching out to a few professional streamers I knew, hoping one of them would be willing to go public about what Aunt Sandra had done.Another dead end. The ones who'd called me their girl every other day were suddenly unreachable."Lexi, this is tricky. The platform's cracking down on that kind of thing. We can't be seen going after each other."Worse, a streamer who went by Candy took my message and screenshotted it straight to Aunt Sandra as a peace offering.Aunt Sandra texted me immediately: [Nice try, sweetheart. You think you can come for me? I've been in this game longer than you. Give it up.]I read the message and took a slow breath.I opened my laptop and pulled up something I'd spent three years building—a viral product prediction model covering the entire platform ecosystem.I sent it directly to Hammer, a mega-streamer wit

Chapter 5

Hammer's voice exploded through the feed. "What the hell! They're switching labels live on camera? Folks, that's illegal. I've already called the police. Everyone, start recording."Aunt Sandra lunged at her phone like a woman possessed and smashed it face down on the floor. "Kill it! Shut it down now!"The stream went black to the sound of screaming and chaos.Not long after, I got the notification.Vivid Stream Media's channel had been permanently banned by the platform for fraudulent operations, selling counterfeit goods, and causing serious public harm. Wade's new account went down with it as it was flagged under the same verified identity.Aunt Sandra stared at the wreckage of everything she'd spent years building, wiped out in a single night.After midnight, Wade texted me.[Lexi, happy now? You pushed us to the edge. My mom's in the hospital. Acute heart attack, the doctor said. Women like you always get what's coming to them.]I didn't reply.First thing the next morni

Chapter 6

I stared at my phone as the abuse piled up in real time, wave after wave of it, and felt something sink all the way to the bottom.'Aunt Sandra, you really burned every last principle you had just to destroy me.'Within half a day, a crowd had gathered outside my new office building. Freelance content creators, rubberneckers, and hired protesters with signs picketing outside the building."Lexi Harmon's got no shame! Slept her way up and drove her own aunt to her deathbed!""Come look, everyone! The face of a saint and the behavior of a gutter rat!"My new boss, Owen Chase, called me into his office, his brow tight, his eyes measuring. "Lexi, what exactly is going on?"This scene outside is doing serious damage to the company's image. The board's position is that you take a leave of absence until the dust settles. If this can't be cleared up, we'll have no choice but to terminate your contract."I stood across from his desk, jaw locked, forcing myself to stay steady."Give me t

Chapter 7

The stream had barely started when 300,000 viewers flooded in.Sandra's bots, plus every curious onlooker the smear campaign had dragged in. The comment section was a wall of filth, faces impossible to make out through the noise.[Trash! Get out of streaming!][What's your rate? Give Aunt Sandra her life back!][Ban this woman already!]I sat in front of the camera without expression and cut to my screen. First piece of evidence: the original signed agreement between Aunt Sandra and me, along with the stamped payment records."Look carefully. 8% commission, in writing. $5 million in sales. $400,000 owed. She paid me $500."Next, I played the call recording of Wade asking me for surgery money, admitting he'd gambled away the full $400,000."Please, I'm begging you. I lost it all on sports betting. If you don't lend us the money, I'll show up and make your life hell."The stream went quiet for a split second. Then the comments started shifting. It still wasn't enough."As for C

Chapter 8

The video landed, and somehow, it actually worked.A wave of self-appointed voices started showing up in my comments, people who fancied themselves reasonable and fair-minded.[If she really did pay for your education, then honestly, the $400,000 sounds about right.][Family comes first. Even if your aunt did wrong, driving her to this point seems excessive.][Don't forget where you came from just because you've made something of yourself.]I read through them and felt nothing but disbelief.Aunt Sandra paid for my education? The greatest skill that woman ever had was taking credit for things she never did and repainting black as white.Mum was at home tearing through every drawer and cabinet she could find, hands shaking. "Lexi, don't you listen to a word of that garbage! Every cent of your schooling came from your father's death benefit and the three jobs I worked around the clock. Sandra never gave us a single dollar. On top of that, she borrowed $50,000 from your dad's funer

Chapter 9

To pay off their debts and stay ahead of the loan sharks, Aunt Sandra and Wade moved into a damp, windowless basement unit.I wasn't done with them.In this industry, your reputation is everything, and I started digging up every corner Aunt Sandra had cut over the years. At one point, she'd used toxic low-grade paint on a batch of children's toys to save money. Several kids developed serious allergic reactions. She'd bought the families' silence with small payouts and buried the story.I tracked down those families and helped them reopen their cases.Aunt Sandra was now pushing Wade around in a wheelchair after his legs had been broken by the loan sharks, dodging creditors on the street every day and barely surviving.While my own business was growing, I'd launched my own supply chain company, and things were picking up fast. Then Aunt Sandra made her move.Somehow, she'd gotten hold of my new channel's confidential product list. She quietly opened a shadow account and started pr

Chapter 10

Aunt Sandra was formally arrested and charged with manufacturing and selling substandard products at a scale that qualified as a serious criminal offense. Wade, as an accomplice and the account's actual operator, went down with her.I attended the sentencing as a witness.Aunt Sandra stood in a prison jumpsuit, her hair completely white, shrunken and hollow like a woman twenty years older. From behind the defendant's rail, she screamed at me like something feral."Lexi, you set me up! You did this deliberately! You'll get what's coming to you! I'll come back for you even from the grave!"I looked at her, calm and steady. "Aunt Sandra, you always loved saving money. No expenses inside. Room and board covered. Plenty of time to save up."She let out a sharp, broken wail, choked on it, and collapsed behind the rail with her eyes rolled back.The judge brought down the gavel.Aunt Sandra was sentenced to ten years on multiple counts. Wade got five.The dream they'd built on my back

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