She Shamed Me Nursing, I Ruined Her Reputation

Chapter 4

Dead silence hung over the office. The only sound was her quiet, sniffling sobs.

I stood rooted to the spot, watching their little coordinated charade, and could barely hold back a bitter, amused snort.

The whole thing was absolutely ridiculous.

Fired?

How perfect.

We'll just see who ends up eating their just deserts when all is said and done.

I ripped my employee ID badge off its lanyard around my neck and slammed it down on the desk.

"Fine by me. A garbage company like this? I'm better off out of it anyway."

I gave them one last cool, unimpressed glance, turned on my heel, and walked straight out. Behind me, I could hear her over-the-top wailing and Vice President Damien Volkszki's furious yelling. I didn't give either of them a second thought.

I hopped in a taxi and headed straight for the top law firm in the city.

The next morning, Naomi's fake "apology" video blew up and rocketed to the top of the trending charts. She was on camera bare-faced with no makeup on, her eyes puffy and red, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"I'm really, really sorry. I took the joke too far. But I swear I didn't mean any harm. I was just trying to help. Charlotte's probably just extra sensitive after having her baby, I get that…

"I hope everyone stops leaving mean comments about her, okay?"

The video was expertly edited to play up her "fragility" and "kindheartedness" for the camera. Almost right after the video went up, Grover Potts, who had been pining after her for ages, posted a long, overly dramatic essay across every major social media platform.

I saw it with my own eyes. A certain female executive with the last name H slapped an intern in public! All over a dumb joke! When will workplace bullying end? Do you get a free pass to do whatever you want just because you just had a baby?

The comment section was immediately flooded with people buying the narrative hook, line, and sinker.

A: [Why do women always have to tear other women down?]

B: [If you're that much of a snowflake, don't bother coming to work!]

C: [How the hell do you think you're in the right for hitting someone?]

The whole mess spiraled out of control fast. After I left the law firm, a group of people holding up their phones cornered me right at the entrance to my apartment complex.

Someone yelled at the top of their lungs, "That's her! The one who breastfed in public and hit an intern! You're disgusting! Picking on a poor intern!"

Splat.

An egg hit my shoulder, oozing stinky, sticky goop all over my clothes.

By the time I made it up to my apartment, I saw my front door was splattered with bright, blinding red paint. I wiped the egg gunk off my face without saying a word, stepped inside, and slid the deadbolt home firmly behind me.

On the third day, Grover Potts showed up at my door with Naomi. He banged furiously on the door, bang, bang, bang, yelling, "Charlotte, be smart! Get out here and beg Naomi to apologize!"

I opened the door just a c***k, and he immediately shoved his phone screen right in my face. It was the page for that viral post, and the numbers were mind-blowing.

"Look! Reposts are about to hit 100,000! Comments are just about to hit 50,000! Three related topics are sitting in the top ten of the trending list!"

Grover's face was twisted with unbridled glee.

"You know what this means? It means you're done! You're socially dead! The whole internet is dragging you right now!"

He leaned in a step closer, dropping his voice like he was doing me a huge solid. "If you come out right now, apologize properly to Naomi on camera, we might just consider talking some sense into the netizens to cool this whole thing down. Otherwise…"

He snorted a laugh. "Wait until these numbers double and this whole mess blows way out of control, and you won't even get the chance to beg on your knees!"

I pulled the door all the way open, my gaze flicking past those glaring numbers before landing back on their faces.

"Apologize?" I tugged at the corner of my mouth. "I was just worrying that this online buzz wasn't climbing fast enough.

"You two better step it up, buy more paid trolls, spin more lies, and try to hit a million reposts and 100,000 comments."