Chapter 4 - The Viral Lie
By two o'clock that afternoon, the financial district was on fire.
*BLOOMBERG TERMINAL ALERT: Blackwood Holdings Credit Facility Revoked by Sovereign Horizon. Debt Default Imminent.*
*WALL STREET JOURNAL: Historic Fall: Blackwood Dynasty Faces Forty-Eight-Hour Liquidation.*
Blackwood Holdings stock, traded on the secondary exchange, collapsed by seventy-four percent in less than three hours. Trading was halted twice by midday. Outside Blackwood Manor, satellite news trucks were already setting up their cameras, sensing the smell of aristocratic blood in the water.
Inside the manor, Victoria was losing her mind.
She had called her father six times, but his phone went straight to voicemail. When Julian finally answered, he had been screaming unintelligibly about "the chairman" and "some setup" before abruptly hanging up.
"It’s Daniel," Victoria muttered to herself, pacing the length of her lavish bedroom. "It has to be. He must have told someone at his logistics firm... no, that doesn't make sense. Daniel doesn't know anyone at Sovereign Horizon. Daniel drives a four-year-old Honda!"
Margaret rushed into the room, holding her iPad with shaking hands. "Victoria! Look at this! The charity gala committee for the Metropolitan Museum just revoked our table! They said our sponsorship check bounced!"
"Mother, stop talking about charity galas!" Victoria screamed, grabbing her hair in frustration. "Our entire company is going under! The news is saying we owe eighty-five million dollars by tomorrow!"
"This is ridiculous!" Margaret shrieked. "We are the Blackwoods! My grandfather built the western rail line! We cannot go bankrupt! Call Daniel! Tell that boy to go to his company’s owners and beg for a loan! His firm does shipping for international conglomerates, doesn't it?!"
Victoria stopped pacing. Her eyes narrowed with vicious, desperate cunning.
"He humiliated me last night," Victoria hissed. "He thinks he can walk out on me, cause a scene, and let everyone think I was dumped by a nobody? No. I’m going to control the narrative."
She opened her phone, opened her public Instagram account with its three hundred thousand followers, and began recording a video.
She squeezed out two delicate, rehearsed tears, letting them track down her porcelain cheeks.
*"Hi everyone..."* she whimpered into the camera, her voice trembling with manufactured heartbreak. *"I’m making this video because rumors are already spreading about last night. I need to set the record straight. Last night, I made the painful decision to call off my engagement to Daniel Bennett. For two years, I supported him, introduced him to high society, and tried to help his struggling family. But last night, his father demanded an outrageous financial payout from my family as a 'dowry' condition. When we refused to be extorted, Daniel made a scene and walked out. It breaks my heart to see how greed can destroy love. Please respect my privacy during this difficult time."*
Within twenty minutes, the video went viral.
The high-society gossip blogs picked it up instantly:
*HEIRESS HEARTBREAK: Victoria Blackwood Dumps Grifter Fiancé After Extortion Attempt at Engagement Gala.*
Her comment section flooded with thousands of messages from society friends:
*Stay strong, queen!*
*We always knew he was trash!*
*Men from the lower class can never be trusted around real wealth!*
Victoria sat back on her silk bed, admiring her handiwork with a smug, satisfied smirk. "Let’s see him survive in this city now. No firm will employ an extortionist. He’ll be lucky if he can get a job cleaning subway tracks."
"Brilliant, darling," Margaret smiled, wiping her brow. "Now we just need your father to sort out this Sovereign Horizon misunderstanding."
Victoria stood up, grabbed her designer trench coat, and picked up her Hermès Birkin bag.
"Where are you going?" Margaret asked.
"Daniel still lives in that pathetic little apartment building in Astoria," Victoria sneered, checking her reflection in the mirror. "Now that his reputation is completely destroyed on the internet, he’ll be terrified. I’m going to go there, show him the video, and tell him that if he wants me to clear his name, he will sign an NDA and get on his knees to beg for my forgiveness. And then I’ll have him run our errands while we rebuild."
May you like
She strutted out of the manor, completely blind to the fact that the sky above her family had already turned pitch black.
***
