You Made Me Do This

My boss, Paul Cunningham, blew a major investment. When the board came after him, he shoved me out as the fall guy.

After I got fired, I couldn't keep up with the mortgage. As if things weren't bad enough, my husband fell sick and needed money fast. I went back to ask for severance.

Paul stayed in his luxury car and flicked a couple of hundred bucks at me.

"Severance?" he scoffed. "Selene, you cost me billions. And you still have the nerve to ask me for money?"

He smirked. "Take it. Use it to pick out a decent urn for your husband."

I stood there, watching the car disappear down the street, my fists clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.

That night, I dropped a bomb in a large investor group chat.

[Hi, I'm looking for new job opportunities. I have years of experience cooking the books, and my ex-boss loved my work!]

The group chat exploded almost instantly.

My boss, Paul Cunningham, messaged me privately.

[Selene, have you lost your mind? What was that nonsense you posted? Delete it now!

[Too late,] I typed back. [I can't delete it anymore. And why are you so nervous, Mr. Cunningham? I was just using you as an example. Why are you getting worked up?]

Right after that, I dropped my résumé into the group.

[Job wanted, urgent! I can start anytime. Got financial headaches? I'm your guy. Insider info from a big-name company, upfront pricing, no games!]

Messages flooded in.

[Selene, did you get hacked?]

[You'll go to jail for leaking company secrets!]

I let out a quiet laugh.

[Who said anything about leaking? I'm just sharing an example. Got it? I can barely afford groceries at home, and my husband's in the hospital. You think I'd be doing this if I had a choice?]

Someone who knew what was going on tagged Paul.

[Mr. Cunningham, what's going on? Ms. Jensen used to be your right hand. Are you just letting this happen?]

It took him a while to respond.

[Those so-called examples are completely made up! Selene caused massive losses due to a serious mistake and has been terminated. I suggest everyone be careful and not fall for her claims.]

The moment I read that, anger surged straight to my head.

Nice move, Paul. The guy leveraged millions, lost billions, and he was now pinning it all on me while trying to ruin my name, too.

Fine. Let's play.

I didn't waste a second. I posted the actual development cost breakdown of a game project. Almost immediately, someone messaged me.

[Selene, is this real? It's only a little over a million? You're not messing with me, right?]

[Of course, it's real.]

[That jerk Paul got me to invest millions! He kept crying about being short on cash, and in the end, I only got a few hundred thousand back. Does he think I'm stupid?

[I knew something was off. The game has tons of users, but we can't even see the transaction details. They said it was confidential, but Paul took the biggest share while the rest of us were just cannon fodder.

[This is unbelievable!]

Even through the screen, I could tell he was furious.

I didn't reply. I just let him sit with it.

It didn't take long for him to ask, [Selene, can you help me take him down? He ran off to climb some mountain, talking about chasing new heights, and left me here dealing with this mess.]

I glanced at my husband, Oliver Jensen, lying in the hospital bed, then typed slowly.

[Why would I help you? What do you have that's worth my help?]

A transfer for 20 thousand dollars came through almost instantly.

[Let's meet when you're free. Use this for now.]

I didn't respond, but I accepted it.

After paying the hospital bills, I finally felt like I could breathe again.

I grabbed my laptop and headed to the parking garage beneath the office building. From there, I could go straight up to the main entrance.

Before leaving, I took care of something only I could do.

Half an hour later, I walked back out and sent Paul a message.

[Paul, it's on. Starting now, I'm dropping something new every eight hours. Be ready.]

His reply came quickly.

[You've got no evidence. Stop trying to bluff me. Go ahead and make it public. Cooking the books will land you in prison, too!]

I let out a low laugh.

[Who said I'm the one going to prison? You pushed me into this. And who told you I'm using fake accounts to threaten you? Do I really need to remind you how much dirt you've got?

[Three days. That's all it'll take. Every eight hours. I mean it.]

After that, I hung up and went straight to social media.

I exposed a harassment scandal involving Paul and one of his female employees.

That was just the first move.

For a man like him, a scandal like that would barely even count.