Chapter 2

Alex left a reply under the third comment.

He left a long response: [I'm her ex. My name is Alex Reed, a first-year computer science major. I'm using my real name to vouch for this.

[She was with me for three months and spent over 7,000 dollars. She never paid for meals, always made me buy the movie tickets, and asked for everything she fancied when we went shopping.

[I'm just a student with a monthly allowance of 1500 dollars, and just so I could afford her, I lived off instant noodles for three months.

[She told me her family was poor, and I believed her. She was my girlfriend, so of course I'd pay for things. But a month after we broke up, someone sent me this photo. A Rolls-Royce. She was sitting in a Rolls-Royce.

[I couldn't help but laugh. It turns out she wasn't poor at all. She just thought I wasn't worth her spending money on.

[Emily, if you see this comment, I want to ask you—did you ever actually like me during those three months? Or was I just your ATM from start to finish?]

That reply got over three thousand likes, which was more than the post itself.

People started commenting below: [Dude, you really had it rough. It's always better to ditch a gold digger sooner rather than later.]

[I'm losing it. 7,000 dollars in three months? What kind of person did that?]

[Dude, you deserve someone better. Hug you.]

[@Emily Young, show up and pay him back.]

[@Emily Young, 7,000 dollars, don't even think about shortchanging him a single penny.]

[Guys, upvote this so the whole school sees it.]

My hand shook as I held my phone.

7,000 dollars.

He really said 7,000 dollars.

We were together for three months, and he didn't even spend 70 dollars on me.

There was a time he said he was going to treat me to dinner. But when it came time to pay, he claimed his phone was dead and had no credit card on him. So, he told me to pay instead.

The dinner cost 120 dollars.

After I paid, he never mentioned it again.

Now, in front of three thousand people, he was saying I spent 7,000 dollars of his money.

He fabricated every single word.

He made up every detail, made it sound so convincing.

As if he really lived off instant noodles.

As if he were the real victim in all this.

Sophie jumped down from her top bunk and snatched my phone.

She scrolled a few times, and her face went pale with anger.

"Is Alex crazy? When did you ever spend his money? When you were with him, he never even bought you a bottle of water.

"And this." She shoved the phone in my face. "This comment: [I knew her. She was a sugar baby in high school. The whole county was talking about it.] Who is this? Do you know them?"

I glanced at the username but didn't recognize it. I had never seen it before.

Sophie scrolled down a few more times, then suddenly stopped.

Her expression changed. "Emily... Your X account just got exposed."

I took my phone back.

My X comments section was completely overrun.

The latest post was from two months ago. It was a photo of the library with the caption: [Good luck on finals.]

There were over a thousand comments, all of them just people hurling insults: [Gold diggers like you still got the nerve to post on X?]

[Is that Rolls-Royce comfortable?]

[When are you paying back 7,000 dollars?]

[Hey girl, teach me how to hook up with rich guys, will you?]

[You're pretty average-looking. That sugar daddy isn't really picky.]

My direct messages were also blowing up, only to find over three hundred unread messages.

I casually opened a few.

[Why don't you just die already?]

[Gold diggers, as you can rot in hell.]

[Hope you get AIDS soon.]

[Do your parents know you're out whoring around?]

I set my phone face down on the bed.

The ceiling was white.

Sophie's voice came from beside me. "Emily, are you okay? Don't scare me."

"I'm fine," I said, and my voice was calm. "Can you help me grab some screenshots? Get Alex's reply, all the comments, and the direct messages from X."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm reporting this to the police."

Sophie froze for a moment, then started screenshotting everything at lightning speed.

I picked up my phone and left a comment under the campus gossip forum post: [That's my dad's car.]