“I-I’m good. You should get some rest. I’m also about to head back to sleep.” Having said that, Elise
waved him goodbye before returning to her home. Once she shut her door, all that was on her face was
nothing but joy. For some reason, she no longer felt the fear she once had. And she could finally feel
safe solely because he lived right next to her.
The next morning, Elise’s doorbell rang. Hastily, she hurried to the door with her cartoon graphic tee
on, only to be surprised by Alexander at the door. “Why are you here this early?” He lifted the bag of
food in his hand. “I got you breakfast.” “Come in.” Alexander casually entered her home and closed the
door.
Elise was still feeling drowsy moments ago, but she was wide awake now. “I’ll come eat after I wash
up.” Thereupon, she ran into the bathroom. Done with her wash up, she came out of the bathroom,
only to be warmed by the sight of the scrumptious delicacies arranged on the dining table. Accordingly,
she approached the table, pulled a chair out, and took a seat. “Egg sandwich, shrimp gnocchi, churros,
and almond milk—all of them are my favorites…”
Alexander handed her her cutleries. “Then you better eat up. I’ve helped you apply for leave, so you
won’t have to go to work today. Rest up, okay?” “Thank you,” she blurted and proceeded to indulge in
her feast. Peering at the man in front of her, she quizzed, “Have you eaten?”
“Nope,” he answered. Hearing that, she took a piece of gnocchi and put it before his lips, to which the
man tacitly opened his mouth, welcoming the corn-mixed shrimp gnocchi to his palate. While he was
slowly chewing the food, he was savoring every single moment he was currently in. “You eat up too.”
She then fed him a piece of egg sandwich, which the man accepted without resistance. He would eat
anything she gave him.
After their breakfast, as Elise was about to clean up the mess on the table, she was stopped by
Alexander. “Let me. You should really rest.” “Okay.” Obediently, she stopped the action and passed on
the task to him. Swiftly, the man tidied up the table and it looked as good as new. At that moment, the
doorbell rang again. Elise went to open the door and saw Cameron carrying a stack of documents.
“Good morning, Miss Elise. Is President Griffith here?”
“Please come in.” Elise made space for the assistant to enter. With that, Cameron entered with files
stacking in his arms, and was stunned. The president’s on… cleaning duty? Although he was utterly
confused, he pretended as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. “President Griffith, I’ve brought all the
files over. I’ll come over again to take them once you’re done handling them.” With a straight face,
Alexander replied, “Just place it there.”
Briskly, Cameron placed the documents on the tea table before rushing to offer help to his superior.
“Allow me the physical task, President.” Nonetheless, Alexander rejected his offer. “No, I’m fine. Just
put the files down. You may leave if there’s nothing else.” Cameron quickly nodded. “As you wish,
President Griffith.” As he was about to turn around and leave, he seemed to recall something. “Oh, by
the way, President Griffith, about the thing you had me look into last night…”
Before finishing the sentence, he took a glimpse at Elise, to which the latter realized that what he was
about to say could possibly pertain to her, so she should probably leave the conversation. “Why don’t
you go on? I’ll head back to my room.” Unexpectedly, she was stopped by Alexander. “You can stay.
Just say it, Cameron. From now on, you don’t have to hide anything from Elise, whatever it is.”
Acknowledging Alexander’s absolute trust in Elise, Cameron said, “Alright. Turns out, the man was
hired by Maeve. I’ve also dug up some dirt on her as you ordered. The thing is, many sources among
those I looked for were reluctant to share any bad news about her, as if they were scared of some force
behind Maeve.
Hearing Maeve’s name, Elise immediately felt pressured. I’ve never even met her once, yet she’s dying
to kill me off. “Who’s the ‘force’ behind her?” she questioned. “Well…” Although Cameron was
somewhat perturbed, he eventually revealed the name. Hearing the name, Elise visibly frowned, while
Alexander was ever-indifferent. “One week. Get that piece of sh*t out of showbiz.” His utterance was
calm, yet overbearing.
That was when Cameron realized that Maeve had stepped on Alexander’s toe. “Yes, President! I’ll
handle it right away.” Having said that, he turned around and left. When Cameron finally left, Elise
stared at Alexander. “You know I won’t blame you even if you don’t help me, right? She has a strong
force behind her backing her up. And a duel between two strong figures will only lead to a gruesome
result on both ends. Do you really think it’s worth it?”
“I know, but no matter who it is that wishes to harm you, I’ll make sure to pay it back double. Don’t
worry about it. Whatever it takes, I won’t let her off so easily.” Elise couldn’t help but feel moved by his
words. Peering at the man in front of her, she subconsciously smiled. “Thank you for that answer,
Alexander.
I’ll make sure ‘gruesome’ only happens on one end.” Baffled, Alexander was about to question her
implication, but she spared him no opportunity. “Now, while you work, I’ll go get some more rest. Might
crave for some seafood stew for lunch.” With a pampering beam, he answered, “Let’s.” When she
returned to her bedroom, all of her emotions dispersed. After locking her door, she walked to the
bedside dresser and pulled out a tablet from within, turning it on.
Donning a gloomy face, she rapidly tapped her fingers on the tablet’s screen. Stripes of black and white
flashed across the screen, followed by a series of codes and figures. Shortly after, a number of
infographics popped up on her screen. The images were, to say the least, explicit. Elise intuitively
scoffed the moment she laid eyes on the person in the image. Oh, how the tables have turned! Who
would have expected you to be such a sly vixen, cutie?
Alexander said he’d allow you one week to get out of showbiz, but maybe one week is too long. So,
how about three days? Consequently, various unrecognized sources on the internet started publishing
scandalous information about Maeve. When Maeve’s team saw the news, they immediately released a
statement to dismiss the “slander.” Typically, once a statement was made, the matter would be
resolved immediately. But this time, it didn’t.
The scandals were exposed one after another, showing no signs of stopping. Not only did the team fail
to contain the spread of the news, but the scandals spread even wider like a wildfire. Within half an
hour, social media platforms were flooded by hashtags and discussions related to Maeve.
“What the hell is happening? How are my old photos recurring?” Maeve raged at her manager. “Get
them off the internet immediately! I do not wish to see any of those disgusting photos ever again!” “R-
Right away, my precious. I’ll have them removed at once. However, we’ve spent so much money, yet
there hasn’t been any effectiveness. Should I look for Mr. Fagan for help?” “Mr. Fagan this, Mr. Fagan
that. Just do your damn work and stop the news from spreading!”
Maeve vexedly screamed. Little did she expect, this was only the beginning of her nightmare. Apart
from the before-and-after photos of her plastic surgery, photos of her escorting in bars before she came
to fame had also surged on the internet, including very explicit ones. In a flash, Maeve became the hot
topic of the internet, drawing viewers and haters onto her Twitter page, shaping her into a public
menace.
Right then, ‘#MaeveIsOverParty’ became the trending tag on the platform. Meanwhile, Elise was
scrolling on Twitter. Despite the outburst, she showed no emotions. Instead, she went even more brutal
by uploading the dirt she had on Maeve with the hundreds of Twitter accounts she gained control of
through her hacking skills, setting them to automatically retweet anything about Maeve’s defamation.
In less than five minutes, Twitter’s server collapsed, and she took the opportunity to infiltrate the
platform’s system and made some alteration to its algorithm. With so, anyone who came to defend her
would have their accounts suspended. Having done that, Elise erased all of her traces on the internet
and shut down her device.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda