I leaned in, closing the gap between us.
‘You were so brave before, running your mouth. Where’s that confidence gone now?’
‘I’ll call the cops!’ Harper whimpered.
‘Go right ahead. You started this ss, not . You call the cops, and they’ll take you in. Harassnt, provocation of violence, assault.’ I sniffed. ‘And public intoxication. Jesus, who drinks at ten o’clock in the morning?’
Harper was reaching for her phone, but she froze halfway.
I leaned in closer, almost nose-to-nose with her. ‘Delete your posts. Instagram, X, everything. Now.’
Her fingers twitched, and her lip trembled. ‘I... I won’t delete them.’
‘You will. Or I’ll be the one calling the cops. You realise you’ve just handed Yvaine enough to sue the shit out of you, right? That stunt you pulled online—clear case of defamation and malicious falsehood.’
‘Yeah!’ Yvaine backed up. ‘Malicious!’
I’d picked up a thing or two from lawyer Hannah and put them to good use now. ‘She can file for damages—loss of business, all this smashed-up furniture, reputational harm. And don’t think a judge won’t grant an injunction and force a retraction. You’ll be lucky if you get away with a written apology. Public one, of course. Pinned to all your socials. You want your little fanbase of teenage skincare junkies to see you beg for forgiveness in front of a bakery display case?’
Harper squird. ‘I—’
‘Because that’s where this is going if you push it. Civil suit. Discovery. Cross-examination. Then your face goes from influencers’ moodboards to cautionary tale on law school blogs. So go ahead. Keep crying. But if you open your mouth again, make sure it’s to say you’re sorry.’
Harper bit her lip. ‘I’ll call Cassian.’
‘Do it. If he’s still taking your side after all this crap you’ve pulled, he’s even dumber than I thought.’
The fight drained out of her. ‘Fine, I’ll delete them...’
Her fingers flew over the screen of her phone, and within seconds, both the Instagram and X posts were gone.
‘Can I go now?’ she mumbled, staring at the floor.
I glanced at her battered face, then at Yvaine, who looked relatively unscathed.
Yvaine nodded.
I raised my chin towards the door. ‘Get out.’
Harper scrambled, almost tripping over herself as she rushed out.
The second she disappeared, Daniel’s voice rang through the shop.
‘Soone just uploaded the video!’
He waved his phone around, showing the rest of us the footage.
It was a clear shot of the ss.
With two of us against one of her, she looked like the victim instead of the instigator.
I sighed, already knowing what was coming.
There was no way soone wasn’t going to share the video.
Harper being beaten was way more interesting than Harper getting rejected for custom jewellery.
The internet loves a good fight.
I looked at Yvaine. ‘Well, looks like we’re both getting roasted online.’
She gave a shrug. ‘Worth it. And she started it.’
She tossed her phone onto the counter, then grabbed the attention of the staff. ‘Everyone, go ho for the day. There are a bunch of fresh cakes left in the back and the display. Help yourselves, then enjoy the rest of the day off.’
In a few minutes, the ‘Closed’ sign was up, and the staff scattered, leaving just Yvaine and in the shop.
Yvaine brought a few leftover cakes out from the kitchen.
She plopped down across from . ‘I’m starving. Beating up soone really takes it out of you.’
‘Do you need sothing for your face?’ I asked. ‘It looks a bit swollen.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘What the hell happened?’
Yvaine lifted a shoulder. ‘She walked in, ordered sothing. I was in the kitchen. Must’ve posted it while she waited, then started demanding to see the manager. I ca out. She launched straight into it. Said I was still obsessed with Cassian, accused of sabotaging their relationship. Claid I pulled strings, now he’s ignoring her calls and kicked her out of his flat. Apparently, that’s all on .’
‘Jesus.’
‘I told her to shut it and get out. She tried to trip . I kicked her. Then you walked in.’
Her phone buzzed.
She picked it up.
‘Harper’s fans are going wild in the comnts.’
I pulled my own phone out. ‘The woman knows how to stir up a mob.’
At first, the comnts were feral—death threats, slut-shaming, people calling a thug and Yvaine a washed-up sugar witch.
Every insult you could think of got thrown our way.
Then soone uploaded a longer video, the one where Harper slapped first and started yelling about Cassian.
That changed the tone fast.
Yvaine’s regulars flooded the comnts next, posting photos of éclairs and mousse tarts, raving about the cakes, tagging their friends.
The replies turned into a dessert feed.
Half of them forgot why they were angry.
By mid-afternoon, the original video had vanished, and so had most of the outrage.
People were losing interest.
I shot a text to Ashton. [Did you have anything to do with this?]
He replied: [I didn’t even get a chance to step in. Soone’s already handled the heat.]
I raised an eyebrow, glancing up at Yvaine. ‘What about your brother? Emtt, did he help out?’
‘Nope,’ Yvaine said, shaking her head. ‘I asked him. He’s been in a eting all day and hasn’t even seen the news yet.’
Both of us were puzzled.
If Ashton hadn’t done it and Emtt was out of the loop, who the hell had managed to shut it down so quickly?
It didn’t stop there.
Soone had started digging into Harper’s past, unearthing old scandals—stories of her causing trouble in school and always playing the victim.
A shift in the narrative was already happening.
We talked about it for a while, speculating that it might’ve been one of Harper’s rivals in the entertainnt industry.
‘Or an admirer of yours,’ I joked.
‘Or a hater of hers,’ Yvaine said.
Turns out, we were both right.
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