Alicia sent <b>the </b>sketch to the buyer, who replied almost immediately. [This is excellent. You truly <b>are </b>a gifted artist.]
Reborn Soul: [So I can start on the coloring?]
<b>Alicia </b>had chosen the username Reborn Soul, for the person who had returned from the dead.
Frederic<b>: </b>[Yes<b>, </b><b>go </b>ahead. Thank you for your hard work, my young friend. <b>I’ll </b>add another three thousand to your payment when <b>it’s </bplete.] <fne253> Find the newest release on ?ovelFind</fne253>
Reborn Soul: [There’s no need. The price we agreed on is fine. You can judge the final result when it’s done.<b>] </b>
After sending the message, she closed the website and went back to her painting.
She was about halfway through when a WhatsApp message suddenly came in. It was from Hank.
Hank: [Tiffany gave me a set of lewd photos and told me to photoshop your face onto them. She wants to start a slut–shaming campaign against you. I refused.]
Alicia stared at the message. It seemed that even though she had changed so many things, some events were still bound to their original course.
Tiffany was still going to smear her reputation.
Or perhaps, had she pushed Tiffany too far in the music room yesterday?
Alicia: [Is your sister’s hospital transferplete<b>?</b>]
Hank: [All done. She’s at Maplewood General Hospital now. Doctor Johnson said she’s too weak <i>at </i>the moment, so she’ll need some time to build up her strength before the surgery.]
Alicia: [Good. Then take a day off and keep a close eye on the school forum. Once Tiffany posts those photos, send the originals to me. If she posts a different batch, restore the photoshopped images back to the originals and send those to me instead.]
Hank: [Okay!]
Alicia’s thoughts drifted to her past life. Back then, Hank had been working for Tiffany. Had he been the one to photoshop those pictures? Was he the one who posted the thread that destroyed her and led to her depression?
She instinctively typed another message. [If I hadn’t helped find a kidney donor for your sister, would you have done it?]
She needed to know. Was Hank the one behind it all in her
past
life?
A long time passed without a reply, but Alicia could see the “typing… ” indicator appear and disappear.
<b>95 </b>vouchers
She waited for a while longer but eventually lost her patience. ‘Whatever, she thought. It doesn’t matter. Whether it was him or not, it’s all in the <b>past</b>!
In this life, she had no intention of being friends with Hank anyway. This was just a matter of convenience, using someone withputer skills. It was a one–time transaction, a rtionship of mutual benefit.
She closed the chat and continued to paint.
Much, muchter, a message finally came through, but Alicia didn’t look at it.
She paintedte into the night before finally packing up, washing her face, and getting ready for bed. Only then did she pick up her phone.
She saw the message Hank had sent.
Alicia, even if you hadn’t found a donor for my sister, I wouldn’t have done what Tiffany asked. The people I love most are my sister and my mom. They’re women. I would never, ever spread those kinds of rumors about another woman. If she’d offered me money to do something else, I might have taken it. But if she’d pulled her support because I refused, I would have sold my own blood, my own kidney, before I did something like that.]
Reading the message, Alicia didn’t fully believe it, but she didn’t entirely dismiss it either. She didn’t reply. She just plugged in her phone and went to sleep.
The next morning, Alicia made a simple breakfast for two and headed out. She knew Sienna’s parents were workaholics who left early every morning, leaving Sienna with no time for a proper breakfast. Since Sienna loved to sleep in, she often skipped the meal altogether.
Now that Alicia could cook for herself, she decided to make an extra portion for her friend.
As Alicia arrived at the school gates with the two breakfast containers, she felt the other students looking at her strangely.
A little puzzled, she touched her face, then her hair, and nced down at her clothes. Everything seemed normal. The only other possibility was that Tiffany had already started the smear campaign.
These people had seen the forum post.
She gripped the breakfast containers a little tighter and walked onto campus.
When she got to her ssroom, she went to her seat and put her things down. Sienna hadn’t arrived yet. Alicia pulled out her phone and opened the school’s online forum.
Sure enough, the top trending topic was the post meant to ruin her.
The title read: [Fake Heiress Sells Her Body to Keep Up Appearances.]
Alicia clicked on the thread. It began with a long post.
[Spilling the tea. I’m in the same ss as this fake heiress. A couple of days ago, something big happened. A female student with thest name Lawrence received a meal from Noble Leaf Bistro.
O
45
55 vouchers
[As everyone knows, it’s almost impossible to get a reservation there, and they absolutely do not deliver. But not only did she get their food, it was delivered. And get this–she’s living in Linen Bay Residences, the luxuryplex in Riverdale that’s only for the super–rich and famous.
[If you’re thinking, “So what? Her family’s rich, she can afford it,” you’d be wrong. She’s just a fake heiress.
[And if you’re thinking, “Maybe her adoptive parents still love her and are willing to spend money on her,” you’d be wrong again. The real daughter is back home. This girl was so afraid of losing her parents‘ affection and getting kicked out that she repeatedly tried to frame the real daughter. When her parents found out, they threw her out. To maintain her high–society image, she started selling her body for money. She has a sugar daddy get her food from Noble Leaf Bistro and put her up in his ce at Linen Bay Residences. See the evidence below.]
Alicia finished reading and scrolled down. The post was followed by a series of photoshopped images, exactly the same as in her past life: one of her licking a cucumber, another licking a food container, one sitting on a man’sp, and several pixted, R–rated photos.
The only difference was the two photos at the very end, which hadn’t been there before. One was a real picture of her holding the Noble Leaf Bistro container, and the other showed hering out of Linen Bay Residences.
In her past life, seeing all this had nearly broken her. She tried to exin to her teachers and ssmates, but no one believed her. She faced their judgment every day until she finally spiraled into depression.
This time, she felt nothing at all.
She closed the forum and sent Hank a WhatsApp message. [Have you seen the school forum? Are the photos the same ones she sent you?]
Hank: [They’re the same.]
Alicia: [Send me the original files.]
Hank immediately sent them all over.
Alicia: [Wait a little longer. A few particrly active users will show up in thements on that thread. I need you to trace their IPs, find out who they are, and send me their names.]
Hank: [How do you know there will be a few active users? Does that mean… ]
Alicia didn’t want to exin, so she didn’t reply.
She saved the photos and ignored the forum. She remembered that in her past life, Tiffany had also hired trolls to blow the story up until it wasn’t just the school talking about it, but the whole city.
She couldn’t even walk down the street without feeling people staring at her with malicious intent.
Right now, the paid trolls hadn’t joined in yet. She would wait. She would let the situation getpletely out of hand, until the school had to intervene. Then she would present her evidence and demand that the school investigate and give her justice.
19:15 Wed, <b>Oct </b><b>1 </b>
She put her phone away and took out a book to read.
A few minutester, Sienna walked into the ssroom.
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55 vouchers
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