Chapter 3

3.

Lacey was far more vicious than I imagined.

In the early hours of the morning, an urgent call from the Vice President jolted me awake.

"Garrett, you're trending across social media! Lacey posted a massive dossier claiming you coerced her. If you don't resolve this right now, the entire industry will blacklist you!"

Cold sweat drenched my back.

Before I could even open the app, an email arrived from our biggest corporate client.

"Due to the severe PR fallout regarding your personal scandal, we are terminating our partnership immediately. Your firm will be held liable for damages."

That was an eight-figure contract I had nurtured for five straight years.

On the brink of closing the deal, it evaporated in seconds.

Opening Lacey's viral post, my blood boiled as a wave of fury crashed over me.

Lacey was a master manipulator. With cropped chat logs and stolen photos, she had twisted the truth to paint me as a monster.

"Exposed: Fortune 500 Marketing Manager Garrett Cole Coerces Young Subordinate, Demands $100K Extortion After Failed Seduction!"

In the attached video, Lacey sobbed convincingly.

She painted herself as a naive college grad who was repeatedly harassed and pressured into submission by her predatory boss.

She had selectively cut our messages.

I had asked where the project files were and told her to bring them to my office.

I had also asked if she booked my hotel for an upcoming business trip.

Spliced together, it looked like a damning conversation:

"Did you book the hotel room?"

"Not yet."

"Come to my office right now."

With a few edits, I was framed as a depraved predator who couldn't keep his hands to himself even at work.

To make things worse, Lacey shared office security clips showing her stockings sitting on my desk.

"Garrett forced me into this. He's a sick pervert who touched me inappropriately every day!"

Lacey lied through her teeth with absolute conviction.

"He told me I looked sexy in tight skirts and stockings and made me dress up for him. If I said no, he threatened to ruin my career!"

The online outrage exploded overnight.

Tens of thousands of comments tore into me with venom.

"This old creep is out of his mind! Castrate him!"

"How did someone like this become a manager? Investigate him immediately!"

My veins ran ice-cold.

Following Lacey's lead, online mobs doxxed my family's private information.

My mother was physically attacked while grocery shopping and ended up in the ER, unconscious.

My father-in-law suffered a severe cardiac flare-up and called me, screaming through tears.

"Garrett! My daughter deserves better than this humiliation!"

"If you cheated on her with an intern, you can forget about seeing your family ever again. You won't leave with a single dime!"

I was devastated. When I tried to explain myself, close colleagues sent messages cutting ties with me.

Even old friends from high school messaged me, asking if I had really lost my mind over a young intern.

I learned what it truly felt like to be helpless against a wall of lies.

When I stormed into the office, Lacey was already waiting for me.

Surrounded by her loyal interns, she looked at me with smug triumph.

"Manager Cole, you should thank me. Today is the most famous day of your life."

She crossed her arms, smiling maliciously.

"I'll give you one last chance. Pay the full $700,000, drop the lawsuit, resign publicly, post an apology video admitting you harassed me, and wire me five million dollars for emotional distress."

"Do all of that, and I might take down the post and settle this out of court."

"Refuse, and you can watch your life crumble into dust!"

Lacey laughed in my face.

I clenched my fists, my voice dropping to a single, cold command.

"Get out."

Her laughter vanished. I slammed my office door shut, blocking out their angry curses.

I had already compiled my counter-evidence.

Stamped official invoices, security footage of the interns violating labor policies, Lacey's defamatory live streams, and audio recordings of her blackmailing me.

"Hello, police? I want to report a coordinated cyber harassment and extortion campaign designed to destroy my life."

After hanging up with law enforcement, Tyler slipped quietly into my office.

"Lacey has been embezzling corporate funds and taking bribes. That luxury boutique hotel in Cabo is owned by her father."

I laid the dossier my investigator had gathered in front of Tyler.

For years, Lacey had used her corporate position to funnel company events to her family's resort, pocketing massive kickbacks through inflated pricing.

"Corporate embezzlement is a federal crime. The company won't protect her."

"Seven hundred thousand dollars is a serious felony. If we push this, you'll go down with her."

"A federal prison sentence, or keeping your record clean and securing a full-time job. Choose wisely."

Tyler's face turned paper-white, his jaw trembling.

Panting heavily, he unlocked an encrypted video file on his phone.

"I recorded this secretly at the resort. I originally kept it just in case."

Lacey's arrogant voice played through the speakers:

"Go crazy, everyone! Order the most expensive items on the menu!"

"I upgraded all your rooms. We're in Cabo, of course we should stay in presidential suites!"

"Don't worry about the budget. Garrett is here, isn't he? He wants in my pants, so he'd better pay up!"

"Men are pathetic like that. He acts all professional, but he's just dying for a piece of me. Why else would he pay?"

As the audio clicked off, a cold smile tugged at my lips.

Lacey's reckoning was finally here.

%%%