Page 38 of Scandalous Lover

I offer her a sad smile. “But it turns out that they sent these collab invites to lots of influencers at my level and higher, and one of them saw the company and decided it was too good to be true. She started investigating and waited until the week the company launched to release her investigative series about how the company created shell clothing companies that looked small and sustainable while sourcing their clothes from sweatshops in China.”

The table waits for me to go on in expectant silence.

“She had photographs of the addresses of the so-called sustainable companies which turned out to be abandoned warehouses and vacant lots. She had pictures of the same clothes I had in my videos coming off the lines at the factories.”

I pause and think back to the most damning—and most shared—of those pics. It featured a girl who couldn’t be more than ten years old piling clothes into boxes with a bloody hand wrapped in a towel and rubber banded.

When that picture first hit my inbox, I was wearing the same sweater the poor kid was packaging.

“What does that have to do with you, though? I get that it’s bad for the company, but it’s not your company.” Reina quickly comes to my defense.

I nod and offer her a sad smile. “I spent the three days she was posting horrific pictures and stories from sweatshops posting videos of myself excitedly opening and trying on the clothes. Recommending that my followers get a subscription right away. A lot of them did, and when it all came out, they were pissed at me. The company folded and disappeared. Noone got any kind of refund. They wanted my blood to make up for their lost money.”

“Brutal,” Fran says.

“The worst part is that the woman who broke the story knew. We weren’t close friends, but we ran in the same circle. She knew damn well that I’d taken on the company launch. She chose not to say anything about the piece she had to have already been investigating at that point. She just let me do my launch and then took me down.”

“Do you think it was intentional?” Reina is on the edge of her seat.

I shrug. “Probably not intentional toward me in a personal attack, but when there are people to direct blame at, and inflammatory content to share, drama spreads faster and farther on the internet. They were able to use my name and my content to fuel the fire against the company. And I was the collateral damage.”

“But people must know that it wasn’t your fault?” Reina looks like she might cry at any moment.

I wish I had something comforting to offer. “Outrage is the number one driver of content performance on socials. If you can create content that makes people feel outrage, it links into some primal part of our brains. We just have to share it. We have to tell everyone. That’s why shit like this goes viral so quickly. People love to be the first to tell everyone about a new scandal. Everyone loves a good car wreck.”

I finally look away from the rapt attention of the two women and laugh at the emotions on the faces of the guys. They range from confusion—Sam, to disbelief—Ave, to absolute disgust—Dom. All three of them are silent, mouths hanging slightly open as they consider how on earth to respond.

I jump in to save them. Or save myself from whatever they might say.

“So, anyway. That’s what happened. For the five days or so it was going down, it was pretty ugly. I had to shut off commenting on my entire channel. I hired a PR firm to handle my emails and inboxes for the time being. And my whole life is on pause while I wait to see if it’s going to blow over and I can start again, or if the trolls are just waiting for me to come back so they can shit-post again.” I finish off my drink.

“Damn,” Fran says finally and the rest of the group murmurs in agreement.

“It’s okay.” It’s not okay, and I can’t believe I made it through the whole story without crying, but I can’t stand the pity pouring off these people and raining down on my head. “It comes with the territory. I put myself out there as the face of a channel, and the internet is not a safe, friendly place. This kind of thing is always possible. I’ve seen it happen to tons of other influencers.”

My gaze falls back down to my hands, and I fiddle with my straw as I think back to all the scandals I’ve gleefully shared myself. All the times my fellow influencers were being roasted for something ridiculous and I fanned the flames instead of helping them out.

“And none of your friends stood up for you?” Reina voices my thoughts, and I cringe.

“That’s the thing about cancellation. It’s very contagious. If anyone speaks up in favor of the person being canceled, they’re immediately canceled themselves. I would never expect anyone to do something like that for me.”

Because I would never, ever, do it for them.

Avery blows out a long breath. “Wow. I had no idea how cutthroat the world of ladies trying on clothes on the internet was.”

I let out a grateful laugh as he breaks the tension. “Yeah.”

“Is there anything we can do to help?”

I look over at Sam for the first time since we sat down. His face is the picture of concern. “Just harbor me until I can go back to the real world I guess. This is just a wait and see kind of situation. I’ll post something in the next few days when my PR people tell me that the waters seem to have calmed down a bit.”

“Like an apology?” Reina asks. “I’ve seen those floating around, videos of people apologizing for saying or doing something wrong.”

I give her a sad smile. “And what were people saying about those videos?”

She cringes. “Nothing good. They’re never genuine enough or too little too late or something like that.”

I nod. “A written statement went up on my channel as soon as this all went down, but I’m probably not going to be encouraged to post a tearful apology video. Those do far more harm than good.”

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