Chapter 6

Night fell over Los Angeles. Karina sat cross-legged on the lumpy, faded sofa in her run-down apartment. A massive, greasy Hawaiian pizza sat in an open cardboard box on the coffee table.

She took a huge bite, the hot, stringy cheese burning her tongue in the best way possible. She let out a sigh of pure contentment and swiped her thumb across her phone screen, opening Twitter.

The trending topics were a bloodbath.

KarinaAbbottSetBully, CancelKarina, and GetOutOfHollywood dominated the top three spots, accompanied by glaring red 'Hot' tags.

Candice's troll farms had done their job. They released a blurry, heavily edited video that cut out Candice's initial slap. It only showed Karina violently grabbing Candice's wrist and throwing her to the floor.

The comment section was a cesspool of slut-shaming and death threats. Candice's rabid fans were spamming the feed, demanding Karina be permanently blacklisted.

Karina stared at the vicious curses with a completely blank face. Her heart rate didn't even spike. Honestly, she thought the pineapple on this pizza was roasted to perfection.

To a survivor who had crawled out of mass graves in a war zone, this bloodless, cyber-bullying felt like the impotent rage of kindergarteners.

She clicked on Candice's latest tweet. It was a masterclass in manipulation: "I had a little scare on set today, but my senior taught me a valuable lesson. I'll keep working hard. [Crying selfie]"

Karina let out a cold, sharp laugh. Her fingers flew across the keyboard. She didn't use a burner account. She quote-tweeted Candice directly from her official, verified page.

[Caption: If your skin is that thick, why didn't you get your chin implant fixed while you were at it? You're welcome. Just doing my job as your senior. ]

She hit send, tossed the phone into the corner of the sofa, and went back to systematically destroying the rest of the pizza.

Within ten minutes of that unapologetic tweet going live, it had been retweeted over a hundred thousand times, causing the app to lag and momentarily crash for some users. The internet lost its collective mind.

Miles away, in the penthouse office of the Stein Media Group, Jefferson stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the glittering grid of Los Angeles.

Julian burst through the heavy oak doors, sweating profusely and waving a tablet. "Boss! Karina has lost her damn mind! She just publicly accused Candice of plastic surgery on her main account!"

Jefferson turned around. He took the tablet and read the arrogant, ruthless response. A deep, genuine wave of amusement washed through his amber eyes.

This was the feral cat he had heard in his head, threatening roundhouse kicks. She didn't back down. Her claws were razor-sharp.

"Tell the PR department to buy the full, unedited security footage from the set. But do not release it. Keep it locked down," Jefferson ordered, his voice cool and calculated.

"Why not release it now? ! It would instantly clear her name and destroy Candice!" Julian yelled, completely baffled.

"Releasing it now is boring." Jefferson tossed the tablet onto his mahogany desk. His tone was pure, dark manipulation. "I want to let this fire burn until the exact moment the reality show goes live. Then, we turn it into a nuclear bomb."

Julian looked at his boss's ruthless expression and felt a chill run down his spine. He silently prayed for Candice's soul.

Meanwhile, the doorbell to Karina's apartment buzzed frantically. Her agent, Rachel Webb, was pounding on the door like a maniac.

Karina walked over, chewing on a piece of pizza crust, and yanked open the heavy security door.

"Karina Abbott! Do you have a death wish? ! Who told you to post that tweet? !" Rachel screamed, storming into the apartment and tearing at her own hair.

Karina handed her a paper towel. Her tone was as detached as a bystander's. "I was just stating a fact. She definitely has a chin implant. I felt it when I grabbed her."

Rachel choked, rolling her eyes to the ceiling. She collapsed onto the sofa. "The whole internet is boycotting your appearance on Heartbeat Weekly! The producers are under massive pressure to drop you!"

"Then cancel the contract. I didn't want to go anyway." Karina shrugged, walking over to the fridge and pulling out a cold can of cola.

"Cancel? ! Do you think you can afford the breach of contract fee? !" Rachel leaped up, unzipping her briefcase and slamming a thick stack of bills onto the coffee table.

"Look at these! The original Karina maxed out every single credit card in your name to buy that scumbag Kole limited-edition watches and sports cars! You are currently three million dollars in debt! I've been trying to negotiate with the banks for months, hoping to keep this quiet, but with this new scandal blowing up, they're panicking and calling in all your debts at once! We're completely out of time, Karina!"

Karina's hand froze on the pop-tab of the cola can. The lazy indifference vanished from her eyes, replaced by a shock and fury so intense it made the air in the room drop ten degrees.

"Three... million... dollars?" she ground out through clenched teeth, staring at the stack of paper.

The impenetrable defenses of a war zone warlord had just been brutally shattered by the crushing weight of capitalist debt.