Chapter 2 Internet trolls and tears

Zara didn't sleep that night. She couldn't sleep. She kept tossing and turning in her bed, tangled in her sheets like her thoughts unsettled, sharp, and relentless. Her pillow was damp not from rain but from a river of silent tears.

The stranger's coat still clung to her like it belonged there, like it understood the heartbreak it was wrapped around. The scent of it, a quiet mix of expensive masculine cologne and rain, lingered like a presence, oddly comforting although unfamiliar. She wasn't sure why she hasn't taken off the coat. Maybe it was the weight of it the physical manifestation of her emotional burden. Maybe because it was the only thing that felt real at the moment in her world that had already turned upside down.

Her father wasn't home. He had traveled to visit her sick aunt, his only living sibling. The timing felt like a cruel joke to Zara. A twist of fate that left her feeling abandoned and alone she was a daddy's girl. Her dad was her backbone, her cheer leader and his absence that night creates an ache in her heart that she couldn't shake.

He would have stayed if she knew she told herself but fare was cruel and was always taking people away when she needed them the most.

Zara was an only child. Her mother had disappeared when she was just five, she had vanished without a trace. And since then, it had just been her and her dad, a team of two. He had raised her with a fierce, unwavering love and he had refused to take a second wife despite the whispers and rumors involving his wife's disappearance about her leaving with another man because he could barely afford to fend for his family.

Zara sat up in bed, her fingers absentmindedly trailing along the hem of the stranger's coat, trying to focus on something anything to distract from the betrayal she could still feel burning in her chest. But her mind was too crowded, too loud with memories and heartbreak and confusion.

Eventually, she picked up her phone. Her screen lit up like fireworks immediately. Casting a sudden harsh glow over her tears stained face in the dark room.

She already had five hundred and twenty-six notifications. Her name was trending everywhere but not for anything she deserved. Her heart sank. The hashtags were brutal.

#Zara The Snake

#Elena And Jayden Forever

#Karma Is Real

#The Fall Of the Zayden's Couple

Zara felt a wave of nausea wash over her, she didn't know how to respond, as this was her first time receiving so much hate on the internet. Her hands trembled as she scrolled, each post like a dagger hitting her chest. She eventually clicked one of the posts her account had been tagged in and watched the video load slowly before it played.

It was a clipped video that had been edited to perfection. Elena was sobbing dramatically into Jayden's chest, mascara running like she had practiced the scene a hundred times already.

"She betrayed me," Elena whimpered, her voice breaking as she spoke.

"My own best friend betrayed me with the man I love." Elena continued drying her face with a tissue.

Zara's heart froze. Jayden wrapped his arms around Elena, like a knight shielding his broken princess. He looked into the camera with a carefully crafted heartbreak in his eyes. "

Elena has always been my first choice," he said, as he stroked Elena's hair slowly. "We dated all through high school. Even in college. We were still together." He sighed dramatically, then quickly added, "Zara has always been jealous of what we had. She tried to come between us, not once, not twice."

Zara's stomach twisted.

Elena sniffled again, picking up where he left off. Her voice breaking has she leaned into Jayden's chest "Zara had threatened to kill herself if I didn't give Jayden to her."

Her voice cracked. "She was so manipulative... I was so scared."

Zara's breath caught. Her vision blurred with tears. Each word was like a knife to her chest, twisting and turning, causing more pain at each turn. The tears came hot and fast as it streak silently down her cheeks.

Then Jayden voice came again calm and steady like he was reading a damm script "She told me Elena was cheating. She even made a deep fake video of Elena with another guy. She planned everything. Zara is a manupulative..."

Zara's phone nearly slipped from her hand.

What?!

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She stared at the screen, her face drained of color. Her lips parted in disbelief.

They had made up lies so vile, so precise,that the world had no choice but to believe them. And the internet? It never waited for the truth. The internet was always ready to devour whatever story was juiciest.

The internet was a beast, a monster that devoured truth and Zara was its latest victim.

She was the villain now.

And the worst part?

They were winning

As she stared blankly at her screen, wave after wave of hate kept pouring in. She opened her DM requests ,half hoping there would be someone defending her. But all she saw were walls of venom. There were hundreds of messages and notifications, each one a new insult, adding more salt to her injury.

Some were cruel in a mocking tone, like they were entertained by her pain.

"Karma is a bitch, right?

"You finally showed your true colors."

"Desperate much?"

Others were colder, meaner, and they were all sent from faceless trolls and fake accounts hiding behind cartoon icons and bold usernames.

"You deserved this, Zara."

"Elena deserves better, you backstabbing bitch."

"Always knew you were fake, Zara."

"Clout-chasing snake."

Zara's chest tightened like it was folding itself. She felt her throat burn, a lump rising with nowhere to go. She tried to swallow it down, tried to breathe, to stay still, to not fall apart. But the tears came anyway, hot, silent, and endless, streaming down her cheeks like a river and worsening her already puffy eye .

She clutched the phone so hard till her knuckles started turning white. Her vision blurred, the words on the screen smearing into one ugly, endless blur of judgmental comments. She felt like screaming, like ripping her hair out, but all she could do was cry. Why did they have to go so far when she was the wronged one here? She had never felt so alone, so exposed, so misunderstood.