Chapter 3
Katie walked over to the cameras with reddened eyes and began sobbing to the audience on live camera. "Look, everybody! Look at what she's doing! She committed a crime and still refused to admit that she was wrong and refused to apologize!
"Instead, she turned on the victim and threatened me instead! What's becoming of this world now?"
Samael comforted her and said, "Don't worry. I will take this into my own hands!
"Gabriella Fox, you spread lewd media of other people online because of your jealousy, and now, you're threatening the victim in return as well? I bet you can't wait to get thrown into jail for the rest of your life!"
"Me? Jealous of whom?"
I was on the verge of laughter. "I am an A-list actress. What's the point of me getting jealous of someone in the D-tier? Does that even make sense?"
I didn't want to waste my breath on arguing with them anymore. I turned and addressed the police instead, saying, "Officers, I have never spread anybody's lewd or indecent media online, and I have also never bullied anyone on set.
"I hope that you will investigate this matter closely and prove my innocence!"
The officer then said, "But your best friend testified and said that she personally saw you creating the videos…"
I thought for a few seconds and asked the officer, "Don't you find it suspicious at all? If she really saw me making these videos, why didn't she stop me then and instead waited until the videos went viral online before going on live stream and accusing me of it so that she can go viral now?
"As far as I know, Katie just signed a long-term contract with Samael's Crewsome Entertainment. I have reason to believe that they conspired to frame me for this crime!"
The officer thought about it. However, Samael and Katie began to panic.
Just then, a deranged-looking woman with disheveled hair dashed out from the surrounding crowd. She was Katie's mother, Betty Watson, and she threw a huge fuss as she fell to the floor with a wail and began screaming bloody murder.
"You're also a woman! How could you publish my daughter's private videos online? How is she supposed to find a husband next time? I spent so much money bringing her up!
"I don't care! You must pay! You must pay us back! Since you're living in such a posh apartment, you should just pay us 500 million dollars, and I'll get Katie to write you a statement of forgiveness!"
Her arrogant, morally manipulative statement made me so mad that I couldn't stop myself from laughing.
Yet, Betty immediately jumped on that when she heard my laughter and began accusing me even further.
"Officers! Look at her! She's not the least bit remorseful and even dares to laugh in our faces!"
I couldn't stop myself from speaking in a disdainful tone, "I've also seen the video. The part showing the female is very blurry and warped, and it's obvious that it was created with AI.
"And yet, you didn't care about upholding your own daughter's pride or dignity and declared affirmatively that it was her sex video. You must really love Katie so much!
"Or, am I right to say that you're worried now that Katie won't be able to find a husband anymore, so you're trying to extort money from me for your own retirement plans? Maybe to buy a house?"
Betty reacted like I had just hit the nail on the head and immediately jumped to her feet. "You're shitting nonsense!"
I glanced at the rest of the crowd and said, "If you want to continue framing me, at least show me some stone-cold evidence. You keep accusing me of creating the lewd videos and bullying you on set, but it's your word against mine. Where is your evidence?"
The audiences in the live stream seemed to come to their senses as well.
"That's right. It seems like Katie is the one who keeps accusing Gabriella of bullying her, but when asked how, she couldn't come up with anything solid."
"Damn! I feel like we'd just been misled and fed the wrong information the entire time. Let's just keep watching. Maybe there'll be a twist at the end."
"Twist? Keep dreaming. A woman would never joke about her sexual purity!"
I then played the recording of Katie's conversation with me in front of the camera so everyone could listen properly.
Then, I said, "I'm really curious, Katie. You were still asking and begging me to help you find out who could have leaked the videos back then. It's barely been a week, and now, you say that you saw me creating these videos instead. What's going on?"
Katie panicked when she heard me and tried to snatch my phone away from me. I quickly ducked and avoided her.
Her eyes bore straight into me as she gritted her teeth.
Chapter 4
"You're going overboard, Gabriella Fox!" Katie growled. "Aren't you done creating deepfake videos of me and spreading them online? You have to use AI to fake a conversation between us both now?
"Is this how much you're set on trying to defame me? You hate me so much, don't you? Why don't you just tell me to go jump off a roof now?
"But I guess that's fair. Your mom's nothing but a maid, and your dad's just a cab driver. Of course your family wouldn't care about image or reputation. But I'm different! I am a proper lady—"
Before she could finish speaking, I slapped her hard on the cheek.
"Do you think you have the authority to speak to me that way, Katie Anderson?"
Katie and I used to be neighbors growing up. That was also the reason why we were best friends.
Katie's parents never liked her because they had always wanted a son, and Mom took Katie in as her adopted daughter because she couldn't bear to see how poorly Katie was being treated at home.
My parents never received much education. So, Mom could only find a job as a maid and nanny for other people, while Dad earned his living as a cab driver and truck driver at times.
I never would have thought that Katie would look down on their means of making a living and speak so condescendingly of them, like they were unworthy.
"She hit her! She hit her! This is abuse! This is harassment!" Betty screamed in delight. "Did the cameras get her? Did the audience see her?"
The crowd began to murmur.
I forcefully suppressed the disgust in my chest and glared coldly at the crowd.
"I will repeat this for the final time. I have never done such things I am accused of. Either you bring out solid evidence against me, or get lost!"
The crowd was intimidated seeing how fierce and fearless I was being. However, Samael just glared coldly at me and said, "You want evidence? I'll give you evidence!"
Then, he retrieved a tablet and began going through a ton of photos of me on the screen. He said in a meaningful voice, "I mean, you're a recidivist, after all. There's plenty of evidence supporting our claims!"
The photos all showed me hitting other people. Some of my "victims" were fellow members of the cast, and some were even just older people on the street.
As soon as these photos were shown online, the entire community erupted at once.
Even Betty put her foot down, with his backing, and began demanding an even higher price from me.
The officer began looking at me suspiciously.
And when Katie saw that the tide was once more turning against me, she began fanning the flames, saying, "That's why I decided to stand up against her today! It's not just for me but also for the rest of her victims. There might be hundreds and thousands more people just like me!
"I initially thought of bearing with everything, but that would only make the situation escalate as she continues abusing even more people!"
Meanwhile, I just glanced nonchalantly at the photos on the tablet and thought about the past week when I'd suddenly get aggressively bumped while just walking down the street, and then the person would immediately fall to the ground.
I understood everything at once.
I shrugged and said, "So what can these photos prove? You're saying that I've been long-term bullying and abusing these people?
"What a joke."
When Katie saw that I wasn't affected, she gritted her teeth and said, "These photos are all the people who got bullied and harassed by you! We've found them all, and they will also stand up to you with me to prove that you were the one bullying them!"
As expected, the same people who appeared in the photos suddenly appeared behind them in a long queue.
I burst out laughing. "Oh, I feel bad for you guys, putting on such a huge show for everyone.
"Well, since things have escalated this way, I've got something good to show you too. Maybe everyone should have a look."
Then, I retrieved a flash drive from my pocket, plugged it into my phone, and showed the screen to the camera.
There were dozens of videos on the flash drive, and I just picked a random one to start playing.
The officer and the rest of the crowd doubled their eyes in shock when they saw the contents of the video. They shook in disbelief.