My boss, Paul Cunningham, blew a major investment. When the board came after him, he shoved me out as the fall guy.

After I got fired, I couldn't keep up with the mortgage. As if things weren't bad enough, my husband fell sick and needed money fast. I went back to ask for severance.

Paul stayed in his luxury car and flicked a couple of hundred bucks at me.

"Severance?" he scoffed. "Selene, you cost me billions. And you still have the nerve to ask me for money?"

He smirked. "Take it. Use it to pick out a decent urn for your husband."

I stood there, watching the car disappear down the street, my fists clenched so tightly that my nails dug into my palms.

That night, I dropped a bomb in a large investor group chat.

[Hi, I'm looking for new job opportunities. I have years of experience cooking the books, and my ex-boss loved my work!]

The group chat exploded almost instantly.

My boss, Paul Cunningham, messaged me privately.

[Selene, have you lost your mind? What was that nonsense you posted? Delete it now!

[Too late,] I typed back. [I can't delete it anymore. And why are you so nervous, Mr. Cunningham? I was just using you as an example. Why are you getting worked up?]

Right after that, I dropped my résumé into the group.

[Job wanted, urgent! I can start anytime. Got financial headaches? I'm your guy. Insider info from a big-name company, upfront pricing, no games!]

Messages flooded in.

[Selene, did you get hacked?]

[You'll go to jail for leaking company secrets!]

I let out a quiet laugh.

[Who said anything about leaking? I'm just sharing an example. Got it? I can barely afford groceries at home, and my husband's in the hospital. You think I'd be doing this if I had a choice?]

Someone who knew what was going on tagged Paul.

[Mr. Cunningham, what's going on? Ms. Jensen used to be your right hand. Are you just letting this happen?]

It took him a while to respond.

[Those so-called examples are completely made up! Selene caused massive losses due to a serious mistake and has been terminated. I suggest everyone be careful and not fall for her claims.]

The moment I read that, anger surged straight to my head.

Nice move, Paul. The guy leveraged millions, lost billions, and he was now pinning it all on me while trying to ruin my name, too.

Fine. Let's play.

I didn't waste a second. I posted the actual development cost breakdown of a game project. Almost immediately, someone messaged me.

[Selene, is this real? It's only a little over a million? You're not messing with me, right?]

[Of course, it's real.]

[That jerk Paul got me to invest millions! He kept crying about being short on cash, and in the end, I only got a few hundred thousand back. Does he think I'm stupid?

[I knew something was off. The game has tons of users, but we can't even see the transaction details. They said it was confidential, but Paul took the biggest share while the rest of us were just cannon fodder.

[This is unbelievable!]

Even through the screen, I could tell he was furious.

I didn't reply. I just let him sit with it.

It didn't take long for him to ask, [Selene, can you help me take him down? He ran off to climb some mountain, talking about chasing new heights, and left me here dealing with this mess.]

I glanced at my husband, Oliver Jensen, lying in the hospital bed, then typed slowly.

[Why would I help you? What do you have that's worth my help?]

A transfer for 20 thousand dollars came through almost instantly.

[Let's meet when you're free. Use this for now.]

I didn't respond, but I accepted it.

After paying the hospital bills, I finally felt like I could breathe again.

I grabbed my laptop and headed to the parking garage beneath the office building. From there, I could go straight up to the main entrance.

Before leaving, I took care of something only I could do.

Half an hour later, I walked back out and sent Paul a message.

[Paul, it's on. Starting now, I'm dropping something new every eight hours. Be ready.]

His reply came quickly.

[You've got no evidence. Stop trying to bluff me. Go ahead and make it public. Cooking the books will land you in prison, too!]

I let out a low laugh.

[Who said I'm the one going to prison? You pushed me into this. And who told you I'm using fake accounts to threaten you? Do I really need to remind you how much dirt you've got?

[Three days. That's all it'll take. Every eight hours. I mean it.]

After that, I hung up and went straight to social media.

I exposed a harassment scandal involving Paul and one of his female employees.

That was just the first move.

For a man like him, a scandal like that would barely even count.

Compared to the kind of scandals celebrities get dragged into, what I had dropped barely counted. It was just a test run.

When the second eight-hour mark hit, I released the next piece.

This time, it was evidence that Paul had deliberately set up a scheme to suppress a local company.

Back then, he had driven them into the ground and wrecked their lives. The owner had been appealing for years. I just handed over the proof he needed.

The two leaks hit at once, and the reaction online was way bigger than I expected.

People started reaching out to me that same day, but I didn't reply to anyone.

The internet blew up on its own. It didn't take long before people started digging and uncovered the history between me and Paul.

[So she got laid off without severance and decided to expose him? Doesn't sound like she's innocent, either.]

[Did she just get out of prison or something? That's bold.]

[OP, can you take a look at this company's stock? Is it still worth buying? I'm thinking of getting in cheap.]

The comments were all over the place. Some supported me, some didn't. I didn't care either way.

But it definitely hit Paul where it hurt. He couldn't sit still anymore.

He messaged me directly.

[You just want compensation, right? Fine, I'll give it to you. Name your price. Just stop messing with me, alright?]

I laughed under my breath.

Did he really think this was just about money?

Not even close.

I didn't reply. I stayed outside Oliver's hospital room. As his condition slowly improved and he finally started waking up, the tight knot in my chest loosened.

At the same time, the data on my laptop finished processing.

I stared at the screen for a moment, then pressed send.

When I didn't respond, Paul called to threaten me.

"Selene, if you don't want trouble, you'd better keep your mouth shut. Your husband still needs money, right? I'll give it to you. It's just severance. I'll settle it at double compensation."

I let out a short, cold laugh.

"That's nothing," I said. "You pinned billions in losses on me and ruined my name. Now you think a few hundred thousand will make it go away?"

"So what do you want?"

"Two million."

"In your dreams! I'd rather spend that hiring people to bury you online than give it to you!"

"Then there's nothing more to talk about."

I hung up.

Right then, the third drop hit the trending charts.

[BloomRise Foundation Charity Fraud]

That one set the entire internet on fire.

[Wait, this is fake? Then where did all the donations go? Didn't they say it was for building school libraries?]

[Are you serious? They spent ten grand on travel, but only six grand on donated school supplies. So this was basically a group-funded vacation? And they even picked a school out by a tourist spot!]

[Fun fact: that school shut down two years ago. So where did the money actually go?]

[Mr. Cunningham's busy right now. He's off climbing a mountain.]

[The one exposing him used to be an accountant. This is one of those moves where you hurt them but hurt yourself, too. She's not planning to survive this!]

They were wrong.

It wasn't that I didn't want to survive.

It was precisely because I wanted to survive that I chose this path.

By now, Paul was clearly panicking.

In just 24 hours, I had dropped three major leaks. One set his personal life on fire. One damaged his reputation. And the last one shoved him and his company straight into the spotlight.

Questions flooded in from every direction.

Both his personal account and the company account were buried under demands and ridicule. Their PR team was falling apart trying to keep up.

A former coworker I was still on good terms with messaged me privately.

Paul had rushed back. Everyone was working overtime, scrambling to come up with a response as fast as possible.

I couldn't help but smile.

If it were that easy to fix, I wouldn't have picked these three in the first place.

By the time Paul showed up, I had just walked out of the doctor's office.

The doctor said Oliver's condition was stabilizing. If everything kept improving, he could be discharged soon.

For the first time in a while, I felt like I could finally breathe.

Then I looked up and saw Paul.

He stood there with that half-smile I knew too well and held out a bank card.

"There's 100 grand here," he said. "Take it and stop. There's no need to make this uglier than it already is. What do you gain by pushing me into a corner like this?"

I pushed the card back toward him.

"You made me take the fall. You ruined my reputation and left me drowning in mortgage payments with no way to keep up. My husband needed money to stay alive, and you wouldn't give me a cent. So don't blame me for what I do next.

"I'm only doing this so I can survive.

"Paul, I gave you seven years. That's not something you buy back with 100 grand. I want two million. Not a dollar less."

His expression darkened, like he hadn't expected me to push back this hard.

"Fine," he said coldly. "We'll see how this ends."

He turned and walked off. I didn't even bother watching him go.

The retaliation came fast.

Early the next morning, the police showed up and took me away right from the hospital.

"Selene Jensen, you've been reported for defamation. You'll need to come with us."

I had already asked my mother-in-law to stay with Oliver so he wouldn't worry.

When the police arrived, I stayed calm and went with them.

The second we stepped out of the hospital, reporters swarmed in from every direction.

"Mrs. Jensen, you accused Mr. Cunningham's company of charity fraud, and now you've been detained. How do you feel about that?"

"When you exposed the harassment case involving that female employee, did you even get her consent?"

"You call yourself righteous, but aren't you just another person violating someone's privacy?"

I just smiled.

"Eight hours are up," I said calmly. "There's another drop coming. I hope Mr. Cunningham hired enough people this time to save himself."

The crowd surged forward instantly.

"What is it? Can you tell us anything?"

"What is it about?"

I stopped, turned toward the cameras, and met their eyes.

"It's a piece of evidence that will ruin Paul completely and leave him with nothing," I said, my voice steady.

Then I smiled and got into the police car.

At the station, they didn't interrogate me much. They just had me confirm that I was the one who made the posts.

I provided the supporting evidence.

Not long after, two lawyers showed up, claiming to represent Paul's company, Unity Holdings.

"Ms. Jensen, we're filing a lawsuit against you for defamation and extortion."

I let out a quiet laugh.

"If it were fabricated, sure, you could sue me," I said, "but facts aren't defamation. And don't call this extortion. That's completely made up. This is money Paul owes me, my severance, and the dividends from my original shares. It's been seven years, and I still haven't seen a cent. I'm just asking for what's mine. Since when is that illegal?

"You're lawyers. You should know better. Take a look at this shareholder agreement. Tell me if you see a problem."

The moment they read it, their expressions changed.

I smiled.

"Go tell Paul he has three minutes," I said. "After that, the next drop goes live."

They turned and immediately called him.

Through the phone, I could hear him shouting.

"Tell her to keep dreaming! That agreement is fake! I don't believe she can do anything. Take her down!"

I let out a quiet sigh.

If that was his answer, then there was nothing left to say.

Three minutes later, a 24-page PDF hit the internet.

Unity Holdings shot straight to the top of the trending list.

When Paul saw it, he collapsed back into his chair.