Chapter 5 - The Collapse of Maya’s World
While Caleb was being escorted out of Apex Capital by two armed security guards carrying a cardboard box full of his belongings, my sister Maya was sitting in an artisan coffee shop downtown, completely unaware of the financial earthquake that had just struck our family.
She was busy reviewing her Instagram analytics. The viral video Caleb had posted had given her account a massive bump in engagement. She had spent the last two hours emailing luxury fashion brands, offering to promote their autumn line in exchange for five-thousand-dollar sponsorship fees.
Her phone buzzed. An incoming call from her talent agency, Luxe Digital Management.
Maya answered with her hyper-curated, cheerful voice. "Hi, Chloe! Did Chanel get back to us about the fall campaign?"
"Maya," Chloe’s voice was clipped, lacking its usual fake enthusiasm. "Where are you right now?"
"I’m at Cafe Fleur, just doing some content planning—"
"Turn on the news, Maya. Or look at Twitter. Or open literally any news app on earth."
Maya frowned, setting down her oat-milk latte. She opened Twitter.
The top three trending topics worldwide were:
#AetherIA
#SarahSterling
#TheObsidianResortAssault
Maya’s heart did a strange, violent flip in her chest. She tapped the second hashtag.
The top tweet, posted by TechCrunch and retweeted over two hundred thousand times, featured the Bloomberg cover photo of me in my stained gray hoodie sitting in front of my cabin, juxtaposed directly next to a screenshot from Caleb’s TikTok video showing Maya grinning while Beatrice poured boiling coffee over my head.
The headline read: "INFLUENCER MAYA STERLING PARTICIPATES IN HUMILIATING ASSAULT ON HER AI-FOUNDER SISTER HOURS BEFORE $340M SALE."
Maya’s breath hitched. "What... what is this? Is this a prank? Sarah doesn't have an AI company! She lives in a cabin! She’s broke!"
"She’s not broke, Maya!" Chloe screamed through the phone. "She just sold her company for three hundred and forty million dollars! She’s currently the most talked-about tech entrepreneur on the planet!"
"She... she sold it for what?" Maya stammered, the café around her suddenly spinning.
"And it gets worse," Chloe continued ruthlessly. "Every single brand you worked with has cancelled their contracts. GlowSkin Co. just pulled their quarterly retainer. Nordic Apparel is suing you for breach of the morality clause in your contract. And Luxe Digital is dropping you as a client effective right now."
"Chloe, wait! You can't drop me! I didn't pour the coffee! It was Mom!"
"You sat there, smiled, filmed it, and uploaded it for clout!" Chloe spat. "The internet hates you, Maya. You’re radioactive. Don't ever call this agency again."
The line went dead.
Maya sat frozen at her table. Around her, several young women at adjacent tables were staring at their phones, then looking up at Maya, their eyes filled with horror and disgust.
A waitress stepped up to Maya’s table, her face hard and unsmiling. She dropped a paper check onto the table.
May you like
"Excuse me," the waitress said loudly enough for the whole café to hear. "We’re going to have to ask you to pay your bill and leave. Our management doesn't tolerate people who participate in domestic abuse for social media clout."
Maya’s face burned brighter than my scalp had on Saturday morning. Tears of sheer embarrassment spilling over her cheeks, she grabbed her designer handbag, dumped twenty dollars onto the table, and sprinted out the door into the street, hiding her face from the cameras of passersby who were already recognizing her.
