Page 4 of What Comes Around

“I expect great things from you.”

I met his gaze steadily.

“You won’t be disappointed, Mr. Sinclair.”

Chapter 2: The Man Apple Wanted

Over the past four years, Apple had turned herself into a brand built on controversy.

Her following was split into two violent extremes. On one side, the critics. On the other, the loyalists. And the loyalists were feral. They defended her under every post, every exposé, every tea-channel breakdown. They fought like soldiers in comment sections, attacked anyone who questioned her, and treated her like a misunderstood heroine persecuted by jealous trolls and haters.

Meanwhile, the rest of the internet treated her like a slow-motion car crash.

Every few months there was a new controversy. A new thread. A new deep dive. A new creator dissecting her tone, her past, her contradictions. Apple had learned to survive on outrage. Attention was attention. Numbers were numbers.

The most recent drama was over her new brand.

K.O.Z.E.

Soft blankets. Cozy loungewear. Neutral tones. Warm marketing. Emotional captions about comfort, healing, and self-care.

Except.

In Canada, a small business had been selling handmade blankets under the name Koze for years.

Long before Apple ever touched it.

Apple had taken the name, trademarked it in the U.S., and forced the original creator to rebrand. Overnight, the girl could no longer sell under her own brand.

The girl posted a TikTok explaining everything. Old listings. Old social pages. Years of proof. She admitted she had never trademarked the name because she never believed her small business would grow that far. By the time she realized it mattered, it was already gone.

Her brand was taken from her.

When Amy sent me the video, I told her to boost it the way we had done before. Anonymous views. Paid engagement. Just enough to make the algorithm flag it as trending.

Once it started circulating, it spread on its own.

Within days, it was everywhere.

And Apple’s haters, who were always waiting with pitchforks already in hand, finally had fresh blood to chase.

Apple ignored it.

She kept advertising her blankets. Deleted comments. Limited replies. Acted like it would blow over.

It never did.

The drama resurfaced again and again, at least once a year. Each time, the deep-dive exposé videos returned with more material, more receipts, more voices willing to connect the dots. The past never stayed buried. It only waited for the next excuse to come back louder.

Before the brand theft, there had been another scandal.

Her former assistant posted a video explaining how she had been hired as an unpaid intern. How she had been forced to answer social media messages pretending to be Apple. How she had written captions, managed comments, negotiated brand emails. How Apple treated her like a personal slave while reminding her she was “lucky to be there.”

Amy boosted that video too.

I had more than enough money to pay for views and help truth travel faster.

Apple denied everything.