Page 176 of Knot So Social

My throat chokes up.

Wow. Is that the best you can come up with? Don’t you know we could only be so lucky, never hearing your whiny voice again? Oh please, Willow. Threaten me with a good time, why don’t you?

Tears burn in my eyes. I grip my phone and whirl for the door.

Joel catches my wrist. “Willow!”

“Don’t!” I hiss. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me!”

Where the hell did I put my security remote? I let my guard down, lulled by a false sense of security. I’m not safe unless I’m alone. How could I forget?

I run to my office, lurching from one unsteady leg to the other. What can I do to stop the fall out? The sooner I get a statement out, the better. But what can I say to patch up an exploding dam? Can I buy someone off? And what exactly did Kylie say was the cause?

I detour via my bedroom and open the side table, yanking the drawer all the way out when it catches. Lip moisturizer, night cream, and hair pins tumble out in a heap. I grab the remote like it’s my lifeline, holding it to my cheek as I scurry back through the house to my office.

Mr Shares whines and scratches at the glass outside, but I don’t stop.

“Willow!” Alessandro begs from the kitchen. “Please, talk to us, cara mia!”

The endearing phrase now grates on my ears.

“Stay back,” I warn darkly, holding my remote out. I circle the three men, not turning my back to them, before sprinting the last few steps to my office.

A sob catches in my throat as I lock the door. I want to stop, to collapse, to beg my alphas for answers.

“So weak, little omega. Can’t do anything on your own, can you?”

The old critiques now mingle so freely with my own thoughts, they’ve become my inner voice. Maybe the three alphas outside my door were saying the same things, but I wasn’t listening.

I drop into my seat, but the chair feels too cold, too bouncy. The floor’s rocking under my feet.

“Come on, come on!” I snarl as the computer loads up. I click over to my social media account with shaking hands.

Ten thousand notifications. Eleven thousand.

Fraud.

So it was all lies?

Is she even an omega?

Finally I track it all back to the source.

I’m the woman in pink sitting in the back of that café. And I can tell you 100% Boss Omega wasn’t there. I’d know! I was her fan, so I would’ve begged for an autograph. But now I see she’s making stuff up and I bet this isn’t the only time. I can’t trust her anymore. And here’s the best part – every time I post this comment she hides it. Why are you hiding, Boss Liar?

Others take up the cry.

OMG! Someone filmed an empty seat at a restaurant I was at. I thought I was imagining it, but I just checked and she has it posted here. She’s making up her visits to places.

Call the bitch out!

My entire body quivers as I read on. Nasty, demanding notes blip into my messages list every minute, asking what’s going on. It’s only been an hour or two since I was last online, but the vitriol’s spreading at an uncontrollable rate.

Socialite? She’s not social at all!

My Roman Empire’s burning, and I provided the fuel.

I just wanted to help people. My hands shake so much I keep double-clicking on the mouse by accident. A slew of demands for refunds for Boss School pour into my emails. Even the omegas I helped won’t stand by me with my lies coming out.