The Unlucky Turn by Mark Twain 263
“Hello, Lewis. Arrange a batch of paid trolls for me. I need them to flood the comments right now.” Tamara sent the post and the talking points to Lewis. Very quickly, the comment section of Carola’s post was swarmed by new accounts, all posting identical copy-pasted content.
“Anyone defending Leilani must be a bot she bought, right? Laughable. Do you really think people are stupid?”
“Clive hasn’t had a single scandal in all his years since debut. How vicious must someone be to make him lose his temper?”
“Leilani’s simps need to stop jumping around. Does a jailbird piece of trash deserve to be whitewashed?”
“No way, no way. Are there actually people defending an ex-convict?”
“Anyone speaking for Leilani is definitely a paid shill.”
Whenever a user spoke up for Leilani, they were immediately surrounded and abused by the bots. Some users even had their personal social media accounts doxxed and bombed with private messages. Soon, the sporadic voices of opposition disappeared completely. The trending topics and posts were left with nothing but a sea of abuse directed at Leilani.
Tamara put down her phone with satisfaction, her fingers tapping lightly on the desk. A glint of malicious amusement flashed in her eyes.
While the internet criticized and insulted her from top to bottom, Leilani was sound asleep in her own home.
The ringtone of Leilani’s phone on the table cut sharply through the silence. She frowned, groggily reaching out to feel for the phone. Without even opening her eyes, she pressed the answer button.
“Hello…”
“Leilani! You’re still sleeping?”
Judie Fulton’s voice exploded from the receiver, sounding urgent enough to burn the house down.
“Check the trending topics! You’re being ripped apart online!”
Leilani lazily turned over, her tone still carrying the rasp of sleep. “Oh. What is it this time?”
Judie choked on her calm attitude, her voice rising an octave. “What do you mean ‘what is it this time’? Some lunatic wrote a post talking trash about you and the Sloan family. Everyone is praising Tamara and trashing you right now! Clive even issued a statement spreading nonsense to smear you. The whole internet is calling you an ungrateful wretch! You need to get up and clarify things!”
Judie spoke fast and furiously, but Leilani heard exactly what had happened. She finally opened her eyes and sat up slowly, showing none of the anxiety or sadness Judie had imagined.
Leilani rubbed her messy long hair, her tone as calm as ever. “Clarify what? Let them curse if they
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want.”
Judie stomped her foot in frustration. “Leilani! This is your reputation at stake! How can you be so calm!”
Leilani chuckled lightly, a hint of weariness in her voice. “Judie, I’ve seen the Sloan family’s tricks a thousand times. I’m bored of them. Let them put on their show. All I ask is that they cut ties with me sooner and cross my name off the family registry.”
Judie paused. “…The family registry?”
“Yeah.” Leilani, having been woken up by Judie, responded with a lingering laziness in her voice. “The paperwork to sever relations with them isn’t finished yet. Legally, we’re still family. It’s annoying.”
Judie fell silent for a few seconds before sighing. “Leilani, you really have… a big heart.”
However, hearing Leilani’s calm tone, Judie’s frantic mood inexplicably settled down. It was a classic case of the bystander being more anxious than the person involved.
If Leilani was truly this calm, then Judie panicking wouldn’t help anything.
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