Page 107 of Bad Things Come in Threes

I decided to step out before it turned into an unnecessary argument. The last thing I needed was for someone to mention a disturbance. I just wanted to be alone and it didn’t seem like either of them was going to back down anytime soon.

“It’s alright, Olivia,” I said as I stepped out and I felt both pairs of eyes turn to me. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?” she looked hesitant to leave me with Nathan but when I nodded, she sighed. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”

With one last harsh glance at Nathan that promised pain and suffering, she walked out of the room. Nathan stepped into my room and the clicking of the door as it fell shut sounded louder than it should have been because of how quiet the room was.

He reached for me and I took a step back and walked over to the bed. I saw his jaw clench and he let out a deep sigh. I ignored him as I lay down on the bed and I picked up my phone from where I left it on the drawer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him walk over to the edge of the bed but I scrolled through the numerous messages I had gotten about the situation until I found one that had a link to the video and I clicked play. I made sure my phone was on the loudest volume so he could hear it.

“I knew I was ashamed to be black,” my voice blared from the speakers. “As for the people, they can take a perfectly pink dildo and shove it up their ass.”

The audio recording stopped after that and I looked up at Nathan. Those were my words, yes, but that was not what I said. I didn’t even make those sentences on the same day. In one, I was talking about racists and in the other; I was talking about my childhood.

Someone had purposely taken different clips and sliced them together to make it look like I had said those things. Anyone who knew me would know I would have never said that but unfortunately the internet isn’t filled with people who know me. It is filled with people who have a perception of me and this just feeds straight into that.

I looked up at Nathan who had the guiltiest expression on his face. I patiently waited to hear what he would say. What excuse he was going to come up with for what we just heard but nothing came and that infuriated me.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” I asked. “You had a lot to say to Olivia and now you’re suddenly quiet. You wanted to see me so badly and now I’m right here but you’re not even speaking.”

“Sunshine, I have no idea how that got out,” his eyes begged me to believe him. “Very few people have access to those files and I swear I will figure out who did it and why but I had nothing to do with it. I would never and you know that I would never.”

The thing was, a part of me did believe that he would never but the evidence was right in front of me and I would have to be stupid to ignore the evidence. Regardless of that, I couldn’t stop the hopeful and naïve part from believing that he was truly innocent.

Instead of speaking, I rolled my eyes and turned my attention to my phone so I could scroll through and see what people had said about the clip. I already knew what to expect and for once, I couldn’t even hold it against anybody. I couldn’t find it in my heart to be upset with them because there was proof- albeit fake; that I had said those things. The comments ranged from disgusted to insulting to agreement.

I felt him walk up to me and I felt one of his hands wrap around my wrist while the other gently plucked my phone out of my hand. I raised a brow at him in amusement but he said nothing as he placed my phone on the table.

“I hit a guy today, I have no objections doing it twice,” I warned before adding under my breath. “I should issue an apology before I get sued for that.”

“Don’t, I’ll handle it.”

“In case you missed it Nathan, there’s nothing to handle. You say you didn’t put out that audio and I don’t know what to say to that. Whether you did it or not, the truth is that it is out there and nothing will change it.”

“I’ll release a statement saying it was edited and release the real clips.”

I was not expecting those words so it took a few minutes for it to actually register. I looked up at him expecting him to say he was joking or he misspoke but he had already taken out his phone from his pocket and I could see him typing furiously. In a second, I was on my feet and I snatched it right out of his hands and sure enough, he was already typing out a response.

“Are you crazy?” I spat. “You can’t just put out a response like that. What are you even thinking? Let it go, the situation will fizzle out by itself.”

“You can’t be serious,” he began but when he saw my expression, he scoffed. “Half the internet hates you because they think you’re a racist and the other half agrees with you because they’re racist.”

“This won’t be the first time the internet has hated me because of something that’s untrue,” I shrugged as I cleared the message he had already typed out.

“Yes but this time I can prove that it’s untrue. Why don’t you want me to do it?”

The truth was, I didn’t know. Hearing how he was quick to want to clear my name let me know everything I needed to- he really didn’t know what had happened. I didn’t want him to get dragged into the mess by defending me. People definitely saw us at the show and him defending me would simply look like a bias because of feelings attached.

When I told him as much, he scoffed.

“Do I look like I give a shit?” he asked. “I don’t care if people think I’m defending you because I like you. What I care about is you getting hated and stalked because of this. You’re clearly not thinking straight if you can’t see that the right thing to do would be to put an end to this at once.”

“I’m not letting you get involved in my battles,” I said simply. “Give it at least two days before you say anything. I just want to be alone right now.”

“I’m already involved. Whoever did this took personal information from my office and tampered with it. Even if it wasn’t about you, it isn’t something that should be condoned.”

“Well then sort it out within the confines of your office. I don’t care how you do it but I don’t need you going out of your way to defend me.”

He stared at me like I had gone crazy and told him the earth was square. “Are you out of your mind? I’m not going out of my way, I-”

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