One Click
The room was dark.
Not because there was no electricity, but because Anastasia didn't want her landlord to know she was inside.
The only light in the room came from the laptop sitting on the table. Beside it was a bowl of cereal she was having for dinner.
There were bills scattered all over her work desk.
Rent
Electricity
Internet
Debt notices
Anastasia stared at the bills for a while before pushing them to the side with a tired sigh. "I'll deal with you later," she mumbled.
She continued eating as she refreshed her page. There were no new stories.
"Maybe I should go out tomorrow in search of anything".
She thought
She checked her previous posts and articles. There wasn't much progress.
At least she knew every click, reshare and advert would earn her something, even if it's not much. It was going to sustain her from going completely broke.
She glanced at the bills one more time.
Her father's mistakes that became hers to bear.
The loans from her college days. Life itself was hard.
She also had to provide for her younger brother and mother.
"What a cruel world," she mumbled.
Her stomach growled even though she was eating. A bowl of cereal wasn't exactly filling but this was all she could afford till she received her salary. She was grateful she was able to send her brother his tuition fee at all.
A knock on the next apartment made her jump.
She quickly muted her laptop and closed it.
She held her breath.
She stared at Windy, the stray cat she brought home which she had met hungry and injured on the roadside.
Gesturing to it not to make a sound.
Footsteps echoed throughout the hallway.
She knew it was the landlord, and he had told them he would be going round to inspect the place today.
The footsteps drew closer and closer.
"Please, please don't come here," she prayed in her heart.
After what felt like an eternity, the footsteps continued down the hallway.
She released the breath she didn't realize she was holding onto
"That was close."
She took another spoonful of her cereal before refreshing her blog statistics for what felt like the thousandth time that night.
There was nothing interesting to see
"Dear Lord, please... just one story one big story so I'll be free from all these burdens."
She rubbed her eyes.
As if the universe heard her pleas, she got a new notification. Her laptop made a soft sound
Ping.
A new email
"Another debt," She muttered, eyeing the laptop.
She was reluctant to see the message but she did anyway.
"You wanted a story. You've gotten one" she read the content of the email.
There was a photo attached to it. She clicked on it, her mouth fell open. Damien Walker
He was standing close to another man. They seemed to be kissing from the angle the photo was taken. The man had his hands around Damien.
"Oh my God," she finally found her voice.
The email was anonymous.
Another message dropped.
"He claims to be the perfect businessman, the world deserves to know the truth."
Another one dropped.
"It's not the fact that he's gay, but the problem is that he uses sexual relationships to get what he wants. He threatens his lovers after getting his deals and uses it against them."
"Damien Walker?"
Anna couldn't believe this
Damien was one of the country's biggest billionaires and also a young and accomplished businessman in the country of City X.
The young billionaire every magazine couldn't stop talking about.
He never made too many public appearances only when it was necessary.
She adjusted herself in her chair.
She blinked twice, her hands resting on her keyboard.
This was too hard to digest. The email felt off.
But the photo was real. It was not AI-generated or photoshopped.
She thought for what felt like hours.
She stared at the tons of bills stacked up at the corner of her desk, and back at the screen of her laptop.
She was scared but thinking about her life and challenges she felt her courage coming back.
She had a plan. She was going to post it anonymously, not on her usual page.
She'd still make the money without the fame or recognition.
She started typing. After hours of writing, she finally had a polished article.
She pressed Publish.
For a few seconds...
Nothing happened.
Then her screen refreshed.
One view.
Ten.
A hundred.
A thousand.
Her eyes grew wider as the numbers climbed faster than she had ever seen.
Her phone buzzed.
Then buzzed again.
And again.
Comments.
Shares.
Notifications.
Her article was spreading.
A smile slowly appeared on her face.
Finally.
Finally, something was going right.
She had no idea that with a single click...
She had just made the biggest mistake of her life.
Walker Enterprises.....
The whole building was in an uproar.
Everybody was talking. The workers, executives, even the cleaners.
A board meeting was called that morning.
Damien's PA looked like he was going to cry any time soon. The issue at hand was too much for him to handle.
"We are losing major deals. Our stock price has dropped significantly." One of the executives complained bitterly.
"I just lost a big contract that was already settled." Another added bitterly.
"Where is Mr. Walker?" They demanded from his PA.
"Well Mr. Walker is not in country X right now. After signing the multi billion dollars deal, he had something personal to take care of." His PA replied, his voice shaking.
"Is it true? The allegations... the photo..." they questioned
His PA couldn't answer.
"What fucking deal? The deal is lost. Mr. Blanchflower just pulled out now."
"Oh my God. This is a terrible hit."
"Call him, tell him to come back and fix this." One of the executives screamed.
"His number is not reachable. Nothing from him."
Martin Walker, the elder brother of Damien stood on the podium to address the executives.
"I've been trying to reach Damien since last night too but I just can't. I don't know how all these happened overnight. I..."
"You know very well that photo wasn't fake," one of them fired back not allowing him to finish.
"First of all, we'll tackle this by taking down every post related to this. The media team is doing that right now. " Martin assured them
"We lost too much for anybody to fear the consequences."
"I assure you, we'll fix this." he assured them once again.
"We have to remove him. That way we'll save face. We should separate his personal life from the company." One of the executives spoke
They all agreed.
The door of the boardroom flew open.
Everybody looked up.
There he was, Damien Walker.
The reason for all these commotions.
What shocked everyone most was his calm facial expression. He didn't look like someone whose name was being dragged through the mud.
His polished shoes made clicking sounds as it made contact with the marble tiles.
Click. Click.
"Are you all done?" He asked placing the file he was holding on the table.
He also removed his gloves.
The executives were shaken. He still had that aura.
He walked to the podium
"Thank you, I'll take it from here Martin."
Taking his seat at the head of the table he asked one clear question.
"Who published it?"
Mr. Brown, the head of the media department, got up immediately.
"We are taking the articles down, sir."
"I didn't ask who shared it."
"I'm asking about who started it?"
The whole place grew silent.
"If you can't provide the person, then don't bother coming back to work tomorrow."
The man was taken aback
"Sir, it was an anonymous post, but we're trying all we can to locate the IP address."
Damien buttoned his suit jacket.
I hope this was worth your career.
He turned towards the door.
"Find whoever started it."
