Chapter 7
821words
"Your bomb has triggered quite the chain reaction," I remarked without looking up, watching a stock graph plummet.
"Of course," Ava replied with lazy satisfaction. "Once dominoes start falling, they don't stop at just one."
Just as she finished speaking, her phone chimed with a special notification sound—an alert she'd set for a specific account.
Ava sat up straight, her eyes brightening.
"It's happening."
【Event 1 - Beginning】
In a café known for its elegant patio, the atmosphere had turned decidedly inelegant.
Jake, eyes bloodshot like an enraged bull, glared at the man casually stirring his coffee across the table. His voice came through gritted teeth: "Liam, what the fuck did you do?"
His world had collapsed in hours. Kate had blocked him and staged a dramatic "trash sorting" on social media, humiliating him before all their friends. His treasured three-year relationship and impending proposal had evaporated into shame.
"How could you be so careless?" Jake's voice trembled with mingled anger and panic. "Now everyone knows! You've dragged me down with you!"
Liam finally looked up, his handsome face showing not guilt but irritation at being bothered.
"Why are you shouting?" he said dismissively. "You're the one who got dumped, not me."
【Event 2 - Development】
Those flippant words ignited Jake's fury.
"Not you? If it weren't for your mess, would Kate have freaked out?" Jake slammed the table, coffee sloshing over the rim. "Ava already caught you—why didn't you warn me? You selfish bastard!"
Liam had his own problems—Ava's revenge had him reeling, and he had no patience to comfort another drowning rat.
He sneered: "Blame me? Jake, are you kidding? You approached me first. You found it thrilling. You enjoyed our arrangement."
His voice wasn't loud, but each word stabbed precisely at Jake's vulnerabilities.
"Don't play innocent," Liam leaned forward, voice dripping contempt. "You seduced me first."
This table-turning accusation made Jake tremble with rage. The mask of the warm "buddy" shattered completely, revealing the ugliness beneath.
"I seduced YOU?" Jake shouted, oblivious to startled onlookers. "You weren't saying that when you were PAYING me!"
【Event 3 - Climax】
These words exploded like thunder through the quiet café.
Patrons at nearby tables froze mid-conversation, turning with expressions of shock and morbid curiosity.
Liam's face drained of color, then flushed crimson. The exposure of payment seemed to humiliate him far more than the infidelity itself.
He lurched to his feet and grabbed Jake's collar. "What the fuck are you talking about!" he growled, attempting to silence him with brute force.
"Am I lying?" Jake shoved him back, past caring about appearances. "You leech who lives off women—what right do you have to judge me?"
"You're just a cheap hustler trying to blackmail me!" Liam lost all control and threw a wild punch.
Jake awkwardly dodged and countered.
Two men who normally presented themselves as sophisticated were now brawling like street thugs in an upscale café. Tables toppled, ceramic shattered across marble floors, chaos erupting in the once-peaceful space.
Liam called Jake a whore who only showed up for cash, while Jake fired back that Liam was so worthless he couldn't even pay his hookers properly.
They unleashed every ugly insult imaginable, their filthy language stripping away each other's last shreds of dignity in broad daylight.
And every moment was captured by the forest of phones raised eagerly around them.
【Event 4 - Ending】
Ava and I watched the shaky, chaotic footage on her phone and burst into simultaneous laughter.
The clip was brief—barely thirty seconds—but packed with damning content. The two men's contorted faces, violent shoving, and vicious verbal attacks were all captured with perfect clarity.
The video now dominated the homepage of "Gossip Girl 2.0," a popular local Instagram account, posted just ten minutes earlier.
The publisher clearly knew how to generate buzz, adding the perfectly provocative caption:
"SHOCKING! Famous influencer Ava's ex-boyfriend and his 'best friend' publicly brawling over love (or money?!)"
Most devastatingly, they'd tagged @Ava.
Comments and likes were exploding by the second.
"OMG! They're finally going at it!"
"Paying?! That's a lot to unpack—someone give me the TL;DR!"
"So Ava's ex not only cheated, but paid for it? This is next-level messy!"
"@Ava come get your popcorn! This is the tea of the century!"
Every spotlight instantly swung toward Ava's account.
The stage was set, the audience gathered, everyone holding their breath in anticipation.
I turned to Ava. Her face showed the serene satisfaction of a job well done, a cold yet pleased gleam flickering in her eyes.
She picked up her phone and studied the notification tag, tapping the screen thoughtfully.
"All right," she said softly, like a queen preparing to address her subjects, "Now it's my turn to make the closing statement."
