Maya arrives as I'm sitting on my kitchen floor, surrounded by broken ceramic and the wreckage of my phone screen where I threw it against the wall.
"Honey." She sits beside me, doesn't mention the mess. "We'll fix this."
"How? How do we fix this?" I gesture at the TV, still playing clips of me and Korgan, each one edited to look calculating andcold. "They made me look like a manipulative monster. Like everything with him was fake."
"Was it?"
"Maya."
"I'm just asking. Because if it wasn't fake, if what you have with him is real, then that's our angle. That's how we fight back."
I laugh, bitter and broken. "With what? The truth? You think anyone cares about the truth when the lie is so much more interesting?"
My laptop chimes with notifications. Email after email flooding in. I scroll through them with growing horror.
Subject:Disappointed in your choices
Subject:Thought you were better than this
Subject:Boycotting your business
Subject:You're a disgrace
Some are longer. Detailed explanations of how I've let down the community, how I've embarrassed small-town values, how I've proven that people like me only care about fame and money.
Others are short and brutal:Slut. Liar. Fake.
"The bakery website crashed," Maya says quietly, checking her phone. "Too much traffic. All negative."
"Great. Perfect. I guess they deceived us with the support from the livestream." I close the laptop before I can read any more. "What about the show? Have they said anything?"
"Radio silence. No statements, no interviews, nothing."
"And Korgan?"
Maya's pause tells me everything.
"He's not answering his phone."
Not answering. After everything we talked about yesterday, everything we planned together, he's not answering his phone.
"Maybe the producers took it. You know how they control communication during filming."
"Maybe."
But I know Maya doesn't believe it any more than I do. If Korgan wanted to reach me, he'd find a way. He's broken their rules before. The fact that he hasn't...
My phone rings. Text from an unknown number.
Filming postponed today due to "technical difficulties." All contestants confined to quarters until further notice.
Technical difficulties. Right. More like damage control while they figure out how to spin this disaster.
I spend the day in a haze of cancellation calls and angry emails. By evening, half my wholesale accounts are gone. Two local restaurants have pulled their standing orders. The farmer's market coordinator calls todiscusswhether my booth is still appropriate for their family-friendly environment.
Each conversation feels like sandpaper against my soul. Polite, professional rejection wrapped in concern aboutbrand alignmentandcommunity standards.
"We're not saying we believe the allegations," they all say. "But until this situation resolves..."
