Chapter 6: Trending

The next morning Joan sent me a link before I had my shoes on.

The local news site had it at the top of the page.

The video was nine seconds long.

It showed Polly's hand on my wrist, my arm pulling back, Polly falling, and then Polly crying to a crowd.

Nothing before it and nothing after.

The headline said: Radio Host Shames Vulnerable Young Woman.

Under it were new photos, taken outside the courthouse.

Nolan, smiling, wiping ice cream off Polly's mouth.

In the corner of the frame, a woman in a gray coat sat collapsed on the steps.

The caption said I had faked an illness to win sympathy after being turned down.

I sat on the edge of my friend's couch with the phone shaking in my hand.

The comments had found my name and the station in under an hour.

She tells people how to love, and she's a homewrecker.

Cancel her show.

The station switchboard had been jammed since seven.

Two partners had pulled their ads by nine.

I took the bus in because I did not want to arrive in anything Nolan had paid for.

At the front doors, a crowd was waiting with cameras.

A man in a green windbreaker shoved a microphone at my chin.

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