Golden Cage Mommy Mutiny (Elyse) novel Chapter 7

I was almost amused.

“Free speech?” I looked straight at Elyse and said it slowly, so there was no room for misunderstanding. “Free speech doesn’t mean you get to fabricate lies and smear people. The boundary of freedom is the law.”

“When you sat at a keyboard and used lies to attack the company that employs you and pays your salary, you should’ve expected to pay a price.”

My eyes slid to Nancy’s chalk–white face. “And when you take the company’s goodwill and help with one

hand, then stab it in the back with the other, you lose the right to be forgiven.”

Nancy shuddered so hard she nearly slipped off her chair.

“As for ‘abusing power‘?” I turned back to Elyse, a hint of ridicule in my voice. “No. I’m using the law to defend my legal rights.”

“Just like you tried to use public opinion to defend what you called your ‘rights.‘ We’re even now.”

“No! This isn’t fair!” A young mom suddenly broke down, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. “I was

wrong! Ms. West, I was really wrong! I won’t do it again!”

She lunged out of her seat toward the front, but someone yanked her back.

“Please withdraw the lawsuit! I can’t pay five hundred thousand! Even if I sold my house, I couldn’t afford it!”

Her crying lit the room on fire.

“Ms. West, we were tricked! Elyse pushed us!”

“Yeah! She’s the mastermind! This has nothing to do with us!”

“Nancy too! She was in the group chat stirring things up!”

Elyse and Nancy became instant targets.

“You traitors! Cowards!” Elyse shook with rage, pointing at the people who’d just flipped on her. “Yesterday you swore you’d stand with me. Today you’re biting me first!”

Nancy collapsed in her seat, face empty, unable to speak.

When the shouting hit its peak, I tapped the table once. “Quiet.”

The room snapped silent. Every pair of eyes turned to me, pleading and terrified.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” I said flatly. “You want me to withdraw the lawsuit. You want me to let you

go.”

6.25

“I can.” Hope flared across their faces like a match. “But I have one condition.”

I let the pause stretch, long enough for their stomachs to tighten. “There are twenty–five defendants on that complaint. I will only sue the one person who ends up as the last name on the list. Who that last person is…

is up to you.”

They stared at me, confused. Only one? The last one? What did that even mean?

One of them, quick enough to understand, went dead pale. “You mean… you want us to… rat each other out?”

I smiled and nodded. “You could call it that. From now until five p.m. today, end of business…”

“Any one of you can come to my office and provide evidence that another defendant behaved worse than what I already know.”

“For example, who first proposed cash stipends. Who privately contacted reporters. Who taught others how to register burner accounts and post anonymous comments.”

“Each verified piece of evidence moves your name up one slot on the defendant list.”

“Five p.m., the system locks. The last person on that list will personally shoulder the entire twelve million five

hundred thousand.”

“And all criminal liability that comes with it.”

I looked at the faces in front of me, turning ashen instantly, yet in the next second showing strange glimmers in their eyes, and added the final line.

“Good luck.”