Amelia's phone exploded with notifications at exactly 6:47 AM.
She rolled over in bed, still half asleep. The buzzing wouldn't stop. Text after text. Call after call. Her phone screen lit up like a Christmas tree.
"What the heck?" she mumbled, grabbing her phone.
The first message was from her best friend Lila: "Amy, please tell me this isn't real."
Amelia sat up straight. Her heart started beating fast.
The second message was from her mom: "Honey, call me right now."
The third was from a number she didn't know: "You're disgusting."
Then another: "I can't believe I bought your music."
And another: "You're a bully and a fake."
Amelia's hands started shaking. She opened her social media app. The first thing she saw made her stomach drop to the floor.
A video of her was playing on every screen. But it wasn't just any video.
In the clip, she was yelling at a young girl with tears in her eyes. The girl looked scared and small. Amelia was pointing her finger and saying mean things.
"You'll never make it in this business!" Video-Amelia screamed. "You're nothing! Go home and give up!"
But Amelia had never said those words. She had never even met that girl.
"This can't be real," she whispered.
She watched the video again. It looked exactly like her. Same face, same voice, same everything. But she knew she had never been that cruel to anyone.
The comments under the video were getting worse by the second.
"Liya is a monster."
"How could she treat a kid like that?"
"I'm burning all my Liya posters."
Amelia's phone rang. It was Marcus, her manager.
"Amelia, where are you?" His voice was sharp and angry.
"I'm at home. Marcus, that video isn't real. I never—"
"It doesn't matter if it's real or not. It's everywhere. Every news show, every website, every social media page. You're trending for all the wrong reasons."
"But I didn't do this!"
"The girl in the video is Selene Williams. She's that new singer everyone's talking about. This morning, she posted a long message about how you bullied her last month at the Galaxy Music Awards."
Amelia's mind was spinning. She remembered meeting Selene at the awards show. They had talked for maybe five minutes. Selene seemed sweet and nervous. Amelia had even given her some encouraging words.
"Marcus, I was nice to her. I told her she had a beautiful voice."
"Well, that's not what the whole world thinks right now."
Amelia could hear phones ringing in the background at Marcus's office.
"The record label is freaking out. Your sponsors are calling. This is bad, Amelia. Really bad."
"What do I do?"
"Stay inside. Don't talk to anyone. Don't post anything. I'll try to fix this mess."
The line went dead.
Amelia ran to her window and looked outside. Three news trucks were already parked across the street. Reporters were setting up cameras on her front lawn.
Her doorbell started ringing over and over again.
"Miss Grant! Miss Grant! Can you comment on the video?"
Amelia backed away from the window. Her whole body was shaking now. How had her perfect life turned into a nightmare in just one morning?
She tried calling her boyfriend Ethan. It went straight to voicemail.
She tried calling her friend Tina. No answer.
She tried calling Jade. No answer either.
Everyone was avoiding her.
The only person who answered was her mom.
"Amy, honey, are you okay?"
"Mom, I didn't do what they're saying. That video is fake somehow."
"I know, sweetheart. Your father and I are driving up right now."
"The reporters are outside my house."
"We'll figure this out together. Just stay inside and don't open the door for anyone."
Amelia spent the next hour watching her career fall apart on television. Every news channel was showing the video. Talk show hosts were discussing what a terrible person she was. Her fans were posting videos of themselves throwing away her albums.
By noon, her record label had released a statement: "We are deeply disappointed by these events and are reviewing our relationship with the artist."
By 2 PM, three major companies had cancelled their contracts with her.
By 4 PM, her face was being used in memes with words like "MEAN GIRL" and "FAKE STAR" written across it.
Amelia felt like she was drowning.
Her phone rang again. This time it was Ethan.
"Finally!" she said, answering quickly. "Ethan, thank god. You know I would never—"
"Amelia, I can't do this anymore."
Her heart stopped. "What do you mean?"
"This video, the way people are talking about you... it's affecting my career too. People are asking me how I could date someone so cruel."
"But you know me! You know I'm not like that!"
"Do I? Sometimes I wonder if I ever really knew you at all."
Amelia felt like he had punched her in the stomach.
"Ethan, please. I need you right now."
"I'm sorry, Amelia. I have to think about my future."
Click. He hung up.
Amelia dropped her phone and started crying. Big, ugly tears that made her whole body shake. Everything she had worked for her entire life was disappearing. Her fans hated her. Her friends wouldn't talk to her. Even her boyfriend had turned his back on her.
The doorbell rang again.
"Miss Grant! We know you're in there! Just give us one statement!"
Amelia covered her ears and ran upstairs to her bedroom. She pulled the covers over her head and tried to make the world go away.
But even under her blankets, she could hear her phone buzzing with more angry messages.
Hours passed. The sun started going down. The reporters were still outside.
Amelia was staring at the ceiling when her phone made a different sound. A text message from a number she didn't recognize.
"This is just the beginning, Liya. You took something that belonged to us fifteen years ago. Now we're taking everything from you. Give us what we want, or tomorrow's video will be even worse."
Amelia's blood turned to ice.
There was going to be another video.
But what had she taken fifteen years ago? She was just nine years old then. What could a little kid possibly take that someone would want back now?
Her phone buzzed again with another message from the same unknown number.
"You have 24 hours. Check your old bedroom at your parents' house. You'll remember what you forgot to leave behind. Bring it to Miller's Bridge tomorrow at midnight, or the next video will destroy what's left of your pathetic career forever."
Amelia stared at the message until her eyes hurt.
Someone had been planning this attack for fifteen years. Someone who knew about her childhood. Someone who knew exactly how to destroy her life piece by piece.
But who? And what did they want?
Thunder crashed outside her window. It was starting to rain.
Amelia looked at the message one more time, and a terrible thought entered her mind.
What if the person destroying her life was someone she had trusted?