Joan's POV
I knocked over my water glass when the young waitress appeared beside my table.
The ice cubes spread across the white tablecloth as I jumped in my seat. My nerves were already shot from the frightening messages, and now every unexpected sound made me panic.
"Oh! I'm so sorry, Miss Robert!" the girl said quickly. "I didn't mean to startle you!"
"It's okay," I said, trying to quiet my racing heart. "I'm just a little jumpy tonight."
The girl looked about nineteen with sweet, innocent features and big brown eyes. Something about her seemed familiar, but I couldn't place where I might have seen her before.
"I'm such a huge fan," she continued, pulling out her phone. "Could I possibly get a quick selfie with you?"
Every muscle in my body tightened. After the threatening texts and black roses, the last thing I wanted was someone pointing a camera at me. But saying no would make me look like a stuck-up star, and there were too many people watching.
"Of course, sweetie. What's your name?"
"Tiana. Tiana Reed. "
The name sent a chill down my spine, but I couldn't figure out why. Maybe I was just being anxious.
Tiana held up her phone and leaned in close to me. I forced a smile and tried to look natural, but something felt wrong about the whole scenario. The way she tilted the phone seemed strange, like she was recording a video instead of taking a picture.
"Miss Robert, I'm actually an aspiring singer too," Tiana said, still holding her phone up. "I've been trying to get a record deal for years, but it's so hard. Do you have any advice?"
Finally, a normal question. Maybe I was just being anxious after all.
"Oh, that's wonderful! Music is such a beautiful job. My advice would be to never give up, keep working on your skill, and be patient. The right opportunity will come."
But instead of looking happy with my advice, Tiana's face got more serious. Almost calculating.
"I've heard that sometimes people get deals because of who they know rather than how skilled they are. Have you ever seen that happen?"
The question made me nervous. It felt like she was fishing for something specific, but I wasn't sure what.
"Well, connections can help," I said carefully, "but ultimately talent and hard work are what matter most."
Tiana's eyes got harder. "It must be frustrating when less talented people get opportunities just because their family knows someone important."
Now I knew something was definitely wrong. This wasn't a fan asking for help. This felt like an interview, or worse, like she was trying to get me to say something that would get me in trouble.
I glanced around the room and realized that several people were watching our conversation. Some even had their phones out, probably recording us.
"I think every artist has their own journey," I said, trying to end the talk politely. "It's not really fair to judge someone else's path to success."
"But wouldn't you be angry if someone took a spot that should have been yours?" Tiana pressed, moving her phone closer to my face.
The question felt like a trick. No matter how I replied, it could be twisted to make me look bad. But I was stuck. If I walked away now, it would look like I was being rude to a young fan.
"Look, honey," I said, hearing my voice get a little sharper despite my best efforts, "the music business is competitive. Not everyone can make it, and that's just truth. You have to be prepared for failure and keep pushing forward anyway."
As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew they sounded harder than I meant them to. But I was frustrated and scared, and this girl was pushing me in ways that felt purposely cruel.
Tiana's face lit up like she had just won the prize. "Thank you so much! You're so amazing!"
She walked away quickly, leaving me sitting there with a bad feeling in my stomach. Something about that whole chat felt like I had just walked into a carefully planned trap.
My boss Vanessa leaned over from across the table. "What was that about?"
"I'm not sure," I said, watching Tiana disappear into the crowd. "But something felt really wrong about that girl."
"Joan, you're being nervous. She was just a starstruck fan asking for help."
But I couldn't shake the feeling that I had just made a terrible mistake. The way Tiana had asked those specific questions, the way she had held her phone, the satisfied look on her face when I got upset - it all felt planned.
My phone buzzed with a text from the same unknown number that had been threatening me: "Smile, Joan. You're about to be famous for all the wrong reasons."
My hands started shaking as I looked around the room. Tiana was nowhere to be seen, but I noticed several people quickly putting their phones away when they saw me looking.
"Vanessa, we need to leave. "Now."
"What? Why? You haven't even talked to the record executives yet."
"Something's wrong. That girl, the questions she asked - I think someone set me up."
"Joan, you're overreacting. You gave totally normal advice to a young singer."
But as we gathered our things to leave, I noticed a commotion near the door. A woman with a press badge was talking quickly to someone I couldn't see. Other reporters were crowding around, and cameras were coming out.
"Miss Robert!" The woman with the press badge caught me and started walking over quickly. "Sarah Kim, Entertainment Tonight. We hear you just had an interesting conversation with Tiana Reed. Would you mind commenting?"
My blood went cold. How did they already know about my talk with Tiana? How did they know her name?
"I don't know what you mean," I said, but my voice came out shaky and guilty-sounding.
"We have reports that you were dismissive and rude to Miss Reed when she asked for job advice. Can you confirm that?"
The reporter was already recording me. Other cameras were pointed at my face. I felt stuck like an animal in a cage.
"That's not what happened," I said. "I was trying to be helpful."
"So you don't deny that you told her not everyone can make it in music? That she should be prepared for rejection?"
The words I had said to Tiana were being repeated back to me, but they sounded so much worse coming from the reporter. Out of context, they made me sound cruel and heartless.
"That's not how I meant it," I started to say, but the reporter cut me off.
"What do you say to people who think successful artists like yourself should be more supportive of struggling newcomers?"
I understood this was a no-win situation. Anything I said would be twisted to make me look worse. The best thing to do was get out of there as fast as possible.
"No comment," I said, pushing past the press.
But as Vanessa and I rushed toward the exit, I heard the reporter speak to her cameraman: "Perfect. We have everything we need for the story."
What story? What did they have?
As we got into our car, my phone exploded with alerts. Social media alerts, text messages, missed calls. Something was happening, and it was happening fast.
"Vanessa, check your phone," I said. "Something's going viral."
She pulled up Twitter and her face went white. "Joan, you need to see this."
She gave me her phone, and I watched my world crumble in real time.
The video showed me talking to Tiana, but the audio was all wrong. It sounded like I was saying cruel, heartless things about young artists not being good enough. Things I never said.
But it looked real. It sounded real. And thousands of people were already sharing it with notes like "Joan Robert is a monster" and "This is who she really is."
"This is fake," I whispered. "They edited it. I never said those things."
"Joan, it doesn't matter what you actually said. This is what people are going to believe."
As I watched the video spread across the internet like wildfire, one terrible thought hit me: This was never about Tiana wanting job advice.
This was a murder.
And I had walked right into it.