Chapter 4 - The Smear Campaign
Adrian did not go down quietly. Two days after his suspension, the tabloid blogs and local news outlets began running coordinated stories. The headlines were vicious: “Prominent Nonprofit Director Accused of Fabricating Scandal Out of Revenge After Canceled Engagement.”
An anonymous source claimed that I had discovered Adrian was planning to call off the wedding, and that I had paid Rosa to lie and record a staged video to destroy his reputation. They even dug up old court cases from my time as an employment attorney, trying to paint me as a radical, man-hating opportunist.
My phone rang off the hook with donors threatening to pull their funding from my foundation.
"Evelyn, we have a crisis," Sarah said, walking into my office with a stack of printouts. "Two of our corporate sponsors have paused their monthly grants. They say they can't be associated with a public scandal."
"This is exactly what Adrian wants," I said, looking out the window. "He wants to isolate me, make me look crazy so the video loses its credibility in court."
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Just then, Rosa walked into the office, carrying a cup of tea. She looked at the newspapers on my desk, her eyes filled with guilt. "This is my fault. If I had just left the city like he said, you wouldn't be losing your life's work."
I stood up and wrapped my arms around her. "Rosa, look at me. This is not your fault. This is the dying gasp of a weak man trying to scare us. We are going to hit him back, legally and publicly. And we start tomorrow."
