Tiffany Lang had always known how to manipulate a room. She could set a tone with a glance, twist a story with a well-placed whisper. It was part charisma, part instinct—and fully weaponized now that Ryan Keller had made it clear he wasn't coming back to orbit her.
He had chosen his garage-sale empire, his nerd friends, and some mousey graphic design girl over her. Fine.
She would make sure everyone remembered exactly who Ryan used to be before he got full of himself.
---
It started small.
A text to a few friends.
> *"Did you hear Ryan's running some sketchy website? I heard he uses other people's listings and just resells them at a markup."
A whispered comment in the hallway.
> *"Honestly, I wouldn't trust a guy who spends that much time with Dylan Cho. I mean, wasn't he caught hacking the school WiFi last year?"
A Pictogram story, passive but pointed.
> *"When someone reinvents themselves overnight, you have to ask what they're hiding."
Tiffany didn't lie outright. She implied. She used the same tactics Jordan Vance had mastered: nudge perception, let imagination fill the rest.
Make them question the narrative, she thought. Make the truth just blurry enough.
She watched the ripple effect spread through the school with satisfaction. Conversations shifted. A few students began to glance sideways at Ryan. One even asked him if his store was real or "just hype."
That comment burned.
---
Ryan felt the shift by midweek.
He hadn't changed anything. Orders were still flowing. Reclaim Digital was thriving. Leah was proving herself invaluable, and their collector features had started gaining traction.
But something had changed in the air.
Whispers. Half-questions. Paranoia.
It wasn't hard to trace the source.
Tiffany.
Ryan stood alone at his locker after sixth period, replaying the subtle damage she had done over the years. The fake flattery. The flaked-out promises. The time he spent chasing her, investing emotional bandwidth into someone who never truly cared about anyone but herself.
He had wasted months of his past life hoping she'd turn into someone real.
And now, she was using that same charm and familiarity to chip away at everything he was building.
His jaw tightened. He took a long breath.
No more.
---
That night, Ryan opened a new doc labeled:
Operation Cutcord
He listed action points:
No interaction. Complete silence in public and private.
Remove all social overlap. Unfollow, disconnect, block where necessary.
Debunk indirectly. Address rumors through content transparency, not confrontation.
Elevate Leah and Dylan. Put the focus on the team, not himself.
Legal prep. Research school policy on defamation if things escalated.
He would turn her attacks into shadows.
And he would step into the light with receipts.
---
The next morning, Reclaim Digital posted a new feature titled:
> Behind the Brand: Why We Do What We Do
It opened with a shot of Ryan and Dylan packaging orders, cutting inserts, and showing time-stamped video footage of hardware testing. Leah narrated:
> "In a world of shortcuts, we take the long way. Every item, every customer, every connection matters. That's what Reclaim Digital is really about."
By the end of the day, the video had over 1,200 views.
The comments were glowing:
> "Love the transparency." "Actually trust these guys now." "This is how a business should run."
---
Tiffany saw the video that night.
She watched the like count rise. Watched the story reshape.
Her stomach twisted.
She had wanted him rattled. Off-balance. Vulnerable.
Instead, he had looked straight through her, calculated his move, and stepped forward without her.
She scrolled angrily through her own page. Her follower count was still higher, but engagement was dropping.
Okay, Keller, she thought. If you want a war of perception, you're going to get it.
---
The next day, she began phase two.
Tiffany approached Kaylee Grant, the editor of the school blog.
"I have a story idea," she said sweetly. "You know how everyone's obsessed with that Reclaim Digital thing?"
Kaylee raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
Tiffany leaned in. "I heard there are inconsistencies. Like reused footage, resold listings, questionable refund policy. I think someone should ask questions."
Kaylee hesitated. "I mean, if there's proof..."
"Let me help you dig. We don't have to accuse. We can just... shine a light."
Kaylee nodded slowly.
---
When Ryan got wind of the possible article draft, his first reaction was rage. His second was calculation.
He pulled up Tiffany's socials. He remembered something from his first life—a scandal from junior year that never made it beyond hushed rumors. Tiffany had plagiarized a college entrance essay. The original essay was still online, on a public writing blog.
He found it in ten minutes.
He stared at the screen.
This is vicious, he thought.
But then he imagined the sneer in her voice when she talked about Leah. The lies she planted in hallways. The way she weaponized gossip.
He copied the link. Saved the screenshots.
Then he opened a blank email.
Not to publish. Not yet.
But to hold.
Insurance.
---
That night, Ryan posted a new article to the Reclaim Digital blog:
> Accountability & Transparency: How We Handle Rumors and Returns
He included anonymized screenshots of fake flagging attempts, internal audit logs, and a detailed refund timeline.
He ended the post with a single line:
> "We don't chase gossip. We build truth."
The next morning, the school blog quietly postponed their article on Reclaim Digital.
Kaylee posted instead about the fall play.
---
Tiffany, scrolling her phone in homeroom, nearly crushed her phone in her grip.
He had turned her smear campaign into free PR.
And she knew he knew.
Now, it was personal.
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