After leaving the school , I immediately started damage control . When you cut off a snake's head , the tail keeps thrashing around for a while . James getting arrested didn't mean I could relax just yet . I called an emergency board meeting . The major shareholders all looked grim . Word had obviously gotten around . No small talk . I laid out the evidence of James's embezzlement and money laundering schemes . " Gentlemen , our priority is stabilizing the situation , cutting our losses , and recovering what we can . " " I motion to establish an interim management committee , take full operational control , and launch an internal audit immediately . " With evidence staring them in the face , nobody was about to defend James . The vote passed unanimously . As the largest individual shareholder , I naturally became interim CEO . I moved fast . Replaced the heads of Finance , Legal , and HR with people I could trust . Working with the FBI's white - collar crime unit , we froze all company accounts James had access to . Asset recovery , personnel changes , frozen accounts - this one - two - three punch cut off any chance of him fighting back . By the time I finished , it was past midnight . Standing alone in my empty office , the exhaustion finally hit . My phone buzzed . Unknown number : * " Maya , you're going too far ! We won't take this lying down . " Michelle . Was she seriously trying to threaten me ? Bring it on , bitch . Sure enough , within 48 hours , the smear campaign began . Their counterattack came faster and dirtier than I'd expected . Headlines started popping up on business blogs and gossip sites : ** TechCore Industries in Crisis : Personal Vendetta or Corporate Collapse ? " ** ** " Inside the Morgan Scandal : When Marriage Wars Destroy Businesses " These articles pretended to be neutral , but they were expertly crafted to spin " criminal embezzlement " into " messy divorce drama . " They implied I'd known about everything all along , maybe even been involved , and only turned on James because of some financial dispute or 06:30 Hi Officer , Can You Hold My Phone ? I'm Busy Recording My Hubby's Second Family 3.3 % Chapter 5 broken heart . The comment sections were flooded with bots , all playing the same tune : " Poor James trusted the wrong woman . " * " She's clearly vindictive and unstable . " * Even worse , they started digging up " dirt " on me personally . Painting me as a power - hungry ice queen who destroyed anyone in her way . Even suggesting I'd had " inappropriate relationships " with male clients . They'd doctored photos of me at business dinners , making perfectly normal networking look intimate . Low - rent tabloid bullshit . But effective . They were trying to destroy my credibility from every angle . Make investors and employees question my leadership . " Anonymous sources " kept feeding the narrative : * " Their marriage was over years ago . Maya just refused to sign the papers . ' *** * " When she realized she couldn't save it , she went scorched earth on everyone . " " Maya's been having mental health issues . James stayed to protect her , but this proves he should have left . " Every " insider tip " painted me as the unhinged wife who couldn't handle losing . The comment sections were full of people defending Michelle , like I was somehow the villain here . Reading through all this garbage , I actually laughed . Public opinion was a weapon , all right . But James - a morally bankrupt criminal trying to play the victim ? That was rich . Getting angry wouldn't help . Time to hit back . Fight fire with fire . I pulled out the business card Jenna had given me and dialed the number . Time to call in the professionals ,